Empress of the Gods

Atarah

“This is ridiculous,” she said after she let out a long sigh and stopped crossing her arms as she looked at the mess they left with one of the caravans. William ignored her and kept tying the assassin, while she looked at him, bored.

Atarah knew the assassin was evaluating each of Will’s exposed points to attack him the moment he made her angry. That was one of the many things they were taught in the ranks, although not to attack first and talk later. That seemed to be something the assassin enjoyed doing.

It was ridiculous. William thought that by just tying her to a tree with a rope, he was going to stop her, because as soon as that spell faded, the assassin was going to untie herself easily. It didn’t surprise her the assassin wasn’t fighting to free herself. She was letting them tie her up to assure them she was not going to attack them.

“She’s a member of Blackfall.” William pointed to the badge marked on the leather of her suit close to her shoulder. It was a silhouette of an eagle that seemed to be in an attacking position.

“Blackfall?” Robbie asked, surprised.

Atarah heard about the assassin’s guild. No one seemed to know of its location. They could be at all places because its members seemed to have ears everywhere. If someone needed their services, they could reach them in unexpected places. Unless you were someone like Rhiannon Silverclaw, then you could contact the head of the organization directly. Not that Rhiannon ever needed their services, but she always received letters from someone whose last name was D’Argent, who wanted to recruit her. He’d been obsessed with her, more accurately.

“More to the point,” Atarah replied to William, who only stood up next to her as soon as he finished. She squatted down to be at the same eye level as the assassin. “You seem to know everything about me and yet I don’t know anything about you,” she added with a serious face.

“Too much time has passed? Ríonach didn’t talk about me at all?” Elysia asked with an enigmatic smile.

Atarah could feel how both men had paled at her sides. She could hear how Will unsheathed his sword as if he was preparing himself for the moment the assassin freed herself.

“Ríonach?” Robbie instantly asked lost in the conversation. “Wait. Rhiannon Silverclaw?” He wide-eyed them when he asked.

“Yes,” both replied at the same time.

Ríonach was Rhiannon’s name. Nobody ever addressed her as Ríonach. Only the nobility used that name when they saw her.

William looked at the assassin with narrowed eyes. Atarah felt him approaching her as if he wanted to shield her from a possible attack. “If the rumors are true, you must be Midnight Whisper,” Will said, placing a hand on the handle of his ax.

A chill invaded Atarah when she heard that code name that was usual among the assassins, so they wouldn’t reveal their identity or what was left of it.

“In the flesh,” she replied with a half-smile, and then turned her gaze to her. “You may call me Elysia.”

Every time a witch gave her name to another creature meant a symbol of trust or respect. They only gave their name among witches, while to other creatures, they gave the name of the clan to which they belonged.

“Why have you been following us, Elysia?” Atarah asked, recalling the night in the tavern when she had seen someone hooded at a secluded table, as though not wanting to be disturbed. Which made her wonder from where she had been following them.

“You pronounce the language of the Witches as if you’re one of them,” Elysia commented, deviating from the conversation before she had a big and wide smile on her face.

“After listening to it several times, it was only a matter of practice.” She had her arms folded. “Why were you following us? Who sent you?” she continued, imitating the same bitter tone that Rhiannon had used with Will.

“I don’t know. They never gave the name of the client because that transaction was made between Blackfall’s head and the client. They only assigned me the target, and I did my due diligence so I could achieve it,” she explained to them. “Now tell me in what mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”

She ignored her response and took the knife from Will. Then she approached to Elysia without saying a word. Elysia observed every move she made without showing fear. She looked like she was bored, but she knew she was lying. Atarah felt that strange feeling in her stomach, her hands beginning to sweat as if she was afraid of being discovered. She knew it because her mental shield was down, and she read her emotions like an open book.

There was no other noise around but the wind moving the leaves of the trees and the rope she was cutting with the knife.

Elysia watched Will’s movements as if she expected him to attack her at any moment, and she barely noticed Robbie.

When she cut the rope, Will seemed uncomfortable with the idea of freeing Elysia and pointed his sword at her.

“I promise I won’t bite… much.” Elysia smirked as if she were ready for a second round.

Atarah knew that at the slightest provocation, Will would respond too, so she put her hand on top of his and lowered his sword. She felt Elysia’s gaze on her, while Robbie sat on a rock near them, playing with a branch he took from the ground.

“It appears like today is a good day to die,” he said, throwing the branch aside.

In response, Atarah glowered at him. “If she wanted to kill me, she would have already done it a long ago, but here I am,” she said to both males that were there. She moved towards William and put the dagger in its place as she stared directly into his eyes. “I’m not in trouble,” she assured Elysia.

“So do you think it’s a coincidence that the favorite witch of the north to sit on the throne of the witches—who led the victory of the battle of Calithea—adopted two driadaes just because she felt like doing so?” she blurted, ignoring Will and Robbie.

“What does that have anything to do with them?” Robbie wondered.

