Chapter 120: Report to Araidne

The great hall of Reika's captured palace was unrecognizable the once elegant banners of her house now hung a deep crimson flagged with Araidne's sigil-a jutting crescent moon coldly leading the promise of dominance and ruthlessness. Araidne sat on the high throne, her gold plate smeared with streaks of black her magic forge. The heavy doors of the hall creaked, and behind them appeared a battle-scorched, armor-clad Adam Weasley. "Well?" Araidne's voice sliced through the silence like a whip, keen as a blade. "What news do you bring me, Adam?" Adam halted a few steps from the throne and bowed deep. "My queen, the mission was. eventful," he began in a tight-strung tone. Araidne raised an eyebrow. "Eventful? That is not what I asked for. Did you bring me Viktor and Alfonso? "Nay, my queen," Adam said; his jaw jerked. "They got away." Ariadne's fingers slackened, and the wine fell on the white marble floor as would blood. Her eyes nailed him to the spot while her words were dripping poison: "Escaped? Explain, Adam, before patience runs out." Adam straightened, hands clasped behind his back. "We tracked Viktor and Alfonso to a hidden fairy village in the valley. It would seem that the fairies were harboring them, but they claimed their innocence as to who exactly they were. I demanded they hand over the prisoners. They would not. Fairies struck first." Ariadne snorted in disdain. An upward curl had taken on the aspect of her upper lip. "Fairies. irksome insects. Continue. "My forces overpowered their defenses," Adam said, "but a number of the fairies fought their way out with Viktor and Alfonso in the confusion. I think they might have escaped the valley through some network of underground tunnels. We have since sent in trackers to trace them, but it's pretty large forest and its magic obscures them fairly well. Araine rose from the throne, her flowing black robes seeming to swirl about her, whipped by a storm. She went down the steps deliberately, her weightier feeling measured grace with each step closer to Adam. You are telling me, she said, voice steady and icy and full of dislike, that not only you did not yourself get the prisoners, but that few of you that did manage to capture some you allowed their captives to escape-aided by faeries, faeries that actually had the audacity to defy me? Adam's stare had been unyielding, though his face did not soften one whit. "I underestimated their loyalty to one another. But that will be for the fairies to answer for in due time. Their home was gone, their number scattered. No longer a threat to anyone." Ariadne watched him a little longer before her emerald green narrowed further. She whirled around, striding toward the throne as her voice boomed through the room. "And yet Viktor and Alfonso still roam free," she said icily. "Tell me, Adam, what is the purpose of your strength if it does not garner results?" Words smarting beneath her whip, pride stinging, Adam fisted his hands. "I will not fail you again, my queen," he ground out through gritted teeth. "Give me another chance and I will bring them to you." Ariadne sat back in her throne, the twisted smile curling further into her lips. "Oh, I know you shall not fail me again. For if you do." Something inside of her eyes had the malevolence seeming to deepen further, heavy air right to her throne chock-full of hostility as the pulse of dark power was bleeding from her core. "There won't be another chance for you, Adam." Adam, meanwhile sprang to say in deference and to a bow, "As one would say-yes, my queen."   Ariadne leaned back in her chair and tapped her fingers on its arm. "Spread the word across the lands, raise the bounty on Viktor and Alfonso-make their faces in every town, every village. I want no corner of this realm that does not get touched by the hunt for them. And as for the fairies,. A wicked smile now danced upon her lips. "Issue a decree. Any fairy found to be aiding them or in acts of defiance against my rule will be executed. Their wings shall be clipped, their magic drained. Let them feel the results of their insolence." A murmur of assent ran through the soldiers present within the hall. Adam nodded, his mind already racing with ways to handle the situation. "And the body of the Alpha?" Araidne asked, her eyes springing onto him like a predator onto its target. Adam hesitated. "Still missing, my queen. Despite wide searches, we found nothing. Whoever did this has done a rather fine job covering the tracks." Ariadne's face went cold, and dark magic exploded into the room. "Find it," she snarled. "I won't sleep or eat until Alpha Lleus' body is brought before me, and the thief is hanged by their neck until dead."     Ariadne turned to the map laid across the table beside her throne as Adam moved to carry out her orders-markers representing her forces covered it, though now the valley was a site of resistance. Her second-in-command, Finley, came up before her; his dark armor glimmered within the enchanted light. "The fairies may have helped Viktor and Alfonso, but they are at their cores cowards. They will not dare challenge us again." "They will not get that opportunity," Araidne said coldly. "Once Viktor and Alfonso are caught, we will make an example of them. The people need to understand what happens when one crosses me." Finley nodded. "And the kingdom? The elders which opposed your rule have been replaced. Those loyal to you now have the power. There are some murmurs of rebellion in some regions, but nothing we can't squash." "Good," Araidne replied, a triumphant snarl twisting her features. "The kingdom is mine, Finley. And soon, the realm will shiver with fear and come to its knees before me." The posters featuring Viktor, Alfonso, Reika, and Kael whipped and splashed down the city's walls; above every such poster, bold headings proclaimed -WANTED : DEAD OR ALIVE, with thick bounty promised added -and nobody dared to show their backs to it. People whispered to one another, darting their eyes as they passed the posters. Some had feared Araidne's rule of vengeance and some silently wished for the day that would bring the return of the rightful ones.