The Dragon's Love

Chapter 7

-Ashes-

I had no idea how much time had passed. Only my beard was growing longer, and the hair told me that a lot of time had passed. But instead of worrying about myself, I wondered about Laelia. Was she still safe? Did the elves look after her? Even if my brothers figured out where she was, they would not attack the elves. They were too strong, and they did not want to risk them fighting back. They had enough to think about already. So, I just hoped she was being taken care of. I hoped, even when I died, they would keep looking after her.

“Laelia,” I whispered.

My voice was unrecognizable to me. It was almost scary to hear, but I had lost hope. My brothers had won. At least over me. They still hadn’t gotten to Laelia, and I never believed they would. They didn’t know her like I did. They didn’t see how strong she was. They believed her to be just another woman, but she was so much more. She was someone people believed in. Even I believed in her. She was the place I went to deep in my brain, as they tortured me. I didn’t feel the pain as I thought of her. Only warmth. I looked back to the time when I almost died and saw the warm light and her face. I would imagine the wind blowing through it, and her smiling at me, laughing a little. She was so beautiful, and she was all mine.

Suddenly, the sound of a whip going through the air brought me back to reality, and I felt the sharp pain as the leather connected with my back. I pressed my teeth together hard, as I tried not to make any sounds, but then the whip was changed with a burning fireplace poker that was glowing red in one end. The man torturing me smiled. I knew him. My brother Blaze was good friends with him. Those two had always had a strange relationship, and the man was a strange one, I had always thought. Now I knew why. He liked inflicting pain on me.

As he connected the glowing end to my skin, I had to let out the pain through a powerful roar. It only made him laugh, as he watched me dangle from the ceiling in iron chains.

“Had enough, your highness?” he asked.

I knew I shouldn’t be fighting back, but I was already being tortured. How worse could it get? So, as he looked at me, I spat him in the face. He sneered and stepped back, wiping his face with his sleeve.

“No,” I said.

“You are going to regret that!” he told me, before punching me in my stomach.

I was completely naked, as I hung from the ceiling. He could do with me as he pleased. My brothers had given him free reins. He could be the monster he so clearly was, and I knew this night … or was it day? Would never come to an end, before I had been cut into pieces and had been broken beyond repair.

-Laelia-

“Your arm must be killing you. Let us take a break,” Rathilion said.

I shook my head, as he reached his hand out to me. I had my sword placed against the marble I was sitting on as I leaned my head against the handle. It was a beautiful sword with elf runes written on the blade and the handle pure white with a green, emerald stone in the middle. It did not curve the way Rathilion’s did, but it was just as deadly.

“No,” I said, panting like crazy.

“Laelia, your arm was dislocated yesterday. We should take a break.”

“Did my brother ask you to go easy on me?” I asked. “Or was it your father?”

Yesterday, after my injury, I had seen his father talking rather heatedly with him in the hallways. He had tried keeping his voice low, but I had heard him, as Kayda put my arm back in place.

“We promised to protect her. Not kill her!”

“I am training her. Not killing.”

“You are killing her, my son. Don’t you see she will never stop? Not until her heart does.”

“What are you asking of me?” Rathilion asked.

“To stop. Stop the training. Leave her alone,” his father said.

“She will not stop. She will keep doing this on her own.”

“Then let her …”

There suddenly was a long pause and then his father continued,

“I know you have come to like her. I see you watch her when no one is looking, but this is not our fight. Forget the girl and focus on your people. You will be their leader soon. Let go of this … obsession.”

It was the last thing I heard before they split up. I had, of course, chosen to ignore it all. I could not do this without Rathilion, and I had feared he would cancel training, but so far, he hadn’t. Not until now, did it seem like he was listening to his father.

“So? Who was it?” I asked.

“Stop it,” he growled at me.

I just smiled at him, as the sweat ran down the side of my face. I finally stood up shaking my head.

“Who?”

“Laelia,” he said warningly.

“I am not giving up. Not until I have them back. All of them,” I said.

“And am I not helping you? Am I not the one training you?”

“But you are being nicer today. You are not pushing me,” I told him.

“Because you need rest.”

“F*ck rest!”

I threw the sword to the ground and walked over to a bench near the railing of the big balcony we were fighting on. I sat down and sighed deeply, rubbing my eyes tiredly.

“I need to get them back. I feel like I am going insane not knowing what is happening to them.”

Rathilion slowly walked over to me. I slowly looked up at him and he nodded, his eyes determined.

“I understand. But you are hurting yourself. How do you expect to save them if you cannot even stand?”

“I am standing.”

“You are sitting … and I bet if you try to get back up, you will lose your balance.”

I wanted to prove him wrong by getting up, but before I could he placed a hand on my shoulder urging me to stay down.

“Just rest a little.”

I nodded, as I let myself fall back on the bench, looking over the big palace. It was beautiful. I wondered how it was growing up here.

“Lonely,” he said.

“What?”

“You know you spoke out loud, right?” he said with a small smile.

Did I?

“When did you last sleep?” he asked.

I shrugged. I had no idea. I was too busy planning and watching over my sick brother.

“I don’t know …”

“You need to sleep. You need to eat.”

“After,” I told him.

“After what?”

“After I have brought them home.”

“This cannot continue,” he told me.

“I can’t sleep …”

I couldn’t look at him, as I spoke the words out loud.

“Every time I close my eyes … I see them. Dead. Hung or their heads cut off. When I do sleep, they haunt me. I watch them die … I cannot watch them die.”

I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder again and I turned to look at the elf beside me. He could be both scary and very calming. It was not always certain which of the two sides you would meet.

“You will get them back,” he promised me. “But you need to take care of yourself too.”

“I know,” I whispered. “But do you remember when you said I was afraid?”

He nodded.

“I am. Very afraid. I am afraid of what is going to happen to Samuel. I am afraid I will be caught. I am afraid that I will be too late to save anyone. I am afraid of so many things, and it makes me angry. I have never been angry like this before, and I do not know what to do other than plan and fight. It is the only thing that seems to be able to distract me …”

Rathilion sighed, understanding the battle I was in. I knew he was right about taking care of myself, but I was too scared. Too angry. Too restless. I could not find rest. I could not find the time to eat or do anything else. I just … couldn’t.

“Very well then,” he said and got up. “We will continue.”

I nodded happily, but just as I tried to get up, the world started to tilt, and darkness swirled around me. What the … I didn’t get to finish that thought before I fainted.