Ravensdagger_Princess

Chapter Ten

“I am... disappointed.”The single word speared into Cinder’s chest like an arrow through the heart. She found herself looking down, eyes drawn to the floor where all she could see was the polished marble she kneeled on and the feet of her mistress. “I am sorry,” she said. “We did not expe-”“Obviously not,” Salem said, cutting her off mid-word. Cinder almost wished the queen would raise her voice or growl or something, but her tone was as flat and even as someone reporting on the weather. “Had you expected you would have planned. At least, I hope my lessons to you were poignant enough that you would have.”“They were,” Cinder said. The less time spent recalling her tutelage under Salem the better.“What did I teach you about expectations when planning an operation, especially one against someone as knowledgeable as Ozpin?”“That I should assume he is two steps ahead,” Cinder said.“Ozpin is old, Cinder, he is, despite my loathing of the fact, quite wise and intelligent. He is no fool. And because you thought otherwise an opportunity has slipped through our fingers.”Cinder swallowed and looked up, just enough to see Salem’s crossed knees. “I still obtained part of the maiden’s power. We just need to wait for her to pass on,” she said.“It has been too long already. In all likelihood Ozpin has already moved to prevent the power from moving on to you.” Salem shifted her legs, switching her position on her throne with the kind of grace Cinder could only hope to one day achieve. “No, the opportunity is gone.”“I can fix this,” Cinder said. “I can infiltrate Beacon. He wouldn’t let Amber out of his sight and she didn’t report on my appearance, Emerald made that impossible. Give me the chance and I’ll find her and end the jo-”“Stop.”Cinder let her eyes dip again. Her knee ached where it was pressed into the cold stone of the floor and her back was straining, unused to being bowed for so long. She knew better than to squirm and interrupt Salem’s thoughts.Salem gasped.Cinder’s head whipped up only to see her Queen’s eyes go wide before narrowing down. That, alone, was suspect. The howl of Ursas and Beowolves from beyond the Spire and the sudden twitch of the Seers in the room only added to her sudden surge of adrenaline.Salem stood up from her throne and began to walk with more urgency than Cinder had ever seen towards the back of the room. “Come,” she snapped.She did not need to be told twice.They walked through the corridors of the castle, passing Grimm that looked around in confusion and something approaching anxiety. Beowolves were sniffing the air and the Seers were moving about with a speed that was utterly unlike their usual grace.Salem led her to a spiral stairwell that went down deeper than she had ever travelled in the Spire. Their voyage ended in a cavern lit by purple Grimmlights that shone down on a black pool that made Cinder’s stomach tighten uncomfortably at the mere sight of it.Akelarre was by the pool, knees drawn up to her chest, head bowed forwards and back hunched in a way that showed off just how gangly and tall she was. The girl was surrounded by hundreds of spider Grimm. Some as big as dogs, others as small as bottlecaps.“You’ve returned?” Salem asked.She saw Akelarre swallow and look up. Her eyes, as dark as they were, did nothing to hide how the girl had been crying. Tears, black as pitch, were still running down white cheeks. “I’m back,” Akelarre’s breathy voice said.“Welcome back,” Salem replied.Cinder dared to look up at the two of them. Her queen’s entire attention was on the shorter woman before her. It was like looking in a strange mirror. Akelarre’s hair was darker than the abyss between the stars and her face would never be as regal as Salem’s, with eyes that were too big and a mouth that was too wide, but the similarities between the two were disconcerting.She had spent some time wondering about the girl that shared so much in common with her mistress. She would have hoped that after years spent in the Grimmlands that sort of secret would have been open to her, but Salem was old, ancient even, and it was no surprise that she held a few things in reserve.Akelarre licked her lips, crossed one arm under her small chest and looked down. “I died.”Cinder’s breathing hitched but she locked her body in place before anyone could notice.Salem scanned Akelarre up and down. “Did you now? How did it happen?”“A girl shot me. She had a purse that turned into a gatling gun. It hurt.”“And now? How do you feel?” Salem asked. The hint of concern in a voice that had never had the same for Cinder was like an icepick to the kidney.“I got better,” Akelarre said. “Mister Spider died.”