The Walls Have Eyes

Chapter Five

8000 A.L - 6 Weeks, 2 Days Past Winter Solstice

Rialiyn Wolfrill III sat by a roaring fire, reading from a newly penned book. The words echoed through her mind, silky words of love and passion floating off the page. She chuckled at a funny line in the story and settled deeper into her chair. She barely looked up when a brownie slipped into the room on silent feet and began to tidy up.

As she was reading, a sharp sense of terror entered her mind, with the telltale distance of another's emotions. Through her stay at Tenebris, a boarding school for young shade fae, she'd learned how to tune out all but the most acute emotions of others. She knew immediately that something was terribly wrong.

Her book dropped to ground as she stood and gathered up her skirts in her hands. She began running down the glassy stone corridors of the mansion, her boots slapping harshly on the floor. The dark purple and wheat blonde strands of her hair flew out behind her in a halo of color. The brownies tidying up and moving about the hall stared after her in abject shock.

When she reached the vestibule of the mansion, the butler, an elderly goblin by name of Albert, called out to her. "Milady! You musn't forget your cloak," he instructed, his voice gravelly with the markings of his kind.

Rialiyn snapped her fingers, and a purple sheen covered her shoulders, flowing out behind her in the shape of her cloak. Momentarily, the sheen dissolved and left a dark purple cloak, fastened with a pure amethyst. Albert pushed the doors open for Lady Wolfrill to rush out into the snowy evening.

A huge, winged beast stood by the flowing fountain. He was stamping his feet against the glassy stone path and fluttering his wings with a vengeance.

"What has happened, Mistress?" The dark beast queried Rialiyn telepathically.

"Someone is in trouble, Emosk," Lady Wolfrill answered aloud in her smooth-as-silk voice.

"Where?"

Rialiyn took a deep breath and focused her attention on the terror still plaguing her emotional grid. "Past the gates, on the road to the mountain."

Emosk crouched down low so that Rialiyn could climb onto his back. Once she was safely seated between his wings, the huge pegasus began trotting down the stone road to the inner wall of the manor. A flapping of wings alerted her to the dark gray dragon flying overhead.

Just past the low stone wall that separated the inner and outer gardens of the manor, Emosk broke into a full gallop for the following kilometer to the main gates. Rialiyn snapped her fingers again when they neared the gates. The heavy wrought-iron gates swung open and beast and fae raced out onto the muddy, ice strewn dirt road.

Yet again, Rialiyn took a deep breath before concentrating on the terror. "Go t'wards the west, Emosk," she ordered.

The pegasus turned to the left and took off at full tilt again, soon lifting into the air and unfurling black, feathery wings. He raced through the air for a few kilometers.

Up ahead, Rialiyn could see four armed fae escorting a young snow fae down the road. The snow fae girl was tied and manacled, the cords and manacles glistening with enchantment. The snow fae was struggling against the bindings. Pale pink ribbons of enchantment wrapped around the cords and manacles and mingled with the green bindings.

"Put down just ahead of them," Rialiyn instructed.

Emosk obeyed, and a few meters in front of the group, he landed and slowed to a stop. A flutter of wings preceded the dark gray dragon setting down beside her. After a burst of black smoke enveloped the dragon, it dissipated to show a young man of pale gray skin. His eyes were like smoke, his hair the blackest raven. Inkings of smoke ran up his arms, attesting to his igneus tenebris blood.