A Prince's Pride

*Riley*

Riley screams, writhing against her attacker, trying to push him off her body.

“Submit!” he says, choosing a new part of her body to attack. “Just give up!”

“Never!” she says, finding leverage and flipping herself on top of him. She grabs the nearest item to use as a weapon and bludgeons him in the face over and over until he throws up his hands.

“No more, no more!” shouts Gavin, his laughs punctuated by the pillow slamming into his face, unable to reach another part of her to tickle. “I surrender to you!”

Smiling, Riley drop the pillow beside him and leans forward. Her curtain of dark hair falls around his head, creating a private space for just the two of them. She presses her lips to Gavin’s as his arms reach around her back, holding her to him. 

“I have to get going,” she says when they break apart.

“Or not,” he says, pushing his lower lip out in a pout, his eyes growing wide with less-than-innocent playfulness. “You could stay in bed with me.”

“I have a kingdom to run,” she says, climbing off of him but taking a moment to admire his naked body before crossing to her armoire, from which she selects a forest-green form-fitting dress that stops just below her knees and a pair of white strappy sandals. 

Sitting in front of her mirror, she applies a light coating of makeup, enough to erase what she considers her flaws while accenting her beauty and leaving herself utterly recognizable before pulling her hair into a bun atop her head. She turns and notices Gavin, still naked, sitting on the edge of her bed, watching her.

“You sure you don’t want to stay for a little while longer?” says Gavin, spreading his legs slightly and waggling his eyebrows.

“That doesn’t work as easily on me as it does on you,” says Riley. 

“True. I would find it irresistible,” he says, causing Riley to smile at the only slightly veiled compliment.

“Get up, horndog, and let’s go.”

 

Fifteen minutes later, Riley walks down the corridor to the Small Council Chambers with her sworn protector, Brenda Kilter, right behind her. When she reaches the door, Riley doesn’t hesitate. She opens it and heads straight inside. The Small Council stands and bows their heads to her as she approaches the head of the table and only sits when she does.

“The meeting is now in session,” says Cara, the Hand of the King.

“Yes, and let’s get down to business straight away,” says Riley, “I have many things to attend to today.”

“We have only one thing on the agenda, Your Highness,” says Cara. “The Small Council has been speaking and we have voted. Though it will still require Emperor Aaron’s final approval, we have elected you as the official sovereign ruler of Midoor.”

“I know this isn’t something you’ve expressed a desire in,” says Yora, “but you’ve only been sitting the throne for three days, since His Majesty left for the Southern Tribes, and you’ve already taken care of many things he has not had time for.”

“Before he left, Emperor Aaron agreed that we could start looking for someone to take control of Midoor so he can focus on the entire empire,” says Cara. “We believe you would do well in this role.”

Riley almost feels like the Small Council is ganging up on her.

“Before you object,” beings Dellrie, but Riley forestalls him with a raise of her hand.

“I do not object,” she says. She’d been thinking about this for a while and had come to the same conclusions they have. It’s time for her brother to focus on the empire as a whole. Also, as she told Aaron before he left, it was coming time for her to take an interest in the family business. Being a princess isn’t enough for her anymore. She loves Midoor, she loves her people.

“When Aaron returns, I will discuss this with him. If he finds it agreeable, we will discuss arrangements for my coronation as Queen of Midoor,” she says. “Does anyone have anything else to add?”

Delgara salutes Riley, his fists over her heart and says, “Long live the Queen.”

*Aaron*

It takes us nearly two entire days to make it to Isald. Milo had explained to us that each island has its own culture and it was very evident when we reached town of Mishnar that rests just outside the woods Phoebe is hiding in. 

Upon entering the village, we see a woman, lounging in a chair, another woman performing cunnilingus on her. She's gripping the woman's head between her legs as if she wants to squash it. Just down the road, we see a Ur'ali man bent over the bannister of a house, getting fucked from behind my another Ur'ali man while a Ur'ali woman pleasures herself at the sight of them. 

The Isaldi people, Milo explained, revel in sexual acts. Everyone has sex with each other here, so long as they are above age. According to him, family relation doesn't matter, so I can't help wonder if any of the three dozen people we see on our way through the village are brother and sister, father and son. I try not to think about it. 

