18 HOURS UNTIL TIME OF DEATH
The flawless, smooth skin of childhood became marred with imperfections as the eruptions of redness and the swelling typical of teenage years covered Dhalia’s cheeks and forehead. Hair started growing in other parts of her body, and her breasts were becoming visible. She panicked when blood stained her clothes as the curse misled her own body into believing she was ready to conceive. Her body was growing, but her mind was still that of a five-year-old. She didn’t understand it. She was just a child.
It’d been so long since Alissa left, she feared Dhalia wouldn’t recognize her when she returned. A flashback of the past six months overwhelmed her with a sense of melancholy. She remembered the moment she first saw the glowing threads encircle Dhalia’s small figure, the panic that led her to kneel on the cemetery floor, trying to wave the threads away with her bare hands. She thought about how crossing the wall before had seemed so unattainable. She reminisced about everything she had learned and everything she had seen, but one thing she knew for a fact: she would never have learned the truth if she had stayed in Bryniard.
She recalled the moment she met Eldric, the look of alarm mixed with annoyance in his eyes, and all the times he had saved their lives. She remembered falling in love unexpectedlyand seeing the ocean for the first time. The memory of Desi also came to mind: the days they spent together in Nyfrel and flashbacks of her betrayal made Alissa’s blood boil with anger. Her mind then triggered the moment her head fell to the floor.
She thought about Freyah. They left their hometown together as it always had been, but Alissa would be returning without her, and the feeling brought a stabbing pain to her chest. She replayed every fond memory she held of her sister of the heart, her passing forever a hollow space in Alissa’s soul. The agony of knowing the Wellers kept her daughter safe while she failed to keep theirs alive hurt her to the bones. Alissa didn’t panic, only because her will to continue was stronger.
And so, she did. She continued with Eldric right beside her. Fiercely, relentlessly, they rode as the wind whipped against their faces with the speed of the ride. As the landscape changed from mountains to plain fields, they rode.
12 HOURS UNTIL TIME OF DEATH
The child now was the height of a full-grown adult. The teenage rough skin was replaced by the features of a mature woman. She looked older than her own mother, and some of her golden hair strands gradually turned gray. Her brown eyes still held the true innocence of a child, but also the ground-shaking fright of understanding this was the end of her life. “I want my mother,”she cried, not knowing if her prayers would ever be heard.
Guilt hit when Alissa realized her daughter must look a lot older as the symptoms slowly crept in. She thought about howconfused and scared her little girl must feel at seeing all those changes and not really grasping what they meant, only knowing that those who had the same happen before her were taken to the grave.
Oh, how she wished she had never stayed in the capital for that long, how she wished she could be by her side right now.
“Hold on, baby. I’m coming home,” she whispered, as if hearing Dhalia plead for her.
6 HOURS UNTIL TIME OF DEATH
Dhalia’s golden hair had fully faded to gray, a shade that relentlessly changed into a whiter tone by the minute. Deep wrinkles were etched around the sides of her eyes, and across her forehead, the skin of her arms and hands became softer, thinner. Her senses now slipped through her fingers as her eyesight and hearing were no longer the same. The energy of youth that fed her body when the day began was long gone. Her body was almost six decades old, but her mind and spirit were still only five years old.
Alissa and Eldric let go of Zig and Zag when they were close enough to continue their path on foot. Keeping the horses would call too much attention to themselves. They lay low on the grass, hidden among the bushes. Distant on the horizon, the great stone wall stood as tall and immaculate as Alissa remembered.
“Now I understand why we haven’t seen Iron Claws on the way back here,” Eldric spoke in a hushed voice, and it seemed he could read her mind.
“How many did you count?” she asked.
“About forty. Ten archers on the top of the wall, the rest wielding swords.” His expression filled with worry as he looked at her. They were skilled fighters, but the odds weren’t in their favor on this one. “How many can you take down with your magic at a time?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. I’ll hold as many as I can.”
“So, here’s the plan—we will wait here until the sun has completely set. If we go now in daylight, we will have no chance against them.”
Waiting that long was a risk, but Eldric was right. Even with the aid of magic, she wasn’t sure if she would be capable of taking down twenty trained men on her own.
“When the time comes, you will first hit the archers—aim for their arms and hands to injure them enough not to be able to pull the bowstring,” Eldric explained.
She nodded.
“When the other soldiers realize the men on the top of the wall are injured, they will send reinforcements to the top, becoming more vulnerable on the ground. That’s when we’ll strike.” His palm splayed on the back of her neck, his brows furrowed, showing his apprehension. “We’ll fight together side by side, you disable them first with magic and finish it with your dagger or your arrow, I will take those you can’t hurt with power. Do you understand?”
She agreed, the immensity of what they were about to do finally coming to the surface. “Together.”
He kissed her forehead as a half-smile spread across his lips. “Always.”
3 HOURS UNTIL TIME OF DEATH
Dhalia aged four years an hour; she now appeared to be eighty-four years of age. Her body had more wrinkled skin than soft, and her fair skin was filled with dark spots of aging. Her back was hunched, and she could barely walk without assistance. Mrs. Weller helplessly watched the girl’s life evaporate. There was nothing she could do other than wait in desperation for the moment the siren would ring again.
Nightfall came in.
This was the moment Alissa had been waiting for.
Old wood scraped their backs as they hid behind a large trunk. Alissa had expected after so long enhancing her magic and preparing herself to be back in her hometown, she would not let the obstacles ahead shake her confidence in victory. Unfortunately, theory was never the same as practice, and taking the risk to glance beyond the safety of the trees was definitely a mistake because when her eyes captured a glimpse of the dozens of armed men standing in her way to save her daughter, her heart went into an erratic rhythm.