Lesson 35: If It Isn't One Thing, It's Another

Everything ached in the darkness behind Benedikt's closed eyes. A warm reddish glow fell on his eyes and they flitted open. The world was blurry at first, but he blinked until he was able to make out his surroundings. He gasped to see the tapestries of his own bedchamber walls and sunlight streaming through windows he knew all too well. The act of sucking in air caused a sharp pain to shoot through his chest. He let out a breath through gritted teeth. It felt like he'd been pummeled repeatedly in the chest, right above his heart.

He lifted the dressings of his bed to see a purple and green bruise spreading across his bare chest. He prodded the tender skin, his mind fuzzy as he tried to remember what had happened and how he had ended up in his down-stuffed bed.

Sitting up made Benedikt's head feel like it was full of sloshing water. Before his world had gone blank he had seen Grielle. Shadowed memories returned to the forefront of his mind; he could only see the red of Grielle's blood as she clutched a wound to her stomach.

Where was she now? Was she alive?

He threw aside the covers and stumbled from his bed. Lurching like a man far into his cups, he wrenched open the door to his chambers and nearly fell out into the hall.

"Grielle!" he called to the empty passageway. A fluttering panic filled his chest. He staggered down the hall, and left the tower of the royal residences.

He slipped and skidded to a halt at the top of the stairs that led to the throne room. Though his chest throbbed with a distracting ache, he pressed on. He stumbled down the winding staircase three and four steps at a time. "Grielle!" he yelled again with panic in his voice.

Running as fast as his sluggish limbs would allow, Benedikt burst into the throne room to the shocked outcries of the few courtiers who milled about the vast chamber.

Benedikt suddenly realized how disturbing his appearance must be. He hadn't looked in a mirror in ages, but it was probably the dark bruise across his bare chest that drew stares. That or the fact that he was only wearing a pair of linen pants.

Ignoring the appalled looks of his subjects, Benedikt searched for the nearest castle guard. He spotted a woman in heavily polished armor at her post by the door. "Please," Benedikt began, rushing at the guard. "The Liberators! My friends! Where are they?" he wheezed.

The guard gaped at the prince with a bewildered look before managing, "Infirmary."

Benedikt turned and rushed away without expressing any thanks. As he headed through the lower halls to the infirmary, he could only think about what horrible condition he would find his friends in.

"Oh gods, please be alive!" Benedikt gasped. He turned down a long hall with windows to his right and a long row of doors on his left.

"Grielle!" he yelled down the hall.

Several people in billowing white smocks stuck their heads out of the doors. A tall man wearing a white smock with a large, red sash stepped into the hall. Benedikt recognized him as the master healer, but before Benedikt could ask for the whereabouts of his friends, the man swooped down on him. "Who let you out of your room? I told the guards to stay at your door and alert one of my healers when you woke. You need to be off your feet! Resting!" he exclaimed, pushing Benedikt towards an open door and vacant cot.

"No!' Benedikt yelled, struggled against the thin man's surprisingly firm grasp. "I have to know if they're alive."

"Benedikt?" a gruff voice called from the hall. Moose.

"In here!" Benedikt roared.

The healer scoffed his disapproval.

Moose shuffled into the tiny chamber. "I thought I heard your lovelorn cries."

Benedikt tried his best to wrap an arm around Moose's shoulders, but his ribs smarted in protest. "Is she...is everyone okay?" he asked as his heart jumped into his throat with anxiety.

Moose gave him a knowing smirk. "Grielle is fine. We're all a little worse for wear but we're pulling through."

Benedikt sank onto the single bed and let his head slump into his hands. It felt like a giant weight had lifted from his shoulders.

"And Fanna?" he asked, the ending of the battle lost in the shadows of his mind.

Moose bit his cheek as his eyes flicked to the floor. He was holding something back.

"I don't know what happened, but your sword was the one that...that killed her."

A sense of relief filled Benedikt's chest, but he still felt sick. He knew he should be relieved they'd stopped Fanna after all she'd done. He hadn't known her as anything other than a conniving relative until he found her in that tower. A part of him wished that it hadn't ended with death.

"I don't remember—" Benedikt began, pinching the bridge of his nose as a dull throbbing started to fill his head. "How long have I been out?"

"Two weeks," the healer remarked. "You should be resting."

Benedikt nodded. "I want to see her. Then I'll rest."

The healer obliged and escorted Benedikt to a corner room at the end of the hall. Light poured in through its two tall windows

From where she lay on her bed, Grielle pressed herself up onto her elbows. She winced as she moved. White bandages circled her stomach.

"Grielle," he said.

Careful not to shift the blankets, he lowered himself to the bed. He slipped his arms carefully around her shoulders to pull her into a hug.

"Ben..." she whispered into his neck.

As he pulled away, he could help but notice she didn't seem thrilled to see him. "Something troubles you," he said, wrapping Grielle's hand in his. "We're safe now. I don't know how, but Fanna is dead." He ran his thumb over the soft skin on the back of her hand.

Grielle's eyes fell on the mountain ranges outside her window. She looked somewhere far away. "I know how," she said, her voice hollow with emptiness.

"How?"

She checked briefly to see that the healer hadn't lingered at her door before she locked eyes with Benedikt. "I killed her." Her voice cracked on the words.

Benedikt squeezed her hand tighter and wondered if she'd killed anyone before. The Liberators didn't kill people unless it couldn't be avoided — had she avoided it thus far?

Grielle continued. "I didn't know what else to do. I was the only one left and she was killing you. I had to stop her," she said with a hiccupping sob. Her hand extended and her fingers brushed the bruise coloring Benedikt's bare chest. The soft touch sent a shiver down his skin.

"I'm glad you did," Benedikt smiled, trying to stop Grielle's tears with a kiss to her cheek. "Does my father know you killed her?"

"Everyone thinks it was you since it was your sword. When she died, the sleeping curse on the warriors in the hall below us broke. They must have heard my cries for help. I woke up here and so far I haven't been arrested. It seems only you and I know this."

"Good." Benedikt nodded. "And we'll keep it that way...for now, at least. If there is any retribution to pay for Fanna's death, I will pay it myself."

"Ben, no," she objected.

"Yes! It was me who put all of you in her path in the first place. I'll talk with my father. He'll know what consequences to expect." Before she could argue further, Benedikt lowered his lips to hers and pressed a desperate kiss to her mouth.

"I love you," he whispered against her lips, hoping to reassure her that even events such as these couldn't change his feelings for her.

"I love you too," Grielle replied with eyes still wet. She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand.

The healer appeared at the door flanked by a pair of castle guards. "Your Highness, I must insist you return to your chambers."

Benedikt's head felt heavy on his shoulders, so he obliged. He cast Grielle a smile over his shoulder before he allowed himself to be escorted from the room.

"I need to see my father," Benedikt said to the healer once they were out of the infirmary.

The tall man shook his head. "I'll let him know you're up and moving. He can visit you in the morning."

Benedikt opened his mouth to protest, but the thought of crawling back into bed sounded too enticing. The journey back to his bedchamber seemed twice as long as their trek through Bleakwood, and when Benedikt finally fell into his bed, he slipped almost immediately into a dreamless sleep.