Page 25

I hope it will not go awry. I hope I am spotting a glitter in the dirt, the rare jewel of a good ruler. Yes, despite everything I have seen, I remain an optimist. It’s the only way to survive, really, or disillusionment drags you into darkness.

The horses climb the steep ascent, and Eraric scans the sky for the gryphon. The moon is full, the way bright, with no need of torches, and yet Hauge carries one aloft, a beacon in the shadows.

The higher we climb, the uglier the view grows, the trees gnarled and stunted, sharp rocks lining the trail like teeth waiting to snap. I twist, hoping to see a magnificent vista behind us, but all is darkness. I shiver, and Eraric wraps his arms around me.

“All is well,” he says. “You have my word on that. No harm shall come to you.”

I nod and blow hot air into my hands as a bitter wind whips over the mountaintop.

“Soon,” Eraric whispers. “Once we are down the other side, I will have Sergeant Hauge build a fire.” His lips go to my ear. “I saved you another glass of port, as well.”

I smile. “Thank you, my lord.”

“Eraric. Please.” He takes my hands in one of his, warming them. “Whatever you choose after this, Marielle, know that I will see you are cared for.”

“Whatever I choose?”

I feel him shrug against my back. “We will discuss that later. I wish you to have choices. This all happened so quickly.”

“I am not the only one who did not have a choice.”

He gives a soft laugh. “But I am accustomed to that. Choices are not for princes. We have our duty, and that comes first.”

He moves closer, his body warm against my back. Then, as we reach the peak, he calls, “Take care, Sergeant. There is a chasm to the left.”

“I see that. It is dangerously close to the path.”

“I was going to suggest we walk our horses for this part.”

Hauge grunts. “Agreed.”

The sergeant swings off his steed. Eraric reins his to a halt and then helps me down.

We tread carefully along the chasm edge.

When I move closer for a look, Hauge seems ready to leap over his horse to stop me.

I step away, and he shakes his head, but he keeps checking on me, to Eraric’s obvious irritation.

“Stop up here,” Eraric says. “There is a cloak in my saddlebags. My bride is chilled.”

Another worried look from Hauge, but he moves to the right once there is space. When Eraric takes my elbow, Hauge tenses, but Eraric only leads me farther from the edge and points to a rock.

“Sit there, Marielle,” he says. “Where it is safe.”

Eraric pulls a cloak from his saddlebags, and I relax at that. As he’s handing it to me, he goes still and turns, slowly, toward the chasm.

“Did you hear that?” he whispers.

“What?” Hauge whispers back.

“The beat of wings.” Eraric looks my way. “Stay there, Marielle. Please.”

Eraric carefully edges toward the precipice. Then he peers down. When he turns, his gaze goes to Hauge. “There is something down there. Large and dark, with a white head. Is that what you saw?”

Hauge nods grimly. “The body of a lion with the wings – and white head – of an eagle. We must take cover.” When Eraric leans out farther, Hauge rocks on his toes. “Your Highness.”

“I am not certain what I see is truly the gryphon.”

Hauge strides over. “Whatever it is, sire, we should take cover. If it has come for the princess—”

Eraric grabs the sergeant’s arm. I leap to my feet, but Hauge is already hurtling forward with a cry of surprise as Eraric whips him over the edge.

I scramble toward them, screaming, as the sergeant disappears, his cries quickly dwindling to silence. I race for the precipice, but the prince puts up a hand to stop me.

“You—You—” I say. “You threw—”

“I did what needed to be done, Marielle. His sacrifice will distract the gryphon while we get you to safety. And now there will be no witnesses to your flight.” He marches back to me. “I can tell my parents that he died trying to save you.”

“But—But you already planned to do that. You said you would bribe the sergeant—”

“I did what I needed to do.” Eraric straightens. “I protected you.”

My mouth opens and shuts as I stare at that chasm.

“He is gone, Marielle.”

I still walk toward the edge. Eraric grabs my arm and yanks me back. When I try to push him off, he grips me tighter.

“Come,” he says. “Let me get that port from my saddlebags.”

“I do not want port. You just killed—”

He yanks me to him. “I insist,” he says through his teeth. “You are cold. You should drink more port.”

“Because the sedative did not work the first time?”

He stares at me, and my heart drops. Hope, it’s such a fragile thing, so easily and so often shattered.

