Wings of Fate: The Lost Ones

When the others went ahead of her, Athena tried not to feel anxious about it. She was the leader of the Inauntru de Athens soldiers and therefore her responsibility was to them. She was needed here to issue commands that would push the soldiers forward, move in directions best for their particular skills, and whisper through the forest with only the soft cascade of dead leaves to betray their presence there.

The redwood trees were deteriorating at so fast a pace that, where fully covered branches had stretched across the ceiling only a month ago, now most of the leaves were strewn across the ground leaving blotches of open night sky to filter down to them. The moon hung high over head like a spotlight aimed towards her men. The moon’s completeness gave the eerie sensation that it was a spotlight -- a bright beam of light pinning them to the ground, watching their movements, relaying their direction to some greater evil.

Occasionally the moonlight fell upon an unsheathed blade and twinkled along the forest floor like small shards of lightning. The light quickly fell mute as the touched soldier abruptly covered their weapon. Once she and the soldiers began moving into the forest, disappearing, rows at a time, into the dark folds of the trees, she had expected to move like wraiths across the ground--aware of each other but completely blind to where they walked or rode. At times she would emit a soft sound, a sound all soldiers were trained to detect out of a plethora of other sounds, and to respond to instinctively.

The sounds meant spread out, hold, change course right, or left, charge, and fall back. When she emitted the sound, it was relayed from her command team in the same manner to their sects. Instant movement was the response. They were well trained.

So why am I here? She asked herself again, frustrated with the pace. The soldiers could only cover so much land because they needed to stay together. If she let them run helter-skelter across the land there was no telling how many things would go wrong and it was necessary that things not go wrong. The soldiers could manage this trek without her. Not only are the soldiers above adequacy, their commanding officers had been training for ninety-percent of their lives at Athena’s side. They could never be as good. But damn near it.

Once they had met up with Ashera’s team, only to learn the Queen Mother’s soldiers had long-since departed for unknown reasons, all that remained was to follow in the wake of the small group of mortals sent on ahead.

She thought about the soldiers loyal to the Queen Mother. She thought about the crimes they were committing against the DeSolar people. She thought about what those soldiers would do to her team once they had access. Some of the women, while fully capable, were little more than children. Logan hadn’t been completely off-base with his comment. Her soldiers almost all began training by their sixth birthday--making even the twelve-year olds damn tough.

Athena didn’t just train an army. She raised one, and had been doing so for a long time. When her father told her what was coming and that she needed to prepare for this war Athena galloped across DeSolar, in search of women who would fit the bill, and came up with a sad few too many. A week later she’d been traveling to see the Moirai sisters for counsel. After having slept beside a campfire the previous night, she woke to the sound of fighting lions. Sitting up, she searched the terrain until her gaze fell upon a full-grown lion attacking half-a-dozen golden and brawny cubs.

Reaching for the sword on the ground beside her, Athena moved to rise and then paused.

With a tilt of her head she watched the scene unfold and realized after a short moment that the lion was not attacking the cubs. It was teaching them how to fight.

And so Inauntru Onoruri de Athens was born.

They had not known how long it would be before the battle began but Athena started immediately to visit villages and towns, to offer mothers the opportunity for their daughters to grow up well-fed, well-educated, protected, and trained for a well-paying and prestigious career they would have for the rest of their lives. That part had been easy.

Some of the little girls cried when they left their mothers behind. Athena had clasped her hand to their shoulders -- instinctively refusing to hug them. Training would not be filled with comfort and solace. Athena would not become their new mother. Other girls were too excited about their future to be concerned with their mothers. The mothers, while hopeful that their daughters would have a better life than they had, were broken-hearted to see their children leave.

The fact that all of those mothers believed their daughters would never be engaged in warfare was probably coming back to them right about now. If they weren’t already dead.

Athena’s first trip to collect the daughters of DeSolar had been nearly thirty years ago.

Raven stared up at the imposing pillars comprising the buttresses and towers of the Queen Mother’s castle at a distance of nearly a mile. She, Logan, Nicolaus, and Lachesis stared at the gloomy visage from the safe distance of the surrounding forest. They’d been traveling now for almost thirty-six hours, with only two short stops to rest each passing day. When they’d made camp, Lachesis began work on a fire, and Raven had looked around the area, by now recognizing pieces of land.

At one point they made camp in the woodlands, a place that should have brought some semblance of comfort with its familiarity but the faeries were long gone and the forest was nothing more than death and silence.

