Sold To The Dragon Kingdom

THREE

“Enough of this Valeria!” The voice of Sir Deregh boomed into my eardrum as he strode into the dungeon cell, causing my Mother to release her grip from my hair. She stood up with a shocked expression, but her reaction quickly became a scowl as she looked at Milan who was trailing from behind Deregh.

I sighed at the same time shivered at the thought that if Milan had not taken such a bold step to call my step Father, I would have become a roasted meat in the hands of my Mother.

“You insolent bastard!” Mother cursed at Milan as she walked up to where he stood and slapped him hard across the cheek. “Who are you to disobey me i***t? How dare you!”

“No, Valeria. What he did was right.” Sir Deregh countered, plunging himself in between Mother and Milan. His height dwarfed her like a Giraffe standing against an antelope. “You asked for a rod and coal to brand your own child like a criminal! When you clearly are aware that no man in this Kingdom will marry a branded woman!”

‘’I needed to scare her so she can confess to her crimes. You stay out of this matter, Deregh. This is between a Mother and a…”

“You keep silence and let me speak!” He cuts in a voice that conveyed the authority of a husband over a wife. “That child has been nothing but obedient to you! She’s done everything you’ve asked for, and she’s done even better at protecting this Kingdom. How can you accuse her of murdering her own sister? If you can you do this to your own child, how can I ever trust you with my orphans, Valeria? How can I?”

Somehow, those words reminded me of the pain I had kept buried in my heart for several years. It caused a sudden gush of tears to start spilling down from my eyes. And before I could control myself, a sobbing sound erupted from me.

“Take her out and have her fed with a proper meal.” I heard Sir Deregh spoke again, no doubt he was addressing Milan, though I couldn’t raise my head to look at what was happening. I was lost in the moment of self pity, when I felt Milan’s arms coming around me as he pulled me into his embrace. I buried my face in his chest and sobbed silently while his hands gently glided up and down on my back.

I had always thought that my step Father never cared when he’d turned away and leave whenever my Mother would treat me the way she wanted. Until now, he just proved to be a decent human who had been observing the wrongdoings. The thought that I never did anything bad to deserve such cruelty brought more tears to my eyes and I continued sobbing. Milan put his hand beneath my legs and heaved me into his arms and carried me out of the dungeon.

The arguing voices of my Mother and Sir Deregh slowly faded out of earshot by the time we had arrived at the courtyard.

“Let me… walk.” I forced the words out of me, noticing that the pain in my tongue had subsided a little, so it didn’t hurt as much as the last time I spoke.

“You’re dehydrated. Stay quiet and let me take care of you.” He replied as he continued walking.

“Elysie… where is she?” I asked. “I can’t eat or rest without seeing her.”

“You heard from your Mother that she died. Lady Elysie was already dead when I found you both in the temple.” He said, in a voice that hinted his irritation. I wondered if it was because he had been through so much stress for the past two days I had been unconscious.

“Milan…”

“What?”

“Please, put me down.” He did, right away. “There’s a lot of questions on my mind, and the most important for me is to know if you may have found something…. anything that could help us catch the one responsible for Elysie’s death.”

“If that were the case, your Mother wouldn’t have had the guts to blame everything on you and me. All because the culprit has not left behind anything for us to grab on, things are going to be difficult and complicated. Your step Father will not be able to protect us for long because the council demand for a thorough investigation. You know how things are around here, they’re obviously looking for the right person to use as a scapegoat.”

“I am sorry that you had to suffer all because of me. But please bear with me this time and show me where my sister is… I want to see her face for the last time before her cremation.”

He kept silence and stared at me for a brief moment. Then his eyes softened a little. “Sorry, that reaction wasn’t meant for you yet I couldn’t control it. I am sorry that I couldn’t delay your sister’s cremation… It all happened so...’ My head started spinning around and I lost focus on what he was saying.

I was busy looking around for something to grab on to support my weight, and Milan caught hold of me and steadied me just in time before I could crash down. And then afterwards, I welcomed the silent and peaceful darkness of oblivion.

The next time I shot my eyes open, I was in a strange room. Not a dungeon cell.

