A Magical Betrayal - arabian (book club reads .TXT) 📗

accusation.
“There is no way on earth you are going to get me to tell you,” I said.
“Please,” he pleaded. I denied telling him over and over then he threatened to let me wander the castle with no idea where to go if I didn’t tell him. I stopped and chewed my lip.
Looking down I pointed a spot just an inch above my belly button and grimace with embarrassment. When he didn’t respond I looked up at his expression. His face was torn between amusement and embarrassment. I was mortified.
“Lead the way,” I said deliberately changing the topic. He seemed grateful. As we wound our way through the graceful hallways of Rosalind (the king who had this palace built named it for his wife Queen Rosalind) Robin told about his childhood, the history of his kingdom, and even some fairy tales from when he was a child. When he had finished I talked of my family and my home but I didn’t mention the things that had transpired over the last week.
Before I knew it we were descending a large spiral staircase then without warning we stepped out onto a large dais with more stairs leading down to a large hall filled with long tables, people, and music. The dais has four thrones on it; two large thrones for the king and queen and two small thrones for the prince and princess or the king’s general and the queen’s lady’s maid.
When we entered the noise level decreased a little bit but not much. Some people waved or nodded in greeting to the prince but most just stared at me inquisitively. Robin sat at the head of the table while I continued to about halfway down the table to where my friends Emily, Cecilia, and Olicia were sitting.
“Hi,” I said with a smile. When they looked up relief was plain on their faces.
“How are you?” Olicia asked.
“I’m okay. How have you three been doing?” Then I saw the three, gentleman seated across from them and smiled a secret smile. “Never mind don’t answer that.” Then I leaned in close and whispered so that only they could hear. “You three better dish about the three hotties over there.”
They all blushed scarlet except for Olicia who skin was as black as the sky without any stars or the moon who giggled embarrassed. Then I walked over to where Hailee was sitting at the farthest table from the front and ate the feast.


