Shadow Queen by B.R. Nicholson

face she bore.
The young girl Amaeya once knew was long dead and in her place was
a tattered old crone.
    “Hurry, my love. We haven’t a moment to
lose!” Luthen’s footsteps crashed through her nighttime labors. She
managed to yank the bucket from his path with seconds to spare.
    “I do wish you would tell me why you’ve
dragged me out of bed,” said Anya as she drifted through the empty
hall. She picked her way around Amaeya, careful to keep her gown
free of the damp stone.
    “Now darling, it wouldn’t be much of a
surprise if I told you all my secrets.” Luthen’s voice floated
through the hall behind him, chilling Amaeya’s blood. The smaller
she made herself the better.
    “At least give me a hint,” said Amaeya as
they turned off the main hall.
    Luthen stopped her at the corner of the halls
and swept her into his arms. “Let’s just say,” he said, his eyes
searching the darkness of the corridor, “that I have found a
missing piece of you.” His black eyes locked onto Amaeya’s. Her
heart fumbled its beating as her breath was swept from her lungs.
She had cowered from that gaze since their first encounter all
those years ago. Luthen had tortured her for weeks, asking the same
questions over and over— where is she? Where is the girl? The
process had left Amaeya a withered husk, serving no more purpose
than to polish the white stone beneath his feet.
    His mouth moved in silent words only meant
for her.
    I KNOW YOUR SECRET.
     
     
    ***
     
     
    “FOOLISH GIRL!” Quibell’s voice screeched
from far above, ripping Astrid from her frozen terror. She fumbled
up the silvery ladder, right into the wiry blue arms of an angry
goblin. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? That beast reeked of foul magic!”
    Astrid shoved the goblin away. “But Fryx
said—”
    “Fryx promises many things, much that are not
his to promise!” Quibell spat at the open prison door in disgust.
“That scoundrel was found wandering outside the villa. He put down
three good goblins before he was subdued.” He stopped suddenly, his
face wincing as he sniffed the air. “That same taint seems to have
followed you out,” he said, sniffing at her. Astrid slapped his
face away, having had enough.
    “I don’t know what the hell that was down
there, but it’s dead ,” said Astrid through clenched teeth.
“I believe my business is done here.”
    “I’m not leaving Luka here,” said Ethen, his
voice an uneasy calm.
    Astrid shot him a pained look. He hid his
eyes from her, his face dark and unreadable.
    She nodded, trying hard to keep her face
blank. In all their years, they had never had such bitterness
between them. Perhaps space is what we need.
    Astrid pushed past the sour-faced goblin and
ran for the door. She kept running until she found herself swept up
in the swarming market of Limra. Here, a person could disappear
faster than if they wandered out into the bleakest part of the
desert.
    She meandered past the bellowing merchants
and flowing crowds until she reached the highest part of the city.
Here, you could see far out across the desert on one side and far
across the sea on the other. Astrid smirked at how ironically
similar to the two were, both just as unforgiving and bleak as the
other yet still strangely beautiful.
    The sun had started to set, casting the sea
into a pit of sunlit fire. The people of Limra—the elven merchants,
the sun-kissed sea dwarves, the pinched faced High Goblins, the
barefoot and bleak-faced humans—all paused a moment to soak in the
surrounding sight.
    Astrid sat perched on a crumbling wall,
positioning herself to see both sides of the city. It was the first
moment she had a lone since what happened in the canyon. Her hand
instinctively reached for her ribs, leaving her cringing at her
invisible wounds. How close had I really been to death? The
fear circling that thought left her paralyzed. She could feel her
own mortality creeping out from the darkest parts of her mind.
    A small