Empress of the Gods

Atarah

Myrah wasn’t there. Myrah was not where William said she would be. Without giving it a second thought, Atarah took one of his daggers and pointed it at his neck. William stopped moving, but he didn’t look frightened. He only stared at her.

“What did you do with her?” she demanded.

“Like mother, like daughter,” William replied, moving his gaze to the place where he said Myrah should have been. In which there was only an empty spot with hoof marks.

“Do you want to repeat that?” She invited him to do so as she brought his dagger a little closer, almost kissing his skin.

William looked at her for an instant, frowning. “In case you forgot, I was busy saving your life,” he replied, moving the dagger away with his hand, but he didn’t take it away from her.

“You didn’t arrive quickly, so you could have done something while I was trying to fight for my life,” she argued. A part of her believed him and didn’t understand why, despite not wanting to. William looked down at the ground as he slowly walked, ignoring what she said. “After all, you’re a hunter. It’s what you do.”

That made him look at her. “Yes, I am,” he agreed as he knelt to grab the soil on the ground, bringing it closer to his nose as if that could help him to find something. “That doesn’t mean I did something to her. And if I did—well, trust me, you would know,” he said when he looked at her. He picked up a brooch from the ground, and Atarah immediately recognized it. It was shaped like two intertwined silver snakes. Rhiannon always had it in her cloak. It was the one Myrah had always wanted.

William placed it in the palm of his hand, and Atarah approached him. She took it from him and squeezed it in her hand, seeing the road in front of her. She couldn’t stop thinking about her sister.

“She can’t be far from here,” she said out loud before she started running as she tried to follow the hoofmarks. Myrah can’t be too far from here. She repeated herself as if that gave her the strength she needed to continue. But she stopped abruptly close to a bush when she felt an immense urge to throw up, clearing everything she had in her belly until the only sound she could hear was her own dry retching. She heard steps come up behind her, and she didn’t have to turn around to know it was William.

“You don’t even know in which direction they went,” he stated.

“At least I’m trying to get her back,” Atarah tried to say after leaning her forehead on her arm as it rested on the tree. She was thankful that the air was cold, so she didn’t have to feel the world spinning.

“Surely, you will get her back like that,” he said sarcastically.

Atarah glared at William. “Piss off,” she hissed.

He was starting to annoy her more than he already did.

“You piss off,” he replied. “You said it yourself. I’m a hunter.”

William was too confident about himself when he had been caught by another hunter, but he was right about it. He was a hunter. Atarah had to accept that the hunter was her best chance at finding her sister, although she wondered about the reason why he’d help her, since his life wasn’t linked to Myrah’s. She didn’t doubt for a moment he was about to ask something from her in return. He had to have a reason for not leaving, and she didn’t believe it had to do something with the bond. That wasn’t enough reason to stay. He could have left with the pouch of gold doubloons Rhiannon gave him and left her on the road, but he hadn’t. Or did he believe she wasn’t capable of finding her sister on her own? That simple thought made her angry.

“Why would you help someone like me? You could leave with the considerable number of doubloons the Silverclaw leader gave you, yet here you are. Why are you still here?”

“Is it necessary to state the obvious?” William replied, and Atarah knew that he was talking about the bond.

“That doesn’t stop you,” she said as she approached him, lowering her mental shield so she could perceive his emotions, but she felt nothing but her own.

“And leave my destiny in your hands while Sonneus knows in what problems you get into. I don’t think so,” he ended up telling her with his arms folded. In response, Atarah rolled her eyes. Something told her he had his own agenda because the bond only forbade him to kill her, not to stay at her side. But if he wanted to stick with that story, then fine. Two could play at that game.

“I can take care of myself. I don’t need an escort or a guard for my safety. So, you may leave. Your services are no longer needed,” she informed him, turning her back on him as she swaggered.

“Don’t be a brat, princess,” William replied as he passed to her side. “I don’t trust you with my life.”

Atarah glared at him. “And what makes you think I do?”

“If you want to find your sister, you will need an experienced tracker with a map, and I doubt you will find one within a mile. It must be your lucky day to be tied to one,” he replied, ignoring her question.

Atarah was starting to load the man in front of her. “I could take the map and leave,” she said with a slightly closed-lipped smile when she got closer to the hunter.

