Unparallel Worlds

Unparallel Worlds

Published by Alisa Jeruconoka at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Alisa Jeruconoka

Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously. All descriptions, events, materials and statements are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on.

This Novel Is Lovingly Dedicated to

My Mother and My Husband

Contents

Chapter 1 Nowhere

Chapter 2 At The Pond

Chapter 3 The Slave And the Portal

Chapter 4 Aurelia And Education

Chapter 5 Sisters

Chapter 6 Soleil

Chapter 7 A Future Complication

Chapter 8 Angelo

Chapter 9 The Stranger In The Library

Chapter 10 Horse Riding

Chapter 11 Empire Of Darkness

Chapter 12 Twenty-Four Hours

Chapter 13 Lies

Chapter 14 Ghost From The Darkness

Chapter 15 Test

Chapter 16 Truth

Chapter 17 Sanguinem Suum Pro Patria Effundere

Chapter 18 Trap

Chapter 19 Judgement Day

Chapter 20 Conciliator

Chapter 21 Leonard

Chapter 22 Masquerade Ball

Chapter 23 Dance

Chapter 24 Lost In Translation

Chapter 25 Hide-And-Go-Get-It

Chapter 26 Salticidar

Chapter 27 Rivalry

Chapter 28 Awkward Conversation

Chapter 29 Godmother

Chapter 30 Troian

Chapter 31 Legacy

Chapter 32 Pain

Chapter 33 Edmond And Lydia

Chapter 34 Proposition

Chapter 35 Why Me?

Chapter 36 Sweet Sixteen

Chapter 37 Present

Chapter 38 Potion

Chapter 39 Passion

Chapter 40 Tomorrow

Chapter 41 Deal

Chapter 42 Set-Up

Chapter 43 The End Is Only The Beginning

Chapter 44 Implications

Chapter 45 Earth

Life is like a game of chess, in which there are an infinite number of complex moves possible. The choice is open, but the move contains within itself all future moves. One is free to choose, but what follows is the result of one’s choice. From the consequences of one’s action there is never any escape.

Shelley Smith, The Ballad of the Running Man

Chapter 1 Nowhere

‘It was a bad dream. I’ll open my eyes and I’ll be in my room,’ Aurelia said, trying to comfort herself. She could feel somebody’s hands supporting her head. ‘That’s probably my mum. She probably heard me shouting in my nightmare and she’s here to help me wake up.’

Aurelia’s mouth was dry and she was thirsty. Her whole body felt broken. She tried to move her legs but sharp pains shot through them. She attempted to open her eyes, but without success.

‘What’s the point of being immortal if I suffer so much? Why can’t I feel that I am self-healing like I usually do? Somebody, please, help stop the pain!’ And then she felt relief as she lost consciousness again.

She dreamed that something soft settled on her lips, pushing them apart, and then a sour liquid run down her throat. Aurelia started to cough and gained consciousness. This was not a dream. With her eyes still closed, she tried to sit up but bumped her head against somebody else’s. She tried again and this time opened her eyes and saw a young man, a stranger kneeling down next to her, leaning towards her, smiling.

‘Welcome back to the land of the living,’ he chuckled as if the injuries Aurelia had suffered deeply amused him.

Aurelia rubbed her eyes and once she confirmed he was real, she slapped him.

‘Why did you do that? I see you are feeling much better, probably back to your usual self.’ The stranger said a little angrily as he rubbed his flushing cheek.

‘Who are you, what have you done to me, where am I and how dare you kiss me!’ Aurelia looked around, trying to identify something she could hit him with if he decided to kiss her again. She was lying in the open in what looked like a dark sandy desert there were stones around her but none she could reach quick enough if she had to.

In one easy leopard like jump, the stranger leapt to his feet, looking down at her without making any attempt to help her sit up. ‘My father is right, people can be very unappreciative, even when you save their lives.’ Aurelia could see that the slap had upset him. ‘I gave you the kiss of life to administer the potion that would save you, but I’m already regretting it,’ the stranger said in a low voice.