“Mister... Spider?” Salem asked.Akelarre nodded. “He was my pet. My friend.”Salem looked as confused as Cinder felt for a moment. “Was he not just a Grimm that you created?”Cinder’s attention slid back to Akelarre. That confirmed a few things. No matter how strange the girl seemed, that one ability alone turned her into a threat of the highest order. Anyone who could create Grimm was a threat to humanity as a whole. One who could create Grimm and come back from the dead more so. Urgh, she was going to have to befriend the girl.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.“He was special,” Akelarre said. “He’s the one we made together. The first time you brought me here. You remember?” Her voice was flat, even in tempo and cadence. A pale imitation of Salem’s own regal voice but an imitation nonetheless.“I do,” Salem said. “Is that why you’re making so many more like him?”“They’re not like him!” Akelarre yelled. Tears welled up in her eyes again and she smashed a fist into the ground with a dull thud. It left an indentation in the soil in the shape of her knuckles. “They’re not the same,” she repeated.Cinder looked at the Spider Grimm, really looked, with more attention than she usually spared to common Grimm. They were different. The little red marks on their bone plates were each unique and none had quite the same proportions.Salem took a few steps that brought her closer, the Spider Grimm shifting out of her path with what appeared like deference. She reached towards Akelarre, paused, then touched the girl on the shoulder. “Can I help?”Akelarre rubbed at her face with a sleeve and stood up.The two stood before each other for some time and Cinder had to resist her body’s urge to move. “I could use a hug.”Salem didn’t seem to know what to do for a moment, and Cinder had to congratulate, if only silently, Akelarre’s ability to set the queen of the Grimm on the back foot. Then Salem raised her arms and carefully wrapped them around Akelarre’s shoulders. The girl fell forwards, head burying itself into the crook of Salem’s neck. “There, there?” Salem said.Cinder had never seen her queen looking awkward before, but she certainly didn’t look as confident as usual as she patted Akelarre on the back with one hand. Then the tension in Salem’s shoulders relaxed and she almost melted into the hug.Cinder was not jealous, not even when the hug went on for what had to be a full minute before Akelarre pulled back and grinned at Salem. If the grin was watery, then no one chose to mention it. “Thanks,” she said.“It was no problem,” Salem replied. “I trust that the woman that hurt you is dead?”“No. But I did steal her hat.” Akelarre gestured to her head where a black beret sat at a bit of an angle. “And I told her off.”“If that is all the revenge you demand for your murder, you will find yourself collecting many adversaries who won’t be afraid of retaliating against you in time,” Salem warned.She shouldn’t have had to, it was obvious. Whoever, whatever this Akelarre girl was, she was playing the game at a level below most people. That was both disturbing and an opportunity. She could work with someone so straightforward.“If she tries again she won’t succeed,” Akelarre said. “And then I’ll have my bugs eat her alive from the inside.”Or perhaps, Cinder thought, she could take her time and befriend the girl while making sure she was useful to her.“Next time you head out it will be with an escort,” Salem decided. She stepped back from Akelarre and slid back into her throne.“I have my Grimmsects.”Salem shook her head. “They were obviously insufficient. Also, that name is undignified.”“I think it’s cute,” Akelarre argued back.Cinder was starting to have a good idea of which box to place Akelarre in. She had seen that kind of bickering before, though fortunately she had never participated in it herself. It was obvious that Salem cared for the girl, and the opposite was also true. It took only a moment to recall the last place she’d seen that kind of attitude; Emerald and Mercury. They spoke to each other with the same sort of irreverence for title or rank, though Salem and Akelarre were not at each other's throats in the same way as her subordinates.No, what they shared was a mutual respect. They both felt as if they were... equals. Or if not equals then near enough.“Cinder,” Salem said, her attention shifting to her. “I will approve of your plans to retrieve the maiden’s power. But I want you to work with Akelarre. Knowing her, she will want to wander again and I will not allow her to do so on her own. You will be sufficient to guard her.”She knew better than to argue. “Yes, ma’am.”“And Akelarre,” Salem said as she looked the woman up and down. “I will be giving you a task as well, if you wish it.”“I’d love to help,” Akelarre said, with such an innocently earnest tone it made Cinder sick.“I suspect that Cinder’s task will be bringing her to Beacon, or at least near Vale. You mentioned some familiarity with the criminal underworld, and Cinder has been working to use Vale’s to her own end. I want you to put pressure on them to... better our own goals.”Akelarre made a humming sound and tapped her chin. “That sounds like it might be fun.”

