“Are you all right?” Emmeline asked, reaching for Hekla.
“Yes, don’t worry yourself, please… the two of you just need to rest. I’ll be back when I can. Enjoy each other’s company and give yourself time to heal.”
Emmeline nodded, turning to look at Tristan, she reached over, combing her fingers through his tousled dark hair like she would a younger brother. The action made Emmeline smile, and she offered the softest gratitude to the blue-haired beauty who had saved her life.
“What you have done for us this day,” the pale woman said, while continuing to stare at the man she loved, “will never be forgotten, and I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you. You gave us back our life. Thank you,” she offered, while turning to look at Hekla once more.
“Yes, Hekla of the Scepter, the gift you have given us, it is deeply appreciated. This kingdom owes you a debt of gratitude, which I am sure the king will see to.”
Hekla nodded, smiling at them. “It is my honor, now, please… rest while you can. There is talk of battles and much more, still throughout the kingdom. You will need your strength.”
Emmeline reclined back against the padded board of the bed, nodding. Tristan’s eyes were only for her, but he nodded his assent as well.
Finally finding enough strength to stand, Hekla walked toward the door. She looked back and noticed the two of them holding hands once more. The act brought the smallest upturn of a smile to her lips. She could see the way the two of them looked at each other. It was more than love—it was longing, it was a love that had simmered for so long that it was a blazing fire lingering over a dried-out forest. It was something that Hekla wished she had, though she wasn’t ready yet.
When the time is right, young Hekla, Speltus reminded her. There are still a great many things you must do. The kingdoms need you; I need you, he said, his voice kind, but commanding. She shrugged him off, the nagging feeling of emptiness tugging at the corners of her heart. It’s not terrible to be alone, young one.
I’m not that young, she thought angrily.
Indeed, but you still have great purpose, purpose that will require so much of you. He warned, and the thought made her sad. Perhaps it was a purpose that would end her life as it had done for her sister, and she would never have the chance to find love.
“Emmeline, Tristan, I say this with everything in me. If you have the chance to have love, for any amount of time, you two should seize it. Do not hide your affections anymore. Life is too short to bottle such things inside. The king’s heart is no longer filled with darkness, perhaps if you give him a chance, he will understand the love the two of you share.”
“I believe we will,” Emmeline said. “The two of us have both come too close to death lately… and it has scared us both. Dying doesn’t scare us but living without the other… that is what scares us. And I don’t believe it’s because of our feelings for each other, but because of the burning question of ‘what if?’”
Hekla grinned. “Then take that question and answer it with all of the love and affection you have for each other, for there are many who will never get to do the same. Do it for those who will never know such happiness, do it for the sake of love and kindness being restored to your kingdom. Gods know, we need that now more than ever.” She gripped her scepter tightly in her hand, trying hard to fight back the feelings of pain that had risen at the future she would never know.
“You should do the same,” Emmeline said.
“Hmm?” Hekla asked.
“Whatever feelings you’re hiding. You shouldn’t hide them any longer. It feels so refreshing to no longer hide my affections for Tristan.”
Hekla’s grin faltered slightly. “Perhaps I will… someday. But for now, I still have many things I need to do.”
Hekla stepped out the door.
“Thank you,” Tristan said.
Hekla turned around.
“Thank you for all you’ve done. Not only for us… but for everything in this kingdom, as well as the others. I have heard many stories of the beautiful blue healer. You are making a difference,” Tristan said.
Hekla’s cheeks burned red as she nodded at him. She turned around swiftly and headed down the hall.
2
Astrid
There are many types of bravery in this world. A man can rush into battle to fight his enemy head on. He is brave. A man can confess his feelings for a woman. He is brave. A woman can give birth to a child. She is brave. Children can stand up to a bully. They are brave. But the bravest thing someone can do is to confess to someone their heart and soul. The acts we do are brave indeed, but none are braver than the words we speak in trust.
King Nicklaus the Brave, First King of Caelestis, 244 A.V.
Astrid stepped outside of the castle and onto the courtyard. Telluris was larger than she imagined, and the castle was indescribable. She’d never seen a building so large before. It’d taken her several tries to figure out how to escape it. She’d stopped and talked to several people along the way, asking each one of them if they’d seen Cayden.
Once outside, she enjoyed the gentle breeze cutting through the humid air. The sky kingdom had a bonus there: a constant breeze, and little to no humidity. Her green hair clung to the back of her neck and she brushed it from one shoulder to the other as she gazed at the courtyard. Besides the humidity, the day was beautiful, and so many men, women, and children strolled through the courtyard. Their outward appearances made it seem nothing abnormal had happened the night before, but if you looked closer, and studied their eyes, their haunted expressions told a different story.
Halfway across the courtyard, a thick and tall oak tree stretched upward toward the large, fluffy white clouds. A few young boys climbed it, laughing all the while as fathers encouraged them, and mothers shrieked in fright. At the bottom of the tree sat a man, his hands clung to his long chestnut hair and his face lay on his knees.
