The Dread Heart (Part 8)
A Mythic Fairy Tale
Then they turned to behold a towering black form before the Tower itself. A living shadow it stood, clothed in armor and helm beneath which they saw naught and yet felt the ray of a terrible gaze in whose presence the twilight gave way to blackest night and darkness effaced the stars. The girl and her father it left with neither strength nor speech, and their bones became as water.
And yet as the stare fell upon her, it seemed to the girl that for the barest moment it paused and lingered, so that she perceived a glimmer of wonder and sadness. But as it turned on her father the dark voice spoke again, implacable and full of wrath.
“Long have I watched your comings and your goings, interloper, and forbore so long as you came not to my sanctum. But here I abide no trespassers and both your lives are forfeit. Speak now your final words ere I slay you and cast your flesh unto the monsters of the Wood.”
As the Lord of the Tower spoke thus, the girl regained her voice.
“Let your own law prevail on your own ground, my Lord, but I beg you do not thus. It is I who brought us here, and my father came but to stop ere I transgressed your bounds. I make myself your slave forevermore. Only spare my father and let him go.”
“Daughter, no!” Her father cried. But it was as if the Dark Lord heard him not. For his gaze fixed silently upon the girl and he raised his hand.
“So be it.”
Then from the tower there flew a cloud of dark, winged creatures with the bodies of men and the faces of bats. These grasped her father in their talons and drew him into the sky, carrying him back from whence he had come beyond the Wood and Wall.
TO BE CONTINUED…