The Rogue Princess

In the Dungeons

“Where am I?”

Carita wondered as she listened to the dripping sounds of water. She did not want to open her eyes or move before she could at least be sure of her surroundings. She remembered Casper using roots to bind her and Jared his minion throwing her unceremoniously at the back of a bear-like beast that had a thousand tiny legs attached to its underbelly like a millipede. When it moved, it felt as though it was gliding on the ground. Before she could get used to being on the back of the mysterious beast, it took off the ground flying through the open portal causing Rita to slide from the center of its back to the edge, almost falling off.

“You silly oaf, are you trying to kill me?”

Jared sneered at her, “It wouldn’t be for lack of trying, I’d take pleasure in squeezing the life out your body, but alas, such an opportunity evades me.”

Rita had spewed obscenities at him that would have shamed a sailor’s wife and after what seemed like hours of listening to her insults, he had knocked her unconscious.

“Such a foul mouth, can’t you shut it just for a moment? It gives one a headache just listening to you.”

Now here she was, feeling cold, stiff, and with a tender jaw where Jared had hit her. She was tempted to touch it to check whether it was swollen but decided to pretend to be unconsciousness. As she studied her surroundings, she tried to open one eye but realized it was on the side where Jared hit her and it had swollen as well.

“Tsch, … who hits a woman?”

She remembered Casper blinding her with the blue light that had rendered her powerless. He then bound her with roots from the ground, which had eventually almost choked all the oxygen from her system.

“How could I have been so careless?” she wondered.

Even though Casper was a powerful warlock, she had been able to hide from him for fifteen years. Rita cloaked Maya since they left Grundolf Kingdom with the invisibility spell, in case some powerful witch sensed the magic within the girl but the girl’s own awakening had broken that spell leading Casper straight to her. The girl carried very powerful magic within her and if used wrongly, it would cause untold chaos in all the seven realms.

She thought about Casper’s reign of tyranny and shuddered. Now he had her, what was going to happen? She had failed, if Maya fell for her grandfather’s wiles, doom would not be far off. Carita hoped that there would be time to rescue her from his grip.

She remembered the day she took her from Celeste.

Flashback

“I am scared. What if he finds out we planned this?”

Celeste cried out reluctant to let her only daughter go. She could not bring herself to part with her precious angel but her life was in danger. She was the only daughter born of an alpha in three centuries; her power would be unrivaled causing her to be the only powerful being with the ability to rule over all the super-naturals in the seven realms.

Chadron had threatened to m******e one village a day if they would not hand baby Kharisi to him. From the moment she was born, he had claimed that she was his beloved. He had attacked the capital with an army of rogues and bloodthirsty newborn vampires. Celeste had no choice but to go to her aunt Carita because her father was too hotheaded to consider hiding the baby (Call it Alpha pride). Nobody except her aunt and her uncle knew of this plan but to make it convincing, somebody had to make a sacrifice.

“I will make the sacrifice, what good is it if Kharisi somehow falls into Chadron’s hands and ends up turning dark? I’d rather die knowing there’s hope for the world than live to see it all burn down to ashes” Jasper, Celeste’s uncle said resolutely.

“No Jasper, I will not let you make that sacrifice, you can come with me. Nobody will find us; I will make sure of that!” Carita said amidst sobs and sniffles. She hugged his waist as she cried but she too knew very well that her beloved mate was right, they could not risk making mistakes no matter how slight.

“Oh my sunshine, it breaks my heart to be apart from you even for a second but this is not about me and you but it is for all the seven realms. We cannot allow Chadron to lay his filthy hands on Kharisi,” he tried to comfort and encourage Carita but it was obvious her heart was breaking at the thought of leaving him behind.

“If we live through this and somehow one day we are reunited, promise me you’ll never let go of me even for a second my love!” Carita pleaded with Jasper but it was not a promise he was sure he could keep. He could be dead before sundown Casper did not tolerate betrayals. He was about to commit treason by being an accomplice in the kidnapping of a royal princess of Grundolf.

They held on to each other, words seemingly becoming useless to express the agony each was feeling. If this was destiny then he was such a cruel master.

