The Golden Goddess

Land of The Cursed

Lorcan

We reached the location that Rafandra declared as the place where he could open the portal and we all stood back as he pulled out the enchanted green stone that Leif had been so taken with. My mischievous brother had promised me he had returned it this morning, but I still released a small breath of relief to see he actually had.

The warrior placed it on the floor and stood back, muttering some words in that ancient language again. Neve and I cast a quick glance at each other as we waited for something to happen. She was nervous. I was too, although I was far better at hiding my anxiety. There was no turning back now. As soon as I entered that realm, I had to act like their saviour, even though I had no idea what was expected of me.

A sudden blinding light caused us all to shield our eyes and when we looked back, there was a long, winding staircase that floated up to a golden glowing door of shimmering liquid. I had been through a fair few portals by now to know that this one was exquisite. Not your average fae or witch portal but one created by a great power.

“The moment we step through, lower your voices. Only speak if necessary. Stick together and don’t wander off. We do not want to draw any attention to ourselves,” Rafandra commanded sternly and I could hear in his tone just how seriously he took this. It seemed Kafele was not the only one who had witnessed the horrors of The Cursed.

We all nodded and Rafandra went up the steps first, disappearing through the shimmering gateway followed by his men.

Neve turned to me, her hands slightly trembling.

“You don’t have to come, Neve. You can still go home. This isn’t going to be easy and there is no turning back until we have defeated this enemy so once you are through, that’s it,” I said firmly, holding her gaze. Kafele squeezed her shoulder supportively.

“He’s right. The portal will not be opened again until the war is over. We can’t risk it. I want you to be safe, Neve.”

She shook her head stubbornly as she plastered on a smile, “No. I’m coming. I want to be where you are,” she said, turning to Kafele and then back to me. “And I want to support you.”

“Okay,” I nodded and climbed up onto the steps. As soon as the three of us had passed through the portal, it closed behind us. The golden hue that had glowed evaporated and only darkness and gloom welcomed us. My eyes widened at the scene. The only way to describe it was creepy and disturbing.

Black scorched tree trunks and branches showed their skeletal positions, standing as though they were ghostly guardians of land that only vultures would survive in. The ground beneath our feet was mostly rotting bark and sludge and there was a distinctive smell of stale mould and dampness in the air.

‘Home sweet home,’ Typhon growled, not hiding his rage at the horror surrounding us. He didn’t seem to remember anything about his past life that would have dated back to over a thousand years ago but clearly this was still hard for him to see.

Neve swore quietly under her breath as her fingers weaved into Kafele’s, seeking comfort in the eeriness. Taking us all by surprise, the glow from the portal reappeared behind us and we all turned around in disbelief to see the gateway open once more.

“What in…” Rafandra stepped forward, pushing through his warriors as we all narrowed our gazes at the single figure who stepped through it, closing the portal behind them.

My eyes bulged as I dived forward, unable to believe what I was seeing but there was no refuting it. There was the dopey smile of my brother and his multicoloured eyes shimmering like a rainbow with his magic.

“Miss me?”

“Leif? What the f**k? How did you—” I started, grabbing his shoulder roughly before he held up the green stone in his hand with a naughty twinkle in his eyes.

“I made a replica and transferred some of its power. Only enough to let me through but still-“ he beamed, looking pretty bloody impressed with himself. I would have been too if I wasn’t so shocked. “Turns out I can open portals too!”

“You can’t be here!” Rafandra ordered with aggression in his tone. I held my hand up to show I would deal with this and he stepped back obediently. It seemed these warriors saw me as some kind of leader already.

“Leif, Rafandra’s right. You have to go back,” I growled, pushing his chest as he stumbled back a step but ignored me. His eyes were too busy scanning the barren lands. He whistled loudly, shaking his head.

“What a shithole,” he joked and the warriors all growled.

“Shhh,” Kafele snapped, putting his finger to his lips. And that’s when I heard it. The low rumble of paws on the ground and then a strange screeching noise that could only come from something disturbingly evil.

