Chapter 19: For A Friend

    Haldit walked over to Adrastea and nudged her side, getting no response. Sighing he folded his arms and looked down at Teo, his dark eyes staring up at the ceiling. 

    "The fool," Haldit spat, glaring at the lifeless body. "How could he do this to me?"

    It ruined all his plans. Everything depended on Teo staying alive and now it was all over. What had Adrastea meant when she said she was not the heir? Did she not know? But how could she not know? It was written in her skin.

    Out of curiosity Haldit knelt down beside Adrastea's limp body grabbed hold of her left arm, pulling the sleeve of her jacket and shirt up halfway exposing the forearm. Nothing there. Then he tried rubbing the area. Still nothing. Furrowing his brow Haldit tried the other arm with the same results.

    "She was not the heir," Haldit said breathlessly. 

    Then it suddenly dawned on him. If Adrastea was not the heir and Teo was not the heir then that meant there was another sibling somewhere, and alive at that. 

     In a panic Haldit stood abruptly and turned to one of the guards saying hurriedly, "Get rid of the bodies quickly! I must leave as soon as possible."

     The guard, not much older then fifteen, nodded and stared with dark eyes as Haldit ran across the room and up the stairs. As soon as he heard the door close the guard removed his helmet and hurriedly ran over to Adrastea, rolling the princess over onto her back.

     "Quick," he said to the other guard. "Bring my kit."

     The second guard, although much older than the first, obeyed without question running across the room to a cupboard wherein he found a bag filled with bags of herbs and other such things.

     "Is this it?" he asked.

     The boy nodded and the guard ran over quickly, dropping down on one knee and handing it over.

     "Is she still alive?" 

     "Yes, but not for much longer," the boy said, digging through his bag.

     After a few seconds of searching he pulled out a round box that contained a wad of cotton and a small bottle of a brown liquid. Quickly pouring a generous amount of the liquid on the cotton ball the boy waved it in front of Adrastea's face. It took a moment to work before the princess's eyes shot open and she started with a jolt.

    "Relax," the boy said. "Among friend's you are...Here, drink this quickly. It's the antidote for the poison."

    Adrastea quickly took the cup of liquid handed her and gulped the whole thing down, not even flinching at the terrible taste. After two years of living with Aule she had learned to down medicines easily.

    She still felt dizzy but she could feel the strength returning to her limbs and her vision began to clear.

    "It will take a few minutes for it to work fully," the boy said, putting his materials back.

    Adrastea looked up at his young face in confusion. She had never met him before, she was sure of that, but he seemed somehow familiar. Something about the shape of his face and the dark eyes and hair. 

    "Who are you?" she asked, surprised at how quiet her voice was.

    "Corydon my name is and this is Leon," the boy answered.

    Still Adrastea could not place him, even with an introduction, and it was starting to drive her mad. At least, on the inside. Gathering up enough strength she sat up and shook her head, looking at Corydon once more.

    "Have we met?" she asked plainly.

    Corydon smiled and scratched the back of his neck. Even his smile seemed familiar.

    "No, we have not...But I think I understand what you mean. My father you do know."

    His father?

    Then it came to her and her green eyes widened in surprise as she looked the boy up and down.

    "You are Wren's son?" she asked.

    Corydon nodded, obviously somewhat amused. It was so blatantly obvious now. They looked exactly the same, except for the obvious age difference, and Adrastea knew that Wren had a family, it just never really clicked.

    "Well thank you, Corydon," she said, bowing her head slightly. "And Leon."

    The two guards nodded back and helped the princess to her feet.

    "Are you feeling alright now?" Corydon asked.

    Adrastea nodded in reply. 

    Turning around she saw the body of Teo laying on the ground and suddenly the past events came back into her mind like a flowing river.

    "Oh Teo," she said softly. "Why did you do it?"

    Adrastea could feel another lump forming in her throat and stubbornly she pushed it back down, balling her fists.

    "Where is Haldit," she asked, her voice firm.

