The King's Secret

by Maryam Durrani

My heart dropped, and I held back a groan. The aggravating silence returned to the room.

  There was no other way to fight, then, except to use Ashes’s proposal.

  “No, you didn’t,” Xavier said suddenly, breaking the silence.

  I looked at him questioningly, and his eyes met mine, holding his gaze.

  I know what I’m doing.

  “What do you mean?” Zinovia asked curiously, leaning forward.

  “After you left, Adalia,” Xavier said, keeping his eyes on me, “I made more trips to the underground library we had discovered. I found out that that wasn’t the only thing King Albion was hiding.”

  “King Albion?” Taj asked. “Have I missed something?”

  “The ruler of all four kingdoms—Archaon—which existed hundreds of years ago,” Xavier explained. “I found more tunnels.”

  My spirits lifted, feeling more hopeful now.

  “That’s not all.” Xavier inhaled, then exhaled slowly.

  “There were rooms connected to these mines that were full of treasures and armor.”

  “Armor?”

  “Armor forged by elves, metal that hasn’t existed for centuries. It makes the wearer fireproof. It’s impenetrable.”

  “Impenetrable?” Ashes scowled. “Metal that’s fireproof? I call bullshit.”

  “King Albion hunted drakons for sport. He used their scales to force elves into making impermeable armor and swords, and hid them away in these tunnels,” Xavier continued. “I know this because I found elven bones in the prisons he had built. He tortured them to get them to do his bidding.”

  “Why are we hearing about this now?” Lorelle snapped. “With this information, we could’ve won this war by now!”

  “I only found out the day Adalia returned,” Xavier defended himself. “I was on my way to tell you, but when I found out she was back, I waited to say it until we were all together.”

  “You two should’ve told us the moment you knew this library existed,” Lorelle hissed.

  “What happened, happened. There’s no turning back now. Let’s use this to our advantage,” Lance interjected. “Let’s go down to the library and salvage what we can—”

  “King Albion wiped out the elves, dwarves, drakons, faeries—everything, leaving humans as the highest powers. He captured the remaining elves and enslaved them, forcing them to work for him and create all this metal.” He looked at me. “His daughter fell in love with an elf. King Albion’s granddaughter was half-elf.”

  Suddenly, the pieces started clicking together in my mind.

  King Albion had one daughter, who had four grandchildren. Each of the four had been given a portion of the land to rule over after he had died.

  “Elven blood is extremely powerful. Elves can’t be killed by a drakon’s fire, making them the only creature that can ac-

  tually fight them. This trait caused drakons to fear them, allowing the elves to be the only creatures that could control a drakon.”

  King Albion’s granddaughter was given Trella.

  “Albion’s daughter poisoned him. He didn’t grow sick and die—she killed him after he murdered her elven daughter’s father after finding out the truth about the heritage of his last grandchild. That child was the last being with elven blood running through her veins, and now . . .”

  King Tarquin and all of his children had elven blood, which made them stronger than they could possibly imagine.

  “With the power of the drakon, they can kill us all.”

  I stared at Xavier, mulling over this.

  We had figured out the king’s secret.

  TWENTY SIX

  I stood above the hidden library, staring down into the square opening between the stones. Queen Lorelle stood beside me, watching as the soldiers lifted and carried out full suits of armor to the throne room were Princess Zinovia waited, taking inventory.

  Suddenly, a lot of things made sense to me—the grace and slyness of Valentin, the beauty of his brothers—and younger sister as well, of course.

  The devil’s spawn.

  I turned away from the hole in the ground, trying to get as far as possible from it. Turning the corner, I pressed my back to the cold stone wall, sinking down to the ground.

  Elves.

  Who would’ve thought?

  I found myself laughing at the bizarre discovery.

  First drakons, now elves!

  I shook head, running my hands through my hair.

  “This has to be a joke,” I said into my hands, rubbing my face. “It’s not possible. King Tarquin cannot be part elf.”

  “You’re right, he’s too fat. I find it hard to believe myself.”

  I felt Xavier remove my hands from my face. He was sitting on his haunches directly in front of me.

  I laughed.

  “That’s a very rude way to speak of a king. And I’m sure

  overweight elves existed hundreds of years ago.”

  Xavier adjusted his position, sitting with his legs crossed on the floor. His knees touched mine as he held my hands in his.

  “King Albion turned out to be a terrible person, didn’t he?” I sighed.

  “Don’t they all?” he asked with a sad smile. “They’re going to start tracing the tunnels, finding out where they pop up. Hopefully, we’ll have an advantage now.”

  “If Tarquin—or Valentin—know of their bloodline, we have absolutely no advantage over them. There has been no sighting of the drakon for far too long. Do you think . . .” My eyes widened as I looked up at Xavier. “Do you think they’ve already captured it?”

  “The armor gives us an advantage,” he pointed out. “Immunity to the drakon’s fire.”

  “Yes, but not to its jaws or claws, Xavier,” I groaned, covering my face again. “How did we end up here?” I asked in a softer tone, peering out at him through my fingers.

  He sighed.

