The Demon’s Savior

Chapter 7. The Queen's Ultimatum

Cath

Red finally walked. It was a day after their unfortunate clash, they had barely spoken a word to each other since, but Cath finally saw the Euphyr walk.

Red did so without any help, first confining to the bed, but firmly refusing Cath’s help, then slowly doing it on his own. Fully standing he was actually taller than Cath, his frame still thin after the months, or maybe years, of starvation, but his muscles were slowly starting to build up again.

He made a few steps, tiny beads of sweat gleaming on his pale forehead, where another strand of red hair was falling in front of his eyes. It took all of Cath’s will not to reach and tuck it away, just so he could feel its softness beneath his fingers. Of course, he didn’t do it. It was not his right to touch the male in any way without his consent and somehow Cath knew Red would never want his touch.

Red had to lie down after this exercise, exhausted, but eager to try again. Suddenly there was some vivid glow in his usually expressionless eyes, and it made Cath curiously joyful. 

Yet Cath did not have much time to lose on deciphering why he even cared in the first place if he was about to make his plan work. He had so many days to unravel the secret about his brother’s capture and there was no way he was missing his opportunity. His brother was the only hope for their bloodline to survive and the Kabirian legacy to live on after they were both long gone- there was nobody else to succeed where Cath had already failed. Plus, he missed Belar so much it sometimes hurt to breathe. His brother was the wise one, the real leader of the remaining Kabira tribes, and the only one who could actually lead them back to the Balance. Cath on the other side was… not fit to lead anyone. 

Today, he was finally summoned in the queen’s chambers to report his progress and give an exact date when the joining could actually happen. Cath had already sent her notice and expected Anya’s response ever since. 

The terrified human maid, who had been assigned to serve Cath and tend to his every need in order to make the Joining happen, had delivered him the message earlier in his own room, while Cath was preparing to visit Red and bring him his next meal.

The girl was small and fragile as any other of her kind, even more so after the years of hard work, humiliations, and having to live in constant fear for her life and honor. Her big round eyes gleamed with horror in the fiery shadows of the dying day, her hands trembling near her ragged skirt, her small roughened fingers clenching the note from the queen.

“For y-you, my lord,” the girl said with a squeaky voice, not daring to even look at Cath, and it broke Cath’s heart. He was supposed to be the girl’s guardian as he was one of nature’s children – responsible for her living existence the way the demons were responsible for the nurturing of her soul after her death. Yet, since Cath lived in the tower, even though a captive himself, he never even once thought about her, taking her for granted, too easily getting accustomed to having someone do everything for him.          

Cath shuddered with shame at the thought and the realization that he was helpless to aid the maid. Not when Cath was the failing chieftain of a scattered tribe of guardians who had lost the war and the will to keep the Balance intact, while the Euphyrians walked their earth as masters of life – a title that could never belong to the demons from the underworld. Cath wasn’t fit to lead anyone indeed. 

Cath took the note with a heavy heart, but left it unread on the bed, approaching the girl slowly, careful not to scare her.

“Don’t be afraid, child” he said in the tongue the humans in these lands spoke and the girl finally looked at him, her eyes wide with disbelief. “What is your name?”

“T-tsana, my lord” she answered in a low voice, looking away. Cath felt like a fraud. 

“Alright, Tsana.  Can I trust you?”

“My lord?” the girl lifted her eyes to him, looking like a lost hind, desperate to find a way out of a predator’s trap. Her hands, hidden in the folds of her skirt shook even more. Cath didn’t respond, just kept his gaze locked to the girl’s for a long time, until she finally spoke. “Yes, my lord. I wouldn’t do anything to harm you in any way.”

“Do you report to the queen what I have been doing?”

Tsana shook her head in desperate denial, making a step away from Cath. “It’s alright if you do. In fact, I am counting on you to do it again.”

“My lord?”

“When you visit her next time, I want you to bring me something that belongs to her…”

***

Cath was to visit Anya Seftha earlier the next day in her private quarters.

They were positioned in the central tower of a huge complex of towers, gardens, and barracks, where the highly ranked euphyrs and the queen’s personal garrison of fanatics were stationed. 

It was a gorgeous building, the tallest of all six towers, made of white marble crossed with golden threads, which gleamed like a gem at any time of the day and night. It stood in the middle of the circle, as if guarded by the rest, guards and servants walking swiftly around it. The gardens around it were extravagant and expensive, filled with exotic plants collected from all over the world and tens of thousands of exotic birds screeched in the air in complete lack of unison, completely disrespectful to the Balance.

It made Cath’s heartache with a newly risen pain for the creatures which were plucked from their natural habitats just for the amusement of a capricious master, who hardly even cared about their wellbeing. Their life force was drained daily by the queen’s sorcerers in order to create a shield of black magic against the scorching sun. Such was the world now and enormous was the price for losing the war – no matter the species, they all had become slaves to the demons and their dark magic. 

