Mercenary Little Death Bringer

by Banks, Catherine

  “You truly frightened me,” he whispered as he hugged me back. “I did not like seeing you that way. It wasn’t you.”

  “Now you know how I felt during our battle in my trial.”

  He sighed. “Let’s promise not to fight again, okay?”

  I pulled back from our hug, held out my hand and he shook it. “Deal,” I said with a smile.

  “Marin!” Mother yelled as she ran down the hallway with her dress in her hands so she wouldn’t trip over it. She looked like she was floating and her face looked as angelic as ever. How I envied her beauty. She wrapped me up in a hug and immediately started crying. “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. Please don’t be mad at me.”

  I hugged her and patted her back reassuringly. “I’m not mad at you, Mother. I forgive you.”

  She pulled back and then gave me the mother glare. “Don’t you ever run out onto the battlefield without Favian beside you again! Do you understand me?!”

  I giggled and nodded my head. “I promise.”

  She smiled. “Good, now let’s go eat dinner.”

  “You didn’t happen to grab some meat for me, did you? I’m starving,” I said as we walked and I rubbed my growling stomach.

  “No, but we can pick some up on the way to school,” Favian said, “I saw you eyeing the shop on the way in last week.”

  “I try not to complain when I’m here and most of the time I’m fine, but I am really craving meat right now,” I said as we headed into the dining hall.

  “No more talk about that,” Mother chastised me, “Now you must act like a lady,” She looked at my dirty pants and shirt and said, “Since you cannot look like one at the moment.”

  We stepped into the hall with Favian and me giggling to be bombarded by Amile as she shoved me out of the way to fawn over Favian. “Are you alright? I heard you battled the ogres yesterday. Were you injured?” she asked.

  My fists clenched at my sides and I was ready to punch her when Father put his arm around my shoulders and steered me away from them. “You look thirsty, are you thirsty?”

  “I’m irritated,” I said, “Though I’m not sure why.”

  He laughed. “I’m sure you will figure it out soon. You are a very smart girl.”

  Favian detached himself from Amile’s claws and took his seat next to mine. “The chef went all out!” he said happily as he surveyed the banquet on the table.

  I looked at the new bracelet on his wrist and bit my lip. I did not want to make a scene like I’d done last time. Besides, why should I care if he received gifts from his subjects? Weren’t the royals supposed to be given gifts? At least he was still wearing my necklace.

  “Yes, it seems so,” I replied.

  We ate our food and talked about anything not dealing with the Academy or the ogre attack and I actually enjoyed myself quite a bit. I truly had forgiven everyone for the hostage situation and knew they had only done it out of love despite my mood initially. It was strange how feelings could change so quickly.

  I had just finished my food when Maddock, a close friend of mine and Favian’s and a very handsome elf, said my name softly to get my attention. He was one of the few elves with blonde hair instead of silver and also one of the few with arm muscles.

  I stood up and curtsied to him, playing the lady as Mother would have wanted me to. “Maddock, what brings you to my side?” I asked with a smile.

  “Would you take a walk with me?” he asked, “I’d like to speak with you.”

  I looked at Mother who nodded her head happily. “Of course,” I said.

  “It’s not safe for her to be alone,” Favian said as he stood up with an irritated look on his face.

  “She is not alone,” Mother said, “Maddock is with her. I’m sure he would protect her if need be?”

  Maddock bowed, “Of course, Queen Amadis.”

  She nodded her head. “Then please be on your way.”

  “Mother,” Favian began.

  She shushed him. “Sit down and finish your food.”

  Maddock extended his bent elbow to me and I set my hand on it, letting him lead me from the dining hall. “I’m very happy to see that you are well,” he said as we walked down the hallway. “I heard you fought very hard yesterday.”

  “That’s what I hear as well,” I said with a smile. He opened the back door and we walked out into Mother’s rose garden. “What has brought your urgent attention to me this night?” I asked him. It wasn’t rare for him to visit me to go on rides or spar, but he had never visited me like this before.

  He stopped at the stone bench in the center and we sat down on it. The roses were in full bloom all year long thanks to Mother’s magic and the reds and yellows were bright even in the darkness. “I came to be sure you were alright and to speak to you before you left for the Academy again,” he said.

  “Thank you for your concern. I am feeling very well.”

  He turned to face me and said, “I wanted to give you a token of my friendship.” He pulled out a shell necklace and set it in my hands. “I know you aren’t technically royalty, but I hope that you will still accept this as my friend. I worry for your safety and hope that maybe this will assist you someday in the future.”

  “It’s very beautiful,” I said sincerely.

  “If you whisper the Elven word for fire, it will light anything touching it on fire, except you of course.”

  I stared at the shell necklace in disbelief. “Really?”

  He nodded his head. “Yes, I’ll show you.”