But now they waited at the edge of the forest, watching and waiting. In movies, when a large file of soldiers marched across the land, the camera man moved the camera to give the impression of vibrations caused by the marching. Because movies were her only experience with soldiers, Raven imagined she would know where Athena’s soldiers were because the ground would tremble under their gait.

Either the cinema is one falsity after another or the soldiers were too far back for their presence to be felt where she, Logan, and Lachesis sat. It was impossible to sneak up to the castle. Besides the enormous stone wall surrounding the building, there was nothing more than short grass to hide their approach. Trees from the surrounding forest were near enough to the castle but an entire perimeter had been chopped down and removed. The only visibility limitation the Queen Mother had was the fact that her castle sat at the top of a hill, surrounded by a forest. Men could take cover within the forest for days without being seen.

But actually approaching the castle without being seen was impossible, unless they did so under cover of darkness. So they waited. The next question, of course, was how to get in once the sun went down. After considering several options Logan and Nicolaus laid out, Lachesis decisively shaking her head at each one, Raven reminded them they had snuck out of the castle not too long ago. Why not sneak back in through the same path?

The group considered the garden wall entrance Raven meant and looked at each other as though each wanted someone else to come up with a reason why the path wouldn’t work. Raven looked from one face to another and sighed heavily.

“We want to get into the castle right?” she asked, shifting on the ground to turn her back to the castle. “We have to get in and right now the only tried and true way is through the castle wall here,” she said, pointing to the schematic Logan had drawn in the dirt, “through the garden and to the opening in the stone wall that Nicolaus knows about.” She trailed her finger along the path to where she assumed the walled opening lay.

All she really remembered about her escape was Nicolaus and a starry sky.

“Okay but what’s the point in going through that entrance?” Logan asked, frowning. “All it does is lead you to a locked prison cell.”

Nicolaus shook his head quickly. “No, no, there are several ways to get in and out of that hidden corridor. In fact, if we need to split up, this corridor is the best way to do it. On the second floor is an opening leading to a back stairwell that connects to the Queen’s receiving chambers and one on the fifth floor to the armory. The Queen has all the weapons under constant guard there.”

Lachesis squinted at him. “Why would she have them on the fifth floor?”

Nicolaus shrugged and leaned back on the balls of his feet. “Something the witch told her.”

Lachesis tilted her head to the side. “I wish I knew more about this witch.”

“Or at the very least why she would suggest doing something that would eventually become a hindrance in time of war. Wouldn’t the Queen Mother realize that putting everything so far from the battle field, as well as making sure the door to that room is locked, could mean the difference between winning and losing?” Logan asked, looking at Nicolaus as though he may understand his mother’s mind.

“Well Logan there’s still time for you to counsel her if you feel like maybe this won’t be a fair fight.” Raven suggested with eyebrows raised.

Logan flushed red. “Are you kidding me with this?” he growled, glaring at her. She could tell he wanted to roar instead of growl. She smirked.

“Stop it, both of you.” Lachesis said, with a pointed look at Raven.

Raven shrugged and looked away. It didn’t matter what Logan did, not really. This was not a war they would win. Look at us, she thought with a glance at the four of them crouched around a dirt drawing. Us, against them? Please.

Raven would have appreciated the plan quite a bit more had it included soldiers entering with them but they needed every man at the wall. The plan to overtake the Queen Mother would be two-fold. One, they needed access to the interior of the keep so they could find the Queen and arrest her. Two, they needed to neutralize her soldiers so they did not continue to battle on her behalf. Only Raven, Nicolaus, and Lachesis were entering the castle.

They wore every weapon they had.

Raven stared without emotion up to the floor of the castle she knew encompassed the Queen Mother’s receiving chambers. The room, in which the Queen sat on her throne with an extended hallway between herself and the doorway, was several stories above ground. On two sides of that room stretched long walls with slats cut right into the stone. She remembered watching the particles of dust float through the sunlight shining through those slats.

There was also a room on that floor made specifically for torture.

She felt a small hand close over hers and was startled to find Nicolaus watching her. His brown eyes were solemn and seemed more round than usual, as though in shock. She flipped her hand over to wrap her fingers around his and smiled a small smile. He shouldn’t be here, she thought. He shouldn’t have to be in the room when we confront his mother about the atrocities. He shouldn’t have to witness Lachesis arresting her.

Knowing it wasn’t her fault, what the Queen Mother was doing, Raven still felt she was to blame for this day.

“You don’t have to go in there.” He whispered. She frowned at him. “I mean you can wait out here, in the forest. You do not have to actually go in.”