We're meant to head straight through the village to the field we'll be camping in tonight, but we're hampered when three gorgeous Ur'ali women approach one of my soldiers—an admittedly handsome one named Kristofer. All three of them are naked and press themselves into him, giggling.

He moves his shield, which he was holding loosely at his side, to his front and it doesn't take a genius to guess why.

"You should come play with us," one of them says in English. 

"A-all three of you?" he asks as if he's a child who was given extra presents on his birthday.

Another of the women nods, her fingers on her lips. She slips them into her mouth and pulls them out slowly, sucking on them, then touch them to his lips, leaving glistening dots of saliva.

Kristofer's eyes snap to mine in an almost pleading expression. 

"Go," I tell him. "Just be ready for the mission tomorrow!" I have to almost shout the last sentence at him, as he's already started walking away with the women. "That goes for all of you. Visit the town, do whatever you want, just be ready tomorrow."

Several of my soldiers are led away by Ur'ali people, their intentions not hidden whatsoever. When everyone else has fled, only Milo, Oswald, Exavier, Piper, and I remained with four Jika and three of my soldiers. Oswald seemed entirely uninterested in the women who approached him and Exavier politely rejected them, though his eyes seemed out of his control as he checked out the Ur'ali. Piper seemed very tempted by a Ur'ali man who had what I originally take to be the severed trunk of a baby elephant swinging between his legs, but she too turned him down. 

Later that night, we gather in a tent situated in the field outside the woods, near the northern border of Mishnar. 

In addition to our own troops, Allandra provided us with ten Jika. Our plan is to storm the woods where Phoebe is hiding, confront her, and take her down. Once we’ve reached the camp, Piper enchanted our tent to be soundproof so we could plan without fear of being overheard.

“Do you think her base is deep within Urtakodishzyinotto or near the fringes?” asks Milo, pointing to the center of the woods on our map.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Piper admits. 

“The strange thing is that Urtakod—yeah, I’m just going to call it “the woods”—isn’t very large,” I say. 

“We used to hunt within Urtakodishzyinotto,” says Chief Za’koa, the leader of Mishnar. “But since the…” he searches for the English word, but can’t think of it, “...wastha came to our woods, we can not navigate it. We get lost.”

“Witch,” says Milo, translating the Ur’alian word unnecessarily. It was obvious to me what Za'koa had meant. 

“Much thanks, Milo,” says Za’koa. 

“She must have enchanted the woods so anyone who enters it loses their way,” says Piper. “But that won’t matter.”

“The trees hide people,” says Za’koa, clearly struggling to put it in English.

Milo says something to him in Ur’alian, and he responds in Ur’alian.

“When we travel through the woods,” Milo translates, “we stay within eyesight of one another. But as they pass behind trees, they suddenly disappear. There one second, gone the next. Then the beasts come.” 

“There’s an easy way around that,” says Piper. “All we have to do is—”

A shout cuts her words off. We all rush from the tent and find our soldiers, along with a few Jika and Ur’ali warriors from Mishnar facing down what I would call a bear. Except that this bear is four times larger than a normal bear, has what looks like rock for skin with patches of fur growing from it, and four, whip-like tendrils sprouting from either of its sides.

“Fucking gods,” says Piper, sounding exasperated. We’ve only been at this camp for four hours and this is the third beast attack. Even still, she steps forward, ready to fight.

“Archers first!” I command. No need to engage it physically if we can avoid it. A rain of arrows comes from our group, but the arrows bounce off the beast’s rock-like skin.

It roars in rage and runs straight for Milo, as the other two beasts did. I step in front of him as the beast comes at him and swing my sword. It glances off the rock flesh, only slightly annoying it. With a roar, one of the tendrils whips through the air, knocking me backward into Milo. 

Piper steps forward and incants, sending a pulse of energy at the beast. Though it barely flinches, cracks appear across the rock skin, but it swings a paw at Piper, who screams as she’s thrown backward, blood spraying from her arm.

Several Ur’ali men incant together and the ground around the beast cracks. They lift the beast along with a section of the earth and toss them both, flipping them over, and smashing the beast into the ground. When it stands, the cracks have spread across its whole body.