Aurelia examined him. He looked about fifteen or sixteen. She stared at him with unhidden interest. He looked so different from the normal people she knew of the Empire of Light. He had pale porcelain skin, a narrow face, and his eyes were the darkest blue she had ever seen - framed with long black lashes. As Aurelia looked deeper into his eyes, she saw piercing intelligence and wisdom beyond any that someone his age should have. There were dark circles underneath his eyes as if he had not had enough sleep, and his hair, which was short and black, looked as if somebody had chopped it off in a hurry.

‘Have you had enough time to study me?’ The stranger said in amusement. Aurelia looked away from his eyes only to notice that he was half naked, Aurelia turned the colour of a ripe tomato. It was not as if she had not seen the bare chest of a man before, she had seen her brothers when they went swimming, but never a handsome stranger of almost the same age as her, standing so close.

His body was lean and muscular. He was wearing black leather trousers that ended at his calves and had bare feet despite the ground’s rough surface. He had a remarkable tattoo that extended up his right arm and half his torso. It was a phoenix, the firebird rising from the ashes. Aurelia couldn’t take her eyes off it, she had never seen something so beautiful etched on someone’s body. Her gaze followed the tattoo and it’s colours down to his waist where it disappeared under his trousers.

‘Who are you?’ she asked again, still staring at his stomach where the tattoo disappeared.

‘I hoped the first words I would hear from you would be thank you,’ the stranger snapped.

‘Then, please, tell me, what is your name so that I may thank you properly?’ Aurelia decided to be more polite. After all, whatever he had done had eased the pain significantly.

‘It’s none of your business who I am and besides in these lands curiosity can be a very dangerous thing.’ He looked to Aurelia as if he had lost interest and was about to leave.

‘I will decide, if it is a dangerous thing to know your name or not, myself. I’m not scared of anyone.’ Aurelia put on a brave face, she had said this to convince herself more than the stranger, for after all she was in a strange and unfriendly place she could not recognise.

She looked around again and thought that if the end of the world ever arrived, the last few minutes would look exactly like this – the desert was filled with gloominess and isolation with a few thorny bushes and trees dotted around and the sand seemed to be black.

‘You should be scared.’ This time she did not like the way he looked at her. ‘You have to leave now. It’s not safe for you to be here.’ He whistled and Pegas, Aurelia’s winged horse, appeared from the closest of the large bushes, unharmed.

Aurelia scrambled to her legs and ran awkwardly towards Pegas and hugged him. She felt much safer standing besides a familiar friend. She then turned to study the land in more detail and shivered. There was no sunlight at all; dusk had absorbed everything in its path. The thorny branches and twigs on the trees and bushes were spikes without leaves. There were no flowers, and apart from some huge bats circling in separate groups in the distance, there were no birds, no butterflies, no crickets or grasshoppers, everything she would have expected to see in the wilds. Further in the distance, Aurelia could see what looked like a forest, but from what she could make out, the trees were as bare and as thorny as those close by, there was no grass beneath them only more black sand and stones. Beyond the forest there was a range of dark mountains that looked like shards of black glass rising high into the sky.

‘Take the horse and go. You’ve been here long enough for them to find you.’

Aurelia hesitated turning to the stranger to argue but the stranger approached her, took her in his arms as if she were weightless, and dropped her into the saddle on Pegas’s back.

He then scowled at her. ‘Do you always refuse to do what you have been told? For you are now testing my patience, spoilt one.’

Aurelia was about to give him a piece of her mind, especially as he had shown no courtesy in helping her mount her horse, but before she could speak the stranger pointed in the direction of the forest. ‘Do not head towards that forest for even the slightest brush from one of the many poisonous thorns on the bushes that grow there will be enough to kill you or your horse, that is if the carnivorous trees don’t get you first and avoid those mountains beyond, they are Horos Mountains and the creatures that live there will devour you in seconds.’

