Halls of Darkness(Brian Peace) The carriage that bore them rattled along into the dark. Aliya could hear the nervous conversations among the knights riding alongside on horseback. Their mounts were voicing their own protests through braying and grunting. She saw a bolt of lightning through the curtain of her carriage and started at the screams of horses as a crack of thunder shook the sky.
“Did you see that?” one foot soldier exclaimed over the downpour bursting through the hole torn in the lightning’s wake. He was met with angry responses from what Aliya could hear from her seat within the carriage.
“Don’t cause another scare, you halfwit!” one shouted back at him. His voice carried the fatigue and edge of a man who had been traveling for twenty hours with this halfwit. Others were talking over each other; Aliya struggled to hear while holding her younger brother and sister tightly against herself. An old woman sat in front of her.
“There’s something large…stalking in the mist!” a third voice piped up; terror rang from his throat. The angry man scoffed at him, “Stalking is a far cry from moving, Nathan. It’s an animal. We know how to deal with animals.”
Aliya saw the looks of relief on her siblings faces upon hearing that, but she warily peeked through the curtain, not moved by the man’s assuredness. She could see nothing through the rain except the obscured forms of her protectors. She couldn’t tell where they were through the darkness and rain.
Then a chorus of cries rang up from the knights gathered around her. And she saw what something large the third man had screamed about. A flash of lightning illuminated their path for a fleeting window of time where the tail end of a monstrosity appeared. Then it was dark again.
Aliya muffled her own scream through her hand, squeezing her two siblings against her, suffocating them. The old woman sat silently with her hands folded, but the fear in her eyes betrayed her apparent stoicism.
Then a new light exploded and with it smoke and fire rose from the nostrils of the beast as it emerged completely into view. The size of its face alone matched that of her carriage with scales reflecting the red-gold glare of the fire spurting out from its nostrils and gaping maw. Two snake eyes, bright and vengeful, fixed on them, peering through the window at her and her brother and sister.
She pulled them down beneath her seat away from the window. The carriage rocked violently as the coachman lost control over the horses. She gasped and looked back up at the old woman from under the bench.
“The Hag!” the angry night shouted. Aliya knew he was referring to the stranger in the carriage with her. “She knew this would happen! She led us here to be killed!”
As the carriage bumped and swung to and fro, hurling Aliya against the walls, she saw the old woman stand in place as though fixed to the floor; her bright eyes darkened while spheres of azure light materialized in the palms of her hands. Then the door flew open as a knight was thrown headlong into the carriage. Red light flared from outside as the monster roared. Aliya cowered as its face peered through the door. She could feel the carriage tilt as it lifted off from the ground.
The carriage pulled to the left side while the horses hung suspended by their reins. Aliya could hear the coachman scream and felt the bumps of him toppling from his seat on the roof. The beast was standing upright, clasping the carriage between both of its hands. Her brother and sister wept while cowering beneath her.
At that moment she knew they were all going to die.
Then the old woman came forward, facing the open door and the creature glaring through it—Aliya marveled how she stood upright, unmoved by the shaking carriage.
Then the stranger yelled, and a column of blue fire ignited from her hands. The beast hollered as the flame struck against its snout—Aliya covered her ears in pain, and abruptly the carriage dropped.
It toppled and crashed against the earth. Aliya flew and smashed against the sidewall which was now sprawled on the ground. The carriage had torn in half and now the downpour drenched her.
Looking up, she saw two columns of fire igniting against each other, a blue one and a red one, and in their midst, shadows. One being the old woman, she could tell, and the other, the beast rearing up on its hind legs. Its serpentine body reached higher than the tallest tree. Its haunting shape coiled as it strove against the woman who could summon fire like a witch in an old story book.
Sarah, Michael! Aliya swung around and searched the carnage for her sister and brother. Lightning flashed revealing twisted forms of horses and humans, none of which moved…except for one. Then the darkness returned as quickly as the bolt had vanished, interrupted only by the flares of the battle waging several yards away.
Still, she could no longer see. “Sarah! Michael!” She ran to the moving body and felt around in the dark to reach it.
“Your Highness,” it sputtered. The voice was neither of them. Aliya knelt to help him. He was the knight who had berated the rest and had been flung into the carriage during the struggle.
“Where are my brother and sister?” she demanded as she struggled to lift him upright. The knight made a gurgling sound and hollered, startling Aliya into dropping him again. She then reached to bring him back up, but his hand stopped her.
“I am going to die your Highness. I have but a few breaths left to draw—now hear me.
“His Majesty charged me to deliver you three to the Lake Fortress where you will be safe until the king returns to retrieve you. However, you will not reach there safely on your own. The city of Aerlon is a day’s journey by foot. You and your siblings must reach there and receive a new escort…”
“What of the woman?” Aliya cut in; her attention being drawn to the tongues of fire bursting through the wall of rain.
“Do not trust her,” he drew her face back to him, though she could not see him. “She has your father deceived. He believes her to be your protector, but nothing could be further from the truth.”
He coughed and sputtered once more. “I held my silence and kept my doubts to myself; yet now I know who she is… flee from her, your Highness…you’re safer alone in the wilderness…than behind fortified walls with her…” his voice rattled from his chest, and he went still.
“Aliya!” a boy cried out from the darkness. Aliya reeled around to face him but was grasped by the hands of the reptile.
She struggled against its grip which clasped like iron. Its face pierced through the smoke billowing from its own nostrils. Its mouth parted, and fluids came pouring from between its teeth, pulsating like molten metals in a crucible.
“Michael, run! Find Sarah and get as far away from here as you can!” she said despite the creature’s roars drowning out her cries.
Sarah, please be alive! She pleaded silently as her feet lifted off from the ground. She wanted to close her eyes and mask the sight of the face that glowered down on her but was somehow more afraid of being blind in her last moments.
Then the witch called out from the midst of the storm. The beast’s eyes darted to the patch of shadows where he heard the voice. Its teeth barred with rage, yet somehow, it appeared to Aliya that he was afraid.
She felt its claws loosen around her torso, and she began to slip through the open spaces. Relief swept over her as she prepared to descend.
Then its grip tightened, the beast unwilling to lose the prize it had obtained. It pulled its arm back with her in its fist and turned to face the witch with both arms outstretched to challenge her.
Aliya still could not see in the dark.
Had something happened to the woman? Could the witch not rescue her with those unearthly powers?
Do not trust her…
She has your Father deceived…
Flee from her, your Highness…
As if in response to her thoughts, a globe of blue light materialized and broke through the veil of shadows. Within it was the darkened silhouette of the woman.
Aliya struggled with what her eyes beheld; as the orb expanded, so to the size of the witch’s shape. It continued to grow until the shadow of the stranger matched the height of the reptilian creature.
Two white beacons flashed where eyes should be, and terror welled inside Aliya with more strength than having seen the monster’s face.
Then a thousand concussions went off. The monster screamed. White light blinded Aliya; and she knew no more...

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