by Rue Volley
She raised an eyebrow and then pushed herself up onto her knees. She looked me over and then tapped the bed. “Oh come now, sit with me, Dorin….Please, indulge me,” she said as I sat down on the edge of the bed and refused to get any closer to her. She scooted up behind me and spread her legs. Pressing her knees against the back of my hips as she leaned in and lay her head on my red armor. It was cold and hard and she closed her eyes as her fingertips gently touched the smooth surface.
“Why do you hate me?”
I turned and looked at her. “I don’t hate you Illona, just the opposite. I feel for you and I should not.”
She grinned and looked down as she started to pull her dress up. I reached out and touched her hand and stopped her. “We cannot be this way, you are to marry my king and my loyalty lies with him and always will.”
She jerked her hand away and slid from my bed as she walked up to the mirror, she turned sideways and held the material close as she rubbed the very small bump that was starting to show. She bit her bottom lip and turned to me. “This is your child, Dorin.”
I stood up quickly and dropped my sword from my side. The clang rang out in the room as she nodded to me. “Vlad was unable to plant his seed into me and I thought that he had, but I bled and when I saw the blood, I knew that I would never be able to secure his bloodline. So, I came to you and you did this, this is your child.”
I stepped towards her as my throat started to close up a little. I opened my mouth and spoke, but I sounded foreign, I had never been so taken aback in my life. “It cannot be.”
She nodded to me and held her hands out towards me, beckoning me to come to her. I shook my head ‘no’. “You need to leave Illona, now…please, please leave.”
She lowered her hands and her eyes narrowed, as she was not happy with my reaction to it, “I would have expected more from you.”
“What am I to say to this? I cannot believe you would do this to me.”
She laughed. “Oh, I held you down and forced your seed up inside of me I would suppose.”
I walked to my window and stared out at all of the red banners now flying high as the wedding would be in three days’ time. I turned back to her and lowered my head. “I will leave Castle Bran forever and you can raise this child with Vlad as his own.”
She walked to me and placed a hand to my face. She stared into my eyes. “Oh I will raise it as Vlad’s own, and you will remain here, his servant…loyal, a protector to him and to me….and to your child, Dorin. I did not tell you because I wanted him to know, I wanted you to know that you now serve me.”
I closed my eyes as her cold hand left my face and she walked to my door and reached for the handle. “I will tell him.” She stopped and turned back to me.
“No…you won’t. He loves me more than earth and sky…more than you. Your lustful need for him will keep you here forever. Oh yes, I know. I knew as I crept into your room and watched you thrash in your bed. Cock hard and his name coming from your lips. You love him as do I and you would lay with him if he would allow it….but he doesn’t want you in that way, he never will.” She waved her hand toward the mirror and it rippled as I walked up to it. It showed Vlad and I together on that night after the battle. His lips pressed against my own.
“He was thinking of me and me alone, not of you,” she whispered to me.
“Sorceress,” I said as I touched the mirror and she grinned at me.
I tried to control my breathing as she spoke of things no one should know, no one in this world, and it was then that my true hatred for Illona started to rise.
***
Three days passed and I ate nothing and barely drank. My thoughts consumed with my disloyalty to Vlad and my undoing of his one true want in this world…that of securing his bloodline for Castle Bran. I had gone from loyal dragon to treacherous snake, not without help from the most conniving of creatures, that of Illona. She had truly infiltrated this world I lived in and I did not know how I would survive it. How I would stand at Vlad’s side and watch as she ruled not only him, but me. She now had all the power. She had him, this kingdom and a child who would go on to rule. My child, or so she said. I had failed Vlad in the worst of ways. I had allowed my need for him to blind me as I lay with Illona and only imagined him behind my eyes. Only imagined being where he had been in lust.