Suddenly, the stranger’s body stiffened, as he smelled the air from the direction of the forest, his gaze concentrated in its direction. Aurelia followed his gaze. All the bats that she had seen earlier in separate groups had now gathered together as one giant black mass and were rising into the dark sky above the forest. From the forest she heard loud crashing and saw trees falling to the ground, something was coming through it at great speed in their direction, whatever it was it was very powerful. A strong wind brought Aurelia’s attention back to the sky where the black mass of bats was now also racing towards them. It constantly changed shape, exploding into small particles that then gathered up again into one dark cloud. As it got closer, the buzzing sound of flapping wings got louder and the wind got stronger, rousing the black sand around Aurelia into a tornado that blew into her, cutting her skin and entering her lungs.

As Aurelia watched she felt her body becoming paralysed. Her arms and legs started to loose their grip on Pegas, who was also rocking unsteadily beneath her.

‘What... is... that...?’ Aurelia said between coughs, her voice slurring and her eyes closing.

‘Wake up!’ Aurelia slowly opened her eyes to see the stranger shaking her fiercely. ‘Pull yourself together; you and your horse are under a spell. Concentrate!’

Aurelia shook her head to clear it but felt her body was frozen and that she was struggling to breathe. She glanced in the direction of the forest and saw through half open eyes that the entities were getting closer.

The stranger continued to shake Aurelia. She was struggling to stay awake her eyes now closed but just as she thought she would never open them again something started to pulsate on her chest, spreading a warm sensation through every cell of her body. With it her breathing became easier and the paralysis and sleep started to lift. Aurelia raised her hand to her chest and felt warmth coming from her Aquamarine pendant; she had always thought it was nothing more than a piece of precious jewellery that unlike her brothers’ and sisters’ had not enhanced any special abilities within her. ‘Was this the start? Were her special abilities taking shape?’ She looked down and saw that the pendant was also glowing intensely, spreading a welcoming green light around her like a halo-shield that was dispelling the black sand that had cut into her skin and entered her lungs.

She looked around for the stranger and saw him lying on the ground convulsing. Anxious, she jumped off Pegas and ran to his side. The green halo around her got stronger and where her feet touched small shoots of green grass and flowers started to grow. She bent over the stranger and started to sit him up. The stranger unable to speak convulsed even more, his arms flailing and pushing at her as if he was warning her to go away. Then a spasm shot through his body and he lost consciousness. Aurelia, not knowing what to do, moved away from the stranger and as she did so the stranger gained consciousness. He sat up shook his head and looked at Aurelia in horror.

‘Move away from me, as far as you can, that thing on your chest is killing me!’

Aurelia hesitated, but she did what he asked and moved further away. The pendant, although still emitting a warm green light, had stopped pulsating. He was right; the further away she moved, the more he gained strength; she was about ten steps away when he managed to sit up and spring to his feet.

‘Do not come close to me,’ he warned her, staring around him in disbelief. ‘What is this?’ He pointed to the shoots of green grass and flowers growing in the ground ‘How will I explain all this to my brothers when they arrive here? Who are you?’ He moved towards Aurelia but the pendant on her chest began to pulse again and the stranger backed off.

‘I am a Princess from the Empire of Light. My name is Aurelia.’ Aurelia clenched her fists. ‘I do not know why the flowers and green grass grew where my feet touched the ground or why this pendant pulsates and effects you when you approach me.’

‘How fascinating! A Princess of Light! Here in the Empire of Darkness!’ The stranger laughed loudly, eyeing her up and down as if seeing her for the first time.

‘Empire of Darkness? Where is this place for I have never heard of it? And what’s so funny?’ Aurelia demanded.

‘Because, Your Majesty, if you don’t move your ass right now we are both going to die, those unnatural entities that are approaching us from the forest are my brothers they are part beast, part monsters, they are not forgiving and they are nothing like you have ever seen before... and I hate to break the bad news, but of the two of us, you will be the first to die...Your Radiance.’