It roars, the sound vibrating my bones and rushes for me and Milo again as I rush forward to meet it. Before it meets me, the beast leaps. I drop to my knee and thrust my sword up into its stomach, burying it as far as I can. As it soars over me, I roll sideways, making sure it doesn’t land on me, leaving my blade inside it.

“Aaron, help!” shouts Milo. The beast isn’t dead, doesn’t even seem to notice the blade in its stomach. It bounds for Milo, opening its jaws to bite him. I won’t be able to reach him, but that doesn’t stop me from running. 

A scream is about to leave my lips as the beast gets closer and closer, its mouth opening wide, then closing on midair. The beast snarls and tries to extend its neck to bite at Milo, but it’s hovering in midair. I look over to see Piper, her bloody arm extended, her hand held out as though she’s physically holding the beast up, an unending stream of incantations leaving her lips.

Piper stops incanting long enough to say, “Milo, move!”

Milo scrambles out of the way and Piper incants faster, lifting her hand. She swings it up and down in rapid succession, slamming the beast into the ground over and over. When she releases it, the beast lays on the ground, dead. I’m ready for what happens next, but it doesn’t make it any less horrible.

The beast’s skin starts to bubble and ripple as if it’s melting, its skin turning to bloody a bloody red mass as it disintegrates, a horrible smell of sulfur leaking into the air.

Several of the Ur’ali walk forward and say something in rapid Ur’alian, some kind of prayer to the Goddess Earth, asking her to accept the animal's spirit into her kingdom.

*Piper*

A couple of hours before dawn, when most of the guards are asleep trying to rest up before their assault on the woods, Piper creeps up to the largest tent in their camp, circles around it, and lifts a loose portion of the tent's wall enough for her to duck under it. She ignores the slight gasp from Aaron and notices them sitting on the edge of their bed, holding one another. 

"Are you guys ready?" she asks them. 

"I'm not so sure about this, Piper," says Milo. "Maybe the plan of storming the woods is better."

"We don't stand a chance if we all storm in. We'll get lost. I've had a chance to study the enchantment Phoebe put on the woods. Our best chance is to have a small group—the three of us—sneak through the woods. I've enchanted these amulets," she pauses while she pulls three amulets made of simple string tied to amethyst crystals, "to hide us from her."

"But won’t we get lost anyway?" asks Milo. "Za'koa said anyone who enters the woods gets lost."

"That's easy to circumvent. We just need to hold hands as we walk through the woods. The warriors only vanish when they lose sight of each other. As long as we don't lose sight of one another, we'll be fine."

"How are we supposed to keep in each other’s sights while fighting one of those monsters?” asks Milo. “I don’t know, Piper, I just have a bad feeling this is all going to go wrong.” 

“As long as we don’t go behind one of the trees, we’ll be fine,” Piper assures him. 

“Alright,” says Aaron. “I guess there’s no point in delaying any further. Let’s go.”

Piper, Aaron, and Milo duck under the same tent wall Piper used to enter and sneak toward the woods. At the last second, Aaron and Milo stop to look back. Barely visible in the flickering firelight, Oswald and Exavier stand dutifully at the door to their tent, having no idea their charges are walking off toward certain death.

*Three Days Ago*

Piper crouches beside the glassen pool of water, looking down into her sister’s face.

Phoebe lets out a deep sigh. “But that’s not why I wanted you to meet me when you found a camp, sister. I have another task for you to complete. I have no doubt Aaron will want to travel to Isald, the island I’m currently using as my base of operations. I’ve enchanted a section of the woods near the northern border. You must convince Milo and Aaron to enter those woods.”

“Are you going to tell me why?”

Phoebe pauses for a moment, inspecting her sister’s face. 

“Very well,” she says after a long time. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”

Phoebe is silent for so long, Piper starts to wonder if Phoebe changed her mind about telling her. 

“I’ve set up a camp here alone, but that’s not where you’ll be taking them. I’ve enchanted the trees so they bend light, hiding people. Similar to that house of mirrors we liked to visit as kids. They all find their way out eventually, except for those I want to kill.”

“Which is who, exactly?” asks Piper.