  “I could start from the beginning—”

  “Please don’t do that,” I interjected, covering my hands with my ears. Xavier threw his head back and laughed. As he looked at me again, I saw his next move in his eyes. Xavier leaned over, his face coming closer, nose inches from mine—

  “The queen needs you in the tunnels,” a voice interrupted.

  I blushed, jumping back, the back of my head slamming against the wall.

  “I’ll be right there,” I groaned, rubbing it.

  The only source of light we had was the one from the torches we carried.

  Taj and I were assigned a tunnel.

  We walked through the large, round passages that once connected into mines, most of which had now been blocked off.

  The others parts were cells.

  As we walked, shadows from the dancing flames reflected off the bars off the prisons. There were piles of bones in each cell, possible families, friends, lovers.

  “I feel better knowing we’re better equipped to fight now,” Taj said, breaking the silence. “I’ve already lost most of my knights.”

  “I’m very sorry to hear that.”

  “I heard they fought bravely to the end,” he said with a sad smile. “As knights, that was their goal.”

  As we walked, I heard a cracking sound under my boot. I looked down to see a bone.

  Moving it aside with my boot, we continued onwards.

  Eventually, we approached a door. It was protected with many chains and locks.

  I pulled out my sword, Taj doing the same.

  “Ready?” I said.

  He nodded.

  Raising our swords above our heads, we repeatedly brought them down on the locks until they broke apart, which didn’t take too long since they were probably five hundred years old.

  As the locks cracked, falling to the ground, I slammed my shoulder against the door to push it open.

  After many failed attempts, I stood back, rolling my sore shoulder in annoyance.

  Taj reached out, raising an eyebrow at me.

  He pulled the door open. I stared at him.

&nbs
p; Taj opened his mouth to laugh when suddenly, something

  leaped onto his chest.

  He stumbled back, letting out a shout of surprise as the rat

  ran up his chest, jumping off his shoulder and scurrying away.

  I was the one to laugh this time, holding out my hand to help him up.

  “We shall never speak of this again,” I grinned.

  “Deal,” he said, shaking my hand.

  I held the torch in one hand, holding my sword in the other.

  Something glittered.

  We walked closer, and with a sudden jolt of shock ran through my body.

  “Are those—”

  “Scales,” Taj completed, mesmerized. He walked around the room, lighting the torches on the walls to create more light in the room.

  Piles of drakon scales covered the floors, glittering from the light of the flames.

  I picked a scale up, holding it flat against my palm. My skin tingled, warmth running through my fingers. The mauve scale was bigger than my hand, giving off an iridescent shimmer.

  I heard footsteps approaching us.

  “Can you hear that?” I said to Taj. “Someone’s coming.”

  “I don’t hear anything,” he frowned.

  I rolled my eyes at him; the sound of boots against dirt was clear. I stepped against the wall, motioning for him to do the same.

  “How many?” Taj whispered.

  I held up two fingers.

  The footsteps paused outside the room, and then, a blond head poked in. I could recognize that specific shade of blond anywhere.

  “Jax?” I asked, stepping away from the wall.

  “Adalia? What are you doing in here?”

  “I could ask you the same thing,” he said, holding up his

  torch to see me clearer. “Weren’t you and Taj assigned a different tunnel?”

  I nodded.

  “I think the tunnels are connected,” Lance called from outside. “Some of them are like that.”

  “What’s all this?” Jax asked quizzically. He ran his hands over a pile of scales. “Are these—”

  “Scales?” Taj raised his eyebrows. “Yes, they are.”

  “Scales?” Lance repeated. He stepped inside, standing next to Jax. “Scales? As in drakon scales?” he asked in disbelief.

  “No, your mother’s scales,” Jax said, rolling his eyes. Lance scowled at him.

  “These are useless to us anyway,” I shrugged. “Only elves have the power to turn these into anything.”

  With a flick of my wrist, I threw the scale back into the pile.

  “Come on then; let’s report it back to the queen.”

  “Wait . . . what’s this?” Jax called as I had just begun to walk out of the chamber.

  “What?” I looked over my shoulder. He bent down to pick up something from a pile of shimmering scales. It looked like a small flute, made from the same material as the scales.

  He brought his lips to it, keeping a centimeter of distance between them and the flute, and blew.

  There was no sound.

  “Try again,” Lance urged, and Jax shot him a look.

  “I can’t blow any harder.”

  “How does a flute not make any sound?” he countered. “You must be doing something wrong. Let me try.”

  With a look of irritation, Jax tossed him the flute.

  Lance began to blow air into the flute, only to have the same

  results.

  “There’s no sound,” Lance said, frowning at the flute.

  “Moron,” Jax grumbled, walking towards him. I took the flute from Lance before Jax could, pocketing it.

  “We’re wasting time. Let’s go back and mark these tunnels as checked.”

  After the armor and weapons were counted, it was brought to attention that there was only enough armor to cover one-third of the infantry.

  “We should use Phoenix’s tactics,” I proposed. “Put the stronger armored infantry in the front, creating a shield wall. We can attack with elven arrows from behind.”

  “Adalia,” the queen said, pacing the room, “their offense is too strong. You didn’t witness the massacre I had to watch.”