  He put the necklace on his own neck and then picked up a yellow flower petal from the ground, wrapping it around the necklace. “Fira.”

  The petal burst into flame and drifted away from him to settle on the ground in a charred little piece. He took the necklace off and I was shocked to see no burn marks on his throat. “That is truly amazing,” I said in astonishment.

  He smiled. “So you’ll accept it?”

  I smiled. “I would have accepted it if it had been a simple shell necklace, Maddock. You have been a good friend to me and I truly appreciate it. Not everyone would take to a human living amongst the elves.”

  He tied the necklace around my neck and shook his head. “I would fight each and every one of them if I could.”

  I laughed at the inside joke. We had all been fighting various elves over that issue for as long as I could remember. “Remember when I fought the older girl and she ran to Amadis crying about her muddy dress only to have Amadis punish her for being cruel to me?” I asked him.

  Maddock laughed. “Yes, that was very entertaining watching you knock her into the mud puddle and then throw mud on her face.”

  “I’m sorry I am gone so long at school, but soon it’ll be over.”

  He shrugged. “And then you and Favian will be out on missions as mercenaries.”

  “I’ll visit often,” I promised him and then punched his arm playfully. “Who else will be here to put you in your proper place?”

  He laughed and then hugged me quickly. “You are a good person, Marin. Don’t ever forget that.”

  I wasn’t sure why he had said that, but I smiled back at him and then stood up. “I should get to bed and ensure everything is packed for the trip tomorrow. Thank you again for the necklace.”

  He bowed to me and then kissed the back of my hand formerly. “Good night, Princess Marin.”

  I frowned at him. “I am not the princess. Stop that.”

  He smiled. “In my eyes you’ve always been a princess.” With my face stuck on dumb, he left the garden and left me to stand in utter disbelief. Had he just flirted with me? Surely I had misinterpreted that. Surely he only meant it because I was raised with Favian in the castle by the king and queen, right? Right.

  I walked into the castle and found Favian pacing up and down the hall. He spotted me and hurried over. “What happened? What did he want?” His eyes found the necklace and he asked, “Did he give you that? Did you accept it? Why are you wearing it?”

  I igno
red all of his questions, looked down at his wrist and said, “Amile must truly like you to have made a replacement piece so quickly for you.” He looked at the bracelet and then sighed. I patted his shoulder. “You know Maddock and I are friends. You two are best friends, Favian. He gave me a gift to protect me, that’s all.”

  “What does it do?” he asked curiously as he followed me down the hallway.

  “If you are so curious, go ask him.”

  Favian turned me around and asked, “Did he ask to court you?”

  I laughed so hard that I began crying as the ridiculous notion was hilarious to me. “Favian, you are very comical. Of course not. He simply gave me a gift as a friend.” I looked at his bracelet. “Wait, is that why she gave you that? Are you courting her?”

  He glared at me. “Of course I’m not courting her.” He leaned forward and whispered, “Have you seen her face? She is homely.”

  I smiled. “Oh, so she’s courting you?!”

  He glared harder at me. “No.”

  I shrugged and continued to smile at him. “Whatever. I don’t care. Good night, Favian. I’ll see you and the horses in the morning.” I jogged up to my room and grabbed clothes to change into and then hurried to the bathing room.

  The maid who worked in the bathing room was a female elf about my age and she and I had been good friends, at least as good of friends as I could be with a female that I rarely saw. She smiled at me when I came in and said, “I knew you’d be coming for a bath. I could smell your stench from here.”

  I laughed. “If you knew then you should have had my bath all ready,” I teased back.

  “You’re too dirty for a bath as usual. To the stones with you,” she ordered.

  I stripped my dirty clothes off and tossed them onto the floor in the corner. She always washed my clothes for me and returned them to my bed afterwards. I walked down the tile floor to the stone area where she splashed warm water on me and then used a hard sponge to scrub at the ogre blood staining my body.

  “One of these days I’d appreciate it if you came to me unstained,” she muttered.

  “If I weren’t stained there would be no reason to come here.”

  She laughed. “Maybe you’d just like to smell nice for a certain boy.”

  I scoffed. “Boys smell just as dirty as me. Why should I clean myself when they don’t?”

  “Because ladies aren’t supposed to smell like boys,” she said in a very good imitation of Mother.

  “Well I’m not a lady.”

  She laughed loudly. “I’m well aware of that.”

  After scrubbing my body and hair clean she poured a bucket of warm water over my head to rinse off the rest of the dirt and soap. I sighed happily. “That’s my favorite part of this whole visit.”

  “Being clean?” she asked.

  “Having the water dumped on my head.”

  She smiled. “I’ll be sure to tell Prince Favian you like it. I’m sure he’d be more than willing to do it for you.”

  I gaped at her. “You wouldn’t dare?”