Cath traced a colorful bird in its flight, its wings reflecting the first fiery streaks of the rising sun until it got lost somewhere behind the top of the queen’s tower, and its scream of pain prevailed upon the rest of the noises. Dark magic kept it hidden from the outside world, magic so powerful, every cell in its body suddenly screamed with defiance.

Suddenly all in Cath that belonged to the skilled folk, everything that made him him turned from the upside-down. He was pretty well aware of the way the euphyr guided themselves from the sunlight - they created these big invisible domes, fuelled with dark magic and the lost hopes of the living in order to have the luxury to enjoy the daylight. He knew, he had heard the stories and he felt each of them as his own failure when the war was lost under his command, yet never before had he been so close to one of the euphyrs’ cities to see it with his own eyes. This should be his reason to betray Red and the queen and everyone standing in his way. He shouldn’t care about any one of them. Even Red, had he been granted the opportunity, would roam free of any guilt in such a place somewhere in the euphyr kingdom, and enjoy the spoils of war that could never belong to his kind.

“Move” one of the guards that were escorting her to the queen’s palace groaned and pushed Cath forward.

Cath almost tripped, but complied, his mind suddenly drained from any logical thought. They lead him through a big hall, some of the euphyrs turning curious eyes towards him, but he didn’t care. In his mind the view of the small phoenix bird repeated, again and again, its empty body dancing in the air while the soul was trapped in the magic of the euphyrs, gone, lost, dead.

He had no idea how long they walked, how many stairs they climbed, how many halls they passed. It didn’t matter. 

When they finally stopped, he realized they were in a large corridor, where soft light, which seemed as if it was self-creating – there were no candles, no torches – and the guards sharply greeted the ones on the post in front of a wide double-winged ivory door.

Then the doors opened and Cath was led into a large and luxurious bed-chamber.

Suddenly taken out of his stupor, he looked around in surprise, not knowing what to make of it. The chamber was all painted in white, the big desk and the bigger bed in the center were also white. The only thing contrasting with all this was the small creature in the middle of the bed, her dark hair falling lusciously on her naked shoulders, golden cat eyes gleaming with sweet poison, which made the hairs on Cath’s neck stand in disgust. 

The queen lay in the bed all naked, a delicate body made of marble skin and soft curves, complimenting her beauty and leaving nothing to the imagination. She smiled her vicious smile and stretched lazily on the bed before focusing back on Cath, a small luring smile blossomed on her full pale lips.

“I see your stay in my towers suits you well, my dear elf,” the queen said with the same sweet voice she used during their first meeting almost five weeks ago. 

Cath didn’t respond. Hells, for a second, he had no idea what to say. 

The creature in front of him was the epitome of beauty and all things a male could desire, yet just the thought of him being anywhere near her, let alone touch her, enter her, made him sick to the bones. He knew he had to approach this carefully in order not to ruin everything he had planned, yet it was so damn hard to control his disgust. 

Anya stood up from the bed, her perfectly shaped breasts attracting Cath’s attention, but not able to spark any desire inside of him. She smiled again and when she spoke, her voice sounded like a cat’s purr.

“I hear our friend is quite well now. Is he well enough to perform, however? Are you?” The words were spilling from her mouth soft and sweet and thick like fine honey, but her eyes remained sharp as knives. “Oh, don’t look at me like this. Do you think I don’t know how your joining works? You have to f**k, and you have to bite him when you spill inside of him, isn’t it?” a chuckle, and then the queen stood on her knees, looking Cath dead in the eyes. “What, you have second thoughts on becoming a w***e in order to save your brother?”

Cath barely suppressed his anger, the most intimate ritual of his people described so vulgarly by this wicked woman who had no respect for anything sacred. Yet, he had to play pliant, if he wanted his plan to work.

“He is well enough to perform,” Cath said through the lump in his throat. Just as the queen b***h knew he didn’t buy any of her act, she was making it quite clear she didn’t buy any of his. But that was the game he had agreed to play – a dangerous game for her too. 

“I want to watch.”

Cath couldn't help the disgusted groan, forming in his chest and smiled in the same cold heartless way she did. “Of course, you do”.

“Do you want to watch me perform?” her hand slowly reached dangerously low to her thighs, her small delicate fingers circling near her abdomen, eager to go lower, to make Cath see it all. All he did was take his eyes away in disgust. “Or maybe, you would like me to help you relax?”

She suddenly jumped through the long space that separated them, her naked body all over Cath’s in an instant, pinning him with unexpected strength to the wall. Her hand was now on his crotch, squeezing through the rough fabric of his pants, her fingers not able to extract even a drop of desire from his frozen body. She traced her tongue on his cheek, leaving a wet trail where it passed, making Cath tremble for all the wrong reasons.

“So, it’s true what they say,” the queen purred in his ear, dragging her body along his, still holding him in her paralyzing spell that did not allow him to move even one bit. “The new chieftain of the remaining elves does not have an eye for the ladies. How sad…”

She then pushed back, turning her back on him, still not releasing him from the spell. 

“You do it tomorrow,” the queen spat with an icy voice. “Now get the f**k out of my sight.”