On the corner Celeste held on to baby Kharisi, crying uncontrollably. She was the only thing she could hold on to keep the memories of Liam alive. His banishment from the kingdom left her feeling bitter towards her father. He had chosen someone for her, a suitable mate who came from a noble family. Liam was her true mate but a rogue and his heritage was questionable as a rogue orphan. He would not be suitable to mate with a royal princess of Grundolf. Casper would not agree to the union so he decided to banish him when he found out that Celeste was pregnant with his child.

“Aunt, how did you convince the coven to go against father?” she sniffed as she rose with the child in her arms. She walked towards Carita and handed the child to her.

“I made the Bennett witches an offer they could not refuse; their freedom” Rita replied to Celeste. She had reached out to her aunt after she heard her father conversing with Chadron, he had agreed to hand over the baby to him. He had called her “a spawn of the devil”.

“Leave everything to me child, in honor of your mother’s memory I will save Kharisi from anyone who wishes her harm.” Carita said as she cooed into the child’s ears, soothing her with magic to fall asleep, it was the only way the cloaking magic would be effective in hiding her.

“Thank you auntie, I’ll forever be indebted to you”, she sniffed her eyes red from sobbing.

“Hush child, listen, go within your consciousness, there you will find a way to hide the details of our escape. Casper or Chadron cannot find us.”

“I don’t think I will be able to do it, please aunt I cant risk them finding you.”

“You’ll have to live consciously in another dimension but here you will remain in a vegetative state. That way, no one can invade your thoughts to investigate, just do as I showed you how to because when the time comes, only you can choose if you want to come back.”

“I will do it, for my daughter I am willing to give my life.”

“You will be present in her life even though she will not know of you.”

“Thank you aunt, I love you. Take care of her”, Celeste said then recited a spell and collapsed on the chair behind her.

Rita held Celeste’s temple, recited a spell and gently lay her on the bed, she kissed Jasper, a hungry bittersweet kiss that held no promises of tomorrow. She mind linked with the coven letting them know she was ready for departure.

*end of flashback*

Carita stilled herself when she felt a movement to her left; she tried to regulate her breathing as if she was still asleep but a sudden whiff of a very familiar but long forgotten scent made it impossible to breathe normally. She wondered whether her mind had suddenly decided to play tricks on her. A movement caused a scraping noise as whatever or whoever it was tried to get her attention.

“No, it takes more than that to trick me,” she thought to herself as she continued to pretend to be unconscious.

The stench in the dungeons irritated her throat; she was finding it difficult to hold in the gag, that was threatening make itself obvious. As she lay there planning her next move the same sound from before reached her ears. As if by magic, she started to feel a prodding in her mind as though someone was trying to connect with her. Remembering her earlier confrontation with Casper, she decided to block the attempt.

All was quiet for some time after that mind link attempt which gave her the time she needed to take stock of her environment. It seemed okay for the moment that she risked opening her eyes. The darkness in the dungeons did not allow her to see clearly, but she could make out an outline of iron rails to her left and a silhouette of something that looked like a human hunched at the corner.

Rita was curious who it was, involuntarily as though it had a mind of its own, her heart picked pace threatening to beat out of her chest. She felt pulled towards the silhouette; she turned to her side, peered at the hunched figure at the corner, and without thinking pulled herself to her knees crawling towards where the hunched silhouette was. Halfway to her destination Rita’s nostrils picked up the scent that she had felt earlier. It was tantalizing to her senses, she longed for a whiff of it. She stopped and deeply inhaled just to be sure it was the same scent.

“Cccaaa…ca…rri….” a hoarse voice called out to her.

“Jasper, Jasper, is that you?” Carita crawled fast tears falling from her eyes, her pain and discomfort forgotten as she headed towards her long lost mate. What if her mind was playing tricks on her, she called out again,

“Jasper”

When she reached where she could see him a bit clearly, she found out that there was a wall or iron rails separating them. He was chained to the floor, his beard covering most of his face. She could not have recognized him had it not been for the scent of sandalwood and fir that she knew so well. He wore the same overcoat she last saw him wearing fifteen years ago but it was dirty, torn and had it not been for the lapels she had stitched on it herself, she would not have recognized it. His skin was scaly, wrinkled, and dirty. This could not be the Jasper she left behind; her heart broke all over when she saw him. She tried to reach out to him, wanting to break the iron bars that hindered her.

