The Crow King's Wife

The Crow King's Wife by Melissa Myers




Prologue



The choking sweet smell of rot filled the darkened room with a pungency that made him want to vomit. Shade would have complained, but he knew he was the source of the stench. It didn’t seem right to complain about something he was causing. The right side of his face felt like an overripe melon, and he couldn’t even bring himself to look down at his leg. If not for the chains binding his wrists and holding him tight against the rafter he knew he wouldn’t be on his feet.

Even if the Blights had released him and waved him toward the door he didn’t have the strength to escape. That didn’t seem likely in any case however. He had been hanging from the rafter for what seemed like days without so much as a word from the Blights. He wasn’t really sure exactly how long it had been, and he no longer cared to put thought into it. Everything beyond his personal misery seemed trivial, even the passing of time.

At first he had been energetic in his demands to speak with someone about his mission, now he simply didn’t care. All he really wanted now was sleep. The deep restful kind of sleep that couldn’t be achieved while hanging from a rafter and slowly rotting in the dark.

“Look at what you have done to us. Of all of the arrogant idiotic things. What did you imagine would happen when you lit that campfire? Did you think the Blights would simply announce themselves and offer a parlay?” The voice echoed through his skull like thunder and Shade flinched in response.

The pounding of his pulse was agony enough, but to actually hear a voice was excruciating. Licking his cracked lips Shade lifted his head just enough to stare at the darkness around him. The room was empty as far as he could tell through the blurry vision of his remaining eye. His head slumped back to his chest and his eye closed once more. It was too much effort to bother answering the voice, and his throat was too dry for words at any rate. If he wasted the energy for words it would be to plea for water from his captors. Not that that would do any good, he had already tried begging for water days ago or maybe hours, it didn’t matter which. He certainly wasn’t going to waste his strength answering whoever had chosen to taunt him with the same point he had been kicking himself over since his capture.

“You think you can simply ignore me and I’ll go away?” The voice grew louder with a note of anger etched in its tones. “You brought us to this point with your choices and brilliant planning and you will not ignore me on the matter. I had things perfectly in control and we were safe under my guard.”

Confusion welled in Shade’s mind as a choking sob escaped his lips. The voice was a familiar one, but his mind refused to give it a name. By rights the only one that should have been able to make such accusations was the poor pitiful goblin he had drug into this mess, and he knew it wasn’t the creature’s thoughts tearing through his mind. Had the creature been able to communicate mentally it would have done so in its requests for food.

“Idiot. Does this help you understand?” There was a long pause and for a moment Shade thought his tormentor had finally tired of the game. “Open your eye fool.” The quiet demand was impossible to ignore and once again Shade forced his eye open. The shadows blurred before him then sharpened just enough for him to make out a pair of black polished boots in the dirty straw. Forcing his head up slowly Shade let his gaze trail along the knee high boots to the fine linen trousers and waistcoat. Swallowing heavily Shade paused and stared hard at the dark blue and silver of the fine clothes, the colors of house Morcaillo.

Bracing himself Shade forced himself to continue until his vision rested on the man’s face, his face. In every detail right down to the blue etched glasses it was his own face he was staring at. His confusion doubled as he tried to force his mind to sort through what he was seeing. It made no sense at all to be faced with his double, unless of course the Blights intended to use this duplicate to trick Jala. She would see though it though, Shade was certain of that. This image of him was too outdated. He hadn’t dressed like that in nearly a year, not since the Academy.

“I’m not a Blight you twice damned idiot. I suppose you could call me your voice of reason. You know the little nagging voice that you have been ignoring for so long? Can’t quite ignore me now can you?” The image of him leaned closer and stared hard at his face as the words filled Shade’s mind.

“Go away.” Shade croaked. The effort of speaking and holding his head upright grew unbearable and he allowed his head to slump to his chest. His gaze locked on the shiny black boots once more, but his confusion was already fading. It took too much effort to think, and it didn’t matter regardless. If this was a trick Jala would sort through it. He didn’t have the will or the energy to worry about it himself.