Abigor sat shivering in the tower as the dusk became night, wishing he knew what to do now that he was at the mercy of Bella. He could have sworn he heard Noir's voice in the city below but he wasn't sure anymore. Maybe it was the dreams lingering over him still, those horrible dreams that were not his.
There was a smashing sound somewhere in the hall and he could hear the faceless guards stand up and adjust their spears.
"Hello!" Abigor yelled through the cracks of the door, looking between the panels trying to find out what the noise was that had called the Faceless to attention.
The door was exploded open as the Faceless were both shot outright. The emerging figure of The Night made Abigor's heart leap with joy. "Abigor! Are you alright, my boy?"
"Uncle! In here!" Abigor yelled needlessly as the Night began to slash at the lock, letting it fall to the ground with a loud crash. A large man covered in black armor burst through the insufficient door, splintering the wood from the force of his desperate entry.
"Abigor!" The man in black took the boy into his arms, hoisting him up to his face to kiss the dirty skin of his forehead. "Thank god, I thought she might have killed you already."
"You came for me!" The boy began to sob against the dark painted metal of the Night's armor.
"Of course I did," the Night grunted as he looked out the young prince's barred window only to view the far expands of the dark forest below the castle cliffs, where he had just sent his own children into for safety.
"Where is Diane... and Noir?" Abigor asked as he looked out the window also trying to understand what The Night was thinking.
"They're safe. I'll take you to them as soon as we find a way out of here." He growled as he placed to boy back on the ground. The Night pulled a foldable crossbow from off his back and began loading it. His eye was caught on a certain strong looking young tree to the west of the Prince's tower window.
"Good show, Lord Black." A soft deep voice purred from the entrance of the tower. "Forced your way up here to die like a cornered rat? That seems a little foolish from one who was seen as so wise." The woman that stood there looked like a solemn mother, in the aftershock of birthing a stillborn. That warmth that was once there, but the hollow shell of a happier woman was all that there was left now. The pale blue eyes seemed to echo that of an innocent child, but one dared look deep enough, they could see the madness within.
"Evidently, I was not wise enough to kill you when my wife died." The Night snarled at the cream and black-garbed woman who once was seen as a strange but benevolent queen.
The smile she gave him was warm and motherly but it made chills run up and down his spine. "Hand over the boy now, and I'll see that he is taken care of and you... Shall receive a quick death."
"Not on the King's bones, you Witch." The Night growled as two Faceless entered the small room to flank the Queen. His eyes flicked down toward Abigor's shocked and scared face, he could see the horrors of what she had done to him in his expression and the Night decided there that he could wait no longer.
As The Night turned to aim the crossbow, the Witchqueen let out a jet of flame from the center of her palm. He could feel the heat as he scooped the young Prince into his arms as they were thrown forward by the explosion, the tower wall crumbling to pieces before them. Prince Abigor screamed as they began to fall down the side of the castle cliff, The Night struggling to find a target with the crossbow still ready in hand. He fired off the crossbow without caring which tree he had hit, and the tension was almost immediate as they fell further, swinging both the Prince and the Night over the river and into the rocks of the opposite side. Quickly, The Night maneuver himself between the Prince and the stones as they came ever nearer.
As the Night's back hit the stones he cried out, feeling the impact of their combined momentum and weight crushing him against the unmovable rocks, his spine cracking with the tremor. When sound had quieted, they could hear the crackling of the tower's fire, and the outraged screams of Bella.
Abigor was breathing hard as he stared at his pink palms, he had been burnt badly, but it was nothing in comparison to what she had done to him already. He looked over at The Night, the visor had fallen shut in the commotion of their fall. Abigor reached forward and pulled it up to see the Night's tightly shut eyes and wheezy breathing. "Uncle! Uncle are you alright?" He cried out in shock. "Oh! This is all my fault."
Apparently, the Night still had enough energy to move because he hit the Prince upside the head, a familiar motion that made Abigor shut his mouth and pretend that there weren't tears in his eyes. "Never say that: this is not your fault Abigor." He wheezed in another deep breath as his eyes fluttered; straining to see. "I am not alright, though this is a preferred death compared to one by the Witch's hand." The Night coughed and weeded in another raspy breath, this one shorter than the last. "Abigor... listen to me. Diane and Noir are traveling into the mountains to the west, you must follow them and stay together. Take this." With difficulty, the Night handed his Prince the ring that had belonged to his fathers and the fathers before him. "This will guarantee you safe passage, I have many friends outside the castle who are enemies of the Witchqueen."