Chapter Eleven

“Check.”“Hm.”“Check.”“Hrm.”“And checkmate.”Akelarre looked up from her book on the history of Vale and its surrounding cities to stare across the library table. Salem was sitting across from her, leaning back in an upholstered armchair, a huge tome on her lap which she was reading with rapt attention.Next to them was a chessboard, a Seer floating at one end and Mister Spider, Second of the Name, standing behind an emancipated row of white pieces.“Were you even paying attention?” she asked as Mister Spider (Second of the Name) and the Seer started resetting the board.“Enough to win, obviously,” Salem said. She turned a page.Akelarre huffed, cheeks puffing out. She glanced over to the chess set, which had been reset in the meantime, and with a twitch of her mind Mister Spider (Second of the Name) pushed a pawn forwards with a knife-tipped limb.“You’ll note that I have been playing games like these for quite some time,” Salem said as she continued reading. A black pawn moved towards the middle of the board.“You make yourself sound old,” Akelarre said as she went back to her book. The click-click of pieces moving across the board was the only noise for a while.“Akelarre, my dear, I am old,” Salem said. Her tome closed with a dull thump and she looked at Akelarre across the table. “And I hope to see you grow old too.”“Can we even wrinkle?” she asked.“That is not what I meant,” Salem-the woman that looked like she was no more than forty for the past millennia-said. “You died on your last excursion. And I would like to think that I am familiar enough with you to know that you’ll be heading out again.”“I got better,” Akelarre said. She wasn’t reading any more, just staring at the words on the page. “But.. thanks for worrying.”Salem made a dismissive noise. “Don’t be a fool. You’re a... friend. It’s normal that I be concerned. We have enemies, or at least I do, and you inherited them with nothing more than your appearance and abilities. There are fates worse than death. I wouldn’t wish them upon you.”“But you’d save me, right?”Salem paused in the act of placing her tome on the table. “I would.”Akelarre grinned at her.“Checkmate, by the way,” Salem said.Akelarre’s head whipped to the board where she had, in fact, lost. “But I didn’t make any moves.”“I acted for you. Don’t worry, I made to take only the most optimal moves from your position.”“But I still lost?”“You lost on the third move.” Salem made that little noise that meant she was laughing on the inside. “Perhaps a game of chance would suit you better?”

* * *

Akelarre ducked, her entire back bending until she was folded almost in half. It was an uncomfortable position to be in, Cinder knew, but it was enough to avoid Hazel’s fist.The woman slapped a hand to the ground and kicked out at Hazel, both feet slamming into his chest. But Hazel was a big man and he had to outweigh Akelarre by an order of magnitude. She flipped backwards with the momentum of the blow, landed on the balls of her feet and shot towards Hazel again.They exchanged blows for a while, Hazel’s speed unaffected by his size as he redirected Akelarre’s tiny fists and wove out of the path of her kicks.It looked like a forgone conclusion. For all that Akelarre was impressively fast she was not as quick as Hazel, nor as strong.Cinder had sparred with the man before, she knew how dangerous he was. She could only ever win if she went all out, and Akelarre didn’t seem to be doing the same.So perhaps it was inevitable that Hazel found an opening in Akelarre’s assault and landed an open-palmed blow to her stomach that made the young woman fold in half and flop backwards to land gracelessly on the ground.“Are you well?” Hazel asked.Akelarre wheezed, her expression vacant as she stared up at the ceiling. But she lifted one hand and made a dismissive gesture before rolling onto her front and climbing back to her feet. “I can keep going,” she said.“Your Aura is low,” Hazel admonished. “In situations like those it might be best to think of retreating rather than continue fighting.”Akellare bit her lip and stared off to a point over Hazel’s shoulder, then she nodded. “Okay. In that case I’m going to shower. Thanks, Mister Hazel.”Hazel, who was usually such a serious man, grinned as he placed both hands on his hips. “Think nothing of it, Miss Akelarre.”Cinder watched the Grimm woman cross the training gym and slip into the locker room at the far back. Only when she was completely out of sight did she move into the gym.Hazel was folding the mats they had trained on, but he paused when he saw her approaching. “Cinder,” he greeted.“Hazel,” she returned. “How are you doing?”His eyes narrowed a little but he nodded all the same. There was always something of a truce between the servants of Salem, an unspoken agreement not to step on each others toes. It did not mean that they enjoyed each other’s company.“I’m well enough,” he said as he lifted a mat that weighed twice as much as she did one-handed. “How can I help you?”The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.