Page 73 of The Dark Prince
“Gotcha!”
Hands seized me and pulled me out into the middle of the hallway, rough and calloused.
“Is this her? The bastard’s bitch?”
Well, that was rude. So I kicked him in his privates.
The soldier went down hard, swearing and cursing. The other one reached for me, but I already had the dagger out, slashing at his face. Surprised, he stumbled backwards, and tripped down the steps. I didn’t watch him fall. I kept running down the dark corridors toward Tyr’s room, which had a balcony with a high trellis. If I could climb down that, I could get to the stables and hopefully get a horse.
I could hear the soldiers behind me before I saw them; the king’s guard wore heavy metal armor and clinked and jangled with each step they took. It made avoiding them easier, but still difficult.
“There! Get her!”
I was fast, but he was twice my size with long strides that caught up to me despite the heavy armor that draped his frame. Heavy hands came down at me and pinned my arms to my side, and he hefted me over his shoulder like I was a sack of wheat, albeit a kicking, screaming, flailing one. I shoved the knife down my chest before they saw it.
There were four soldiers, all dressed in silver armor with the king’s crest of a sword and crown resting on a bed of roses. No one remained in the castle to help me—the servants had fled, and Tyr’s men were all out trying to get to him. Hopefully.
“The king will want to hold on to her. He’s just outside in the town square. She—Lathos, you alright?”
The man holding me paused as the soldier across from us doubled over, clutching his stomach and moaning. He tugged his helmet off and it crashed to the ground, rolling and coming to a step at my feet.
“Lathos, what—”
The man’s armor burst and split as dark fur sprouted up and down his body. He screamed, but it modulated into an animalistic roar of fury as claws burst from his nail beds and his pants ripped to accommodate a large, tufted tail. My guard dropped me.
“He’s changing! Kill him!” My guard ordered, but the others weren’t listening. They couldn’t.
They were changing, too.
And if the howls outside were anything to go by, they weren’t the only ones. I didn’t wait to watch the men finish their transformations. I darted down the steps and out the front doors, making a mad dash to the forest.
The night was full of fire and screams, mostly coming from the village. Had the soldiers changed there as well? What about the king?
The king.
I stopped running, my body incapable of moving while my brain spun and spun. Thoughts ran faster than I could keep up with, but they spun and spun until something finally made sense. Dozens of scenarios narrowed down to three, then it came back with only one scenario; one possibility.
“Isadora! I demand you stop at once!” Tree branches snapped as Aella caught up to me, falling sideways and sending us both into a bush. I pushed Aella away.
“What are you doing out here? Where is Bessy?” I cried, imagining my friend unconscious or alone, prey to the beasts that were seemingly everywhere.
“She’s fine,” Aella waved away, “holed up in a root cellar with a bunch of your other servants. You’re coming with me.”
She locked an arm under my elbow and pulled. “My father will want to meet the person who caused this all to go wrong. Are you happy? My guards are all changing into beasts because of you!”
I let her drag me toward the village as I laughed hysterically. Aella thought she was so smart. Everyone thought they’d figured it out, but they missed the biggest part of all of this. “You’re so sure about that, aren’t you? It’s much easier to blame someone else for all the problems instead of looking inward, isn’t it?”
Aella had found time somewhere to wash her face of all traces of blood, but there was no hiding the ugly black bruises around her nose and under her eyes. The shape wasn’t quite the same either. I viciously hoped it never healed straight.
“What are you talking about?” she cried out, pushing me in front of her. The village below us was full of flames and screams. “My only care was to help Tyr and relieve him of his suffering. What kind of wife are you if you can’t see that? I love him!”
The barb didn’t sting as it once would have, and her declaration didn’t faze me either. Not when I’d discovered the truth.
I whirled around and pushed back, then stalked toward the town myself. Aella was hot on my heels.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that Tyr only changed occasionally?” I began, my voice almost conversational. “That not a single one of his subjects turned except for him?” I kept my eyes focused on the unimpressive, portly figure sitting atop of a horse, yelling at everyone with no effect in the middle of town. A gold crown sat nestled atop his gray hair.
“Look!” I demanded, pointing. The royal guards around him were falling around the king like grains of wheat to scythe, writhing on the ground as their bodies twisted and contorted.