“Patience, sister. If you prove yourself with my task, I’ll tell you everything. You are the only person who can get through the woods without getting lost. You must convince the emperors to enter the woods with you. Make sure you’re holding hands with them, or they will get lost as well. You will also have to fight off one of my pets, but I have no doubt the emperors will protect you. When you walk through the woods, no matter what direction you go, you will come upon a large cliff. The savages of the Southern Tribes call it the Cliff of Doom. Many of them have tried to scale it before, trying to show their strength to the Earth or whatever, and have perished. It’s nearly impossible to climb and a fall will mean certain death.”

“What do you want me to do there?”

“Please remember, sister, that this is paramount to our goals. Milo is our biggest danger. I had written him off originally but after seeing what he did when they faced Zelda Offrand, I can take no chances.”

“His powers are bound. How can he be a danger to us?”

“He is an advocate. A powerful one. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s much more powerful than I am. If we try to kill Aaron in front of him, I have no doubt his powers will destroy the cuff and save his stupid love. Love is, of course, the most powerful magic of all.”

Piper had heard that saying many times—it’s the reason true love’s kiss can break almost any curse—but having never been in love, she never really understood how it worked.

“So what do you want me to do?” Piper asks more insistently.

“We have to remove Milo from the equation,” says Phoebe. “It will stop our greatest threat and deal a massive blow to Aaron in one fell swoop. When you get Milo and Aaron through the woods, I’m going to hold Aaron back for you. And you’re going to throw Milo off the cliff.”

*Aaron*

As we pass through the border of the woods, an unnatural blanket of darkness falls upon us. Even the stars, which should be visible through the canopy of trees above us, seem to have winked out of existence. Though we don’t carry torches and Piper has not cast a spell, we can see clearly around us a couple of yards, a ghostly light seeming to seep from the air itself. We walk, hand-in-hand, with Milo between Piper and me. In the eerie silence, every rustle of leaves sounds like an attacker preparing to pounce. Every gust of wind blowing through the trees sounds like the growl of a beast.

I glance down at the amethyst amulet around my neck. Though I’ve seen Piper work wonders with her magic, I can’t help but feel dubious, unsure how a little rock could protect me from Phoebe’s powers, but I know I have no reason to doubt Piper. After all, if it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be here.

We walk in silence for nearly fifteen minutes before we hear anything. At first, I can’t make it out. But as we move closer to the sound, I recognize it. It’s a child, sniffling and crying softly. 

“Hello?” Milo calls out in a loud whisper. Piper shoots him a what-the-fuck-are-you-doing look. 

“It might be a Ur’ali child lost in here,” he says. “We have to help them.”

Piper obviously doesn’t think it’s a good idea and I have to agree. But Milo is right; if there is a child lost in here, we need to help them.

Milo begins leading the way, pulling Piper along reluctantly. I glance in the direction of the sobbing as we grow nearer, but there’s nothing there. Together, we walk around a tree and when we reach the other side, there’s a little girl standing there, her back to us, in the spot that was empty just moments ago.

“Hello,” says Milo in a soothing voice. “Are you okay?”

The little girl lets out a sniff and wipes her eyes. I can tell she’s Ur’ali by her dark skin and stark white hair. 

“Are you hurt?” asks Milo.

“No,” says the little girl in a whimper. “I’m just hungry.”

“We don’t have any food,” says Milo. “But we can point you in the direction of our camp.”

The little girl sniffs again and starts to turn around, shuffling her feet as she turns to look at us.

If I didn’t have enough sense, I would scream in horror at the sight. The little girl is disfigured. The features of her face have been stretched, her mouth and nose elongated. Her eye sockets lay empty, two gaping holes in her skull. Two small, black horns grow from her forehead, curling up toward the sky above. It looks like her face was stretched over the skull of a demonic wolf.

“I don’t need to find your camp,” she says in a dark growl. “Not when I have three delicious snacks right in front of me.”

The beast drops to all fours, its back arched. It lunges at Milo, faster than an animal. Out of instinct, I whip my sword from its sheath and swing it. The beast jumps back with animal-like reflexes, dodging my blade with ease. 

Piper incants, throwing a ball of fire at the beast, but it rolls sideways. A pillar of fire sprouts up, twisting itself into a tornado as Piper continues muttering under her breath. The flaming tornado begins moving toward the beast, but it runs, skirting the flaming torrent as it bares down on me. I let go of Milo’s hand and throw myself to the side.

