The Queen’s Request

This is the second time this week. Hexanna thought to herself. How do these things keep happening to me?She was pouting, not that anyone else could see. The cloth bag over her head prevented the two, large men dragging her along from seeing the various expressions she was making. That was probably for the best.

They pulled her by her elbows, hauling her backwards towards their destination, which made the situation oddly more disorienting. The heels of her boots scraped along what felt like cobblestone, then suddenly switched to tile. Her captors’ shoes thunked loudly in the echoey chamber. They were inside now. Hexanna tried using her keen senses to learn more about the space, but other than the footsteps all she determined was that the cloth bag smelled strongly of sweat and perhaps blood. She was trying not to think too much about that.

Suddenly, they stopped and Hexanna was dropped hard onto the floor. “Remove the hood.” A voice commanded. The hood was yanked off her head. She was expecting her eyes to need to adjust to the light, but the room was eerily dark. There were only about four braziers with flickering flames to light the entire space. A familiar woman was sitting on a throne before her, swirling a goblet in her hand. Hexanna sincerely hoped she was drinking wine and not the blood of the innocent, but with her reputation nothing was a given.

”Are you Hexanna Thorne?” Queen Morgana asked.

”That would depend on who’s askin’ and why.” Hexanna replied.

Morgana cocked her head. “I am asking and you would be wise to keep your responses respectable in my presence.”

”My bad. That would depend on why you are asking, Your Majesty?” Hexanna said. One of the guards grabbed her by the hair and jerked her back.

”How dare you? You should be groveling not making clever little quips.”

The grip on her hair grew tighter, and given the fact that her head was no longer inseparable from her body, that wasn’t the best situation for Hexanna to be in. “My apologies. I am Hexanna and I’m here for… uh whatever it is you wanted.”

”I have sought you out because of these.” Morgana snapped her fingers and another guard brought her a piece of paper. She turned it around and Hexanna saw her own smiling face looking back at her. Once again, those damn wanter posters were causing her nothing but trouble. “You have made quite a name for yourself around Aerius. Your penchant for mischief and magic intrigues me, albeit vaguely. I wish to add you to my army, so that you can train my soldiers in your ways.”

Hexanna considered this for about two point two seconds. As much as she believed the world would be a better place with more Hexanna Thornes, an evil army of them might not be the… best thing. Corrupting people was kind of the King and Queen’s whole deal, but Hexanna wasn’t into that. Not everyone could pull off the sexy, dark eyed look like she could. “While I’m, uh, humbled by your offer I-“

”Are you about to reject me? You misunderstand. My word is law in this kingdom. You will mold the pathetic slime my husband recruits for our army into perfect killing machines. We will set fire to the entire forest and lay waste to everything she holds dear.” Morgana seemed to lose herself for a moment and Hexanna sat there awkwardly in the silence that followed. The queen took a long drink from her cup, then she appeared to get herself in order.

”To reiterate, you will tell us the secrets to harnessing dark magic or I will have your body ripped apart by a dozen rabid animals, then disposed of in the ocean. Ideally while your pathetic soul is still clinging to life.” Morgana said.

It took everything in Hexanna’s spirit to bite her tongue. Right now she only had two choices: Play along and kiss ass or fight it out with Morgana’s legion of fierce and jacked guards. By her calculations she had about a point zero zero zero one chance of winning that battle. “Sounds like a fun challenge.” Hexanna said.

Morgana scowled. “I am wondering if your reputation was not fairly earned. Before me I see a fool, not a dangerous criminal.”

”I’m like so dangerous. You don’t even know how dangerous I can be.”

”Prove it, then.”

”You want some sparks or-“

”Kill one of the guards at your side. You can choose which one, I don’t care.”

”Um.” Hexanna looked at the guards. Both were at least a foot taller than her and neither seemed particularly scared. “Oh, right now? Sure, I mean, I guess. It’s been a hot minute since my last… murder.”

”Tick-tock.”

Hexanna inferred from the situation that if she didn’t kill one of the guards, Morgana’s next command would be to have the guards kill her. ”Okay, um. Sorry in advance, man.” Hexanna said to the guard on her left. The man didn’t blink. She slipped her hand into her hair and retrieved a potion bottle and a corruption mushroom. These suckers were pungent and she would never think to use one on a regular joe, but just this once it should be okay. She squeezed the mushroom into the bottle, well aware Morgana was watching her with a metaphorical finger on the trigger. Hexanna shook the potion up. This wasn’t going to be the most honorable thing she had ever done, but it was for her own life. “Elixir of death!” She tossed the bottle at the nearest brazier.