“Can’t I just have a chat with a friend?” she asked. Crossing her arms, she leaned against the nearest wall and watched as Hazel moved another mat.He snorted. “We are many things, Miss Cinder, but friends we are not. If you’re here to interrogate me, you might as well just leave.”She rolled her eyes and shifted a strand of hair back, hooking it over her ear in a way that drew attention to her long neck and the exposed skin of her collar. Hazel followed the gesture, but didn’t react otherwise. “I thought you would be more subtle, Hazel,” she said.“I can be perfectly subtle in the service of my queen. Unless you’re here on her behalf?” He eyed her up and down for a moment. “I thought not.”“I’m just curious. Salem asked me to guard Akelarre during her next trip beyond the Grimmlands. It would make my life far easier if I knew some things about her.”“You can ask,” he said as he placed the last mat on a pile, straightened his back, and wiped his brow.Cinder’s smile could have flayed the flesh off a man. “How long have you known her?” she asked.Sighing, Hazel started moving towards the far end of the gymnasium where some equipment had been shifted around. Obviously someone had been using it and had failed to put everything back in its proper place. “Not terribly long.”“I see,” she said. And she did see. She saw that getting a straight answer was going to be like pulling teeth. “Do you happen to know where she came from? I never heard of her before.”“Perhaps our queen did not see fit to tell you about her,” he said.She grit her teeth and pushed herself off the wall to follow him. “Do you know if she’s... Salem’s?”“We are all Salem’s, in the end.”“You know what I meant.”Hazel turned to face her, and were she any other woman she might have been cowed by the way he stood so tall above her. “I have a few things to take care of,” he said.She had to move out of his path as he lumbered by. The glare she fixed on his back did not, unfortunately, light him on fire.Cinder was going to have to find another source of answers. Akelarre was an unknown and unknowns were threats. Unknowns who acted so... close to Salem, Queen of the Grimm were even bigger threats.“You have a lot of questions about me.”Her breath hitched, but that was the only outward sign that Cinder allowed as she turned to face Akelarre.The girl, the woman, was dressed in a loose shirt and sweatpants, her bare feet leaving wet traces on the floor behind her leading all the way over to the locker room and her hair plastered to the back of her head like the fur of a wet cat.“I’ve known Hazel for a few months. More or less,” she said, her gaze drifting over to the door where Hazel had left. “I’m not sure where I came from, but Salem thinks that I was born a long, long time ago. And I’m pretty sure I’m not actually Salem’s daughter or anything, but that’s okay, because sometimes the family you choose is the best one.”Cinder nodded slowly, her palms sweaty by her side. Akelarre had heard everything she’d asked Hazel. The how didn’t matter so much now, not compared to what Akelarre’s reaction to her information gathering would be.“So,” Akelarre began, red eyes spearing into Cinder’s. “Why did you want to know all of that?”“I was merely curious,” Cinder replied. “If I am to guard you, then wouldn’t it be best if I had an idea of what your history is like? At the very least, knowing about your personality would only help in the long run.”Akelarre’s gaze never shifted and Cinder began to wonder if the girl had to blink. “Are you... jealous?” she asked.“Jealous?”“Ah, because you’ve been working so hard to get Salem’s attention and then I came along?” Akelarre didn’t wait for a reply; she just nodded as if it was all self-evident. “I see. I didn’t mean to steal Salem from you.”“That’s not what’s happening,” Cinder said, a small smile touching her lips.“Hrmm,” Akelarre said. “Do you need a hug?”“Do I... no, I don’t need a hug,” Cinder scoffed.“Are you sure? I could explain things to Salem for you. She could give you a hug instead.”“I don’t need a hug,” Cinder repeated. Her foot tapped the ground and it was only then that she realised how petulant she sounded.“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Akelarre said. The worst thing was how genuine it sounded.Then she moved up to Cinder and two arms wrapped themselves around Cinder’s shoulders. She froze like a child in front of a charging Ursa, her entire body tensing up as Akelarre, who was just a little taller than her, leaned into Cinder and pulled her close.She heard a gasp, and turning her head a little revealed that Emerald was standing by the door, eyes wide and hands over her mouth.“Did she want to join in the hug too?” Akelarre asked.Emerald’s eyes just widened further and a deep red blush crept up her neck and all the way to her ears. She spun on one heel and ran.Cinder sighed. Whatever happened, she had the impression that life with Akelarre was going to be complicated.