The Books of the Shadows

FROZEN SKY - 6 -

"Take her! Protect her with your life, run now!!!"

The darkness fell over as his own mother would hand him the little doll wrapped in the silk cloth, stuck it into his hands, and pushed him through the door right when the blade pierced her chest from behind and her own white shirt turned red within seconds. He did not wait but run, and kept running through the hall as fast as an 8-year-old child could, and jumped into his room slamming the door, still hearing the steps following behind him in a hurry.

He rushed to the fireplace where the wood was already burning and touched a brick known only to him, and the gesture opened a secret corridor as the door began to be forced from outside to open.

Someone was crushing into the door, trying to make an entrance.

-Open this door!! they would scream in rage and the fireplace just closed back into its place.

The boy hurried away trying to walk as fast as he could without waking the sleeping baby in his arms.

He was walking fast in the dark corridor, not needing any lights as he knew it by heart as being the secret hide that his father had shown him when teaching him how to care for his own safety if things ever got bad.

Now, they have really gotten bad.

With Princess Anaty running away from the King and giving birth to a princess and not a prince, the mad King caught the fugitive wife in the city of Beran. The Beran's Lord was her uncle, so she really thought they would keep her safe.

But she only forgot that the king promised to kill her if she would not bear him a prince.

Instead, a princess was born, and to save her, her mother just made the King angrier by running away just days before giving birth.

So after reaching Beran, The King found his wife resting and woke her up so she would face death properly and he realized that he had no sight of the child.

As she was begging for a chance to live and offered to bear him another heir willingly, he would just realize that she did not understand the way she offended him.

Now they all knew his wife, HIS property ran out of HIS house, HIS castle, and she did not just run away, she run away from The King. Making him look weak in front of them all!!

He looked at her. Frightened, falling on the floor on her knees, crying in front of him to spear her life as if he could!!! They all knew what she did and even if they did not, he was still mad for her insolence. She disobeys willingly a direct order of the king, and she said He was Her King!!!

He had to make an example out of her now, and he did. Made her fall by his sword, and when he did, Lady of Beran arrived along with a servant who was holding the baby and her own son, Tianu.

Drawing the king's attention, he acted very brave and smart for his age, taking the child away from the bed and at his mother's request, he ran along with the princess never to be seen again.

The King was mad with rage, and there was no one to get into his grace.

Not even his monk anymore, who would just try to advocate for the lost child, the only heir to the throne.

It was known that little girls can not be kings, but they can be used to attract benefits from unions.

And if he wanted to think about any union at any point in time, he should find and keep the girl safe between the walls of his palace. But The King was mad with rage and he stayed mad with rage as he did not ever let that go.

He bided assassins on the girl's trail; all the houses, all clans were looking for her, the Order was, the King too.

Yet she was nowhere to be found.

Drawings of the little boy were spread and there was not one soul that had reported him so far, as if he would just disappear from the face of the earth. Nowhere to be found.

From the many nights he spent in the catacombs and on the streets, he woke up in the same cold sweat, with the same last words: "Take her! Protect her with your life, run now!!" and then he could see the darkness fell over as his own mother would hand him the little doll wrapped in the silk cloth, stuck it into his hands and pushed him through the door, in order never to see her again.

He heard what people were speaking on the streets.

He knew he had no more home.

They both had no home now.

When he could walk outside his home, out of the catacombs of his castle, he was at the base of the northern wall, right next to the water, where they used to keep a boat in case the city would get attacked, so they could flee in a hurry before they would be killed. Now he was all alone, alone with the little package that would be still asleep in his arms. He had to feed her with his own blood in order to keep her alive.

The boy just put her in the boat and jumped in also, and he began to paddle down the river.

Turning his eyes back away from his city, back away from his home.

There was smoke rising to the sky, something was burning.

That was not his home anymore, it belonged to the king now, as they were the traitors who helped the fugitive.

And the king would be looking for them and he was the one to keep her safe.

The only one, as all the assassins already knew, only the king did not.

The King did not know that the day Princess Anaty came into hiding, at some point Tianu was having the newborn princess in his arms, looking at her amazed at how a baby could be so beautiful.

He looked at the flames game dancing in shadows on her face, standing near the fireplace to keep her warm, when the princess opened her eyes, blue as the sky eyes, and mirrored into his eyes the second pair of the dark saruman demon she had inside, making everyone freeze in fear, everyone but him.