When the concoction hit the fire, all hell broke loose. A thick, black smoke instantly filled the room, almost up to the ceiling. If inhaled, the smoke would cause temporary paralysis and a warm, very unpleasant, tingling sensation across the body. The guards and Morgana were driven to their knees by the fumes. But not Hexanna, who had taken a deep breath as soon as the bottle had been tossed. The left guard had great instincts and Hexanna felt his hand brush her leg as he reached out to stop her. But he didn’t quite get a grip and she took off.

She was in an unfamiliar place with a limited head-start. The moment Morgana and her guards realized they needed to hold their breath, they would begin to recover. In about fifteen seconds, the effects would wear off and the chase would begin.

Hexanna bolted down hallway after hallway in the massive castle. She had no idea where she was going. It was up to Lady Luck now. Hexanna was aware how loud her heels were on the tile floors, but she couldn’t slow down. She blew past a surprised guard, who immediately turned on her heels and started chasing her. In the distance, Hexanna could hear the angry shouts of the guards she had assaulted. She knocked over anything that might slow them down.

Finally, she rounded a corner and saw the exit in sight. Unfortunately, there were two huge guards blocking it. Something about their expressions suggested they knew Hexanna was not allowed to leave. “I need to leave the castle immediately on an urgent matter for the queen.” She said. The guards began to approach her. “I had to try.” Hexanna pulled a knife out of her boot and set it ablaze with a flame from her fingertip. “I’ve been dying to try this out.” She dug the flaming blade into an existing corruption wound on the guard’s arm. He dropped his weapon while trying to free the knife from his forearm. “Y’see, I made a special coating-“ She yanked the knife out and jabbed the other guard in the eye with it. He cried out and fell against the wall. “And the coating allows the blade to catch fire-“

The first guard got his arms around Hexanna and she kicked him hard in the crotch. He dropped her, which allowed her to jam her knife into the open spot beneath his body armor. “I feel like you aren’t even listening to the fire knife thing and I worked really hard on it you guys. I set so much shit on fire during my tests, like just soooo much.”

Hexanna could hear the other guards approaching and there was a clamoring outside, which could only be more guards. “I’ve had fun playing, but it’s time for me to go home.”

”Halt!” One of the approaching guards called out.

”Why is it always ‘halt’ with you guard types? You’re all the same.” Hexanna shook her head. She quickly freed her knife from the man who was writhing in pain, then hopped over his comrade and made her exit. Something rushed past her head and lodged itself in a tree. More guards were converging on her; time was running out. Hexanna was getting out of breath. Then she saw it, a high, black, wrought iron fence. She leapt with all her might and managed to get her gloved hands on part of the decorative spiderweb design near the top. With much difficulty, she began hoisting herself over the fence. Her legs dangled awkwardly, feet scrambling to find purchase. The first team of guards made it to fence just as she reached the top.

”After her!” They tried jumping up and throwing their weapons at her. One of them began following her over the fence.

Hexanna half jumped, half fell to the ground. The guards reached through, grabbing desperately to stop her. “I’m sorry to leave so soon, give Morgana my best.” She gave a cheeky little wave, then hurried off. If she wasn’t mistaken, somewhere around here was an old shortcut of hers she liked to use whenever the “authorities” dumped her back in the stupid blighted wilds again. It was the only way she was going to avoid the guards that were probably making better time scaling that fence than she had. Hexanna searched frantically for a hollow tree near the river. She ran around tapping on tree trunks until she finally hit pay dirt. She wasn’t inside for more than ninety seconds when she heard footsteps getting closer. The guards passed her and continued deeper into the forest. Hexanna breathed a sigh of relief. That was way too close. She shimmied down the trunk until her body narrowly squeezed through to the bunker below. From there, it was a simple four mile crawl in the dark, damp tunnel and she would be at the docks. The sooner she left the wilds, the better. She had just made Queen Morgana’s shit list and she was way more afraid of the corrupt queen than the RRG. But if you weren’t making a few sworn enemies who would stop at nothing to have you murdered in a violent and horrendous fashion, were you really living?