I can see now that his earlier kindness was designed to win my trust and make this easier on him.

If I trusted him, I would drink the port and fall into a gentle sleep, perhaps not even waking when the gryphon tore me apart.

That would be so much easier for him – no traumatic memories of me wailing and begging for mercy.

I free myself from Eraric’s grip and step back. “The sedative did not work because I tipped out the port. I noticed you were not partaking, and I wanted to believe you when you said you needed to be clear-headed, but I was still careful.”

“Sedative? What childish nonsense—”

I snort. “It’s a bit late for that, my lord. I saw your reaction when I said it. The port contains a sedative. You murdered Sergeant Hauge because you suspected he would interfere with the sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice?” Eraric tries for a laugh. “What foolishness has someone put in your head, child?”

“I’m not a child. I am, however, an expert when it comes to local monsters. Your legend says that when the gryphon rises, it requires a virgin princess. The convenient way to do that is to make a princess – some commoner no one will miss. I have done this before, my lord.”

“Done what before?”

“Played the designated virgin sacrifice.” I purse my lips. “Well, I’m not actually a virgin, but that part never seems to matter. The point is that this is my job. I get rid of the monsters.”

Eraric stares. Then he goes very still as a distant sound fills the air. The beat of massive wings.

He reaches for his sword, but I get to it first, yanking the blade free and dancing backward as I wield it.

“Let me do my job,” I say.

His mouth opens. Nothing comes out but a squeak, nearly drowned beneath the thunder of those wings.

“The gryphon comes for you,” he says. “You must accept your fate. For the country.”

“You can accept your fate. I create mine. And mine is not to be killed by monsters.” I scramble onto a rock and face the chasm. “Run, little prince. Before the beast comes.”

Eraric gapes at me. Then he turns and starts to flee.

I hold his sword aloft and watch as the gryphon rises from the chasm.

First comes white-tipped wings. Then the top of a white head, with blood-red eyes.

A yellow beak follows – a beak bigger than my arm.

And last comes the body, with its four legs, the hind ones furred and clawed, the front with wicked talons.

A lion’s tail whips behind the creature.

“Wretched beast!” I shout at it. “Take me if you can.”

The gryphon’s mouth opens, and what emerges sounds suspiciously like a low chuckle.

“The people will suffer no more!” I shout. “The monsters must be purged from this land, their evil and their greed extinguished forever.” I lower my voice and point the sword. “He went that way.”

The gryphon dips its head, lets out a terrible shriek, and wings off after Prince Eraric.

***

I wait until the screaming has stopped. Then I walk to where Eraric lies bloody and dead, and the gryphon…

Well, there is no gryphon. Just a young man, wiping blood from fingers that had, moments ago, been giant talons.

He looks at me, his eyes shifting color in the moonlight, first gold, and then blue and then black as night.

His skin shifts too, from pale to dark and every shade in between, as if unable to settle on one.

I walk over and touch his bare arm. Fur springs up, and when I rub it, the texture changes from fur to scale and then back to skin again.

“That was messy,” Volkir says, his lips curling in distaste.

I lean in to kiss his cheek. “It was also much too close. You should not have let him lead you to the precipice.”

Volkir shrugs. “I knew I could transform in time.”

“What if you struck your head? Hit the cliffside? You take too many risks.”

His brows arch. “ I take too many risks? You’re the one who kept getting near the edge.”

“I was testing the prince. Hoping…” I make a face and look at Eraric’s bloodied corpse. “Always hoping.”

Volkir pulls me into a hug. Beneath my fingers, his skin changes, to fur, to scale, forever shifting. The curse of a doppelg?nger. They have no true form and can only take on that of others. A gryphon. A young sergeant. Whatever they wish.

People call them monsters. Unnatural and inhuman. But my mother taught me how to look for true monsters, how to see the evil shimmering behind jewels and crowns and even kindness. I saw that monster shadowed in Eraric, and yet I still hoped I was wrong.

There are beasts in this world – gryphons, dragons, doppelg?ngers and the like.

But they do not go around demanding virgin sacrifices.

Like all of us, they just want to exist in peace.

It is the humans who won’t allow that. Two years ago, I had found Volkir sentenced to die in an arena for the entertainment of nobles.

After I helped him escape, I discovered the most precious jewel of all – someone to love and trust, someone who loved and trusted me back.