I had laid with a sorceress who was here to devour us whole. I could feel the weight of it upon my chest and the longer it festered, the more egregious the wound became. I could barely stand to look at her or even at Vlad. I was finally summoned to him on the day of the wedding and I stepped into his chambers with dark circles under my eyes and fatigue in my heart. I stood there in my red armor and wanted to tell him so very badly, but I could not. I could not hurt him in this way. He turned and smiled at me and then his expression changed as he studied my face. He walked towards me and placed a hand on my shoulder as he stared into my eyes.
“Are you ill my friend?”
I nodded, just to appease him, “I will have the doctor summoned at once.”
I shook my head ‘no’, “I am fine, it is nothing that will not pass. I apologize for my appearance my lord.”
“No need to apologize, Dorin. You did not choose illness.”
I paused as his words weighed on my heart. I had chosen this and it was my fault for allowing her to sleep with me that night. My eyes lowered as the very thought of it continued to eat me alive.
“I wanted to ask a favor of you, Dorin, but if you need rest, then by all means return to your chamber and sleep.”
My eyes lifted to his own and I could not deny him anything. “No, I am fine, what do you ask of me?”
He tapped my shoulder a couple of times and removed his hand. “I would ask that you walk Illona down the aisle for me. I know it is customary that I have my own father do this, but seeing that I am alone this world, I would ask this of someone I consider a brother to me, blood or no blood, you have always stood by my side, loyal and unwavering. It would be an honor if you did this for me.”
I swallowed hard as I thought about his words and what they truly meant to him. I knew then as I would always know that Vlad loved me. I took a slow and steady breath and regained my composure. “Her father will be in attendance my lord, he should present her, not me.”
Vlad turned and looked into his mirror. He looked stunning. Better than I had ever seen him look before. He had even trimmed his shaggy hair. This I did not expect him to do. He loved it that way and for him to take the time to look less heathen and more respectable meant that he was going into this whole-heartedly. He glanced at my reflection in the mirror and grinned.
“I despise him, Dorin. As he despises me. I ate with him last night, along with Illona and her brother. You should have been there, the pride this man spews. He honestly believes that I am beneath him and that I am lucky to be marrying Illona.”
I looked at him and tilted my head. “She is a prize.”
He smiled and turned back to me. “Oh no my friend, I do agree with that, but her father is a liability. I would ask that you watch him very closely.”
“Do you fear that they will try to harm you?”
He shook his head and then laughed. “He would be a fool to try here, but after this wedding, well…I just prefer if we keep a close eye on him and make sure that he is escorted out of town and back to his rightful place.”
“I would be happy to do this for you.”
He smiled. “I will send five of our best with you, Dorin. It will be a ten day ride there and back. Are you certain you can do this, feeling ill?”
I nodded to him. I almost felt as if his mission for me was a blessing. I would be able to get away from everything. We could have this wedding, bind our nations together and then I could take leave of this place and, perhaps, extend my absence. I knew in my heart that I should leave and never return. If God was truly at Vlad’s side, he would make that so. I did not deserve to live here in luxury, to be called a lord or even a frie
nd. I had dishonored him and the Castle Bran. I deserved to wander with the Lord and Maker and perhaps I shall.
I stood outside the large cathedral doors waiting for Illona to arrive. Everyone from far and wide was already crammed into the large hall. All that was left to do was to escort this sorceress to Vlad and allow her to love him for the rest of his days. I closed my eyes and clinched my fists as I fought back visions of his naked form in my mind. I still lusted for him, even now. Even with everything that had taken place. I heard footsteps and glanced to my right as Illona came around the corner, dressed in red from head to toe. Her head was draped in red lace, her wedding dress made of the same. It was off each of her delicate pale shoulders, showing off her protruding collar bones. Her fingers clutched a large bouquet of flowers in red, black, and white. The colors of Bran, the colors I had always knelt to and honored. She walked towards me as six maidens flanked her sides. They moved behind her in two rows as she stepped up to me and grinned behind the thin lace. I stared into her eyes as she looked me over.
“You are a proud dragon and I am honored to have you presenting me to King Vlad,” I bowed to her as she watched me. The words were absent from my tongue as I had nothing to say to her. She reached down and touched my cheek, causing a humming wave to race along it and down my neck. I instantly felt a little better as I rose and her fingers lost contact with my skin.