“No, Aaron, we can’t—” Milo begins but stops when the beast turns toward him. It lunges at him and Piper pushes him aside. Milo loses his balance and falls to the ground as Piper waves her hand, shifting the flaming tornado toward the beast, but it’s moving too slowly.

The beast dashes toward Piper and shoves her backward, sending her sprawling. The flaming tornado vanishes, leaving huge spots in my vision. I can’t see anything at all. Milo shouts and I’m sure the beast is on top of him, but I can’t see anything because the darkness seems thicker than before. 

“I will tear your flesh!” the beast screams. “I will eat you whole and my master will praise me for it!” 

Suddenly, an unearthly scream of pain rends the air, but the pitch is too high to be Milo. It sounds like a young child screaming. 

I hear Piper say something and an orb of light appears, floating in midair. The light floods the clearing to reveal Milo, laying completely still with the beast on top of him. I rush to his side. I see a lot of blood, but I know it can’t be his. I shove the beast off Milo and see that he looks sick, a dagger in his hand, the beast’s blood covering him. 

“Are you okay?” I ask, touching his shoulder.

“That was a little girl,” he says.

“It was just one of Phoebe’s monsters,” I tell him soothingly.

“Yes,” says Piper, who’s now standing beside us. “But it was a little girl first. She used her magic to meld her with some kind of animal. A wolf, if I had to guess.”

“I just killed a child,” says Milo.

“You didn’t have a choice,” I tell him, pulling him up into a sitting position. 

“It wasn’t really her anymore,” says Piper, holding her hand out to Milo. He takes it and I take his other. Together, Piper and I pull him up to his feet. “She was probably in pain, her mind and body twisted by Phoebe’s magic. Ending her life was a mercy.”

Milo nods, but looks as if he doesn’t really believe it.

“Come on,” says Piper, pulling on his hand. We begin our march back through the woods, ignoring the body of the beast, knowing it’s about to melt. “There’s only one way to stop all of this. To stop this madness. We have to stop my sister.”

 

We walk for what feels like hours. When the sun begins to rise, spilling color back into the sky, I start to feel better. We make it to the end of the woods, thankfully without having to face another beast. Milo seems the most relieved when we leave the trees and let go of each other’s hands. He’s been holding onto mine so tightly, I wouldn’t be surprised if I had a fracture.

Milo walks away from us, walking right up to a cliff overlooking the sea. He takes a shuddering breath, the attack from the little girl clearly affecting him. I have to keep repeating Piper’s words in my head to make me feel better about the horror of that situation.

The girl was in pain. Her mind and body twisted by Phoebe’s magic. There’s only one way to stop all of this. We have to stop Phoebe.

“Well done, sister,” I hear Piper say behind me. I turn and feel my heartbeat quicken. It wasn’t Piper who spoke. It was Phoebe. Piper and her sister stand side-by-side, looking at us.

“Phoebe,” says Milo, venom in his voice as he stands to face them. “Piper, grab her!”

But Piper doesn’t move. She just looks at us, hatred etched into her face.

“Oh, that’s not going to work,” says Phoebe. “I’m afraid you’ve lost my sister’s allegiance. She’s on the side of good now.”

“You think you’re the good one?” I ask, holding my sword up in a defensive stance.

“Oh, please,” says Piper. She incants and waves her hand, throwing me away from Milo. My sword drops to the ground where I stood. “You think that toothpick of a sword can stop us?”

“Piper…” says Milo softly, betrayal tightening his throat. “Why?”

Piper starts walking toward Milo, her face darkening.

“I told you, back in the palace. I’ve been thinking I’ve chosen the wrong allies. You guys are chaos. We went from a ruler who destroyed my people to rulers who can barely hold it together.”

“But you’re going to join her?” Milo asks in disgust. “After what we just saw in the woods?”

“Sometimes acts of darkness must be committed in pursuit of the greater good,” says Piper. She walks closer to Milo, who backs up a few steps, but there’s nowhere for him to go. 

“Get away from him!” I yell, getting to my feet and rushing toward my sword.

Phoebe incants, her hand stretched toward me and I feel as if gravity has increased upon me, pulling me to the ground. My legs crumple under me, my head feels like it weighs a ton. Just keeping it upright is an exercise in futility.