“Shift!” Rafandra shouted as his men suddenly dived in the air and transformed into their wolves. Kafele and Rafandra each grabbed Neve’s arms hauling her forward before all three of them shifted as well.

“Was it something I said?” Leif looked at me perplexed. He couldn’t hear it. Maybe only our wolf hearing could pick up the clear resounding signal of death coming our way.

“You’re an i***t! Get on my back,” I hissed before shifting into Typhon. As soon as I felt Leif’s weight and his fingers grip our fur, we stampeded ahead to catch up with the others. It took no time at all for Typhon to make it to the front of the group using our full speed. The derelict landscape zoomed by in a blur but movement just as fast caught our eye to our right. Typhon growled in warning at the strange black mist that seemed to glide in and out of the trees, mimicking our movements like a mirrored reflection.

“What the f**k is that?” Leif shouted on my back when he spotted them too. On hind legs, now and again falling to all fours, torched fur and weeping fleshy skin flashed through the mist. Their eyes were completely black, void of any sclera. Their mouths were longer, wider and sharper than a regular wolf and the saliva that hung from their mouths was like black tar.

Typhon picked up his speed, projecting his abilities onto the other wolves and forcing them to keep up with our pace. That was one of my abilities as an Alabaster wolf. We could share our powers with our pack members. I was surprised it worked on these warriors, seeing as I wasn’t their Alpha but I was thankful that it did. Rafandra’s wolf raced alongside us and guided us in the direction we needed to go.

“Er… bro! Those weird f*****g shadow beasts are gaining on us!” Leif shouted, his hand gripping tighter on my fur. Typhon shifted his head to the side to see that he was in fact right. They were so close that we could smell their scent. The scent of rotting flesh. “f**k this,” Leif mumbled and lifted one hand from my fur and sent a powerful blast of his magic their way. The beasts screeched that spine-shuddering sound once more and seemed deterred by his magic. It had at least sent them off in a different direction, buying us some time.

A loud howl came from the back of the group and Typhon spun his head to see a black mist was wrapping around the wolf at the back. Zai’s wolf. Typhon swung around, heading back for him just as one of those beasts wrapped its jaw around his hind leg. The howl of pain sent raw protectiveness down Typhon’s spine as he dived in the air and landed on the creature's back, locking his jaw around its neck and breaking it in one swift action. Leif sent another blast of magic out towards the shadows behind us and they scurried away. Typhon nudged Zai’s wolf’s shoulder, forcing him to get up and carry on. We projected our strength into him to help him along with his injury until we noticed the rest of the group had stopped and shifted back into their human forms ahead of us. What were they doing? We were still so far away and The Cursed were hot on our heels. Typhon skidded to a stop and I had no choice but to shift back to human form as I couldn’t mind-link anyone but Neve.

“What’s going on? Why have we stopped?” I shouted in alarm as my eyes widened at the black mist that was approaching us at an insane speed like a tsunami preparing to destroy all in its wake.

“She’s protecting us,” Rafandra spoke calmly and nodded to the tall wooden pillar in front of us. Neve gasped as the deadly mist was about to sweep over us and those beasts would come right along with it, but as soon as it reached the pillar, a blinding glow radiated from it and the beasts roared with frustration as an invisible protective barrier forced them back and surrounded us all. I looked down the narrow pathway to see hundreds more of the same pillars, each radiating their own golden light from carved ancient symbols in the wood. The same symbols that could be found tattooed on some of the warriors’ bodies.

“Who?” I stared out past the barrier as the shadows retreated into the darkness. “Who is protecting us?”

“The Golden Goddess,” Kafele answered, pulling Neve into his chest as she shook in his arms. “We should move quickly. She won’t be able to hold the protection for too long and we are still at least an hour away.”

Leif stepped forward towards a pillar to admire its powerful aura. “Woah. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“And you weren’t supposed to! What are you doing here?” I growled, realising just how screwed my brother was. There was no way he could return to the human realm now.