“You can put two and two together,” she replied, glancing at Robbie before she looked at her again as she followed her. “You, more than anyone, know that the Witches of the north are not prone to kindness when it comes to raising their children, much less a general. You know that Rhiannon has never done random moves.”

Those last words were what made Atarah stop, only she didn’t face her.

“What are you talking about? The battle of Calithea has almost ...” Will was even more confused than Robbie.

“A millennium? Maybe about six or seven hundred years if I’m not wrong,” Elysia finished for him.

From Will’s expression, it seemed to be the first time he was hearing that, which meant he didn’t know much about Rhiannon as she thought. Robbie was the one less surprised about it, and perhaps it had to do with his fae heritage, whose aging was different from mortals.

“You seem to talk about Rhiannon as if you knew her so well,” Will alleged, looking at Elysia with narrow eyes. “What do you want? After you watched us, only the gods know for how much time. There has to be a reason for it.” Atarah looked at Elysia, who didn’t answer, while Robbie paid attention to the conversation they were having, as if he could read something between the lines. “You were part of Rhiannon’s coven, weren’t you?” Will tried to confirm it when he approached them.

Don’t say anything. Atarah thought, observing Elysia.

Elysia eyed Atarah. “It’s possible,” she acknowledged. “When Rhiannon looked for recruits to complete her coven again, I was one of the lucky ones.”

“And how does her initiate ended up as a professional assassin instead of being in the ranks of Lhrastsha or Khrysaor?” Will voiced what Atarah had also been thinking.

Elysia squeezed the handle of her dagger. “She was the one who expelled me from the clan and the coven. Even made me an embarrassment to my people,” Elysia replied with anger in each of her words. Neither William nor Atarah backed down, but Robbie fixed his jacket anxiously.

“If what you seek is revenge, then you’re too late for that. She died in Khrysaor.”

Elysia let go the handle of her dagger but didn’t soften her expression. She still had her shields down, so she felt how Elysia tried to swallow her tears. She knew she wanted to know what happened, and even though she couldn’t ask or demonstrate it, her curiosity was killing her.

“It’s a pity,” Elysia replied indifferently.

“What do you know? Why were you sent to kill me? Because I guess that’s what you were trying to do.”

“Before she failed spectacularly,” Robbie added.

“I didn’t fail,” Elysia replied, annoyed, and Robbie took a step back from her. “I never fail,” she assured them.

“So?” Atarah asked, inviting her to continue.

The three of them were attentive to every word she was about to utter. Especially Will, who seemed to be analyzing everything.

“I was about to give you a warning when your adorable companion attacked me from behind,” she glared at William.

“Warning?” Robbie asked. “You pointed your blade at my back, while you had another one on my throat,” he complained to Elysia.

Elysia only shot them a mischievous look, as though amused by Robbie’s reaction. “The driadae realms are restless and more now there are rumors about Arethusa offspring returning,” she informed her. Atarah waited for her to continue because there must have been more that she had learned. “When they assigned me my target, the description they gave me was detailed, only they never mentioned the shape your protector had, but as soon as I saw the tiger…” She completed by pointing to Galad with her gaze who was sitting next to her. Which meant her protector was drawing too much attention, making her an easy target.

“The order didn’t come from the Witches of Lhrastsha,” Atarah concluded, in which Elysia moved her head in denial to confirm it. She knew that if the order came from Lhrastsha, then they would have given Galad’s description unless that information never reached to them. Mentioning her protector meant that the order came from one of the driadae kingdoms and the only place she could think about was Drykahria, but she wasn’t sure about it.

Elysia stared at Galad again. “He indicates the amount of power you possess,” she informed her. Which was not news to her, but for Robbie and Will, it was. Although, after that fight they just witnessed it was not a surprise.

“Then you’re in a big mess, Atarah,” Robbie concluded behind her. “If you are one of the blessed ones and you are not in the palace, then they can hang you for it as if you were a traitor to your kind,” he explained to them.

Atarah didn’t know the complete story about why they were looking for her from Drykahria. She knew her mother and her were always on the run, but never knew what she did to make them angry. All her life she had been a fugitive from the world to which she actually belonged, without knowing why. Everything was starting to make sense. The books she read didn’t mention any of this and what little she knew seemed to be insignificant things. It was beginning to make sense why Rhiannon took care of her because, as Elysia said, nothing the Silverclaw leader ever did was by chance. Rhiannon always tried to be ten steps ahead of the others, thinking about her opponents’ next moves. She played the long game.

She looked at Will, who remained silent with a worried expression on his face, not knowing how to react.

“We need to talk.” Will followed her, but she needed to get away from everyone for a moment. She needed to think.

“Not now,” she told him without looking at him.

Elysia, being there, was a reminder of her obligations with the coven. William gently but firmly took her arm. She wasn’t in the mood for anything, so she only looked at his hand and he let her go. He opened his mouth to say something to her when Robbie approached them, making it clear they wouldn’t have privacy.

“We should hunt something for Hanniel’s people to compensate the damage or go to the village for something to repair the wagon,” he said, pointing to one of the wagons that was still on fire. She and Will moved their gaze to the caravan.