Astrid stared at the infuriating man for a long moment before stomping her way toward him. When she reached him, she stopped, and stared at him for several long moments. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he looked up and met her gaze. Sighing, he ran his hands through his hair once more. After another moment, he used the oak tree to help himself stand.
Take ease, Aronus warned her. Don’t let your anger get the best of you. She ignored his voice in her head. You can’t ignore me forever, Aronus retorted.
Shut up, she shot back at him, her mind turning faster than a spinning wheel as she contemplated what she would say to Cayden.
“How is she?” he asked.
“Your sister?” Astrid asked. “She will be just fine.”
Cayden noticed her salty tone and winced. “I should have told you.”
“Yes,” was the only word Astrid said. That’s not all you should have told me! she thought, rage flowing through her, uncontrolled like wildfire. She didn’t like lies, and she certainly didn’t like secrets. The wall inside her grew more resolute by the moment.
“I’ve had a very complicated life,” he admitted.
Astrid studied his eyes, wondering exactly what that meant, “How am I supposed to trust you if you continue to hide things from me?”
He exhaled loudly through his nostrils. “I don’t know.”
Astrid held out a hand as if gesturing him to continue, holding his gaze. I’m not letting him off that easy, she thought.
He glanced around, noticing all the people around them, several who seemed to have tilted ears as if to overhear their conversation.
“Do you mind if we walk?” he asked.
Astrid stepped aside.
Cayden took a deep breath and stepped past her.
She walked beside him stride for stride. “You told me you had a brother.”
Cayden nodded. “I do. He stays in trouble.”
“Do you know where he is?” Astrid asked.
Careful Astrid, Aronus warned. There are reasons he has withheld from you.
He shook his head.
“And your sister? Did you know where she was?” Astrid asked.
Cayden nodded.
“You knew where she was—you knew we were heading here… and yet, you said nothing.” With every step, her heart increased its pace. How could he have kept this from me? More importantly why? She thought about her sisters. Her only thought was to protect them. Was that why? Was he trying to protect his sister, from her?
Don’t get carried away, Aronus spoke up again in her mind, reminding her that every thought she had, he could hear.
Damned annoying dragon, she thought.
I can leave if you’d like? he retorted, the tension increasing between them.
No, Aronus, I didn’t mean it.
I know, he answered, you are taking your misplaced anger out on me, and I am only trying to look out for you, Aronus said.
She didn’t respond to his voice in her head, for at that moment Cayden had stopped to stare her in the eyes.
“I said nothing,” he replied, looking from her face to the ground. His foot kicking at the dirt.
“Why?” Astrid asked.
“I was scared.”
His admission surprised her. “Scared, of what, me?”
Cayden shook his head. “I didn’t want to leave her. I was kind of forced to leave.”
“Forced?” Astrid asked.
How he could say so much, and yet so little was driving her mad. She wanted, no she needed answers. Please just tell me the truth, she thought. Not brave enough to say the words aloud. Irony, that.
“I used to be the captain of the Tellurian army… not Tristan. Tristan was my second in command, and my best friend.”
“What happened?” Astrid asked.
Aha, now I think I’m beginning to understand.
“When I first became captain, the king was not yet corrupt. There were no wars, no skirmishes. There was a little bit of a disconnect between the kingdoms, but not all hope was lost yet.” Cayden rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. “However, little by little, the king began asking things. At first, it seemed that he wanted to expand his kingdom, and we conquered more lands. But once the remaining lands were conquered, he wanted more. His desire was strong, and his eyes were no longer the brown I once knew. They turned dark—almost black. He wanted the sky kingdom and the sea kingdom. And he would not relent.”
She could see the deep-rooted pain evident in his eyes. It was the pain of a man who cared very deeply for his kingdom and its people. Her hand twitched with longing, if only she could reach out and touch him. To offer comfort of some sort, but for once the words eluded her.
Cayden took a deep breath and scratched the top of his head. “At first, I obliged. I tried to talk him out of it, but once I saw he could not be reasoned with, I simply obeyed orders. I did many things.” He took a deep breath. “I did many things that I regret.”
“What things?” Astrid asked, knowing that she may regret his answer.
Perhaps this is what Aronus was warning her against, maybe he didn’t want her to know the darkness that existed in him. She could not stop the thoughts that followed, even though she was terrified to hear the answer. What kind of dark things had Cayden done? And if she learned of them, would she still be able to look at him? Would her fondness for him falter?
“He had us march into the sky kingdom and into the sea kingdom—the islands. And he had us massacre full villages.”
“Massacre?” Astrid asked, the word calling to the dark parts of her that she dared not think of.
Cayden nodded. “Men, women, and… children.”
Astrid’s green eyes grew wide and her mouth parted. She had no words for what he was saying. Astrid began to realize she didn’t know the man in front of her at all, the knowledge of what he said chilled her to her core.
