Call Of The Dark

Maeve was sitting in her room, thinking about what all happened in the past few hours. She had somehow dragged this wretched body to the healer's room and then back to her room.

There was a headache forming and she wanted to sleep, but she was anxious about the fact that Gladys was in the dungeons. Who knew when she would open her mouth? And if she opened her mouth, things would go down. It was only a matter of three days and until that she had to silence Gladys.

She picked up a glass of water and drank it down in one go. Though she could use her magic to heal herself, she wasn't ready for another rupture on her skin. This body was barely holding her powers. Moreover, she had to use her magic for the right purpose and the main one was to silence Gladys. Thankfully, she hadn't revealed to the healer about their plan, else she would have to silence the healer as well.

Ailill was going to come to her the next day. She had to be very careful in hiding him. They both had formed a plan and it was that as soon as she got in Emma's body, she could kill Lazarus along with Ailill. She also thanked her stars that Magnus wasn't there because he had run away with Olya. Yul was also pretty busy with training the warriors at the west end of the kingdom where King Viktor had sent him. Basically, all stars aligned in her favor. All those who were close to Lazarus, weren't in the palace.

She rested back on the pillow. "Tonight I am coming to silence you once and for all, Gladys!" she muttered under her breath. She closed her eyes and soon slumbered off. She needed all the rest possible. When she woke up, she gazed out of the window. Looking at the moon, she realized that it was already midnight. It was time to go to the dungeons.

She grabbed a shawl and got up to her feet, but immediately swayed on her feet. "Fuck!" she sat down on the bed with a thump, holding her head in her hands. The headache had intensified. She drank another glass of water and pulled herself up. As soon as she did that, she sucked in the sharp air as the sides of her belly ached terribly. She closed her hands tightly and let the wave of pain pass. She rose to her feet slowly and managed to drag herself out of the door.

Reaching the dungeons wasn't easy. They were located in the basement of the palace, two stories down. The stairs were a steep descent and were pretty dark. Torches were lit were very far from each other. In her normal body, she would have simply used her magic to travel to the dungeons or created a portal, but right now she couldn't. Every and each step looked like a burden to her.

As soon as she reached the landing, she saw that the jailer was snoring on his desk. She could fear faint screams of the prisoners behind the solid iron door. She went to the jailer and thumped the desk to wake him up. The jailer jumped on his feet when he saw her. "M'lady!" he rasped. "What can I do for you?"

"Take me to Lady Gladys," she said in a harsh voice.

The jailer nodded vehemently. He took the keys out of the drawer of his desk and opened the lock for her to enter the dungeons. He guided her through the maze of dungeons, right towards the prison where Gladys was lodged.

Maeve noticed how dark and dingy it was here. She wanted to puke at the horrible smell of piss and blood and sweat. Had she been in her normal state, she could have easily seen through this darkness, but right now she was trying her best to pierce her vision and see Gladys. The princess was lying on the floor with her hands shackled with a chain to the wall.

Very quickly, Maeve snapped her fingers to weave her magic. And as soon as the magic hit the princess, she writhed in pain and howled. She grabbed her throat and started crying.

Through the darkness, Maeve could see her red eyes. With deep satisfaction, she chuckled. "You shouldn't have done that, Gladys. That is treason against the future king of Wilyra," she said loudly so that the jailer heard her well. "Prince Lazarus has sent me to take care of you. You are a disgusting worm, worthy of rotting in the jail!"

Maeve saw her getting up on her knees and she lunged at the bars to attack the jailer and her with a loud shriek. But what Maeve saw next shocked her beyond reasoning. The woman who she thought was Gladys was someone else. "Who the fuck is she?" she asked the guard with horror. She had just used her precious magic on her. And in order to incapacitate her speech, Maeve had to wield very powerful magic.

"I don't know!" the guard said, equally stunned.

"What do you mean, you don't know!"

"M'lady, I saw the guards bringing Princess Gladys here!"

"Then what happened? Did she disappear into thin air?" Maeve was shocked and furious. Now the guard was going to go everywhere and tell this tale, risking her little secret. If Gladys would have been here, he would have felt that it was justified. But now—

"I don't know," he replied. "Maybe, they shifted her to a different prison when it wasn't my duty."

Enraged, she hissed, "Go find the princess or I will convert you into a frog!"

The guard was so terrified that he scurried from there. Maeve looked at the woman who was howling and banging against the bars of the prison. She gritted her teeth and turned sharply to leave. But the moment she turned she got a sharp pain in her chest. It was as if hundreds of tiny needles had poked in her skin. Her skin ruptured and blood started oozing out. She grunted in pain and sank down on the floor, heaving heavily. If this continued, she was sure that her skin would get infected.

Why the hell did she come here? But she had to silence Gladys. With that thought, she managed to pull herself up. Her body reeled with weakness but she dragged herself to the jailer. For the remaining night, she was somehow dragging herself behind her as she scoured through the prisons, but she couldn't find him. The night had was ending and she didn't have the energy to move one step more. Defeated, with the help of the guard, she went back to the bedchamber and crashed on her bed.

When Maeve woke up in the morning, her maid came rushing inside her room. "My lady. My lady!"

Maeve peeled open her eyes. "What?" she asked, irritated and turned to her side. She gasped in horror when she saw that the bedsheet was soaked with her blood.

"M'lady, Lady Emma has run away!"

Stunned, Maeve whipped her head to the maid with disbelief in her eyes.

"Lord Lazarus is asking for your help. He wants you to use your magic and find her!"