142 Thank You for Your Sacrifice

Alcinous stood above Macha's sleeping body. His amber eyes narrowed with annoyance because the King ordered him to stay behind to guard her. Until the antidote was retrieved, this room remained off-limits to everyone else. Guarding an unconscious body was a task far beneath his station. As the leader of the Sathar, no one knew as many secrets as he, besides King Freyr and Sierra.

In a low voice, he growled at the small woman, "What does he even see in you?" The woman looked extremely strange to Alcinous, and he did not understand why the King thought she was so beautiful. He preferred his wives to have stronger builds that would ensure his children would be healthy.

He also worried if Macha ended up marrying Freyr, then he would be appointed to guard her like he had been right now. He did not mind guarding the King because he knew how to fight. Whereas this small woman appeared to be hopeless. The knockback from the arrow had tossed her backward as if she were a rag-doll.

The click of the suite's front door sounded and Alcinous sunk into the shadows. As far as he understood, no one should be entering these rooms.

It was the middle of the night and Gwydion realized that most of the servants would be in bed. Since the King was away, they would station very few guards on this side of the palace.

The bedroom was dark except for a lamp that sat on the bedside table. Its soft glow barely illuminated the room.

Gwydion's long silk robes swished across the red carpet as he made his way to Macha. He hated this woman who dared to linger around the King. She did not understand her place and should never have associated herself with Freyr.

Everyone and everything had a destiny that it should follow. It was important to recognize one's station in life, and she did not seem to understand that she did not belong here.

He held his hand over her chest, contemplating canceling the spell. He could let her die from the poison and then reactivate the spell. The King would never find out because he would explain that she died while waiting for the party to come home.

Alcinous watched as Gwydion's hand reached out, hovering above the blue violet boutonniere. It appeared as if the mage was about to pluck it away.

While he did not want Macha to become Queen, he would not go so far as to kill the woman. He put his hands on his daggers which hung at his hips. Before he stepped out of the shadow, the Cardinal Mage withdrew his hand.

Gwydion made a sneer. He realized that she was not worth his time. If he killed her, it would just prove that he viewed her as a threat. Disgusted with himself for even worrying that she could become Queen, he turned on his heels and left. He hoped the King would come to his senses soon. In life there we women you dallied with, and women you married.

When the suite's door closed, Alcinous stepped out from the shadows. He crossed the room and sat in a large tufted chair. As he hung his legs over the armrests, he tapped his fingers together in amusement.

????????????????????????????????????????????, he thought. He was not aware that the Cardinal Mage disliked the apple of Freyr's eye so much.

****

Freyr wore a thick blue tiger fur coat that wrapped around him. The royal blue coloration of the fur made his golden armor stand out against the white snow that surrounded him.

The cold wind created white clouds that puffed from his lips whenever he spoke. "Go ahead and kill the ox. We finished all the preparations," he instructed.

The airship hovered in the sky and his team had laid the trap for the jörmungandr. He did not want the monster to escape, so they had taken precautions. While this creature was not rare, time was a commodity he did not want to waste.

When the King issued the order, Sierra gave the ox a gentle pet. "Thank you for your sacrifice," she whispered as she drove her sword through the animal's heart. She then created a long slit that stretched down the torso, allowing the blood to ooze into the clean snow.

The party waited fifty paces away with their weapons drawn. Twenty minutes passed by and no one dared to move, afraid that any movement might scare away their hunt. Eventually, a low rumble came from below the snow. The vibrations grew stronger and the sound of the heavy snow breaking beneath them became louder.

Suddenly a loud screech erupted as a gigantic white and blue serpent mouth burst out of the ground. Thick piles of snow fell around them, pushed up from the serpent's head. The jaw snapped shut, swallowing the ox whole.

As soon as the jörmungandr's body breached the surface, a cage of light surrounded them, enclosing the large creature within its confines.

The snow serpent looked about and tried to plunge back below the surface of the snow, but it could not go far. The spell created barriers all around them, not allowing anything to dive below or fly above.

Feeling trapped, the monster hissed in anger at the party. Its long tail swatted against the cage, testing the spell's integrity. The bright lights did not give, and the jörmungandr bore its fangs.