Chapter 6
1273 Words
-Laelia-
“Ouch! Libelle!” I said.
“Sorry my lady,” she said.
I tried ignoring the pain, as she slowly cleaned a wound on my shoulder, but it stung so badly, I could not focus on anything else.
“Drink this,” Kayda said.
I shook my head and held my hand in front of my face.
“No, I don’t want anything that makes me sleepy,” I told her.
“My lady, the training is killing you, and you do not sleep. You need rest,” she said.
I shook my head again.
“She is right,” the healer Amoya said. “You can’t help anyone if you do not take care of yourself.”
I did not listen, even if I kept quiet. I had asked, as a week passed, for Rathilion to push me harder. I had little time to prepare and train. I needed him to push me. I needed him to make sure I was ready, and when I wasn’t training with him, I was sitting up all night watching over Samuel as I laid out a plan for how to enter the palace. Samuel was recovering slowly, the wound on his back had caught an infection. Amoya said the arrow most likely had been covered in some kind of poison. It made sense. That family and poison. It had me rolling my eyes just at the thought of it.
While I was training with Rathilion, my brother Liam would be standing watching over me and disapproving of it all, but I had not let it affect me. I knew what I wanted to do, and no one was going to stop me. So, Liam could either be quiet or help me, as I had told him not long ago. He just kept quiet but would not take his eyes off me.
“Libelle!” I said, just as she started to dig the needle into my skin.
“Sit still, my lady, it will be over soon.”
“That hurts!” I groaned.
“Drink,” Kayda repeated.
I bit my lower lip, breathing in and out in short pants, as I concentrated on not letting myself be affected by the pain shooting from my shoulder.
“No,” I said stubbornly.
“My lady!” Kayda said in a demanding tone.
“No!”
“Drink!”
I shook my head again, just as the needle pierced my skin. I would not bow. I would not bow. I would not bow. Not even to the pain.
“You are killing yourself,” Kayda said.
“I am training. I need to be able to withstand pain as well.”
“Why are you pushing yourself so hard?” Libelle asked.
I sighed, before I winched again, as the needle went through my skin. Then I relaxed as it went out and she slowly pulled the small string through the hole.
“I need to,” I whispered.
“What do you mean?”
“Who knows how they are doing right now? Who knows how long they have left … if I do not push myself, I risk that they will kill them … I need to get them back.”
“But … you are just one person,” Libelle said in a sad tone.
“I am … but I have never been one to give up,” I told her.
She could only nod, but I could see the worry shining in her eyes.
“I will be okay. I have Rathilion to help me.”
“You need more to help you,” she said before looking over my shoulder at her sister.
Kayda gave her a small nod, before she placed the cup on a table nearby. Then she turned back to me and with a straight back.
“We will help you.”
“Sorry?” I asked, confused.
Had I really heard her say they would … I could not be certain, and I refused to be hopeful.
“You heard us … my queen,” she said. “We will help you.”
“I am not queen,” I whispered.
“You are to us.”
I looked from Kayda to her sister and saw them both smile. I couldn’t believe they would do this for me … they were true friends, and I almost feared I didn’t deserve them.
“You might die,” I said.
“We know. But a slave’s life has never been certain. We could have died any day. Dying for something we believe in, it sounds like a good way to go,” Libelle said.
I smiled a small smile, but still, I did not feel like I could ask them to do this.
“I cannot let you risk your lives like that,” I said.
“You aren’t asking,” Kayda said. “We are offering.”
“And if I say no?”
They both smiled mischievously.
“Then we will follow,” Libelle told me.
I laughed a little, and then nodded.
“Then I guess I can’t stop you.”
They both shook their heads.
“But I can …”
Liam then entered the room, and we all turned to look at him.
“Liam,” I whispered.
“I will not let any of you go, and when Samuel wakes up, he will agree with me.”
He crossed his broad arms and blocked the doorway.
“You cannot keep us here!” I said and got up.
It made Libelle follow me, since she was not done stitching me.
“Look at yourself!” Liam said.
My eyes went down my body. It ached all over. I was bruised like never before. I was tired. I was spent, but I still stood on my own two feet. No one was holding my hand.
“I am still standing,” I said.
“But for how long? How do you see this going? You riding through those gates victorious with all our brothers and Ashes? Because I do not see it. I see you dead.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was being st*pid, but I could not just sit and do nothing.
“What do you suggest I do?”
“Wait.”
“For what?!”
“For an opportunity. For a way to strike a deal with them,” he said.
“A deal?” I laughed.
He nodded.
“They want the crown. You want Ashes. You could abdicate. You could give them what they want.”
I shook my head, laughing a little mockingly.
“They will want me dead no matter what.”
“No-“
“Yes! I am a symbol. Why do you think I married Ashes in the first place? I fought back. When I saved Erika, I fought back, and people believed I was working against the dragons. That is why I married Ashes to show I wasn’t. But they still believe in me. They still look at me waiting to see what I will do next. It won’t be enough for the brothers. They need my head,” I told him.
He refused to listen to me. It was clear. He hoped to find a different way. A way to make sure his sister stayed alive, but unless I decided to stay hidden there and forget about everyone else, I could not stay safe.
“Liam … You can’t stop me.”
“Watch me,” he growled and walked away.
- Writer