“I couldn’t let you have all the fun,” he winked at me. “And by the looks of it, there is lots of fun to be had here! I mean all that just happened in the first five minutes. Don’t you love it? The rush of adrenaline. This is what we’ve been preparing for our whole lives,” he was practically bouncing on his feet as I stared at him in disbelief.

“This is not a joke!” Rafandra growled, stepping into his personal space menacingly. “You caused this. You opened that portal again and caught their attention with your loud mouth and your magical stone! You could have gotten us all killed!”

Leif held both hands up in surrender, “Apologies! Apologies! But I think I could be of some use to you here! Those creatures are clearly repelled by magic. I can be useful!”

Rafandra stepped back, grinding his jaw as he turned to look at me. I gave him a sympathetic shrug of my shoulders and he groaned, walking away. I shook my head at my brother. Bloody liability.

“It’s not like we have much choice in the matter now. And he’s right, he could be useful. Not many of the witches willingly support us so having a powerful warlock on our side can’t hurt,” Kafele argued, which only caused the already intense hostility between the twins to simmer at a low boil.

“He will not be allowed to stay with the pack though. He will have to stay at the coven,” one of the warriors added.

“The coven? He is my brother. He will stay with the pack,” I commanded, my immediate protectiveness for Leif had been sparked. He was a nightmare and a loose cannon, but I didn’t want him forced into some coven that was outside the protection of the pack, just because these wolves had some kind of prejudice towards his kind.

“That will be up to Alpha Aramis,” Kafele said carefully as I rubbed my face. Leif just chuckled.

“I’d rather a coven to be honest. You wolves are too serious for me. I’m here to see and learn what witchcraft there is so that sounds like a pretty good place to start,” he smiled.

Suddenly, a groan from behind us pulled all our attention. We turned to see Zai on the floor, his leg oozing with blood from a ghastly wound in his calf muscle. Rafandra pushed through us all to get to him and lowered to a squat so he could assess his injury.

“It was one of them,” Zai gritted through his pain. I stepped forward as well and noticed what bad shape the warrior was really in. Sweat was glistening on his forehead and chest, and his nose and ears were emitting drops of blood.

“Why is he bleeding like that? It had his leg but I killed it before it did any real damage,” I explained. Surely, this man would heal from a bite to the leg. Our wolves’ healing abilities meant that cuts and wounds like that one would heal in a few hours on their own. Everyone remained silent as Zai’s green eyes pierced into Rafandra. Something passed between the two warriors as Rafandra pulled Zai to his feet.

“Do it,” Zai muttered, emotion in his voice as it wobbled slightly but only conviction registered on his features. I frowned in confusion looking around at the other solemn expressions on the warriors' faces. Leif shrugged at me and Neve looked just as confused. “Don’t let me become one of them. Let me feast with the Gods in Divenna. Tell Talia I love her.”

Rafandra nodded and stepped back a few paces. In a blink of an eye, Zai had leaped forwards, roaring and attempting to smash his fists into Rafandra’s face. He let him before he shoved him back in the chest and Zai extended one hand of claws ready to rip Rafandra’s throat open. I was about to get between them both when Kafele grabbed my arm and shook his head sadly. I glanced back to see Rafandra had wrestled him to the floor, had his neck in a choke hold and in one aggressive move, snapped Zai’s neck with a deafening crack. Neve screamed and turned away as my eyes widened at the sheer brutality. Rafandra lowered Zai’s limp body to the floor, heaving heavily and sat on his knees next to him with his head hung low for a few moments. No one spoke. No one moved.

When he finally stood up, his eyes were full of sadness and rage as he nodded to the other men to retrieve Zai’s body.

“What the hell was that? What just happened?” I asked frantically as he passed me.

“He was infected. He deserved a warrior’s death,” was the only reply I got until Rafandra stopped in front of Leif. “Now you see how it really is. We have to kill our own family and friends because it is kinder than the alternative. This is our reality. So excuse me if I don’t ‘love it’.”

With that, he stormed forwards alone, leading the way through the protection pillars as his men walked past us with Zai’s body lifted on their shoulders.

Leif and Neve turned to me with the same look in their eyes. The look that I am sure was reflected in my own. What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?