Villainous [Wattys 2021 Shortlist]

20: Venom

The dunes ended and they walked through rocky land dotted with shrubs, spiny cacti and hardy trees. Every noise boomed in her ears. She started to feel sick and shaky, her stomach doing somersaults. Only her tight grip on Dante's arm kept her moving forwards, and he occasionally touched her back, urging her on, never telling her to let go.

They veered closer to the Landian Sea, and soon the beaches turned into soaring cliffs. They walked along the top of one as the gorge formed, the sea turning into the Landian River that fed it.

There it was - Terra, a large landmass of lush green, on the opposite cliff. So close. So impossibly far away.

Delilah's knees started to buckle. Her head was spinning.

"Don't you dare fall," Dante said.

She clung to his low voice, and to her surprise drew strength from some hidden reserve. She forced herself to straighten. To take a shaky step. Then another.

"That's it."

She gave a weak chuckle. "Dante Vallahan, Valian King, encouraging a Pelenan Princess to keep going!"

"Yes. It won't be very far now. There's a Pelenan bridge up ahead."

Was it her imagination, or was his skin greyish, covered with a sheen of sweat? Her eyesight seemed to be blurring. She expected mirages next.

An unstable-looking bridge came into view, and Delilah let out a groan at the sight of it. It was made of ropes, with wooden planks and pegs staked deep into the earth on either side. A gust of wind ripped between the sheer rock walls and it swayed.

"I can't cross that," she said.

"It's our only hope. Come on." Dante led the way, and she followed warily.

Gripping a rope, she edged away from the cliff edge. A dizzying drop loomed below, the river a mere trickle at the bottom.

Another gale hit the bridge and it creaked wildly. She faltered, the rope cutting into her hand.

A cure. Life. Life beckoned on the other side.

Delilah forced herself to keep going as Dante turned and nodded encouragingly.

"In the name of King Gaol of Pelenu, I order you to halt!" cried a young male voice.

Delilah whirled around, and nearly fell off the bridge in shock.

A blond man her own age stood on the cliff, a white horse beside him pawing the earth. He had a handsome, aristocratic face with a long, thin nose and incredible blue eyes, his hair ruffled in the wind, and he held a sword.

The Silver Knight.

Finias.

Dante gave a snarl of annoyance, his sword whining above the wind as he unsheathed it and made to storm towards the threat.

Finias's wide blue eyes fixed on her. "Lila?" he breathed, incredulous and a little hurt. "So it is true. The King of Vale has ensnared you with his tricks. Lila, don't listen to him."

He took a step onto the bridge and Delilah unsheathed her sword almost without thinking. Dull, hot fury pounded at her temples.

"Stay away from me, Finias," she warned, but a surge of sickness made her voice sound weak and frail.

Dante was frowning at her.

"Sweetheart," Finias breathed, looking truly wounded now. "Please come with me. Let me kill the King. We can be married, just like we were supposed to - you're my betrothed. Please. I lo-"

With an animalistic snarl, Delilah launched herself at him. Anything - she'd do anything to stop him from completing that sentence.

Startled, he brought his sword up to clash against hers. She darted back and lunged in with a vicious stab, but he easily deflected that, too.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the Silver Knight breathed.

"Good - that'll make it easier for me to kill you," she spat, but her left arm was weak and useless, and she had no strength. None at all. There was nothing left but the dark emotions that writhed in her rotten husk of a heart, demanding that she inflict pain on this pure, good young man who served those she hated - who had once promised to protect her from harm.

Dante dragged her away from Finias. "If he's not going to hurt you, we have to run!" he bellowed in her ear.

Reluctantly, Delilah let him pull her along the bridge. She sheathed her sword and they broke into a sprint. The wind roared and battered at their clothes.

Nothing could block out Finias's anguished cry. "Delilah!" It echoed through the gorge but they didn't slow down.

I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Finias, that hated part of her sobbed inside. She tried to push it away, to smother it in darkness.

The entire bridge trembled, throwing them onto their hands and knees. Delilah screamed, gripping the wood below her. The bottom of the ravine swayed, sending her dizzy.

Bile surged up her throat - and she vomited over the edge of the bridge, into the ravine.

Dante swore, his sharp gaze scanning the way ahead. "A rope has snapped! Hurry!"

The bridge was trembling, threatening to buckle entirely under their weight as they ran. The boards shuddered and the entire structure of the bridge began to warp, twisting, narrowing so it was getting harder and harder to force their way across -

Finias let loose another cry, but they'd already slammed onto their knees on Terran soil.

Just as the ropes on either side of them snapped away from the pegs, and the bridge fell. Her betrothed couldn't reach them now.

Delilah turned and saw the bridge disappearing as it fell on their end, finally thudding against the Pelenan cliff face where Finias was a tiny figure mounting his horse.

Delilah crawled through grass, wanting to get away from the gap as fast as she could. Her body was burning, her blood on fire with the venom. She couldn't breathe.

She lifted a heavy head just in time to see Dante vomiting, his entire body wracked with shudders, one hand braced on a tree. His face really was grey, his lips colourless, and his hands trembled, the other going to the wound at his side.

Horror swamped Delilah as she slumped on her front. Shahmaran had bitten him. He'd lied.

She watched him crumple in a dead faint like a marionette whose strings had been cut. How would they get to a hospital now?

It felt like her heart was beating slower, every pump of blood sending a new wave of pain through her skin.

She pressed her face against the ground, breathing in moist soil and the sharp smell of growing grass.

The earth was shaking. She used the last of her strength to lift her head, saw a forest of horse's legs, before the world went black.