She marked him.

She imprinted her demon's soul and will in his own mind, body, and soul.

"No child can do that at this age" his mother spoke nervously, while everyone present was murmuring in both admiration and fear. The princess's saruman was already black, but no one had a black one at birth, not even the Warchild house, they all have it dark gray, but maybe he saw it wrong.

Maybe hers was that kind of dark gray.

But that was the moment he knew he belonged to her and she in a way also belonged to him.

He managed to get them into a village, and he found himself begging for someone to feed her.

She was his sister and their mother had died, he said. It was not really all a lie... almost the truth, and he will live with this truth until he will die. He managed to feed her, and he managed to keep her warm every night to come.

He found work during the day so that he could win food and shelter and they never stayed put in only one city, to not be discovered by the royal guards, by the assassins, by the monks, and by everyone who had any interest in finding them.

He learned everything he needed to learn about small children to keep her alive.

Time passed until he understood he has to continue somehow the training as a warrior Lord in order to keep her safe. He needed to find a monk as no Lord would risk the rage of the King to give them any cover.

The Princess was 5 now.

She would draw attention on the streets even dressed like a beggar, in old and dirty clothes, she would still draw attention from the world and he could not really protect her much longer if he would not get trained in the art of war.

He was practicing every morning with her all that he learned, the training of the War Lords, until it happened that the king arrived at his home and punished them all for her arrival in this world.

He was looking for someone to teach him in the city of Kondai, when the royal guards caught a glimpse of them.

They had horses, they were fast, and they had a drawing of him, still, so they chased him on the streets.

He was looking to get some food when the princess touched his arm telling him " I am hungry brother!" and when he saw them looking at him, he knew.

He ran for their lives as he knew that if he would get caught, she would die.

He stopped at some point gasping for air as he could not breathe anymore, with all that running and the guards on his trails, what were they doing searching for them here, how did they know??

He thought they lost them in Naruvi a week ago, but they kept finding them no matter where they were hiding, someone would still find them. Just last week, he saw Lord Navi in Naruvi looking for them, almost yelling for his name as he would want to find them just to keep them safe, but he knew he could not trust anyone with their life.

His mother told him so. She gave her life for it. She would be honored.

He got them out of Naruvi just in time, and as soon as they reached Kondai, here, again the guards were looking for them, again.

He was tired of running yet what else could they d?

It looked like they were getting closer and faster every time. In the storm of his mind, he felt a strong hand grabbing his arm: "I found him!! Here!!"

The guard with the black armor and the Warchild sun symbol on his uniform was signalizing the others to come.

He was caught with no way out and the princess was out there all alone, hungry on the streets.

That was not the way for a princess to live yet it was all she had since the day she was born.

He yelled with rage, trying to free himself from the grab but the royal guards are known to be strong and he could not.

All he wanted was to bring her food, and he was on the way to steal some, as usual, when he found himself here in this dead-end situation. He yelled as he did not want to follow, hoping that someone would help him.

What would become of her on the streets if they would take him away? She was 5 and her ravishing beauty would draw too much attention already.

He could not feel much of the pain in his arm as they were already dragging him towards the horses and he would just not give up fighting them but he was still a child, no match for them.

-Let my brother go!!!! the words fall down from the sky.

In all the noise of the town square, those words were heard by everyone, and everyone was silenced in the second the words struck like thunders in the silence before the storm.

Her aura was so strong and all around her everyone just made way, giving her space, as if the surroundings were pushing them all aside to make her room.

The guards stop moving when they turned to see the little voice that sounded that hard on them. It belonged to the child. Her eyes were blue like the sky, looking at them boldly with a power and a cold steel sensation they could feel in the bone marrow. Everything yelled danger in this little ghostly thing that stood in front of their eyes. Yet the guard held the boy tighter, due to the charge felt in the air.

So the hell unleashed.

People that at first felt amused and amazed by the angelic appearance, started to run away screaming in fear when the dark saruman demon crawled out of her tiny little body.

It detached itself from her, taking flight above the clouds only to plunge down, destroying everything in her path.

The demon from her inside grabbed the guards, one by one, and crushed their bodies against the city walls, diving, and landing, smoking in front of the child daring the survivors to make a step towards the child.

But there was no one willing to do so anymore