A void of silent darkness enveloped the empty shell of mortal flesh submerged in a watery grave. Her lifeless form suspended in the still bog did not remain there for long. Strong hands pulled her back to the world above, a voice beckoning her consciousness to reenter the land of the living. Eyes flying open, she beheld a world she did not remember. Staring into the rustling treetops above, the light of day peeked between the leaves and streamed to the ground to illuminate the forest floor about her. The face of a man came into view as he hovered over, appearing relieved that she had survived. “Welcome back Majesty,” his voice was confident and strong, mirroring his appearance. She sat up, a storm of confusion coming over her, “What happened?”
“You were drowned in the bog,” her charming rescuer explained, “luckily I brought you back.”
She scanned her surroundings and saw the watery grave from which she had been spared. “Who are you?” she furrowed her brow, unable to recall anything as she became captivated in the stranger’s eyes.
“My name is Tanas,” he bowed, “your right hand and loyal protector.”
“Right hand?” She stared blankly, clearly lacking comprehension.
“You don’t remember?”
Her continued silence confirmed so. “Dear girl, you are Serinn; Queen of the Lowlands. You had agreed to wed the King of the Highlands in the hopes of lifting your people out of poverty.”
She still did not recall, feeling like an empty shell of the person he was describing.
“But like all who are lowly born, you did not please that tyrant of a King and he ordered your death.”
The explanation was startling, but Tanas’ words conjured faint wisps of memory back to the surface of her mind. “Fret not my Queen, it may be some time before you remember everything. The bog can have that effect.” He extended a hand to help her up. She graciously took it and stood to her feet.
“No, I remember,” she insisted, absently wringing water from her loose clothing. “He drowned me,” the words drifted off her tongue as moments from the memory flashed behind her eyes. “He said he loved me. Courted me for years,” her astonishment set in at the disgusting realization. Her stomach turned sour.
“The King says many things, but in the end, he is the great betrayer to all…even me,” Tanas solemnly admitted.
“You trusted him too?”
“I served him devoutly for years with the promise of gaining position, but in the end, he tried to kill me too when I threatened to expose his wicked crimes.”
Serinn felt a coldness overtake her, not just of the flesh, but in the heart. How had she been so blinded by the Kings façade of affection and kindness?
“Then surely you warned me about him,” Serinn said sheepishly.
“Many times,” he confessed.
She turned away, wrapping her arms across her chest as a chill set over her wet body. “What kind of fool queen was I?”
“Do not blame yourself, Majesty. The King is the master of lies. He deceived you with cruel tricks and false love. A most egregious thing to do to anyone, much more so a Queen.”
Serinn looked back to Tanas’ sincere eyes beaming with misplaced adoration. It was evident she had his unwavering loyalty, regardless of her mistake in trusting the Highland King.
“Please Majesty,” he prefaced before removing his cloak and draping it over her shoulders. “We must head to town. The King believes you are dead and thus your kingdom ripe for conquer. It’s only a matter of time before he sends his troops to siege the Lowlands.” Tanas mounted his white horse. “The people must know you survived and that your kingdom is stronger than ever.” Reaching down, he offered her a hand.
“This was an act of war,” she surmised, “He wanted me dead to cripple my kingdom and overtake the Lowlands once and for all.”
“It would seem so,” he affirmed.
“Then we have little time,” Serinn gripped his hand firmly, and hoisted herself onto the steed, nestling close to Tanas’ back. Once she was secure, he wasted no time in urging the horse onward with kicks to the hide until they were racing between the trees toward the vulnerable Lowlands. As the stallions galloping fell into rhythm, Serinn’s mind drifted as bits and pieces of her life before the Bog came flooding back to her. The image that stuck in her mind was the King’s glorious face; he was flawless. Remembering how loving he had pretended to be in contrast with the brutality of her drowning was unbearable. It awakened a white-hot rage in the pit of her stomach that rose up and seeded deep into the recesses of her hardened heart. Never had she felt such consuming wrath. But never had she been so wronged.
By the time they reached the Lowlands, the horse was exhausted and complied eagerly when Tanas slowed the beast to enter the town. Serinn took in the sight of her kingdom. What looked like once proud structures were now decrepit and crumbling. “Are we too late?” she feared the answer.