Right ahead of me, there were books stacked on a tall wooden shelf with large boxes perfectly arranged beside the shelf. I looked around and saw that the walls had paintings of different designs of bows and arrows which seemed like an ancient painting because the colors were of odd mixtures. I tried to move but I couldn’t because something was restraining me. Then I shifted my eyes to my hands and saw that there were bamboo ropes tying my wrists to the bed, and I could feel the same constriction on my legs too.

My body shook in horror and just then, the door swung open and Milan walked in carrying a silver tray in one hand and a large plastic bowl in another. He set down the tray on a table beside me and I saw a naked greased chicken in the tray before he flipped the bowl over to cover it quickly as though he didn’t want me to start drooling.

“There are needles on you, so I tied you up to stop you from moving and hitting a vital point.” He said, with a lopsided smile that made him looked like a mischievous maniac.

But did he just said needles?

My heart instantly began to beat faster and louder, and I could feel my stomach churning with the thoughts of moving and having the needles hitting my vital point. I held my breath and the urge to react as I waited for Milan to explain or at least say something. Or even get the needless out.

He walked forward and pulled off the white sheet that was covering my lower body, exposing my bare tights. I wanted to scream at the sight of myself half naked with nothing but a cotton short, but I held my reaction and waited until Milan’s hands carefully plucked out all the partially invisible thin needles I did not even noticed were standing on some areas on my body.

“Done” He said, smiling crookedly as he untied the ropes on my legs and then I suddenly thought of kneeing him in the face, but I was still unsure if it was safe to move or not. “Its done. You can breathe first, then say what you’re dying to say and stop looking at me like that.”

Right. I swiftly moved my legs and grabbed his neck between my tights and he groaned and started tapping his hands on my laps and struggling to get out.

“Stop this madness, Eliza.” He warned, gripping my tights firmly. “Stop or I’ll be forced to hurt you.”

“I’m going to kill you if you hesitate in telling me what the nuts you’ve been up to. Why am I in shorts?”

“I just gave you a treatment to stimulate your healing ability. Your body is exhausted, its the reason why you kept fainting.” Slowly, I felt his strength overpowering mine and widening the space between my tights. Then he removed his head and tossed my legs back onto the bed. “I had to do it myself. And I didn’t even see beyond what was necessary for me to see. We are in your step Father’s safe house. I had to move you out of the palace away from the eyes of your Mother. I have a lot to say, but maybe you should eat first before we talk about it.”

“No, tell me everything while I eat.” I stretched my arm to grab the bowl he’d earlier kept on the table, but he reached out before me quickly, and brought the tray to the bed, and I hungrily dug in.

“You know your sister has been cremated. I told you about it before you passed out.” He said, and I acknowledged with a small nod. I remembered hearing him saying something like that to me before I fainted in the courtyard. Maybe we weren’t that much closer with Elysie which was the reason why her death did not shocked me as much as I had expected it to. Things always worked out for her, though I never hated her or wished for something bad to happen to her like this, but it did anyway. And maybe I don’t have to beat up myself over something I had no power to control. That was her fate. And at least she was loved widely and lived a better life than I could ever dreamed of.

“The Queen wants you to live as the high priestess and be the mediator.” He broke the news all of a sudden, causing the big chunk of meat to fall off from between my teeth.

“What do you mean? Are you joking? I don’t have any magical ability, and they all know that I at least need a little bit of magic to play the role of a priestess.” His curious eyes blinked. “You too… You were expecting me to do as they said?” I asked, hoping he would deny it.

“Yes, truthfully. We are going to regret it for the rest of our lives if we let this opportunity to slip away. You and I are going to risk becoming outcasts and you know that the council will not back away from demanding a thorough investigation. Do you know how chaotic the situation at the palace is at the moment? They aren’t planning to make Lady Elysie’s death go public because its going to devastate the people. Everyone has been counting on the high priestess to stand as the mediator. Well, your step Father said he can make things work even without having you as the mediator, but everyone else including your Queen aunt and your Mother are thinking of having you as the Mediator. And I know you won’t need magic to play this role and have the treaty signed. All you need is to trust and rely on your persuasive ability which you already have inside you. I’ve seen what you can do, Eliza.”