Piper closes the distance between her and Milo and grabs his throat. He doesn’t even resist. How could he, when Piper has magic and he doesn’t?

“Do it, sister,” says Phoebe eagerly.

“No, Piper, please. You don’t have to do this!” I shout. “You can take me instead. You can do whatever you want to me, just don’t hurt him!” I’m trying to resist the force of Phoebe’s spell, but I can barely move. My knees, pressed into the Earth, shuffle forward barely centimeters, no matter how hard I try.

Piper turns to me, looks me dead in the eyes. “We can do whatever we want to you? Of course we can. You’re nothing compared to us.”

My eyes snap to Milo’s. His are wide, looking at me in horror. In his gaze, I see all the things he’ll never have time to tell me. How much he loves me. How much I mean to him. How much he wishes we had more time together. 

Then Piper pushes him off the cliff.

“NOOOO!” The scream that erupts from me tears at my vocal cords. I’m not even fully aware of Phoebe releasing her spell on me. I’m not fully aware of Piper moving back to her sister. I crawl to the edge of the cliff and look down. Look down at Milo’s body, broken at battered against the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. 

Tears stream from my eyes as my grief is shoved aside by a sudden, blinding rage. I turn and snatch my sword up, running straight at Piper just as she’s turning to stand by Phoebe’s side. Piper incants and waves her hand as though shooing an irksome fly. The force of Piper’s spell slams against my head, knocking my off my feet.

Face pressed into the ground, tears running down my face, I look up at the sisters.

“Kill me,” I beg. “Kill me like you killed him and be done with it.”

“Oh, no, my dear emperor,” says Phoebe, a smile of evil delight cracking her face. “I don’t want to kill you. Not yet, anyway. Not until you’ve watched everyone and everything you love ripped away from you.”

Phoebe pulls a phial from the pocket of her dress and throws it at the ground. As the column of smoke rises from beneath them, I throw my sword at Phoebe. It sails through the column of smoke and I hear a thud as it lodges itself in a tree behind where they disappeared.

Once they’re gone, I let out a sigh of relief as I sit back, rubbing the side of my head, thankful this whole thing is finally over.

“You can come out now!” I call to the line of the woods.

Milo appears at the edge of the woods as he pulls off an invisibility cloak. He walks up to me and though I know he isn’t dead, though I know Piper only killed an animated doll, I wrap my arms around him as if he has really just been resurrected.

“That was some good acting,” says Milo, looking up at me, but his gaze doesn’t linger on me for long. 

He steps away from me, walking up to the edge of the cliff, puts his hand out, and incants. A moment later, the body double of him, wearing the binding cuff, floats up and settles itself down on the ground. The spell that made the doll look like Milo, act like him, is starting to break down, patches of its skin turning back into canvas.

“Can you fix it? It needs to look real when we show it to our people.”

He nods and begins to incant, running his hand over the length of the fake Milo. When he’s done, it looks like him again, though broken, as if he had really been thrown to the rocks below.

“Okay, now you,” I say, and watch as Milo pulls out a ring. He pulls off his wedding ring before sliding this one—made of black onyx—onto his finger. In moments, he’s transformed, looking like a Ur’ali man with short, spiky white hair, a wide nose, and dark skin. Prince Krayden had arranged for one of his warriors, one who wasn’t affiliated with anyone else in our group, to come with us and disappear at dawn so Milo could take his place. He looks to the spot where Piper and Phoebe disappeared. 

“I’m worried about her,” he says.

“I am too. But if anyone can pull this off, it’s Piper. It was her plan, after all.”

“Still,” he says, looping his fingers through mine, “playing as a double agent against Phoebe is a dangerous game.”

 

---

Author’s Note

I just wanted to pop in here really quick to let everyone know I’m going on vacation on Tuesday March 21st and won’t be back home until the following Tuesday, so the next chapter won’t be up next Monday. I’m going to get it out as quickly as possible, if I can find time to write while I’m on vacation. Regardless, the next chapter will be up by Monday April 3rd. I’m so sorry to leave you all hanging, but I tried to stop at a point that wasn’t too crazy of a cliffhanger.

See you next time!

-Ottie