Excerpt: The Doorway

“So, you saw a demon possessing the Queen?” he asked his voice low and rough at that point, full of thoughtfulness that he was trying to understand the situation. Rose nodded slowly looking up at him almost pleadingly. Rocalen thought for a few moments, leaning against the desk slightly. “Before this happened, did anyone tell you about the demon massacre a few years ago? Several elders, including myself, went around and killed all the demons we could find. We thought we got them all. Have you heard of this?” he asked looking at her, thoughtfully.

“No… Well, I heard part of that afterwards, when Makal tried to explain to me that it was impossible that I saw a demon, because they were all killed,” she said quietly, frowning slightly as she looked up at Rocalen.

He nodded slowly, stroking his beard thoughtfully as he sat back looking up at the ceiling once more. “Well, it could be possible; we didn’t know who all were possessed at the time, so we could have missed one. This… Ice queen it seems by your description could have made it out of our trying to rid the world of this…” He said softly, as he looked down at Rose quietly. “She could have been surviving all this time by changing bodies often and now got close enough to the Queen to take her over and get enough power to be her own form. It’s-- possible,” he said quietly as he hopped off his stool. “In other words lass, I believe you.”

Rose started to smile before Rocalen lifted a hand up slightly, “Wait, this doesn’t mean that we can actually do anything yet, it is -- difficult to kill a demon. Near impossible when they are controlling someone, which means. We have to wait until she manifests herself in order to kill her,” he said quietly looking down at Rose who seemed to gasp.

“After she kills all those people so she can come into the world? That is horrible!” she said loudly, looking up at Rocalen almost disbelievingly. “I don’t think I can do it!” she said looking up at him as she stood up swiftly now towering over the dwarf.

Rocalen sighed, “It is nearly impossible to get to her now; we need to bring her out. And the only time that can happen at the moment, is when she sacrifices for her summoning. It needs to happen,” he said quietly, “We’ll save a lot more people as a result.”

“I…”

Rose never finished her sentence as the library doors flew open, several guards coming into the room in a rush. They went up the stairs swiftly seeming to be coming for Rose and Rocalen, “Jump!” he said loudly, motioning to the balcony. Rose moved to it and frowned seeing a bookcase nearby. She pulled herself up over the railing and set herself on the top of the bookcase just out of the guards reach.

The guards grabbed Rocalen, “The queen wants you both locked up!” he announced but Rose was already out of reach. She moved over the bookcases, jumping from one to the next trying to get across the room, above their heads. The men barely noticed he was heading for the window until she got there. The two door window was easy for her to open. She saw a ledge below and gulped. “I hate heights,” she said to herself glancing up seeing the guards coming towards her.

Turning herself around she climbed out the window and onto the ledge below that seemed to run the entire castle. Outside the stones in the wall were in such a way that it was like rock climbing. Rose liked rock climbing. She scooted herself between the windows as the guards tried to climb out too.

She looked up and grabbed onto the nearest protruding rock. She started climbing up, one stone at a time, to where she saw another window was. She didn’t care at that point where the window led. She climbed up slowly, as she pushed herself up, and onto the ledge of the window. Pushing at the window, she heard the shouting below her. She hit the window several times, hearing shouts from above and below her now. Shaking slightly, the window finally flew open to one of her hits.

Falling inside, she landed on the floor with a thud and grumbled rubbing the back of her head. She looked around, and saw she came out into a hallway. Shutting the window hurriedly, she moved to one of the many doors hearing guards nearby and slipped inside.

A bunch of women sat around this room all seeming to be doing needle and thread work. Rose put a finger to her lips in a motion of silence, “Please help,” she whispered to the women, which one pulled up some blankets they were mending letting Rose slip underneath them. She hid quietly hearing the door open and a lot of shouting and questioning going on. Rose covered her head as she hide under the blankets. Praying they wouldn’t find her.