“Thank you, Nicolaus.” She said, squeezing his hand. “But I think it’s best if I go in. We need all the help we can get.”

“Yeah,” he whispered, pulling his hand away, and staring up at the castle with the same blankness she imagined was on her own face. “I used to think living in this place was like living in a fairytale. I would dream about how it would be when I was king, imagining what a great king I would be. I would have a beautiful wife and five kids. I dreamed there would be cookies and parties and picnics.” He looked back at the dirt drawing and grew silent.

How disappointing life was. Princes were supposed to live the fairytale. “Well,” she said, “I think you will be more than a great king. You have a strong heart, Nicolaus, and I believe that heart will help you lead your country.”

He glanced at her with a smile but it was a sad one. “Unfortunately, I forfeited my crown when I ran away, so none of that will come true.”

“Do you regret the choice you made to leave?” she asked, curious.

Nicolaus flashed another smile at the ground. “No, Raven, my mother was planning to have me killed. It is hard to regret running away when faced with that.” He shrugged. “It is not that big a deal. I understand most people who are faced with a situation in which their loved one is doing something terrible, they have to continually remind themselves that their loved one had done something terrible. I constantly think of these terrible things that the Queen Mother has done, continues to do, and I have to remind myself that she’s my mother. It is a strange feeling.” He said, shrugging again.

As the chains in the wall began closing the gate entry, Raven glanced up at the darkening sky, and tried to focus on what was coming; what was about to happen.

But she could only think of Nicolaus.

They waited an additional two hours after the main gate closed. The land was enshrouded in darkness. Even the moon slipped behind clouds as though, it too, did not want to be a party to what was about to transpire here. And Athena arrived with her soldiers.

While Lachesis and Logan relayed the plan to Athena, Raven and Nicolaus slipped away for the last bit of quiet they were to have for the next few hours. Because he knew the land better than she, Raven followed his slight form as he wove around the trees on foot, skirting the edge of the milling soldiers armed and ready for war. She followed him for a while until he suddenly stopped and reached for Raven’s hand.

“There used to be a pond here.” He said, sounded surprised to find nothing more than charred trees and dry dirt.

“Well the faeries said the forest was dying.” She said, squeezing his hand. “Don’t worry too much about that Nicolaus, when everything is over, I’m sure the pond will resurface and it will be just as it was before.”

Nicolaus turned to her. “Nothing will be the same as it was before.”

Unable to find a good response to that, Raven said nothing. Holding her hand, Nicolaus pulled her along beside him until he reached a spot of his own choosing and pulled her down to the ground beside him. They sat for a moment, side by side, looking into the shadows that fell around them. Raven sucked in a slow stream of air, trying to calm her nerves, trying to focus. Things had happened on DeSolar that made her want to wake up back home and forget the planet entirely. Even knowing she travelled day-by-day alongside historical goddesses was not enough to appease the injuries.

Knowing she would not lay down to sleep before awakening back home was defeating. What was the purpose of hoping to go home? There was none. She would never be there again. What was the point of wishing none of this had happened? There was none. It could not be undone. And there was very little point in hoping to survive what was about to happen. She was not some battle-trained warrior who could protect the people of this planet. She was just Raven. A realtor with confidence issues and a problem with commitment.

The most she could hope for, and reasonably expect to receive, was death.

Raven’s breath evened out. Her heart slowed and her mind cleared for the first time in weeks. She was about to walk into the arms of death. No one said she had to live through this. Her fate, from what she gleaned from the many, was to lead them in this war against the Queen Mother. No one ever said she would live. There was actually no point to her existence after this fight. So, here it ended. The Queen Mother’s reign. The war. And Raven’s life.

It was calming to think so. She was ready for this. Perhaps in death, she could dream of home and it would seem real enough. It would have to be better than this.

“Raven,” Nicolaus said on a near whisper, “I wanted to tell you exactly what I overheard being told to my mother about you. And about me. It helps, I think, if you understand exactly why she needs us both dead. Not just you, but me as well.”

Still holding his little ten-year old hand in hers, Raven turned her face towards him and tried to pick out his features in the dark. The funny thing about the dark is that if you are familiar enough with something, you can see it with your eyes closed. Even though Nicolaus was completely immersed in the shadows, Raven could see him perfectly. She imagined his brown eyes, the disheveled strands of dark hair pointing out around his ears, his mouth with baby teeth, a few adult teeth, and several gaps. She could even picture the clothes he wore.

They might as well have been sitting in direct sunlight for all her ability to see him.

“Okay, I’m listening.”