    "Upstairs he just went. Running away I believe he is doing," Corydon replied. "Scared him you did with that heir business."

    Suddenly the anger in Adrastea was brought back to the surface and she went over to the table she knocked over, grabbing several knives and sticking them in her boots jacket and sleeves.

    "Where are you going?" Corydon asked.

    Adrastea shook her head once more as a wave of nausea hit and she turned around, trying to look as confident as possible.

    "I will not let him escape this time," she said firmly, bowing her head and running up the steps.

    She was a strange site dashing through the palace halls past maids and courtiers and everyone stared after her in confusion, but in reality they did not care if she was an assassin or not so no one said anything.

    Bursting through the front doors Adrastea found herself in the courtyard, surrounded by stable hands, more maids and courtiers, guards, and various other personages that had business at the palace. But the only thing that caught her attention was the silvery figure of Haldit riding out the front gate on a black grey dappled horse. 

    "Should have tried more camouflage," Adrastea muttered, running down the steps to the nearest horse.

    "Let me borrow this," she said hurriedly, snatching the reins from a surprised stable boy and galloping out of the courtyard after Haldit.

    Adrastea reined in her horse once she was down on ground and looked down all three intersections, barely catching a glimpse of a white horse's tail whipping around the corner of the main street. Urging her horse into a gallop Adrastea bolted down the wooden street and out onto the cleared path that led to Sigmo. On the straight stretch she could see Haldit riding ahead but the path he took led down to the harbor road that wound along the cliffs, the trees growing right up to the edge, so it was quite difficult to keep him in view the whole time and Adrastea started to panic every time Haldit rode round a bend. 

    "You will not get away," she kept saying to herself. 

                Miguel Pavia's Camp

    Corydon rode swiftly up to the main tent and quickly leaped off his horse, running inside where Wren, Evert, and Miguel, were all standing around the table discussing plans.

    "What's wrong?" Wren asked, looking up from the document in front of him.

    "Adrastea has gone after Haldit," he said breathlessly.

    "What? I thought I told you to stop her?"

    "I did not think it right," Corydon answered quietly, looking at his feet.

    "Not right? She could be killed."

    Wren was not harsh with his words but Corydon felt ashamed nonetheless and Evert could see it.

    "Oh, no good it would have done," he said. "Found a way to get after him she would have."

    Wren knew Evert was right. Nothing anyone could say would ever change Adrastea's mind. It was both a blessing and a curse.

    "Well," Wren started, looking at Evert expectantly. "What would you have us do?"

    Evert looked up in surprise, staring at his mentor as though he were crazy. Then he remembered what Wren had told him and cleared his throat, standing up straighter.

    "Yes, well, if this document is real and if I am no fake," he said, already an idea springing forward. "Hard to capture that snake it will not be."

               The fisherman's hut near Sigmo...

   Adrastea slowed her horse down to a walk and turned off the path and into the trees, watching as Haldit stopped in front of the abandoned fisherman's hut. After tying his horse up he looked about nervously and then went inside, leaving the door open.

    The fisherman's hut was a good place to hide since no one ever went there and in front, back, side, and second story of the building there were all sorts of boxes and crates and old rotting rowboats to hide things in. There was also the boat lift that was attached to the cliffs but it was even more rotted than the everything else, including the boat that was hooked onto it, so going down onto the water by that route was a foolhardy thing to do. 

    Although Adrastea did not think that Haldit would try to go down to the water that way she could not think of another reason why he would stop at the hut, unless there was someone living there.

    "Well," she said to herself, dismounting and tying up the horse. "Only one way to find out."

    And with that the young princess ran through the woods until she reached the small clearing wherein sat the hut. Waiting a few minutes for anything new Adrastea decided it was time and stepped out of the trees, quickly dashing across the opening to the wall of the hut and crouching down by the window. After waiting a few more minutes for any noise she peaked in through the broken glass.