“No, Majesty. This has been the state of your once marvelous kingdom ever since the Highlands was erected.” He pointed into the distance at the grandiose kingdom on a hill. “It was the presence of the Highland King that brought both poverty and famine on our humble land.”
“Why have we not yet killed him?” she asked, each word dripping with bitterness she felt justified to express.
“Because you were convinced both kingdoms could reach peace through marriage. But being the great Queen you are, I know you realize that peace is no longer an option.”
As the stallion’s hooves clopped against the smut-covered cobblestone, the Lowland villagers began pouring out into the street to witness the return of their beloved Queen. They looked ill, dirty and starving, some malformed and contorted like grotesque animals. The people chanted her name, lifting their hands up as a gesture of loyalty before she passed by. The masses accumulated behind the horse, following her and Tanas into the heart of the town until every man woman and child was present. Their numbers were seemingly endless and every one of them adored her. They took notice of Serinn’s distressed appearance, which stirred up whispers and questions among them about what might have happened to her. When Tanas brought the stallion to a halt, their hushed voices unanimously silenced as he spoke loudly to be heard by all. “The alliance with the Highlands has been dissolved as your Queen just survived a vicious attempt on her life by the King himself!”
Shock and horror swept the masses of wide-eyed spectators as they gasped in disbelief. “Majesty, is this true?” a meek voice made its way over the others to be heard. Serinn glanced across the collective, unable to pinpoint which one had asked, but she answered as though they all had. “It’s true. I was deceived…drowned by the Highland King.”
The people were outraged, their affection and loyalty for their Queen bringing them to the brink of riot. Their voices culminated in an indistinguishable symphony of demands for justice.
Tanas raised his voice with an authority that silenced the uproar. “Enough of our festering rage! The time for action has come! The highland King has gone far enough with his oppression, rigid rules and demands on our lives! There’s more of us in the Lowlands than there ever will be in the Highlands! We outnumber them ten-fold! We must put an end to the tyrannical rule of the King once and for all, bringing justice to our Queen!” The crowd adamantly agreed.
“Let’s storm the gates and kill the King!” a boisterous man spat. In support of the idea, the masses applauded his zealous outburst.
“Rob him! Take everything he has for yourself and assume the Highland throne!” a second man followed suit.
“But first let the harlots have their way with him!” a woman of the brothel hastily interjected, “Show him what it’s like to be on our level!”
Hearty laughs and suggestive whistles erupted at the saucy remark, even Tanas had a chuckle.
“I say we let him live!” another man insisted; his unpopular words struck the masses dead silent. He boldly separated himself from the crowd, moving forward to address the Queen with his appeal. “Yes, siege the palace and take the throne, but don’t take his life. Instead chain him up like a mutt in the courtyard, that he might endure suffering comparable to us Lowlanders. Allow him a long, fruitless life of staring up at you in those glorious Highland towers, stripped of everything he once was. Let him burn with the envy for the rest of his days, licking the ground you walk on and bending to your every whim.”
The People’s hunger for justice was teased by the man’s lengthy description of such punishment and they gave him their loudest display of approval yet. Serinn exchanged a glance with Tanas, who also seemed to find the man’s proposition appealing. Once their zealous screams had quieted, the Queen spoke loudly to be heard by them all. “The old me would have claimed a punishment of that caliber far too cruel. But I am not who I once was. What I endured was the greatest betrayal, one that hardened both my heart and resolve beyond anything I could have imagined. My people: you will suffer no longer at the hands of this tyrant, because we will storm the gates, remove him from the throne, and take Highland for ourselves!”
The people thundered with applause and Serinn had to raise her voice even louder to continue. “After the King has paid three times over for his crimes against us, then we will put him to death by only the most fitting of means…drowning in the Bog!”
Their enthusiastic cries became explosive. The mass of resounding voices was so loud, it shook the ground beneath their feet. It was unlike anything Serinn had ever heard before. She had real power over them, their hearts, minds and loyalties were hers. With them she would exact the justice she so deserved. The people broke into song of her coming victory, chanting all the horrendous things that would soon befall the King they so deeply loathed. Tanas ushered the horse forward, his eyes fixed on the hill-perched kingdom they were going to invade. The people scurried about them, running to grab tools, torches and anything that could possibly be used as a weapon to siege the Highland gates. Never had they been so inspired to bestow vengeance in the name of their Queen and her honor.
