June 2022: The Caged-City - Louise Page (Runner-Up)
They said never go into the forest alone, nightmares on wings waited there. I imagined beasts dropping from the sky to shred me with talons and teeth.
Jostled from my thoughts, the carriage bounced along the road. I hid my fear, my father had suffered enough. He gambled away the wrong man’s money and the only thing he had left of value was a daughter.
Through the barred window, past the heavily armoured escort, I saw snow for the first time. It dusted the ground like flour from a baker’s sieve. In the distance a dark forest skirted tall mountains.
Anxious soldiers glanced too often to the skies with hands on weapons, as we approached. They called it the caged-city; it wasn’t difficult to see why. A hideous metal frame entrapped the city.
The widowed lord I was to marry was as cheerless as his manor. Our introduction was about as warm as a business transaction, and mercifully, as brief.
I attended ostentatious dinner parties and endured tedious conversations. I hated my new life. Unable to stand the sight of barred windows any longer, I escaped through the garden to the barred gates. I shredded my pretty night-dress as I hurled myself over and ran.
I nearly wept as I glimpsed the starry night-sky, not through bars, but through the gentle swaying limbs of trees.
The peace was shattered by a shriek. Despite all the warnings, I drifted toward it.
Ensnared in a tree, was a creature both terrifying and stunning. Cruel hooked ropes tangled and ripped into the delicate feathered flesh of blue wings.
I met the frightened eyes of an adolescent. He struggled, causing further trauma to his wings. I was shocked to realise; he was afraid of me.
The caged-city
He trembled as he watched me climb. I unsheathed his knife from his thigh-holster, his throat bobbed as he swallowed. I cut him free and, startled and flapping, he toppled, taking me with him.
A swift shadow blocked the moonlight then dropped from the sky. My turn to swallow my fear. He was a warrior and every part of him that prowled toward me was graceful strength. His wings were snow-white and tipped in dark-red as though they’d been dragged through blood.
Pulling the boy behind him, he murmured something in a foreign language. Those glittering, azure eyes never left mine. I scrambled backward as he unsheathed a deadly blade from between those magnificent wings.
There was a brief flurry of white and blue, the adult pinned the boy and they exchanged a few words.
That terrible and beautiful warrior glared at me, then shouted something and pointed toward the caged-city. I was certain I was being shooed like a dog. I’m not ashamed to admit that I obliged, scrambling to my feet I took off like a startled rabbit.
The next time I came to the forest alone, I rescued three more winged-people from the cruel traps my people had made. Maybe we belonged in our cage.
Louise Page
#RightLeftWrite’s June competition was guest judged by fantasy writer Stacey McEwan, BookTok reviewer and author of Ledge (Angry Robot Books 2022) from the forthcoming Glacian Trilogy. Check her out on TikTok or Instagram at @stacebookspace.
July’s competition is open now - genre prompt: Romance. Submissions of short fiction (max. 500 words) close at the end of the month - submit your entry.
Right Left Write’s June genre prompt was Fantasy.