Winter Shade
Weeks passed and I had been reduced to menial labour under Queen Elowethra's rule. I often wondered how my life had twisted so cruelly, how I had fallen from a Guardian once revered in Thyr Vael to a slave scrubbing stone floors in Noxara.
Yet even in my degradation, my fate was kinder than Kumbuye's.
She had claimed him for herself, turned him into her plaything, her paramour. She used him for her own satisfaction. He had no choice. Neither of us did. Queen Elowethra was persuasive in the most dangerous way, her commands were wrapped in silk, but enforced with iron. In Noxara, no one defied her and lived without consequence.
Today, I was tasked with cleaning the sheets from her chambers, the very ones she had shared with Kumbuye the night before. My hands trembled as I worked, a strange tightness forming in my chest, something bitter that I could not name. She was evil. Perhaps that word alone was insufficient, but it was the closest truth I had. She was the kind that would talk to you like she was doing you a favor when in reality, she was actually killing you.
Castellan Ormric had become another torment entirely. He had seen my power, but he kept it hidden even from the Queen. He ordered the guards who witnessed it to remain silent, and they obeyed him without question. I did not understand his reasons, only that they were selfish and dangerous, of course.
He kept my bag in his possession, examining the compass and the key. He held onto them like trophies. For weeks he studied them, demanding to know why I had clung to them so desperately. When I refused to answer, he struck me, hard enough to remind me where I stood in this place.
My search for the Cranium had been halted once more, trapped behind cold stone walls and watchful eyes. Kumbuye and I had tried to escape more times than I could count, but each attempt always ended up in near disaster.
Every night, my sleep was plagued with dreams of Doya.
I saw him struggling, like he was on a journey that never ended. I had missed him deeply. I had reached for him again and again with my mind, calling, pleading, but he never answered.
A darker thought crept in, one I refused to dwell on.
What if he was—
No.
I pushed it away every time. I could not afford that fear.
As I washed Queen Elowethra's sheets, I felt that familiar dread. The same feeling I used to get long ago, back when danger was close but I couldn't see. My fingers squeezed on the damp fabric.
"Wash those sheets faster. The Queen will need them by tomorrow night."
The voice belonged to one of the servants placed above me, given authority to watch my every move and strike me at will if I disobeyed. She was tall and thin with a face ruined by a livid scar. Her skin was corpse pale, flayed and crisscrossed with whip marks. She was really ugly.
The first days in service to the Queen, I had not been compliant. I could not bring myself to bend easily. Seeing my resistance, Elowethra assigned a watcher to me, someone who never strayed far whenever duty called. Only during rest hours was I left alone. The only moments I had to breathe. To whisper plans with Kumbuye about escaping this hellhole.
I scrubbed harder.
A cold breeze brushed past me.
I paid it no mind. Winter had settled over Noxara. The whole castle was freezing.
Then I felt it again.
I ignored it, forced myself to keep working. But the third time, it came with a force that knocked me sideways. I slammed into the floor, frozen there for a second, struggling to come back up.
Before I could react, the servant overseeing me lunged forward and struck me on the face, forcing me back down.
"Do your work, slave."
Rage flared hot inside me. If she knew who I was and what I had been capable of, she would never dare treat me this way. I swallowed the anger, pushed myself to my feet, and continued washing.
Something was hovering nearby in the shadows, I was sure about it, but I didn't know what it was.
A Shadowmire?
I could not be sure.
I quickly finished my work and dried the sheets.
That night, Kumbuye came to my room, a small, dark, rust eaten space that stank of stale piss and sweats. The quarters they kept servants in were a ruin. I told him everything about how my day went, including the dreadful feeling I had earlier.
"You have to stay alert," he said quietly. "Perhaps the Forsaken have found you."
My chest burned at the word.
Forsaken.
I had not heard it in so long that I had almost forgotten I was still being hunted.
Kumbuye spoke of his own day then, how the Queen had kept him close during her duties, parading him beside her like a possession. He had told me that her mind was difficult to read. When he reached into her thoughts, he could not tell whether it was affection or obsession that drove her. Only that she was deeply fond of him, in a twisted way.
She used to enjoy watching him lie with other women while she touched herself. Sometimes, she would tie him up naked and do whatever she wanted with his body just to satisfy herself. She even enjoyed humiliating him by making him wear clothes that revealed his whole body, covering only his manhood while she took him around the castle with a leash on, and soon after, she would make him bend her over.
"Do you have any update on how we can get out of here?" I asked, desperation seeping into my voice.
"They haven't reduced their defences," he replied. "Elowethra's mind is scrambled. That woman is unwell. She is really disturbed. I can't pull anything meaningful from her thoughts."
I exhaled slowly. "Do you know where Ormric is keeping my belongings?"