Without saying goodnight to anyone I departed for my room. When I reached the room with the ocean scene of above and below the waves a slight uneasiness crept through me. The sun had long been set since I was last in here. All of the torches except for one were doused because many people had already gone to bed. When I had left the dining hall there had only been about ten or fifteen people.
I went to a depiction of a see turtle and started to run my hand over the smooth stones of the wall. When I reached the window I gripped the edge of the sill tightly. I looked out at the dark waters of the Forbidden Sea as they crashed against the cliff that Rosalind’s Palace perched upon.
Then my mind was assaulted with images of a great and terrible creature beneath the waves that was so horrible that there is nothing terrible enough on this earth to compare it to. It lays in wait at the bottom of a deep trench. It is the form of all of Skotino’s demon offspring and himself combined into their true form. All those demons really are is an extension of Skotino’s mind made flesh. That horrifying creature is Skotino’s true form.
“I know where you are.” Skotino’s voice echoed in the deepest recesses of my mind. “I will take everything you hold close to your heart and crush before your very eyes.”
Then as quickly as the vision came it was gone leaving me feeling cold and helpless. I don’t know how long I stood there staring blankly at the fogged up glass of the window but I notice that my body was trembling so I turned and—
“Oof,” I ran into Robin’s broad, muscular chest.
“What are you doing?” I asked annoyed as he steadied me on my feet. I noticed I was still shaking so I fisted my hands and crossed them over my chest. I also noticed that my voice sounded weak and breezy.
“Are you all right?” he asked concerned and totally ignoring my question.
“I answer that if you tell me what you’re doing and how long you’ve been standing here.” I said with a little more ice than needed.
“All right,” he replied, “I finished up in the dining hall and was heading to my room when I saw you standing at the window shaking like a leaf in a wind storm and I have been standing here a total of a millisecond before you turned around and ran right into my chest. Now, are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m all right.” I lied. The false note in my voice was so obvious that he didn’t even bother to ask again and he just raised an eyebrow.
“No, I’m not all right.” He waited for a further explanation but I didn’t give one.
After standing there I was assaulted with another vision. I saw the beast’s face then I was looking out of its eyes. The scene I saw made me so nauseated that I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to keep down the food I had eaten.
The beast’s head was out of the water and staring up at a black obsidian castle. There was a window at a rounded edge of the black palace and standing in front of that window was a girl with long, curly, chocolate brown hair in a purple dress and a blonde man in a loose white shirt and tan pants.
It seemed that I heard a quiet keening from far away and a voice saying my name. Then as I snapped back to reality I realized that I was the one who was keening and that Robin was the one saying name.
I opened my eyes and saw Robin’s beautiful face and because of me he and everyone in his kingdom are going to die. I couldn’t stand being near him for a minute longer so I wrenched myself from his gentle hold on my arms and ran. I flashed by door after door until I saw two large adorned mahogany doors that I was certain led outside.
I wrenched one of the doors open and stumbled down a few stairs into a large garden. About two miles away I saw a dense forest so I ran as hard and fast as my body could go. In less than a second I was standing beneath a large oak tree whose foliage was a deep rich emerald green. The sky was turning gray and in the predawn light I saw that my skin was an odd shade of blue. I moved deeper into the cover of the trees and saw that my finger-nails were as purple as the gown I was wearing.
I decided that these details were unimportant until I was well away from the palace. So I ran again, not caring where I was headed just as long as it was away from here. I ran for what seemed like hours and when I finally couldn’t take it any more I stopped, fell to my knees, and sobbed.
When I could finally regain my composure I looked at my surroundings. I was sitting beside a small pond with cattails and lily pads all over. The trees were old and tall so their branches nearly came together over the pond but not quite. I looked up and saw that the clouds were seething and a steady rain was coming down and plopping into the middle of the pond. Where I sat under the canopy there was no water reaching me because the trees were so tall and grew so close together that barely any water could reach the ground beneath them.
I sat back and let my breathing slow. I was in the deep woods and even though I was here sitting in plain view the animals went along with their business as though I belonged here. I heard little animals rustling through the undergrowth and saw a doe with her fawn drink from the stream that ran out of the pond.
When memories of the faces of the people I cared about threatened to invade my mind I stood in one lithe movement. The animals looked at me then went back to there lives. I looked behind me and the way I had come. All I saw were trees, bushes, et cetera but I noticed that I had left a very small trail. Then I realized that the only reason I could see my trail is because my eyesight is so keen that I could see ants crawling on a leaf from five hundred yards away.
I went to the base of a large willow tree and set to work making myself a place to stay. I made a bedlike nest on a large bow high up in its branches so that I wouldn’t be seen even if the person came right up to the tree and looked up at the limb I was resting on. Then I fashioned myself a dress that would be easy to hunt and run in. I spun leaves into thread using my magic and made the dress so that came down to about mid-thigh that way I could run in it with being hindered by heavy skirts.
For some reason the chill of the air doesn’t bother me so I didn’t bother with giving my dress long sleeves. I had worn my all weather leather boots so I didn’t need to worry about making boots. Then I made a bow.
Not far from my willow tree I found a hot spring with hundreds of different kinds of rock lining it. I selected a large piece of ebony and with my magic shaped it into a bow. And also with my magic I gave the ebony the supple elasticity of wood but it remained as tough and durable as the ebony stone itself. Then because I had nothing more to do I took diamonds, rubies, and emeralds and mad an intricate swirling design that any fairy would be proud of.
When I had done the finishing touches on my bow I strung it with fibers I had created from a quarts stone that stood among the thousands of stones that went along the cliff that stood right behind the hot spring. I made my arrows out of wood because I didn’t want to waste perfectly good stones on things that would be lost and easily broken.
Then I went hunting.


Three months later I was examining my skin. A few days after first setting up my home in the willow tree I found out that my skin only turned blue when I wanted it to and when I did that it would change to match my surroundings so that you could be standing right in front me and never know I was there.
Crack.
I whipped around into a defensive crouch. I turned my skin and instantly became part of my surroundings. I walked on all fours moving as though that was how I had been born to walk. I crawled quickly and gracefully around a tree and was so shocked I almost dropped my glamour. A man was standing in the middle of the clearing I had discovered three months before but what shocked me is that it was Deric.
When