    The room was dark besides the few beams of light that poured in through the window, but even though her vision was limited, Adrastea could tell there was no one downstairs. So slowly and quietly she snuck across the window and in through the open door, thanking her lucky stars when she found the floor was simply a dirt patch. That at least eliminated one problem of having to make sure not to step on a creaky floorboard. 

    As she looked about Adrastea could hear muffled voices coming from upstairs and she slowly tiptoed towards the staircase, looking up through the opening in the ceiling. Then, taking a deep breath she slowly lifted her foot to the first step when suddenly a hand jerked her arm back and braced her against the wall, a warm hand covering the princess's mouth. 

    After the original shock Adrastea blinked several times, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness, and as her vision cleared a familiar face came into focus that made her blood boil.

    It was Daphne. 

    "Shhh," the human whispered.

    It was an unnecessary gesture considering that she was covering Adrastea's mouth, but it was best to prompt the princess that any noise would be dangerous.

    Breathing deep Adrastea stopped trying to tear Daphne's hand away and simply tapped it, showing that she would make no noise. And of course, being the understanding person that she was, Daphne fell for it, releasing her grip. The second her hands were away Adrastea pulled out her knife and grabbed Daphne by the collar, turning around and shoving the girl against the wall. After a short pause of looking at the stairs to see if they had made too much noise and confirming that they had not, Adrastea looked back at Daphne, eyes blazing with furry.

    "I know you're mad-" Daphne started but Adrastea quickly cut her off.

    "Mad seems an understatement you treacherous witch," she whispered.

    Daphne barely heard what she said above the voices upstairs, but it was not hard to make out their meaning.

    "Alright. So I stabbed you in the back," Daphne corrected herself. "I know it won't do any good to tell you I'm sorry, but before you kill me I would like to say something."

    "You do not deserve to say anything before you die!"

    "I know that," Daphne answered calmly, barely feeling the cold steel against her neck. "I did wrong. But what I want to say isn't for me, it's for you...I looked at the documents before I gave them to Haldit, and even then I decided to keep one."

    "You kept one?" Adrastea asked in confusion. "Why?"

    "Because I did not wish to ruin the life of the one mentioned in it."

    Adrastea wanted to both laugh and strangle Daphne at the same time.

    "So you were perfectly willing to sell a country but not to destroy a strangers life? That was very thoughtful of you," she said sarcastically.

    "I had no choice," Daphne replied. "It was the only way I could find Deirdre. Berglund said that if I helped Haldit they would give my sister back...As for the paper, it was not a stranger."

    That caught Adrastea's attention. Was she herself suppose to know this person? It would make more sense for her to know someone mentioned in a document than Daphne.

    "Who was it?"

    In the dark Adrastea managed to make out a sort of sad smile that spread across the girl's face.

    "You won't believe who the heir is," she said, but before she could continue two three figures started down the stairs.

    Adrastea recognized them all. The first one was Demetria, tall and elegant as ever, and the second was Haldit who came down dragging Caelum by the collar of his ragged old shirt.

    Starting with anger Adrastea let go of Daphne and started forward, but Daphne's hand reached out and stopped her. Adrastea looked back fiercely but Daphne simply shook her head and whispered, "Not yet."

    Demetria looked back at Haldit who was struggling with Caelum and said, "Careful Haldit, he might conjure up a storm."

    They had gagged the boy and tied his hands in front, but that did not seem enough. Haldit continued to shake Caelum about until they went out the door, and that was when Daphne let go.

    "Now," she said. "Give me a knife."

    Adrastea looked at Daphne with suspicious eyes but the human's outstretched hand and blank expression won, making Adrastea realize that it was probably a good idea to have two blades instead of one.  

    Once Daphne had the knife she was out the door before Adrastea, leaping on Demetria like a cat on a mouse. The two of them were down on the ground before anyone could blink but Demetria quickly recovered, rolling to the side and slipping away from Daphne in a way that no one could actually make out. In a matter of seconds both of them were on their feet and Daphne ran at her opponent, taking on the offense.

    Adrastea took this opportunity to sneak up behind Haldit and put the tip of her dagger into his back saying softly, "Let the boy go."

