Page 35 of Crowned A Traitor
“Did you know about their offspring?” Klara asked hopping over a fallen tree. Lilith merely pushed it away with a simple shove. “Yes. It’s my job to know of threats against your seat.”
“Everyday training me and you never once thought to bring it up?” Klara said. Mila and Frendall had strong allies. Frendall commands a legion. They would deem him worthy of support, along with those on the council whose battles he has fought. Mila had her mother, the Queen of all covens. Mila could summon her army of Witches and Warlocks. Together they could overthrow Klara. “Why not put a face on the threat?”
“Am I to answer to you, now that you consider yourself the Heir,” Lilith said, stopping deep in the Forest, not even the birds dared to crow as she walked beneath the trees.
“I am the Heir.”
“When you aren’t too busy frolicking in the Forest with the Creatures.”
“A ruler should know her people, instead of starving them,” Klara said, and Lilith stopped.
“And you’re prepared to carry out your Father’s mission? Secure our borders?” Klara let her continue. “How the High Queen maintains her land is no business of mine. I was ordered to train you, and I have.”
“You have no children and no companion?” Lilith was a sight to behold, all strength and beauty. “Did my Father never seek you?”
Lilith winced, “full of questions today. Maybe I should have brought the soap to shut you up with,” she said over her shoulder as they moved further into Malum. The sky grew darker as their pace slowed in case of nearby threats.
“I don’t prefer the company of men. Your Father knew that well. I’m his General and nothing more.”
“Not even Lokey?” Klara smirked, and Lilith looked physically ill. “Stay away from him. He is more cunning than most. He has been around for almost as long as I have.”
“Do you know why the King chose you to train me when you had legions to command?” Klara had never spoken so brazenly, but soon she would be gone, and she still had questions that needed answering. “A punishment for an error in judgment,” Lilith strode ahead clearly wanting to rid herself of the conversation.
An error in judgement?Lilith never broke the rules. “What could you have done? Forget to shine a button?” Klara said, trying to make light of the conversation hoping to open Lilith up.
“My wife tried to leave for Kalos. She was strong enough to cloak herself from being detected by the Fae.” Lilith’s eyes bore into Klara as if she knew her plan.
“Leave?” Klara’s chest heaved, a General’s spouse committing the ultimate betrayal. “A Witch, a white Witch, condemned to Hell by the Humans but her place wasn’t in Hell.” Klara watched her feet as they walked over a pit of sinking sand glamoured from sight by a Warlock’s hand.
“What happened to her?” Klara asked as she heaved her boot from the pit. Lilith’s shoulders sagged. “Lucifer wanted her to work for him. She refused, tried to flee, and I executed her. Destroyed her soul.” Klara’s head snapped up, and Lilith watched Klara’s reaction.
Klara looked at the General’s scar, a vertical line ran straight through her eyebrow and ended below her eye. A single scar instead of the lesser Commanders’ three. Before Klara could open her mouth, Lilith slashed through the bushes.Lilith killed her wife.Klara’s mind went to Frendall,would I be able to do the same if the time came?
“We’re here,” Lilith said hunkering in the mud, and Klara crouched beside her. They watched tree bark swirl as a portal opened. A Demon cloaked in black stood gathering fees while groups of families stood with their few belongings.
“Where do you think the portal leads?” Klara asked, and Lilith drew her blade. “Judging from the size of the portal and the number of people. The Human plane most likely, it’s much harder to break through to Kalos,” Lilith said, looking indifferent.
“You ready?” Lilith asked, her dark eyebrows knitted together.
“Ready for what?”
“To carry out your duty Heiress,” Lilith’s voice was laced with cruelty as Klara’s axe appeared in her hand with a puff of smoke.
“They are fleeing our land, betraying their High Queen and King.” Lilith knew Klara wouldn’t take a life without cause. “Aren’t you charged with their arrest? Their slaughter?”
In hand to hand training Klara had never been able to kill her opponent, even when it meant having to scrub the stone floors until her hands were raw and blistered. Klara saw the surprise in Lilith as she rose.
“Go on, Heiress, show me you’re ready for the throne.”
The small group of Creatures glanced around, frantically as if they could sense them watching. They handed over their coin, and the Demon hurried them through the portal. Klara waited in the shadows, her axe suddenly weighed a ton. Lilith was testing her loyalty, her strength. If Abadan or Eve had seen such hesitation, she would already be on her knees in the dungeon awaiting trial. She took a step forward, forcing herself to complete the impossible task but stopped as a child’s eyes locked with hers.
The child was hiding behind her mother’s legs. The Demon ripped the child from her mother and forced her through the portal.
“Only room for one more,” the cloaked Demon spat, and the mother sank to her knees in silent shock as the portal sealed and her child was lost to her. Klara gripped her axe, wanting to take the hands of the Demon.
“She will have a better life,” the Demon grunted at the sobbing mother.
“She needs me, I’m her mother,” the Witch cried out, but the Demon continued counting the silver in its claws. “Kill the rest,” the Demon ordered to those left in the queue and the crowd started to panic. Klara smiled at Lilith and marched forward.