‘Don’t you dare speak to me that way for...’ Aurelia did not have chance to finish her sentence as the ground beneath her started to shake fiercely.

‘You have to go … now!’ He kept his distance from Aurelia. Aurelia turned to Pegas but Pegas was lying on the ground struggling to get to his feet. ‘You must leave without your horse, I will try my best to hide him,’ the stranger said in urgency.

‘I will not leave without Pegas!’ Aurelia ran to Pegas’s side.

‘You don’t have a choice! Look, Pegas has been caught by the spell and soon he will turn to ashes, that is if he is not caught by my brothers and then his fate will be much worse.’ The stranger then pointed towards the forest as a warning, the fast approaching bat cloud was now emitting lightning strikes. Underneath it, the creature or what ever it was...was roaring loudly and still crashing through the forest towards them.

‘Then I will turn to ashes with Pegas,’ Aurelia said; she would prefer to die with Pegas than leave him.

‘Look, I really admire the loyalty to your horse, but I, Your Majesty, am not ready to die.’ He then whistled three times and a beautiful black Friesian horse appeared out of the ground from behind him.

‘When my father finds out about this, you and those things you call your brothers will be sorry.’ Aurelia’s voice trembled as tears filled her eyes.

‘Not if you’re dead.’

Aurelia moved towards the black horse but as she did her strength suddenly faded and her pendant stopped emitting light. Aurelia fell to the ground. Around her, the young shoots of green grass and flowers that had sprouted under her feet also started to die.

She felt the paralysis taking hold of her again and without her green halo-shield the black sand tornado once more started to cut her skin and enter her lungs.

Aurelia spoke weakly between coughs ‘What’s happing? Why has my pendant stopped protecting me?’ In blurred vision Aurelia saw the stranger approach her, take her hand and place a heavy engraved silver ring onto her finger.

‘Under no circumstance must you take this ring off. It is the only chance you have. I hope it will work.’

Aurelia was finding it difficult to breathe again.

‘Do you understand me?’ The stranger shook her shoulders and Aurelia nodded her head. The stranger then lifted her up and helped her mount his horse.

‘Galaxy, run away from here and take her to safety, try and find a way back to her own Empire, she is too young to die … like this.’ The stranger then cradled Galaxy’s head lovingly and looked into his intelligent eyes and spoke. ‘I am sorry for your sacrifice for we will never meet again, but wherever she takes you I am sure she will look after you, now go my friend!’ Galaxy, like a shooting arrow, bolted in the opposite direction of the forest and disappeared into the open desert.

Aurelia held onto the horse tightly, the ring on her finger was glowing red and spreading comfort through her body. With it her breathing become easier but she tried to breath as little as possible for every time she did more of the black sand entered her lungs. Blood seeped from her nose, ears and eyes and in this dark world it was the colour of melting gold. Galaxy was fast, but he could not outrun the sand tornado entirely and in it’s midst, Aurelia started to hallucinate. In her head visions, images and noises started to mix. Somebody’s mesmerising hissing voice was whispering to her, ‘Stay here. I’ll give you an experience you’ve never had before. You’ll like it. Stay.’

The whispering started to hypnotise Aurelia and her hands and legs started to loosen their grip on the horse, she was just about to fall off when something stung her finger bringing her back to her senses. She looked down to see the stranger’s ring was now glowing white and its stinging pain was helping her stay alert. She quickly grasped Galaxy tightly again and looked ahead. The horse was running towards a dot of light in the distance. Aurelia closed her eyes, shielding them from the sand, praying for an end to this torture. When she opened them again the dot of light had become a large blindingly bright hole twelve feet off the ground. The air around it was shimmering and it was moving from side to side. Aurelia lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the light ‘Oh no! Not again!’ Aurelia yelled but as she did, Galaxy jumped into the holes spiralling centre.