“At first—I rejected it. I refused to kill them all, but—” Cayden stopped and closed his eyes.
Tears threatened to fall as he wiped his clenched eyes. It was clear that his memories pained him, and that he regretted many things from his past.
“King Armand had me punished. I was tied up and lashed in front of everyone for disobeying orders. It… hardened my heart. I didn’t question orders after that.”
“You… did as he asked?” Astrid asked.
She couldn’t imagine a man so cold that he would order innocents murdered for no reason, nor could she grasp the fact that the man she had grown to care for could have been just as responsible.
I told you not to venture there, I told you there were things you did not want to know, Aronus’s voice piped up.
Tears threatened her eyes as she thought about all the lives lost, Aronus please, silence. Let him tell me himself, she reprimanded him, struggling not to let her emotions show on her face. They continued walking, and it pained her too much to see his face. Not only that, but now that some of the villagers had gotten close once more, it was imperative that they keep their distance.
Cayden nodded solemnly as they moved farther and farther away from the center of the courtyard. “For a long time, I just did as I was asked. I tried to see everyone as our enemies. But after a while, I just couldn’t do it anymore.”
“What changed?” Astrid asked, the pressure of the bow against her back tightened while they walked. The air had not changed, and she found herself brushing her damp waves of emerald waves from her neck once more. Even as her mind went over his confession, again and again in disbelief.
All the things he’d done. All the people he’d killed. She knew he was sparing some of her feelings by not going into detail. She couldn’t fathom all of the things he’d done, and she didn’t know if she would be able to look at him the same way ever again.
“Emmeline,” Cayden said. “When my heart hardened, I became corrupt with anger—anger against everyone and everything. I killed everyone I was told to. But one day, Emmeline saw me—she saw the damage I was doing.”
“She broke through to you?” Astrid’s heart broke with the knowledge of those who had died at his hand, at the king’s orders.
“Not at first. In fact, I almost struck her because I was so deep in anger and depression, but finally—she broke through.”
Astrid stopped walking and leaned against the outside of the castle in the courtyard. There wasn’t anyone else around them and their conversation was private. She laced her fingers together as she looked at Cayden, sorrow filled her eyes and her heart ached at what he’d been through.
Cayden scratched his nose. “That’s why I couldn’t talk about her. She saved me… but I abandoned her.”
Astrid’s eyebrows furrowed. “What happened?”
Cayden sighed. “When she finally got through to me, I refused orders to kill the villagers on an Aequoris island. I went further than that—I prevented the other soldiers from harming the island. When the king found out, he dragged me before all of Telluris—to the gallows. He planned to have my head sliced from my shoulders. Nephew be damned. But—Emmeline stopped him. Somehow… she broke through his corruption, his black soulless eyes, and she convinced him to outcast me.”
“That’s why you were out in the wilderness near the volcano,” Astrid realized.
Cayden nodded. “I was lost—and had no place to go.”
“Then I abandoned you as well…”
Cayden shook his head. “You had no reason to trust me. I understand that.”
“So… you left?”
Cayden nodded. “I tried to convince Emmeline to leave with me. I told her that uncle’s heart and soul were black, but she refused. She told me that if she could break through to him enough to convince him not to kill me, then she had to at least keep trying to bring him back.”
Astrid scrunched her lips together. She couldn’t imagine all the things Emmeline went through, and just thinking of it made Astrid respect the young woman even more. Astrid didn’t know if she could do it—to have the patience and the will to continue to be near someone who’d grown so corrupted.
“I should hav
e taken her with me.”
Astrid shook her head. “No—you did right, as did she. How many lives were spared over the years because she stayed behind?”
Cayden shook his head. “I didn’t tell you about her because I was scared. I was scared that if I came back here, she’d be dead.”
Astrid tilted her head.
“I was afraid uncle would have killed her for her defiance.”
“His love for her was true. In the end, it was what broke his spell.”
Cayden frowned. “His spell was broken because the dark wizard was killed.”
Astrid shook her head. “No. His spell was broken because of his love for Emmeline. When he harmed her, he immediately tore away from the dark wizard’s magic. Killing the wizard stopped him from being controlled again, but it was his love for Emmeline that broke the spell.”
“I just—” Cayden clenched his fist. “I don’t know what I would have done if she’d died.”
“We cannot live in a world of ‘what-ifs’, Cayden. All that matters now is that she is safe. She is alive. Hekla is healing her right now. And the dark wizard’s control is gone. The king has returned to his former self.”
Cayden clenched his teeth. “I don’t know if I can ever trust him again.”
“What he has done over the last several years hasn’t been from his own free will,” Astrid reminded him.
“Still…” Cayden ran his hand through his chestnut hair. “The things he made me do—the things he’s done to his people—to the other kingdoms… it’s unforgivable.”
Astrid nodded. “Yes, and he will live with that the rest of his life. I don’t know how all of that works, but from the conversations I’ve had with Hekla… I believe he will retain all of those memories.”
Dragon Scepter Page 2