Abigor looked at The Night's face then to the ring in his hand. "I can't..."
"Take it!" the Night ordered as a glimmer of dirty ice white crossed the bridge, catching the Prince's eye. The Witchqueen had already sent Faceless to retrieve them. "Now!" The Night ordered his Prince. Abirgor took the ring and was about to turn before the sword of the Black Family was also held out to him. "Go, and keep them safe. Keep Diane safe." The Night whispered to his boy prince.
Abigor nodded and swallowed hard as he watched the Faceless approaching faster. "They will be safe. I will keep her safe. I promise you." Abigor said as he watched The Night's face dip into a brief smile.
"Long live the King. Do well, my son." He whispered as the boy flew into the dark forest to search for the friends he was now bound to protect.
--
Once the kingdom of his majesty Frainhold was a prosperous land. Not perfect, but at least good to be a part of in the revival of the world by the Dragon Queen to the west. A land of trade and sufficient land to grow food for its inhabitants. There was never a thing profoundly good or bad about Frainhold's kingdom until she stepped into the light.
When the good queen died of ill health the people remained without a queen for five years. When wars to the north called for the king's aid he returned with a girl who had given him food, shelter and good company in his time of need. And this girl was indeed beautiful. The people once told stories that she was the daughter of one of the eastern kings with hair of spun gold and the face of sunshine.
Diane remembered meeting the new queen in the presence of her parents, brother, and the Prince. None of them besides the king seemed genially happy about this woman at all when she arrived. She was beautiful, yes, very much indeed. But there was something instinctively wrong about her character. She seemed to smile like a doll, and the eyes never lit with any emotion that Diane could remember. When her own mother died, her brother and the Prince had stood by her side and let her cry as any daughter would for her mother. But the new queen stood like the stone angel above the Black family crypt with visionless eyes and a porcelain face of indifference.
When the king had died, she stood by his grave, in the same manner, lending no warmth toward the young Prince who had now become like a second son to her father. For the next month, the entire kingdom was showed in a haze of uncertainty waiting for the young queen to make her move.
When she did, she locked up the Prince and called forth her armies from the north, men of painted white armor and no faces.
Diane remembered that day well. Her father had burst into the main chamber in his full armor, spattered with blood as he called for them to come to him immediately. Hurriedly he pulled both Diane and her brother to the stables, placing them on his best horse, who was laden with saddlebags. Their father's instructions were quick as he picked each of them up and placed them on the steed, kissing them on the forehead and imparting last words of wisdom.
"Go to the west gate and into the mountains. Your mother has an older sister who lives there she is an enchanter and will keep you safe. I will not see you again in this lifetime my children, but greater things are at stake."
Diane cried. Her brother didn't sound like it but she could see tears in his eyes also, as in her father's. but she didn't know what to say. He had to protect the Prince, the boy they considered as a second brother. "Save him. I love you, Father." She had whispered to him before he kissed her knuckles. She could feel his tears against her skin.
"I'll become a knight, Father. You have my word." Noir told his father as she purred the horse out of the stables and into the corset beyond. As they galloped through the streets he stopped once or twice to proclaim his father's mission and seek the people's support. Not many of them did as Noir rushed through the gates on the great black horse into the dark Western forest.
Diane had made Noir stop a few paces away from the Castle's gate to watch for something, anything that might tell them their father and the Prince Abigor still lived. She remembered seeing the western tower explode in a fiery ball of white-hot flames in the darkness of the night. That was when Noir road on through the night. They rode for days until they had sighted the cabin in the mountains. Then they dug a pit under the large oak and searched the saddlebags for what their father had left them. Their mother's jewels, coins for the road, and the scroll of lineage that had been last done when Diane herself had been born. Most of these things were buried under that oak and were not raised for many years, not until Diane left their Aunt's Cottage when she had grown into a woman.
What had happened that fateful night, no one really ever knew. It was claimed that both the Prince Abigor and the Night, Diane's father, had perished in the explosion but others rumored that the prince lived as a captor in the Witchqueen's towers, away from the city, waiting until his twentieth birthday to marry him herself if she had not already. Diane had forgotten of her courtly life and all that she had to endure as she grew up on her Aunt's farm until the day the White Soldiers came back for her.