The mob accumulated more makeshift weapons as they neared the Highland kingdom. Their raging army certainly would not have the element of surprise with the cacophony of chanting and battle songs they jumbled together into one epic sound. When they reached the solid gates, they pressed themselves against it, banging on its strong exterior with their fists and blunt instruments. The gates did not waver, and there were no guards atop the walls with crossbows to attack them. Tanas dismounted the horse once it was clear they were not going to breech the gates this way. He guided Serinn down from the steed as well, taking her by the hand. “Come, there’s another way in,” he yelled the words so she could hear him over the riotous mob. She followed him as they shuffled through the crowd and made their way to a small cave in a nearby cliff face. Slipping into the darkness, Serinn followed Tanas through winding passages until they came to a door leading into the palace. It was so dark, she could barely make out how he opened the door, as she presumed it had been locked. Either way they made it inside.
“Why can’t we bring the others this way?” she whispered, her eyes adjusting to the light in the ornate palace hallways.
“You’re the only one needed to bring him down,” Tanas said, his eyes fixed on the doors to the throne room, not once diverting his attention. He met the doors with a forceful push, crashing them open to reveal the grand throne room. There, only steps before them, was the King, not sitting atop his throne, but standing in their way as though he had been waiting for them. Tanas and Serinn halted.
“Shadow, why have you brought her back?” the King spoke with a calm authority, his eyes narrowed on Tanas.
“They call me Tanas now,” he corrected, “I brought her back so she would not forget who she really is.”
Serinn ignored their exchange, too enraged at the sight of the King to care about anything they were saying.
Moving forward, she pulled the sword from Tanas’ belt and lifted it to the Kings throat in one swift motion. “You, traitorous, devil!” she seethed. The King did not flinch or appear alarmed by her threatening advance. “You said you loved me, told me lie after lie and I believed you! I promised you everything! How could you just leave me to drown in that Bog?”
“He didn’t,” a soft voice spoke, the words echoing in the vast throne room chamber. “I did.” From the decorated thrones at the back of the room, a veiled woman approached them until she stood at the King’s side. Lifting the veil, she exposed her face and Serinn dropped the sword in fear and disbelief. “You…you’re me?” she could hardly understand what was happening or why she was staring at a copy of herself.
“Not anymore,” the woman corrected, her gentle voice exuding an unusual strength. Serinn stared blankly, displaying her length of confusion. “You never remember,” the woman sighed. “My name is Desva now. I am daughter of the Highlands and bride of the King. I am no longer Serinn. You were once a part of me. A part I had to let go. I died to myself in that bog, so that I could be made anew; raised up to glory and resurrected as the woman I was always meant to be. You were what was left behind in the waters that set me free.”
Serinn could hardly believe her ears, Desva’s words somehow dismantling her power. “But…Tanas-”
“Is the shadow of the Prince of light who fell away, by rejecting the Laws of the Highland,” the King explained. As he spoke, Tanas morphed into his true, shadowy form, unable to hold his mortal façade under the sovereignty of the King’s words.
Serinn crippled to the ground, an invisible force somehow binding her. “My people will save me,” she swallowed hard, struggling against the tightening bonds.
“They are not people,” Desva said, “they are but the old desires of flesh and darkness that run rampant beyond these walls. I was Queen outside for a long time before I knew the love of my King.”
The shadow spoke in a collective of dark voices, “You can lie to yourself as long as you’d like, but Serinn is alive.”
“She is only an echo.” Desva defended, “A memory…one you won’t let me forget.”
The Shadow chuckled, “One day, you will concede to her wishes, becoming one with her again and rejoin the world that’s calling you beyond these walls.”
Desva drew closer to the King.
“Be gone, Shadow,” the King commanded. The authority in his words vanquished the Shadow where he stood, leaving only Serinn to remain before them.
Holding fast to her beloved, Desva spoke to Serinn, “Go back to the Bog.”
Serinn screamed as she tore against the invisible restraints of Desva’s binding words and in a flash, she was gone. A void of silent darkness enveloped her lifeless form once again as she retuned to the watery grave.