    Shocked even more Haldit quickly dropped Caelum who landed hard on the turf, and turned around meeting Adrastea's calm expression with utter disbelief.

    "But you...You...You are-"

    "Dead?" Adrastea cut in. "Dead I would be if not for the fact that your staff is ever so unreliable."

Haldit's expression hardened and he drew his sword, skillfully giving it a few tests swings. That was the moment Adrastea remembered how good her uncle was at sword play.

    Oh dear, was all her brain could tell her.

    Ignoring Daphne's battle cries Adrastea took a deep breath and focused on her opponent, sizing him up. He was, obviously, much bigger than her and stronger, therefore she would need speed and agility to take him down and focus on staying out of the way of his blade.

    Two seconds after Adrastea calculated everything Haldit came at her swinging his sword to the right. Adrastea bent over backwards so that the blade swung over her and she quickly shot forward with her dagger, nicking Haldit in the arm as he stepped to the side. Ignoring the pain in his arm Haldit grabbed Adrastea's outstretched wrist and slammed it against his knee, forcing her to drop the dagger, but unfortunately for Haldit this was one move Cephalus loved to try on Adrastea and she countered countered easily, turning towards him and placing her right foot behind his and pushing forward on his chest with all her might. The both of them crashed to the ground and Adarstea grabbed for her dagger, leaping to her feet just in time to block a blow from Haldit that sent a jarring sensation up her arm. 

    "Aren't you just a smug one," Daphne muttered as Demetria spun out of the way once more.

    Daphne could not understand how she managed to elude her so easily. It was as though she disappeared in one location and ended up in another within the space of half a second.

    "Give me the boy," Demetria said, her voice cool and elegant.

    "If you want him you'll have to go and get him," Daphne answered, gripping the handle of her knife tighter.

    Demetria shrugged her shoulders and in a flash a knife appeared in her hands and she leaped through the air, coming down on Daphne with a hard blow that forced the girl to one knee as she blocked. Seeing that Demetria's blade was only an inch or so from her face Daphne blew hard and gathered up all the strength in her body, pushing Demetria back with a mighty force and running headlong into the woman's stomach, knocking the both of them over onto the hard ground.

     Caelum crawled away from the brawling and grabbed a piece of broken glass by the window, sawing through the ropes that bound his hands. Once the ropes were off he quickly undid the gag around his mouth and, in one piercing shriek, he screamed. 

    Suddenly the ground shook with a loud thunderclap and Adrastea, Haldit, Daphne, and Demetria, all lost their balance, staggering back and forth like several rocking horses on a ship. The clouds gathered and grew into a dark mass, casting shadows upon all of Arietes. Blue lightning streaked the sky and shot down to the ground, striking the cliff sides creating avalanches of rocks that cascaded down into the rocky shoreline below. 

    Surprised Daphne was caught off guard and Demetria came ran at her, thrusting forward with a knife that suddenly appeared in her hand once more. Taken by surprise Daphne deflected it only slightly and it cut into her side. Then, with a sudden dark flash Demetria disappeared and an instant later Daphne felt a presence behind her and a sharp, agonizing pain cut through her back and surged through the rest of her body and a scream was ripped from her throat as she dropped the dagger in her hands. 

    Haldit scrambled to his feet and made a run for his horse, the ground shaking fiercely, and Adrastea, determined to never let him leave that place alive, got to her feet as well and started after him. Then her clouded mind was penetrated by a painful cry and Adrastea whipped her head around to see Demetria standing tall behind Daphne, the blade of her dagger buried in the girl's back. 

    Daphne's pale pain-ridden face looking at her with a sad expression as she tried hard to breath through choking in her throat. 

    "Daphne," Adrastea whispered, staring in shock.

    Demetria's thin lips curled into an evil smile and she drew the knife out of Daphne's body, the girl falling to her knees.

    "DAPHNE!" Adrastea screamed, forgetting all about Haldit and running across the open ground and leaping on Demetria with a new hatred.