“I appreciate your obedience.”
“I serve King Vlad and the house of Bran, including my Lady Illona,” I said as I turned and stood ridged, staring at the two large doors. She laughed quietly and then slid her arm into my own.
“Must we always be so formal now, I mean, the things we have seen together.”
I looked over and down at her as the maidens giggled behind her. She must have told them all and it infuriated me. “My duty is to King and country.”
“And heir,” she said as she touched her stomach. I sighed as the large doors opened and we stood there as everyone in the room turned to look at us. I felt frozen in place until she started to take a step forward and I was forced to follow suit. She walked with pride, as did I, passing royal subject after royal. Their eyes raced over the two of us and in all of my days I never felt so stripped bare. The uncomfortable nature of it stuck with me as we walked along a path that seemed to take a lifetime. Illona walked very slowly taking it all in. She relished it as I hated every minute of it. I felt as if the entire world knew of my treachery now and I could barely look up at the large black cross hanging at the front of the cathedral. God had abandoned me as I had of him. I had ruined my grace when I spilled my seed into Illona and her black magic wove itself around it and created an abomination. A child who would rule but was not that of Vlad’s bloodline. I had ruined his legacy, turned it into a mockery.
I almost stumbled and Illona helped to hold me up. I regained my composure and we walked on until I could finally focus on Vlad, who looked as beautiful as he ever had to me before. His expression was one of joy and peace. I had never known him to truly have peace before, but it suited him. My heartbeat slowed down the closer we got to him and the high priest. I focused on his face, his happiness, and tried to tell myself that I had made this possible for him. That it was me. I had to, otherwise I would draw my sword and stick it straight through myself this very minute to be done with it all.
We stepped up to the platform and Illona glanced over to me. I turned to her and lifted her lace veil, which was custom. Her lips being exposed first, round and soft, then her small nose followed by her large and soulful eyes. Regardless of her ability to trick and weave her spells, she was stunning, even more so this day. In fact, I had never seen a woman as beautiful as she was. Her beauty radiated in the room and a small murmur rose up as we turned and I held her hand up. It was also customary for the man presenting the new queen to her king to show her to people of the land. She stared out at the crowd and her grin was gentle. They loved her as anyone would. She bewitched those who laid their eyes upon her as she had me. We then turned and Vlad walked down to us. I held her hand out to him and he took it as I let go. It was the most painful few seconds of my life to hand her over to him. I still wanted him, but I beat it back as Illona left my side and walked up the steps with Vlad. Vlad looked back at me for a moment and the rest of the ceremony was a blur to me. All words and binding as my heart broke into a million pieces and all I could think about was leaving this place forever.
Chapter Six
Debt
Her father lingered like a plague in Castle Bran for four weeks after the ceremony. He had said he was to be returning home, but instead, he ate of our food, drank our wine and fucked as many women as he could have in his bed. He was a disgusting man, barbaric and so unlike his children. I would have to guess that Illona and Stefan took after their mother in their ability to appear civil. Unfortunately, Stefan’s birth had marked the end of her life and perhaps set them on the path they walked now. Without guidance, a child can easily surrender to evil and I truly felt that perhaps Illona and Stefan were both of the devil himself.
Then, after four weeks, I was summoned to his chambers after the guard had alerted me that something had happened. I arrived to Illona standing there by her father’s bed with a knife in her hand. She turned and dropped it as the blood splattered to the ground. Her face hardened and her eyes filled with tears. She stared at me and her look was empty. Void of anything other than pain. I had never seen her this way, although I knew she had darkness inside of her. I heard a moaning and saw Stefan start to move in the bed, his naked frame bruised and battered. I ran to him and helped him up, covering him with the sheet as Illona looked on. I glanced down at her naked father, his cock erect and his mouth gaping wide open. She had buried the blade deep in his chest and the blood pooled there. I shook my head and started to speak, needing to understand exactly what had happened here.