"Yes," he said. "I found out today. But I doubt you can get into that room."
"I could try."
"And if you get caught?" he asked. "We can't take that risk. These people are cruel."
As we spoke in the room, that same cold breeze from earlier returned.
"Did you feel that?" I asked, my voice shaking.
"Feel what?"
"The cold air," I whispered. "The same one I told you about. It just happened again."
"It's probably just the winter breeze," he muttered.
"But you didn't feel it," I replied.
As if answering my words, something slammed into me with brutal force. I was thrown across the room, my body crashing against the wall. Pain exploded through my skull as my head struck stone, and I collapsed to the floor. Paralyzed.
Kumbuye sprang up instantly, searching the darkness, but the room was too dim to see anything clearly.
Then a low, shrill sound broke the silence. My blood ran cold.
"It's a Shadowmire," Kumbuye said grimly.
He rushed into the corridor and grabbed a torch from one of the iron sconces.
I lay frozen on the floor, unable to move even a finger. The moment he returned with the flame, the Shadowmire let out a loud shriek. The fire burned it, and it moved back, folding into itself before it vanished through the curtains.
Kumbuye dropped to his knees beside me. "Are you alright?" His breath was rushed.
I couldn't answer. I couldn't even nod. My body whole body was locked. My eyes were the only thing that moved.
"You'll be alright," he said softly.
He brought the torch closer, letting the warmth spill over me. The cold in my skin was still freezing.
What kind of Shadowmire was that? I asked in my head.
As if he had heard the question aloud, he replied, "A Winter Shade." He drew closer to me. "They appear during winter. It is not as dangerous as a Riven Shade. Its the least dangerous kind." His hand brushed my forehead. "You're freezing."
He grabbed a blanket from the bed and wrapped it around me, tucking it close.
"You're safe," he whispered.
I wanted to believe him, but the paralysis didn't make it easy.
He carried me onto the bed. I reached for him in my thoughts, begging him not to leave me alone.
And he stayed.
For the first time, I was grateful that he listened to my mind. He lay beside me, holding me close, until sleep found me.
Days passed after the Winter Shade experience. It did not return. I continued to my duties, moving through the castle like a ghost. Kumbuye continued his own role as well, but beneath it all, something had changed.
We were finally close.
He had found a way out. A narrow opening in an underground tunnel buried deep beneath the castle grounds, leading toward the sea. It was a fragile opportunity, and a dangerous one, but still an opportunity.
We would escape tonight.
Fate, for once, leaned in our favour. Castellan Ormric had ridden out with his knights on patrol, leaving the upper quarters of the castle light on watch. Kumbuye had been studying the castle for weeks, learning its pattern, the way the hours were shifted. His mind hearing had evolved beyond sound. He could now glimpse images, memories, fragments of thought unfolding in other minds.
The guards outside Ormric's chambers would change shifts after the second bell. Two of them always left early.
We moved as the sun began to set, when the servants had started finishing their duties. We stayed close to the walls, slipping from shadow to shadow.
The moment came exactly as Kumbuye said it would.
The guards stepped away, one muttering under his breath, the other adjusting his armour as they disappeared down the corridor. Kumbuye was already moving, closing his hand around mine as he pulled me forward, while we sneaked into Ormric's chambers.
The room smelled of pine wood and oiled steel. Maps were spread across the desk, with a leather weapon roll beside them. Near the window, I spotted my bag, locked inside a wooden chest with tiny barred openings and secured by a huge padlock.
"There it is," I whispered, pointing to show Kumbuye. He moved quickly and grabbed a crowbar from the weapon roll on the desk. He brought it to the padlock and forced it open.
When the lock broke, I snatched my bag and opened it to make sure the compass and key were there. As soon as I confirmed it, we sneaked out of the room immediately — a few seconds before the next guards took their shift.
Thank the Light.
Kumbuye and I moved outside the main building by the time the sky began to grow dark.
My thoughts turned to Bali. She was still in the stables. I had seen her only a handful of times. The thought of leaving her behind made my chest ache. I wanted to take her with me, but there was no time. I promised myself that I would return for her if it was ever possible. But for now, I had to leave this place.
We were almost at the stone slab that marked the tunnel's hidden entrance when a metal scrape sound made me freeze. My stomach dropped. Kumbuye raised a hand, warning me to stay still as we hid behind a wall.
The sound grew closer, followed by slow footsteps.
I held my breath, scared that my heavy breathing would give us away.
Then the footsteps stopped. I looked at Kumbuye, he held up his finger, telling me to stay put.
Just as I finally forced a breath out of my mouth, I heard his voice...
"Dana," Castellan Ormric whispered in a sing-song, teasing voice. "You thought you could escape?"