Page 9 of Crowned A Traitor
"Why help me? Abadan could punish you for giving me this."
"I answer to Lucifer and no other," Lilith squared her shoulders at the mention of the High Queen. Lilith tolerated Abadan because Lilith followed orders above all else. She once commanded legions and had all manner of Demons and Creatures fall at her feet, and now Lilith was confined to babysitting.
"Shouldn't I be punished for failing to protect myself?"
"I think losing your heart and almost losing an arm is punishment enough."Maybe she is trying to help me. She had been relatively quiet when Abadan and Eve were scolding me."Are you going to use it or not?" Lilith pushed.
"It's not a poisoned spider, is it?"
Lilith chuckled and reached for the jar. But Klara snatched her hand away. The sudden movement shot a wave of pain down her arm.
"Fine, use the other jar or mine but when Abadan finds out you patched yourself up with the assistance of these two," Lilith paused as she eyed the cowering Hounds. "Don't come begging for my assistance."
Klara brushed against the Hounds; others had been terminated for less.
Klara stared at Lilith while her shoulder hung on by a thread. Her magic was masking the pain, but it wouldn't last long. The more magic she used, the weaker she would become. There was always a price with magic, no pain but a quicker death. "I'll trust you, but if you tell Abadan about the Hounds. I'll tell her you helped me."
Lilith rocked back on the edge of her heeled boots. "Blackmail? Maybe you do know more than you let on," Lilith folded her arms, leaning against the door frame. "Since you insist on blackmail, how about you tell me who ripped your heart out?"
"Ghouls."
"And why were you in the company of Ghouls?"
"I'll return the Web once I'm done," Klara said, ignoring Lilith's question. "Consider it a gift," Lilith turned to leave before smiling over her shoulder. "Blackmail. I like it."
Klara looked at the Hounds unsure of what just happened. Klara couldn't figure out why Lilith had just helped her. She had shone very little interest in Klara's wellbeing before, and any interest she did show was usually to punish Klara and her sparring Demons for not pushing her to breaking point.
Klara held the jar, hoping her remaining strength would reveal any ill intent, but it remained a simple glowing jar. Gently, she tapped the lid, awakening the small violet spider. Spinning off the cap, a tiny spider crawled out from a bed of cotton wool and silver webbing and onto her palm. The spider's beady eyes stared up at her.
"Get too it," Klara ordered, and the spider travelled up her arm as she opened her jacket. The spider slipped inside the fabric of Klara's t-shirt and circled her torn shoulder. Slowly, the eight-legged Creature hopped back and forth, knitting its silver thread into her skin, and each suture forced her shoulder back together. Klara looked at the shimmering thread and thought of the meat cleaver that had been embedded in her skin.
"Who would have thought a meat cleaver would make such a good weapon?" Klara asked the Hounds, who patiently waited by her side.
Klara's body would heal fully once she had a heart. The sutures would have to hold until then. "Just clean up the edges," Klara said to the spider, and it crawled down her chest slowly weaving the rough edges of her chest wound. There was no use in attempting to seal the gaping hole but suturing the veins and arteries would buy her some time. The spider examined its work and crawled out from inside the hole with its bloodied violet body.
"All done?" Klara breathed, and the spider remained still.Heiress, I've done my best.The shrill voice echoed in Klara's mind as her magic allowed her to see the spider's inner thoughts. "Thank you," Klara said, and the spider moved down her arm and back into the jar.
Klara pocketed Lilith's gift and moved the jars in the pantry back to their original positions. Any sign of disruption would alert the Doomed and thus inform Abadan of her attempt to steal a jar. The only thing Klara risked taking was a small bandage from one of the baskets. There wasn't much need for medical supplies in the Castle as the Queens used spells to heal, and the Doomed were already dead. But when Lucifer ordered Klara to Malum, his paranoia made sure every contingency was covered.
This will have to do.Klara opened the white packet and pressed the gauze directly over her wound. Her chest and shoulder began to tingle as the anesthetic property of the silver spider thread worked its way into her bloodstream. The ease Klara felt revealed the amount of magic her body had been using up to keep her from feeling the pain.
Klara wiped away the hardened blood with a dishcloth by the sink and she noticed the blackened stain that remained. Klara wanted nothing more than a shower, but she needed to get to Hell before Abadan noticed her lingering.
"Let's go pack," Klara said, feeling a chill. Klara climbed the grand staircase to the second floor and walked the small distance to the armoury. Going to Hell without weapons was a rookie mistake. It didn't matter who her Father was. She had allies who praised her as the future heir, but others didn't want to see their King replaced. Like Demons, Klara wasn't born but created from Lucifer. Some Higher Demons couldn't accept a ruler they saw as an equal. Klara had no interest in her inheritance. If those who sat at her Father's table wanted the throne, she would leave it to them to try and take it.
The portraits on the stone walls watched as Klara pressed her thumb against the pitchfork emblem that sealed the armoury door. A thin needle shot out from the emblem and pricked Klara's skin before it drew itself back into the pitchfork. The emblem shield crackled and hissed as it tested Klara's blood before a loud clunk echoed, and the high doors opened. The pitch-black room filled with light as the ceiling mirrors twisted and beamed moonlight into the armoury. Klara raised her eyebrows in surprise. She had thought Abadan would have revoked her access as part of her punishment. Klara figured Lilith convinced Abadan to show some lenience.
???
On the stone walls hung daggers, swords and arrows of every length and material. Most of the weapons belonged to Abadan and Lilith. They were necessary to maintain order in the Forest. Many Creatures couldn't be killed with a simple blow. It would take weapons of specific materials to cut down an uprising, and Abadan had searched to the ends of the Earth and other planes to have more than she needed to maintain power. Weapons meant status but the Demons preferred their trickery as they patrolled the River Styx and the Ogres held an affinity for their batons. No one dared rise against Abadan, but there would always be an excess of weapons and potions chained up in case of an invasion. The one thing the treaty ensured was that the Kalions stay to their borders and the Dark Creatures stay within Malum.
For the citizens of Malum, weapons were too expensive. Each Creature carried varying levels of magic and strengths of their own, which made most weapons redundant. If the Lycaons kept to the caves, the Witches to their hovels and the Vampires to their underground settlements, there would always be a certain level of order.
Klara pulled her double-headed axe from the wall, feeling its delicious weight in her hands as she twisted the short handle and from the bottom shot a glimmering dagger. The Hounds backed up afraid of the purity of the silver dagger. The axe was a gift upon her completion of Lilith's combat training from her Father, and the silver dagger a separate gift to protect her when she left Hell. Lilith had combined the two for ease of use. The silver dagger was lethal to Demons and Hounds and an Angels' weapon of choice. The silver would also come in handy if she happened to run into any Dark Fae banished to Malum. The Kalion Fae forged silver blades for the Angels but Dark Fae having traded their Light would evaporate at a single touch.
Twisting the axe's handle, the dagger slipped back inside. Klara walked across the training square in the centre of the room, a raised circle of sand and gravel to the far wall lined with trunks full of training equipment. Klara knelt beside her trunk and opened the gold latch. She removed a crisscrossed leather harness that would secure the axe to her back.
"Out of it," Klara said as the Hounds tried to pop their heads inside the trunk. They backed off as she found a container of rock salt. She popped open the ruby at the centre of the axe and poured in the rock salt to banish any Doomed souls should they get too close.
