TAKEN BY THE DRAGON KING

CHAPTER FIFTY SIX

Miranda

The whispers had started out slow and every time I knew, she’d just known that it was him, sinking into the very fragile creaks in my mind, slipping through my crumbling defenses, and warping the very core of my mind intensifying the hatred I felt, causing my skin to prickle and burn. Its whisper grew in my head to a stifling deafening crescendo.

“Serve!” The voice swells in my head, accompanied by a faint ringing. “You will serve!”

I brought my hands to my ears in an attempt to drown out the maddened frenzy with a peaceful spell and was met with the feel of blood dripping steadily from my ears, hitting me with a stunning realization, whatever this was, it was affecting me, killing me from the inside.

A hissing laugh follows.

“Y-you cannot escape,” it said, voice sounding like metals scraping over each other. “You’re mine, yield!”

The voice goes on in my head, laughing and teasing, burning its way through the recesses of my mind, twisting and turning my memories.

“Serve!” It chanted. “Serve, Serve, Serve, Serve!”This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“Shut up!” I eventually howled, spittle spraying from my lips, my eyes rolling in my head. “Shut up, Shut up, Shut up!”

It went completely silent as the double doors swung open, two emissaries from the tiny insignificant kingdom of Rels stepped through, and I quickly composed myself, immediately I sat adorning myself in the full regalia of my power and magic and despite the raging torrent in my head, I still managed to keep up a fore front looking down at them like the ants I thought them to be.

“My lady,” a servant called, confusion clearly written across his face. “Did we catch you at a bad time?”

“No.” I tell him in my own commanding tone. “Send them in.”

The three men scuttered in bowing their heads reminding me of scared little mice, I would have enjoyed this scene but the very essence of chaos was slipping deeper into my veins, trying desperately to take control, to make me let go. I was currently battling for my sanity and was in the losing side, this meeting was a trivialities endured.

“My lady,” the eldest man says bowing mechanically. “We have come to-”

“I know why you’re here!” I say raising my voice, making it a tad bit shaky. “But I see no reason why I should heed your request.”

“My lady,” the second man calls, flattening his face to the floor in pure reverence. “We have resources that would please you, we are the sole producers of meteoric ore, our land is rich and full of honey!”

“It is also caked with blood,” Chaos whispered in my ear. “It was there the witch trials first begun, there your people were first killed, their blood cries out, do you hear it?, Should they deserve your mercy? Do they? Kill them Miranda, kill them!”

Its voice ended with a high ringing that caused me to wince in anger, accompanied by a heavy wave of anger and a rush of devilish magic that I was sure wasn’t mine.

“My lady?” The emissary called. “Are you fine? My lady? My lady?”

Their voices faded off into a dark part of my mind, everything else silent save for the frantic beat of my palpitating heart and the sweltering tingling ringing of my skin, my breath came in short heavy bursts, the atmosphere drawing away from my energy and leading me to depend more on the dark energy pooling into me.

“Destroy!” Chaos howled gaining more control. “Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!”

I clutched my head and the men’s faces turned from fear into complete and utter terror, the power pooled in my body until I could barely remember who I was under the strain of such incomparable power, I couldn’t hold it any longer, not if I wanted to remain in control, not if-

A loose scream escaped my lips followed by a rapid burst of intense energy that spread quickly like a fog, covering the throne room in the darkness which flowed from every pore and every fibre of my being, choking and rendering me breathless, my eyes watered and my lips, my eyes watered from the mist burning from the noxious acridity, and although I crumpled to my knees choking and coughing, I could still hear the horrible screams that came from the darkness accompanied by the sound of cracking bones and tearing flesh.

My insides were on fire and even as I expelled the fumes, it seemed draw out more and more of my humanity, I could picture the harsh smile atop chaos’s face, this was his will and with or without my consent he was going to achieve it, a coughing fit hits me as I expel the last of the gas and the fresh dose of air comes as a blessing, the screams eventually start to die down.

“lainoa itzaltzen da orain!” The command escapes me weakly.

The dark mist swirled using me as its centre, compressing in on itself until it fell into my palm, nothing remaining but a small globe through which the compressed darkness wreaked chaos on itself, I clutched the ball firmly in my arms and surveyed the damage.

All three men lay on the floor dead, their bodies torsioned and twisted in grotesque unnerving manners, the servant who had brought them sat in his corner clutching himself hard, vaguely whispering indecipherable words as his glazed over eyes looked onto nothingness.

“Yessss,” Chaos’s voice slithered into my head. “See what we could do, how much we can and will destroy, I am yours, you have to be mine, all you have to do is give in.”

“No!” I yell clutching myself. “Never, never!”

The sly laugh echoed off in my head as it faded off into its nothingness, its suffocating grip on my mind receding.

“Stubborn,” it mused between the laughs. “So stubborn, don’t worry, you have all the time in the world to reconsider.”

Its voice faded into oblivion as I struggled to get on my feet, the man at the corner kept on muttering, his helmet fallen as heavy beads of sweat soaked his comely face, he was a handsome man but the twisted sense of mine knew better than to let him live, if it got out that a slip in power, even the littlest slip, then I’d be done for, fear was what I ruled, losing it would destroy me completely.

I walked towards him with a menace that was overlooked by his madness as he continued to whisper and groan against himself, one look at him and I could tell this was a mercy.

“Lepoa hautsi,” I whisper pained at the death of the innocent man. “I’m sorry it has to be you.”

His neck snapped with an audible crack, and in that moment I felt a certain unison with the meandering darkness revolting inside of me, I stared at the body for God knows how long, until the doors burst open and four guards came bursting through brandishing their weapons.

“Put those away.” I say not bothering to look at them.

“My lady,” I hear the creaking of armor as he bows “w-what happened here? There was no-”

“I was attacked,” the lie escaped easily from my lips and I almost wince. “You let men in without proper supervision, I killed them but not before they took one of our own-”

“My lady,” the guard begins. “We-”

“Silence!” I say and my voice resounds. “I should have your heads for this, consider this a good day and a warning.”

I turn towards them, portraying as much anger and hatred as my eyes can convey and proceed to strut pass them, as I reach the door one of the supposedly dead men moans breathing in the scary breath of life and faster than I can react, my magic reach out and snaps his neck, for good measure too it snaps the remaining two, and the room goes silent as I feel the eyes of the men bore into me with avid fear, I do not turn, not until I can control the shocked expression across my face

I spin on my feet turning to face them as I glare coldly.

“Prepare for war,” I say with a devil’s smile. “The kingdom of Rels will be mine for this treason.”

The act could not go on any longer, In more than a mess as I leave and my hands tremble in the folds of my dress, it’s a race as I go out of sight, running down the spiral steps to the one person who could help me, my feet moving so fast, I wondered if she was going anywhere but there she was, bandages wrapped around her wounds and her comely face weathered with age and stress.

“You return,” Denise says. “Faster than I’d have imagined, come to kill me I presume?”

“Something’s wrong,” I cannot help that my voice quivers a bit slightly in fear. “I need your help.”