“What did they do to you,” she sobbed as she tried to pry the iron bars apart so she could reach out to him. The frail, helpless, dirty old man before her was not the man she left behind. She cut her hands on the bars oblivious of the pain her focus was on Jasper. She was clawing and prying but nothing was happening, she tried using her magic to blast the rails but the blast just bounced off.

“Carita … Carita ….”

“No, please don’t say anything, I will get you out,” she continued to sob as she tried prying the iron rails apart.

“Sssttop” Jasper whispered weakly.

The strain in his voice seemed to bring Carita back to her senses; she stopped and stared at him her face full of grief. Sliding down on the floor she continued to sob, the pain of seeing Jasper reduced to a frail old man was not a sight she thought she would ever live to see. Her once gallant warrior was nothing more than a bag of bones, stinking of his own bodily waste, chained to the floor with rusty chains that had caused wounds on his hands and feet where they rubbed off on him.

The door to her dungeon cell slid open noisily.

“Well, well, well … what a reunion,” Casper said clapping his hands.

Carita rushed towards him, murder written all over her face with an intent to inflict the pain she was feeling on him but before she could get to within a foot of Casper someone hooked a rope around her neck pulling her back. The force used to pull her threw her roughly and she landed on her back.

“Ooomphf”

Rita coughed out blood but she was not one to give up a fight that easily. She attempted to stand but before she could, Casper threw a chain around her feet causing her to fall on the floor again. This time she fell on her right arm breaking it in the process.

“I longed to punish you for kidnapping my granddaughter and inciting a war between the kingdom of Grundolf and Ravalli kingdom. A lot of people lost their lives, my daughter lost her mind, and now you are going to pay,” Casper told her ignoring her screams of pain.

“Bbrr..oother,” Jasper tried to reach out to him.

“You do not deserve to utter that word from your mouth, my relation to you died the day you decided to betray me,” he looked at Jasper contemptuously.

He spit at him and turned to his aide, Jared.

“Let it be known that a week from now there will be a public execution of these two at the town square. They are hereby sentenced to hang, justice shall be served.”

“As you wish my liege,” He knelt before his master a sinister smirk hidden by his bent head.

Casper left in a flurry of robes followed by his guards.

Jasper felt helpless to see his beloved in such a state, she was weeping on the floor where she lay. He tried to move but the chains rubbed off on his hands making it more painful, he could only urge Carita to be strong for the both of them. He tried to speak but strength to do so failed him and he had only one way to comfort her. He closed his eyes and focused on an orb of light, he directed it at Carita enveloping it around her. When it fully engulfed her, he focused on numbing the pain all over her body especially her broken arm.

Carita felt a comfortable feeling envelop her, within minutes all the pain she was feeling disappeared. She realized a minute too late where that calming energy was coming from; she looked at Jasper with her mouth open ready to scold him for expending his energy. She was a moment too late because as if on cue, Jasper lost his consciousness.

“Oh no, Jasper,” she tried calling out to him though the effort seemed futile. Carita held her broken arm close to her chest and pushed herself to the iron railings that separated them. She leaned her head against the railings, sighing loudly.

“Who thought this was how we would be reunited,” she said to no one in particular.

“My love, this is not the end. I will find a way to rescue you from this dungeon and nurse you back to your healthy self, just wait, and see. This is the promise I am making to you here and now.”

Her eyes shone with a new determination that was not there at first. Carita had a gnawing feeling that this would not be their end; it was time to trust in the years she had spent with Maya to bear fruits. It would be an added bonus if only she could manage to reach out to Maya but these walls had a cloaking spell that hindered the strong use of magic within.

“I am Carita Bennett, leader and superior witch of the Bennett Coven; nothing can ever stand in my way.”

It was time to recall her sisters from hiding.