After watching Galaxy shoot off into the distance carrying Aurelia and disappearing, the stranger ran to Pegas lying on the ground. He lifted the limp horse onto his shoulders and ran to the nearest bushes to hide him. He could feel that Pegas was dying and that soon he would turn to ashes. Although sadness filled his heart, the stranger knew that this was a better fate for the horse than being captured, humiliated, tortured and eaten by his brothers. Pegas would loose his scent once he turned to ash and his brothers would never sense that he was there.

It took less than five minutes for the grotesque cloud of bats to reach its destination. It burnt everything in its path with lightning strikes and when it reached the stranger who had helped Aurelia, it circled him, leaving a ring of charred ground around him. The cloud then descended and gradually took the form of a man. The wings and claws of the bats becoming hardly noticeable once the man had folded them into his body.

‘Leonard, my dear brother, how did you manage to get here before us?’ Two huge black eyes without pupils started at Leonard, the stranger who had helped Aurelia, whilst a wide grin revealed sharp teeth. The newcomer tied his black hair behind his pointed ears and moved towards Leonard. His hairy muscular body perfectly built like that of a supreme warrior.

‘Hey Troian, good to see you too. Where are the others?’ Leonard couldn’t hide the relief in his voice as Aurelia and Galaxy were nowhere to be seen and Pegas was now ash as black as the sand around him.

Troian looked around, scrutinising the ground. ‘Our third brother is almost here.’ He pointed towards the forest, were a gang of furious wolf like beasts some the size of horses had cleared it and were fast making their way towards them. The largest of these was in the lead and as it reached Troian and Leonard, it transformed into human form.

‘Valafar!’ Troian exclaimed. Valafar stood there panting in a hugely disproportionate body that was nine feet tall. He nodded towards his brothers and then turned to the pack of beasts behind him and howled. On his signal the beasts large and small ran towards him and one by one they were absorbed into his body.

Valafar was hugely muscular with thick limbs twice the size of his torso that along with his huge snout, wolf ears and large black eyes, helped him run for days tracking and chasing prey and when he caught his quarry his sharp iron teeth were perfect for tearing it apart.

‘Hello, my dear brothers, it looks like I have lost the bet with Ammit to be the first to kill our enemy. I don’t even want to say their rotten, cursed name… those Golden Ones.’ Valafar spat as he spoke. ‘I do not like being in human form either, it’s too uncomfortable for me.’ Valafar was looking down at his bare skin examining it with disgust.

‘One more brother to go for a family reunion! By the way where is the slimy one?’ Leonard said mockingly.

Valafar touched the ground. ‘He will be here soon, I can sense our last brother, Ammit, approaching us.’

The ground in front of them then began to vibrate and the head of a massive serpent broke the surface, it looked around at the three brothers already there and then pulled the rest of it’ body out. It was as long as seven men.

‘You are here Ammit!’ Troian said cheerfully. ‘Stay away from me while I’m in my serpent body, as I’m extremely venomous’. Ammit hissed. Venom seeped from every scale on his body and where it landed it burnt, even the stones. ‘My venom could kill you while you are in your weak human forms.’ Ammit’s serpent body was dark brown and had hundreds of tiny legs on each side that helped him crawl at great speed. His scales were as tough as steel and interlocked to form armour. In his serpent form he had four eyes – two on the top of his head and two underneath, they gave him perfect panoramic vision.

‘I completely agree with you Ammit, it is such a waste of time taking up our weak human forms but we must when the situation arises’ Valafar exclaimed. Ammit raised his hand. ‘Give me a few moments to change… then we will gather and speak.’ Ammit’s voice was soft and in total contrast to his monstrous body. No sooner than he had spoken, his large snake like body contracted, his multiples of legs disappearing into his sides and his scales merging to form rough blue skin. ‘Now that’s done, let’s get on with business. Who was lucky enough to catch our enemies?’ Ammit looked at his brothers with excitement.