“Illona…”
She looked at me and shook her head, trying to compose herself, but her hands were trembling. I expected her to be stronger, to stand up straight and tell me why she had killed him, but instead she was finding it hard to speak. I looked down at Stefan and shook him.
“What happened here?” I asked him as he hugged me and sobbed. I looked to Illona who swallowed hard and tears streamed down her cheeks but she made no noise at all. Her tears were silent, as was her pain. Then she spoke, her voice quiet, as if she was telling a secret long hidden away.
“My father was a perverted beast, I heard Stefan cry out as I had before, only this time, he called for me and for his mother. I ran down the hallway and could hear my father yelling at him to stop struggling, and heard the sounds of his fist against skin…Stefan cried out, but with each blow he got quieter and quieter and I could not help myself, I opened the door and watched as father was about too...but I could not let him, I could not.”
I stood there and held Stefan as my heart sank deep into my chest. She continued on.
“My father has a perverted passion for children, he always has and Stefan…” she said as she stepped towards us. Stefan kept his face buried in my chest. I held onto him tightly as she stepped up to us and placed a hand to his head. “Stefan…he was not your father, my brother died in the womb, you were taken from a woman in town, Father refused to allow his legacy to go undone, so he stole you…he took you from your mother and claimed you as his own. I am so sorry, I should have told you and I should have warned you about his perversions. I failed you and I am so sorry…I truly…” Stefan broke free of me and ran, the bloody sheet fell to the ground and Illona started to chase him, but I stopped her as I glanced at her dead father in the bed. She struggled for a moment but I held her still until her eyes rose to my own. She was so distraught, something I never thought I would see in her. I truly believed she was nothing more than an opportunist who had taken my home away from me, taken Vlad and everything that I held dear. But, as I held her, she sank into my chest and sobbed. I raised my hand and touched her hair as I then realized that she w
as simply trying to escape a hell she lived in with her own father. One in which she had turned to sorcery to escape his evil will.
She looked up at me and shook her head. “The child is not your own, it is Vlad’s. I am sorry Dorin, I lied to you…I lied to hopefully break your love for him, because I need him, I do love him and I needed him to see me…only me. You are my only fear, Dorin, the only thing standing in between me and my beloved. I am sorry, please forgive me,” she said as she hid her face in my chest again and I stood there trying to understand it all and accept her admission.
***
I rode with five guards with Illona’s father in the carriage. I would do my duty and return the King to his homeland, but he would not arrive as he had left. I told Illona I would handle this and as I thought about everything, I decided that it would be best if we claimed that her father fell ill in Bran Castle and then would die on the way home. We had kept him in his room for days after she killed him and told Vlad that he was too ill to take visitors or leave his room. Stefan had stopped speaking to anyone and ate very little. He had changed into something that Illona could not even recognize. His innocence was stolen from him and Illona was now his true mother and protector. He stayed by her side, as if he would die without her, and perhaps he would. Perhaps we would all die without her now as she carried the only new hope for the future, that of Vlad’s heir and enduring legacy for Castle Bran.
We stopped, as the horses needed water and the men needed to rest and eat. I slid from my horse and walked to the carriage, it wreaked of flowers and incense; we had packed it to hide the stench of his rotting corpse. He had now been gone a week and his body was starting to turn colors. Death was something I had experienced in the battlefield, but I had never watched as it ravaged a body beyond its limits. Truly, it was a frightening reminder of mortality. I covered my mouth as my lead guard stepped up and pointed to the ridge. I could see shadows and then I could hear the horses as they approached. I looked at him and then back to the men now approaching us at a breaking speed. I stepped forward as a party of ten rode up and stopped, the man in the middle wearing the colors of Illona’s homeland. He stared at the carriage draped in red linen and then back to me. He jumped down and tapped his horse. Glancing at me as he approached us. He stopped and drew his sword, the guards behind me grabbing at their own as he held a hand up and turned it sideways in his hands. He lowered it to the ground and went to one knee before me as I stared down on him.