    The princess cut back and forth at the woman but she simply dodged or blocked, swaying to the side easily. Adrastea, getting angrier by the minute, finally managed to thrust forward and jab her elbow into Demetria's stomach. Catching her off guard Adrastea then slammed her free fist into the woman's jaw with all her strength and sent Demetria flying off the ground and crashing against the pile of crates that stood in the way. Without wasting a moment the princess ran forward, but Demetria disappeared before her eyes and instinctively Adrastea threw herself on the ground just as the woman reappeared behind her with her knife in hand. Adrastea slammed her foot into Demetria's shin and jumped on her, burying her knife deep into the chest of her opponent.

    Just then the thunder clapped once more and the rain began to pour in buckets, falling on Demetria's pale, lifeless face.

    Taking a deep breath and rolling over unsteadily Adrastea scrambled to her feet and ran over to Daphne who had not moved but simply watched with bared teeth, trying hard to get a deep breath.

    "Daphne-" Adrastea started but Daphne's eyes grew wide with fear and she stepped around the princess, spreading her arms out protectively as Demetria ran forward, the blade of her dagger striking the wrong person. Realizing what Daphne had done Adrastea got to her feet and pulled Daphne away from Demetria and grabbed hold of witch's throat, not caring anymore if she lived or died.

    Suddenly the ground shook violently and with a loud scream all three of them tumbled over the edge of the cliff, Demetria crashing to the rocky shore below. Daphne and Adrastea landed with a loud crash in the rotted boat that hung from the rotting pulley as their weight made contact one of the ropes snapped and the boat fell down through the air with the girls in it. With a loud screech it jerked to a stop, being held only by the last rope and Adrastea looked up nervously, seeing the threads slowly tear.

    "Oh no," she whispered.

    Daphne, her hands bloody from the clutching the wound in her stomach, looked up and saw the rope tearing. Without saying a word she grabbed hold of the edge of the boat and started over but Adrastea cried a loud 'no' and pulled the girl back in, holding onto her for dear life.

    "Don't you dare, Daphne," Adrastea choked, tears running freely down her cheeks. 

    Daphne's pale face looked up at the princess and she smiled slowly.

    "It...It can't hold...the both of us," she choked, coughing violently afterwards.

    Adrastea pressed down hard on the Daphne's bloody hands and tried the stem the blood flow, but it just kept coming.

    "You are being ridiculous," Adrastea said.

    Not a second later the boat lurched as one of the threads on the rope broke and Adrastea looked up at it uncertainly.

    "It can't hold both of us, Aule," Daphne said, reverting to the name she had always used. "Don't...Don't be...stubborn."

    With that last word her face twisted painfully and Adrastea felt her throat growing tight, her eyes blurred and hot. She tried to say something but no words came out.

    "Aule," Daphne started.

    "Yes?"

    "Find Deirdre...Please?"

    Adrastea tried to reply but she choked on the words and simply nodded. Daphne smiled once more grabbed the edge of the boat, slowly sitting up.

    "Thank you," she said.

    "Daphne don't," Adrastea cried, grabbing hold of Daphne's arm. "Stay here. We will both of us be fine."

    Looking at Adrastea Daphne could see the white blotches blocking her vision and the pain began to grow numb. She knew a bad cut when she saw one, and there was really no hope left.

    "No, Aule," she said. "You need to live...Goodbye."

    And before Adrastea could grab on harder Daphne pulled herself over the edge of the boat and fell down to the tangle of rocks below, the noise muffled by the roar of the thunder and the pouring rain.

    "Daphne..." Adrastea cried through the ache in her chest. 

    Her eyes could only see the blurred shadow of the rocks and her cheeks were hot with the running tears. She had never felt such a great loss ever before, not even when she had lost her parents. The king and queen had of course been her parents, but they were also the rulers of Arietes and had only a little time for their daughter.

    But Daphne...Adrastea felt as though the world had ended and she wished more than ever that she were dead, just so that she could be with Daphne once more. 

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top