‘Why are you talking as if there was more than one?’ Leonard, Troian and Valafar asked in unison.

‘I was further away from this place than you, but through the ground I felt there were at least two of them, one horse like beast and one being. You see, I can’t track scents like you, Valafar, I’m not as fast as you Troian and I’m not as skilled as you in hunting Leonard, but I am better than all of you in sensing the vibrations of different things and identifying them from a distance and I can tell you that there were two of them that came here, one powerful being and one beast. Where are their corpses? Don’t tell me you did not find the enemies, my brothers!’ Ammit hissed.

The three brothers being questioned looked at each other blankly. Ammit, sensing that their had been no victory over their enemies and that in fact the enemy had escaped took the lead in questioning his brothers.

‘Troian! Did you see anything from the sky in bat form?’

‘I could not see clearly because of the dust Valafar created running with his pack through the forest,’ Troian said in his defence.

‘Of course, blame me. Your bat senses are meant to enable you to visualise better than anyone in our dark world,’ Valafar pointed out. ‘Do not forget that it was my bat senses that alerted all of you of the enemy’s position.’ Troian snarled back at Valafar, revealing sharp teeth. ‘So how did we manage to miss these freaks! I even sent a spell to slow them down and they still escaped! We have been training for years to hunt and destroy or capture them and we failed!’ shouted Ammit, a fight seemed imminent between the three monstrous brothers.

‘It’s not possible,’ snarled Valafar. ‘Unless … unless somebody helped them to escape. But unfortunately for us the tornado Troian created has destroyed their trail.’ Troian, unhappy at Valafar’s accusations, moved to confront him. Ammit swiftly moved between them and hissed. He then looked at his two brothers and spoke.

‘Hold on, why don’t we ask our oldest brother Leonard what happened? For I could sense his vibrations here long before yours Troian and yours Valafar’ and around the time the enemy were here.’

The three brothers spun round and eyed Leonard with interest and suspicion. Leonard stared back at them, their freakish bodies, he thought, was the best they could do at looking human.

‘Well, I can’t tell you much.... by the time I got here, the place was empty, I got sidetracked on my way here with another matter so got here a little late and they, in that time, must have escaped, nothing I can do about it now?’ Leonard spoke in a blasé tone.

‘That’s all?’ Troian moved towards Leonard. ‘It sounds as if it doesn’t bother you that they are our eternal enemies were here. What other matter could be more important than that? Something in your tone doesn’t sound right to me,’ Troian eyed Leonard suspiciously then waved for Valafar to join him.

‘You are not convincing me in what you say, are you hiding something from us... brother?’ Troian started to circle Leonard like a predator closing in on his prey.

‘I have nothing to hide,’ Leonard said in a tone that suggested he had very little interest in the subject being discussed.

‘Then, I will see for myself!’ Troian flung back his arms and from his sides produced a huge set of bat wings. He flapped them with fury and flew up high to search the ground from the sky for clues.

‘Leonard, I can sense the golden smell around you, it’s strong,’ Valafar was sniffing around Leonard like a dog, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

‘Isn’t it obvious, Valafar? Since I reached this place first, I absorbed some of their smell.’ Leonard remained expressionless.

‘But to absorb their smell you need to be very close to them, so how could you not have seen them? This all sounds very strange to me?’ Valafar growled. ‘Or as you said Leonard, isn’t it obvious why you carry their smell?’ Valafar eyed Leonard with even more suspicion.

A gust of wind blew and Troian landed back on the ground besides them, carrying mottled soil in his hands. ‘Look what I found, drops of golden blood and there is much of it in that direction.’ Troian pointed to the open desert. ‘They were wounded severely, so how did they escape? For they would have been moving very slowly with such injuries?’ Troian eyed Leonard and then, when only Leonard could see, Troian winked at him indicating that he knew Leonard was hiding something and that later that day he would speak to Leonard in private.

‘Leonard, where is your fastest horse, Galaxy?’ Ammit hissed.