  “And the tunnels?”

  “There are only three efficient ones.”

  “Leading to . . .?”

  “The hill, north of the castle. There’s a dead end there, but I have men digging an exit.”

  “And the other two?”

  “I’m very sure that they lead into the enemy camp.”

  “I hope no one is doing any digging around there.”

  The queen shook her head.

  I tapped my boot against the ground.

  “Well, let’s use that to our advantage. We can’t open that up because it leads a direct passage into the castle, but if we find ourselves in a position where we have to, that’ll be the source of our final push.” I walked towards a window, staring out at the faraway enemy campsite, each tent as small as an ant. “How long is the ceasefire?”

  “It ends in a week.”

  Her words caught me by surprise. That was too soon.

  I pursed my lips, turning back to the window. I’d been back

  for almost a month.

  “You know,” I said, leaning my back against the window ledge, “you’re doing well for your first war.”

  She let out a halfhearted laugh. “You speak as if you’ve witnessed many.”

  “I have,” I raised my eyebrows, “but they were significantly smaller.”

  She smiled, her teeth showing slightly.

  “How many did you win?”

  I hesitated.

  “Most of them.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, all of them,” I conceded.

  “Then I’m lucky to have you as my general.”

  I sighed. “Don’t have too much faith in me. I’ve lost my touch.” I pressed my thumb against the inside of my wrist again. I barely even noticed the sensation anymore; I had become so used to it.

  “You are a person destined for great things, Adalia. I believe this war will not be the end of you, even if it may be the end of us.”

  Omen was waiting for me when I returned to the room.

  He had grown significantly during the past month, the arch of his back now reaching my elbow. He ate profusely, constantly whining for more.

  “Omen, you’re too big for this,” I groaned, pushing him off as he tried to curl in my lap. The sofa groaned under his weight. I stood up, staring down at the panthera. Omen yawned, exposing his sharp, sizable canines, and stretched out his razor-like claws.

  I decided it was time to let him out of the room. Tying a

  rope around Omen’s neck, I led him to the door. I was fully

  aware that I was not strong enough to prevent him from attacking anyone, but I was relying on the thin sliver of hope that he wasn’t aware of that.

  “Behave,” I warned, pointing my index finger at the panthera. “No funny business.” His amber eyes following my finger as I shook it side to side.

  Then, I pushed open the door.

  Immediately, there was alarm in the halls. A girl even let out a shriek, and I shot her a dirty look. They avoided us, staying close to the walls as Omen and I walked through the center of the halls.

  I grinned at Omen as I held the end of the rope. He seemed delighted. Suddenly, I felt a sense power, one I hadn’t felt in a long time—the feeling of being feared.

  Omen and I sat in the courtyard.

  He prowled, baring his teeth at all the passersby. I enjoyed it, watching him feel the snow under his bare paws.

  This really had been the longest winter, and it seemed as if it didn’t want to leave, dragging itself for what felt like an eternity.

  At least it had stopped snowing.

  I wrapped my cloak tighter around my shoulders, suddenly noticing Xavier walking out through the doors of the castle.

  He wore a long, thick black cloak, his hair no longer combed back but full of curls again, brushi
ng against his cheekbones. I could see the puffs of cold air forming around his lips as he walked down the steps, his eyes catching sight of Omen. He stopped abruptly.

  Xavier looked for me, and I hid a smile. I pretended not to

  have seen him as he changed his direction towards me.

  “He’s not a danger to anyone, right?” Xavier asked, tower-

  ing over me. I adjusted my position on the icy bench.

  “Hopefully not.”

  “Adalia.”

  I looked up at him, my eyes meeting his amber ones, framed with thick, dark lashes.

  As I opened my mouth to respond, I realized no words were coming out. My heart was pounding in my ribcage, trying to break free.

  How could a person be this beautiful?

  I stood up on the bench, pulling Xavier towards me, and kissed him.

  “Where did that come from?” he asked as I pulled away. “Not that I’m complaining.” He grinned toothily.

  “I just . . .” I sighed, pressing my cold hands against his warm neck, “. . . missed you.”

  He reached up, taking my wrists in his hands.

  “From now on, it doesn’t matter where you go—I’ll be there, right behind you.” As the words left his lips, I knew it was a promise.

  I laughed.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I just realized how much I really love you.” Xavier Cane was one of a kind. He was supportive, kind-hearted, and he never, never made me feel like I was incapable of doing something. He had stuck by my side since the beginning, even when I had been at my most undeserving, worst moments.

  Xavier smirked, pulling me off the bench. I blushed.

  “Well, that took a while.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  He looked down at me, caressing my cheek.

  “I knew it since the moment you walked through there.” Xavier lifted his hand, pointed at the large castle doors. “You

  were so small, but the fierceness in your eyes reached out and grabbed my heart. From that moment, they haven’t let go.” He looked into my eyes, sighing. “You are so intelligent, so beautiful. You are my world.”

  TWENTY SEVEN

  “Try sitting on him,” Lance said to Jax, who was busy struggling to fit new armor on Omen, who was at his fullest size now, his back reaching almost above my elbow.