“This can’t be happening. No way.” I pushed the chicken tray aside and laid back flat on my back to digest what I heard from Milan. Sooner or later, I knew I would be forced to forsake my identity and start living as the high priestess. If they had another option to consider, they wouldn’t have proposed such a preposterous idea.

But Maybe… Just Maybe… It might really be a good chance for me to bring an end to this catastrophe and prove to my Mother that I could be better than Elysie.

“Get me my clothes.” I said, upon remembering that I was still not properly dressed underneath the sheet.

**********

When the morning had dawned bright enough for the eyes to see, Helios rode with his men to the city gate; four warriors including himself, Sir Lancelot, Sir Dojhan and Sir Randell. The three had been his most loyal warriors who had been exceptionally trained to wield a sword well enough to take down a hundred men each. They clad themselves in chain armours and golden flowing capes that matched the color of North Albon’s golden banner.

Helios had his long, dark hair scattered across his cape, his groomed beard made him seem older than twenty six, though he was apparently younger than Sir Lancelot whose beard was filled with numerous white hair for a man claiming to be in his early thirties. Dojhan and Randell had no beard, they were youths of almost the same age as Helios, and while Randell had voluntarily chosen to go bald, Dojhan had a well groomed dark hair, much longer than that of Helios. Only that his features were the most soft and feminine of them all, and his genes were probably the reason why he couldn’t grow a beard like a proper adult.

As they rode past a small village a few miles away from the city gate, Helios pulled the reins and brought his beast to a halt, squinting his eyes into the bright daylight as he overlooked the lowlands and what seemed to be the mountain of ice to the South. Then he flicked his fingers as a signal for the others who immediately dispersed and rode fast into different directions towards the thick forest. Only Sir Dojhan looked back with a smirk and waved at Helios before his flying cloak vanished into the wilderness like a horse-fly. Helios grunted to himself and muttered something about Dojhan’s immaturity which never fails to irk him.

When he finally turned his face to the South, he kicked the horse so hard that it violently neighed and broke into a furious gallop towards the mountain of ice. The mountain proudly stood between the white sea of Krosherz and the red sea of Malta. It was basically considered to be the epicenter of Altrem known for its stagnant icy temperature. It was formerly called the Salsa mountain before the conquest of the Salsa village which once occupied the plains of the Island near the white sea.

As he rode further, the mountain came clear to his view, and the thought of Camilla suddenly came to his mind when he gazed at the sea to the left. Nine years ago, that area was where he had once saved a young human girl from drowning herself in the sea after the invasion of the Salsa village. He still remembered how he wielded his sword and killed a lot of the islanders, sparing only their women and children. The young girl he saved was Camilla who he took to the Kingdom of North Albon where she sought refuge at the Chaste Castle and later became a King’s woman. They’d been secretly seeing one another for about four years until now that the King had planned to make her a concubine.

When they talked the other night, he figured it was time for him to let her go since she’d chosen to become a concubine and apparently, he wouldn’t be able to share his woman with another. Camilla had chosen her path after all, there was nothing he could do, though the thought still angered him. He hadn’t realized that he was approaching the camp of the hoodlums until the roughnecks emerged from various angles and slowly surrounded him. They carried all sorts of weapons; axes, spears, rusty looking swords and cutlasses.

“I come in peace.” He said, transferring the reins in one hand and surrendering the other in the air. “I am Lugard Helios, a messenger from the dragon Kingdom of North Albon. Send words to Geoffrey the one eyed. Tell him the druid hunter has come for the business.” He dismounted from his horse and watched as the men standing in the front began to exchange glances at one another. Their body stiffened and a few quickly bowed their heads in respect. The others also began to drop their unwelcoming scowls, upon seeing the reaction that came from their fellows.

“We’ve been expecting your presence Sire.” One of the men replied, after raising his head and roughly glancing at Helios. He turned and whistled towards the trees where two more wild fellows came running out with their massive crossbows that looked more like they were specially meant to be used for hunting down wild boars rather than humans. “Matt, you escort our guest to the Master’s inn and Boyce shall take the horse to the stables and feed it.”