‘It’s not here and that’s none of your business. It’s my horse.’ Leonard confronted Ammit.

‘So how did you get here?’ Ammit asked questioningly.

‘I ran,’ sensing that he needed to say more Leonard continued, ‘Anyway, Galaxy disobeyed and annoyed me this morning and I killed him.’ Leonard’s voice was steady and emotionless as he looked into Ammit’s eyes. ‘Any more questions or doubts?’ He then turned to all three brothers. ‘You have all questioned me with suspicion and when my honour is at question, even by you, my brothers, by right I should kill you one by one and I assure you that I am capable.’ Something in Leonard’s words made all three brothers take a step back.

It was not that the three monstrous brothers did not trust or like their oldest brother Leonard, it was that they knew he had a weakness, for he had compassion even for the lowest of slaves and they were suspicious that his compassion may have let him allow their enemy to escape. Troian understood Leonard’s compassion more than his other two brothers and this is why he was closest to Leonard. This closeness had led them to help each other out in the past when one or the other was in trouble, share secrets or discuss in private subjects that were taboo in the Empire of Darkness.

‘Easy, brother, we are just considering all the possibilities to aid our investigation,’ Ammit spoke in a passive tone.

Leonard turned to all three brothers ‘The Golden Ones are our enemies and I would have killed them if they were here!’ Leonard snapped. ‘Now, we are wasting time standing here arguing for they have gone.’ His eyes flashed from one brother to another.

‘You are right Leonard, there is no point in staying here, for I cannot sense them any longer,’ Valafar said, grinding his iron teeth.

‘But there is one thing I need you to explain to me.’ It was clear from the way Valafar narrowed his eyes and looked at his brother Leonard that he still did not believe him. ‘When I was running through the forest, I sensed the rotten smell of a buried body. When I located it I dug it up and guess what I found?’

‘And may I ask, when have you started taking an interest in decaying bodies? I thought you preferred fresh flesh rather than rotten meat.’ Leonard turned to Valafar and crossed his arms with mocking interest.

‘When I’m hungry, I’m not fussy,’ Valafar said in a casual tone.

‘Then sorry my brother, for you have a stronger stomach than I have ever given you credit for,’ Leonard said, complimenting Valafar sarcastically.

‘Thanks Leonard I appreciate it.’ Valafar had missed the sarcasm.

‘Anyway, when I dug the body up, I found that it was one of the slaves that had been assigned to you… and in his hand he was holding a crystal tiara that had the smell of the Golden Ones.’

‘So, did you try it on?’ ‘Don’t make a fool of me Leonard!’ Valafar’s eyes went red with fury.

‘Explain to me the death of this slave? And the tiara?’ Valafar spat his words out and waited for Leonard to respond.

‘How could I possibly know that? One thing I can tell you is that a tiara isn’t something I would wear, not even to a fancy dress party.’ Leonard was making a joke of the situation while Valafar was clearly losing control. ‘Besides, as one of the Prince’s of Darkness, I have thousands of slaves, and it’s not my job to keep an eye on all of them. I have overseers and marshals for that and when I find a moment I will question them to see what may have happened to this dead slave, maybe he was off to a fancy dress party and didn’t mind wearing a tiara. Any more questions?’ Leonard said mocking Valafar further. Valafar, seeing that this was going nowhere, backed off with a low growl.

Despite the three monstrous brothers’ freakish strength and fighting skills they were in fact scared of Leonard. For Leonard had on many occasions, both in battle and competition, proven to be the greatest warrior in all of the Empire of Darkness and they respected that. But like all brothers, there had been times when, through uncontrollable anger, one brother or another had challenged Leonard to a fight, but they had learnt harsh lessons from this, for Leonard not only possessed great strength, he fought like a lion, could run faster than a horse, swim like a fish, use weapons with deadly precision and when required could be as cunning as a fox. The fact that Leonard had lied to Aurelia about being killed by his brothers was only to create