“You could,” he answered with an enigmatic smile. “But unless one of your gifts allows you to read minds, then there is no other way you can take it from me,” he whispered to her as if he was telling her a secret, making her smile fall flat.

“Well, your eminence of the hunters,” she directed her palm to the path in front of them with a fake smile on her face. “Please lead the way to my sister.”

“How funny,” William smiled before his face turned serious, and then started to walk again.

“What a gentleman,” she whispered as she followed the hunter.

It was dark when she heard a loud rumble in the sky as the cold breeze moved Atarah’s hair. She simply prayed the night wouldn’t get worse with the rain, otherwise, they would lose her sister’s tracks, and that would complicate things for them. She loved how the rain kissed her skin, and there was nothing more she would love than to dance in the rain, but the only thing she cared about at that moment was finding her sister.

As if the gods had heard her plea, it began to rain in buckets, which made Atarah believe she might not be the gods’ favorite.

They took refuge under a big tree while they waited for the rain to pass, near to each other without saying a word. Besides the sound of the drops of water hitting the ground, her teeth chattered from the cold as she tried to hug herself and lean her back to the tree to keep herself warm, which was not working at all. She hadn’t had time to change her clothes before they left Khrysaor, but she was thankful she was wearing a long dress with long sleeves that at least covered her from the cold air, but she and the hunter were soaked, although at least the hunter was bundled up with that brown leather jacket and the cape she recognized from the other hunter.

“You’re cold,” he said when he glanced at her.

“What makes you think that?” Atarah replied without looking at him. “I just like to feel what it’s like to freeze to death.” William sighed with a serious expression as he took off his cape and put it on her. “No, I’m fine,” she said as she stepped aside to prevent him from putting his cape on, but he put it on her anyway, knowing she couldn’t move without getting wet. A fresh pine scent that came from the cape invaded her nose, and the warm fabric at least helped her to stop shaking. “Thank you,” she said with a nice voice.

“Don’t. I don’t want you to die thanks to your stubbornness,” he replied with his gaze elsewhere.

Atarah rolled her eyes.

How would they find her without footprints? Where should she start looking?

Not only did she hope her sister was fine but also wished she would somehow know she was looking for her, although she was not so sure Myrah would believe it. Atarah couldn’t shake the feeling that Myrah might think she had lost her or that she didn’t care. After all, they hadn’t been so close when they were kids, but that didn’t mean she didn’t care. She might not express her emotions very often, unlike Myrah, who seemed to be effusive all the time, but they had grown up together after all, and she loved her half-sibling. Her sister. She corrected herself. There were times when Atarah wondered how Rhiannon knew that.

They had lost the coven and Myrah had lost a mother. Myrah was the only family she had left and who she refused to lose.

They had no provisions and no weapons other than those the hunter had that were numbered, and they did not have a horse to carry them. The only thing she had was the bag in which she brought Rhiannon’s grimoire, that she couldn’t read because she didn’t know the language of spells. And the dagger. Atarah froze and couldn’t help but look into the bag, knowing she wouldn’t find what she was looking for.

Oh no.

She tried to think of the last time she’d seen the dagger. When she remembered she left it on the horse William and Myrah were riding, she began to panic.

Atarah thought that maybe she wasn’t supposed to be the one who carried the dagger. Maybe it was supposed to land in Myrah’s hands. That was a big possibility, but even if that was the case, she needed to find her sister as soon as possible. Plus, hunters, bounty hunters, or soldiers might mistake them, and if they did, then there was a possibility they would take her to Drykahria. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if someone knew she carried the dagger with her.

William groaned when he touched his shoulder where he’d been wounded by the monster.

Atarah couldn’t help but think how strange all that was. From the moment they were tied up in Khrysaor, they had been outnumbered. But the hunters were highly trained by the best soldiers in the human realms, and she had no doubt about it. Not when she saw him fighting with the other hunter, or when he moved nimbly in her house, or when they fought against the monster. He was human, but he didn’t seem to be, just as she wasn’t human, but she seemed to be.

On the other hand, she found the attack on the border equally strange as to how the hunter and his men took advantage of it to break into witches’ lands. She knew the warlock informed them, but how did the hunter next to her fit into that plan?