“It better be something big,” Atarah said, feeling guilty about it.

“Yes,” Will replied absently, but with his gaze she realized that he wouldn’t forget about the talk they needed to have. She only nodded, thinking that it was implicit that they would talk later.

She took a deep breath and then she looked up at the sky before she walked to where the wreckage of the wagon was. Elysia followed her without saying a word.

She still couldn’t believe that William would leave her with her, although she suspected that after what he heard, he didn’t think she would do anything to her. Atarah knew she wouldn’t hurt her, but Will didn’t.

She tried to look for anything that was salvageable and helped those who were picking up their mess, while Elysia just stared at her, doing nothing.

“Now that you gave your warning, I think it’s time for you to leave,” she told her as she picked up a couple of blankets from the ground. “By the way. Was it really necessary?” she demanded to know, moving her gaze to the caravan wagon.

“I needed to make sure you kept practicing your gifts. Also, I didn’t know if they could be trusted.” She folded her arms while she looked in the direction the guys left. “I’m still trying to figure that out.”

“Do me a favor. When you leave today, go straight to hell,” she said with a calm voice.

“And leave you here alone?” She shook her head in denial while she clicked her tongue a couple of times.

Atarah looked at her with a serious expression.

“Someone is a little moody,” Elysia teased. It was a way of greeting her friend. And she was right. She wasn’t in the mood for that.

“Someone is a little annoying,” she blurted when she faced her.

Her friend sighed. “Come on, Tarah. It was worse when we were in Verena,” she said, reminding her one of the trainings in Khrysaor. “They were scared of your full potential, that’s why they forbade you from using your gifts,” she replied with a straight face, talking about Khrysaors council. “What you did was just a small part of what you can do, and you know it. If only you could trust yourself.”

“Someone is a bit reflective,” she teased her.

“I’m serious, Atarah,” Elysia interrupted. “I want answers.”

“And I want a dragon,” she rapidly replied without looking at her as she helped to move salvageable things from one place to another.

“Why the hunter tried to save you so desperately? Or, I have a better one. What on Uphine’s name are you doing with a hunter?” she demanded to know in the moment she took the things that she was carrying and passed them to another person. Atarah gave an apologetic look to the one who received them. “Why are you protecting a hunter, Tarah? In what trouble did you get into?”

Her old friend appeared after a long time without seeing her, demanding answers. She wondered what she was thinking when she enlisted in the Blackfall ranks.

They received the same training with the coven. They had gone through the same trial to become part of it and swore loyalty to it. She had been the only friend she had who came from Lhrastsha.

Elysia belonged to one of the noble families of the Northern Island, and the moment she enlisted in Rhiannon’s coven, her family turned their backs on her because they couldn’t stand the idea of her working for the Silverclaw leader. When Rhiannon sent her to Lhrastsha, only Uphine knew how much trouble she got into for their leader to expel her from the coven, her clan, and the witches’ realms. She could remember that day as if it were yesterday when the coven avoided looking at her as soon as they returned to the south. They used to share most of the things when they returned, but that day they looked tired and angry.

“That is precisely my question, but I know you’re not going to answer,” she said, walking away from her.

“Come on, Tarah. They expelled from any territory that belonged to the witch kingdom and I had nowhere to go.”

“They expelled you from Lhrastsha, not from Khrysaor. You chose to leave,” she complained.

“I couldn’t spend much time in Khrysaor before anyone found out in Lhrastsha and you know that,” she replied, softening her gaze. “I couldn’t put the coven at risk,” she added.

“You went to see him, didn’t you?” she guessed and in response, her friend nodded.

In those trips Elysia made to the Northern Island as Rhiannon’s informant, she fell in love with a human that worked for D’Argent. He was captured by the Northern Island.

Elysia hadn’t told her the full story because they hadn’t had time for it. Anyway, she knew that Elysia wouldn’t talk about it right away and she wouldn’t force her to tell her. She would tell her when she was ready to talk about it.

She was like a sister to her and Myrah. They had grown up together, and despite not having the same blood, they become inseparable. After her exile, someone from the coven had been sent to look for her so she could return to Khrysaor because the leader of the council allowed it, thanks to the influence of the Silverclaw leader. With the condition she stayed hidden, but she didn’t return.

“So, what did our beloved leader do?” she asked. “Did she link your life to him or what?” She guessed, but when she didn’t answer, Elysia bug-eyed her. “No way.” She was shocked.

“Way.”

“It makes sense why she did it. That explains his actions because there is no way for a hunter to protect a creature the way he has been doing it.” She tilted her head and press her lips together.

“You don’t know him.” Her quick response and the angry tone she used surprised her.

Elysia looked at her confused. “Neither do you.”

After not seeing her friend for a long time, she didn’t want to argue with her about Will. She could only think one reason for her friend to be in front of her in that moment. “She made you promise to protect me, didn’t she?” Atarah guessed, knowing her friend too well. Elysia only nodded before she helped her to pick up all the mess they made.