Everything seemed coldly calculated because attacking a witch realm was not something someone would do in one move. They must have studied thoroughly were to make the first strike. Moreover, the soldiers she had seen were not from the human realms, as she thought. Those black armors with the night blue banner and golden ornaments were familiar to her, only she couldn’t remember where she had seen them, nor the details of everything since it had all happened so fast.

She hadn’t even wondered the same thing Rhiannon did when she linked William’s life to hers.

She had more questions than answers and didn’t know which kingdoms were involved and who were allies of Khrysaor. Even though she was not a witch, it had been her home for a long time. She didn’t know if the kingdom of Drykahria had anything to do with it or if her sister had been taken there. Atarah didn’t even know why she bothered if she wasn’t part of the noble witch bloodline, but living with the General that was like a queen to her people made her think she had an obligation to them. At least for all the damage she caused to them.

“Who sent you to kill me?” she asked. The hunter seemed to be wrapped up in his own thoughts when he looked at her, but didn’t answer her question. She caught him off guard.

“I thought we’d already passed from that point,” he replied, irritated. “Just because your life is linked to mine doesn’t mean I should give you answers,” he added in a dry tone without even looking at her.

“I think it’s the least I deserve after saving your life,” she replied, looking at him. She hated the tone he used. Also, she asked because she wanted to understand everything that was happening. Especially everything related to her.

“How many times will you repeat that?” he asked, as if he was tired of hearing the same thing. “You saved my life, and I saved yours. That account has already been settled,” he firmly said.

“That’s far from being settled,” Atarah replied in the same tone.

“Tell me something, every time you save a person, do you remind them of it over and over and over again?” William asked, annoyed.

Atarah crossed her arms. “Well, at least I didn’t end up linked to someone I was sent to kill,” she taunted him. “Answer my question.”

“First, they didn’t send me to kill you, and second, I ended up linked to you for saving your ass. If I had not done so, none of this would have happened,” he said, pointing with his finger to both.

“Tell me something, every time you save a person, do you remind them over and over and over again that you saved their life?” Atarah imitated the way William asked her while he was with his arms folded.

“For Sonneus,” he replied, irritated. “How old are you? Four?”

“Well, then tell me, what were you really doing in Khrysaor? Why were they chasing you?” she asked, ignoring his rant.

“Are you done?” he asked sharply when he came out under the tree when it had stopped raining and he started walking without waiting for her.

“Prick,” she whispered before following him.

***

Atarah lumbered after walking for Uphine knows how long. She was dragging her body, moving one foot after the other. She wondered if William was even human at all. He was far away from her with a wound on his shoulder and looked like he could climb a mountain or fight another monster while she needed to sleep, or at least take a break.

William turned to see her and stopped for a moment. “What’s wrong?”

“I need a moment,” she replied as she placed her hands on her legs. The training she had with Aeron had not been enough for her physical condition. Also, her gifts drained her more than she expected. All she wanted was to close her eyes for a moment.

“You are a driadae. How can you be tired?” he asked, annoyed. She couldn’t help but look at him when he said that.

William was testing her patience. She only hoped they wouldn’t kill each other along the way. Otherwise, it would take her more time to find her sister, but she couldn’t deny she was considering it.

She quickly recuperated. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Why a driadae wouldn’t be tired?” She couldn’t help to reply, annoyed. “I know I may look like a goddess to you, but darling, that doesn’t mean I can’t get tired.” She lowered her hands to her knees and looked at the ground. Her feet hurt too much, and all she wanted was to lie down. She also wanted to cry, but she tried to swallow her tears and think of something else. She couldn’t break in that moment. She wouldn’t do it.

William evaluated her for a moment from top to toe and sighed. “I guess we can rest for a moment.” William looked up at the sky and then around them. “I’ll bring firewood to light a fire. Don’t even think about moving,” he ordered.

“Yes, because what I need is to move. You know what? I think it’s a beautiful night to walk in the forest after we escape from those soldiers.”

William turned his back to her, but then turned around to look at her again with narrowed eyes.

“Where else will I go if I can barely move?”

For the love of Uphine, please give me strength, but above all, patience, she pleaded to the Moon Goddess.