  She shrugged. “Perhaps.”

  “You know if you told him that, he would dump water on me every chance he got.”

  She smiled. “I would love to watch it.”

  “You’re cruel,” I said sarcastically.

  “Go on to bed. You’ve got a long journey ahead of you. Plus you’ll be baked in dirt before you make it to school so all of my work is for naught.”

  “It makes me feel better so it’s not for nothing,” I assured her as I dried off and put my fresh clothes on.

  “Be safe,” she said to me as I walked out.

  “You as well,” I told her before jogging down the hallway and up the stairs to my room. I crawled into my soft bed and warm covers and wished I could always have such niceties. That dungeon floor had not been comfortable.

  Perhaps tomorrow I would complain to Favian about not at least bringing me a pillow, while he’d held me prisoner. I closed my eyes and tried to remember what had happened the day before. It bothered me that I couldn’t remember fighting all of the ogres. Had I been in some kind of trance? Or had something possessed my body? Surely I would know if I was possessed, right?

  If I had been possessed it would have made more sense for me to attack the elves as opposed to the ogres though. So that ruled out possession. Unless it was some part of me I always carried within me, but that didn’t make sense because I’d fought ogres before and never lost control of myself and forgotten what had happened.

  It was all very suspect and I hoped to one day discover the truth of what had happened. Thinking on it would only upset me and keep me awake longer. I closed my eyes and willed myself to sleep, but I couldn’t. I’d slept so much the past few days that I wasn’t tired. I was just getting ready to sneak out of my room when someone knocked on it quietly.

  I walked to the door and opened it, surprised to find Favian. “What’s up?” I asked him quietly so we wouldn’t disturb anyone else.

  He stepped into my room and shut the door behind him. “I can’t sleep.”

  I smiled. “Me either, but at least I have an excuse, you drugged me so I slept a lot.”

  He frowned. “I thought you weren’t mad anymore.”

  “I’m not mad. Stating a fact doesn’t mean I’m mad. Why can’t you sleep?”

  He flopped down onto my bed and sighed. “I’m too worried.”

  I sat down next to him with my legs folded up underneath me. “Worried about what?”

  He turned his head and looked at me, his grey eyes sparkling. “About you. I can’t stop thinking about everything that has happened to you recently and about how we were attacked at the school.”

  “It’ll all be alright,” I assured him.

  “You don’t know that.”

  I shrugged. “I have to believe it or you’ll find me sitting in a corner rocking myself and screaming at shadows that move.”

  “What if I can’t protect you?” he asked, “When I was fighting the goblin and human in the forest another one grabbed you and could have killed you.”

  “But he didn’t because I protected myself,” I said, “Favian, you can’t be there to protect me all the time.”

  “Yes, I can,” he said adamantly.

  I lay down beside him and sighed. “It’s not your job. I know you’re noble and keep your word, but keeping a promise you made when you were four isn’t the same. You didn’t know back then what you were getting into and if you can’t protect me, that’s okay. I would never blame you if I got hurt and you hadn’t been able to prevent it.”

  “You’re my best friend,” he whispered as turned to face me. “I couldn’t live with myself if…”

  I put my hand over his mouth and whispered, “How do you think I feel? I feel exactly the same way, which is why I can’t allow you to risk your life to protect mine.”

  “I feel that we are at an impasse,” he said as he pulled my hand away from his mouth.

  “We are. The only thing that can be done is that we both promise to watch each other’s backs. Agreed?”

  “I already promised to protect you, I cannot change that promise.”

  I groaned. “We were four!”

  “And I meant it. When I saw you covered in ogre’s blood and crying in my father’s arms I had never felt such a strong protective urge in my life. It was like I was created simply to protect you.” He shook his head. “I know that doesn’t make sense to you, but that’s how I feel.”

  “We can’t be partners if you don’t allow me to protect you with my life as well. Partners protect each other,” I reminded him as I laid down beside him.

  “Well then I guess we aren’t partners,” he said.

  I turned and stared at him in alarm and disbelief. “What?”

  He smiled. “I guess I’m more like your bodyguard.”

  “No,” I said adamantly. “You are not my bodyguard. I refuse to have a bodyguard. If you aren’t my partner than you aren’t anything,” I said serious
ly though I felt fear shaking my hands.

  Favian linked our hands that were touching on the one side together and said, “We will always be partners, Marin. I shouldn’t have to tell you that so many times.”

  I felt heat rushing to my face at our joined hands, but enjoyed the feeling too much to pull away. “Then stop this crazy bodyguard talk and let us be partners.”

  He closed his eyes and yawned. “Alright. Partners.”

  I tried to fight the yawn that was trying to come out, but it slipped past my lips and my eyelids grew heavy. “Finally, I won an argument.”

  “Don’t let it go to your head,” he whispered as he started to fall asleep.

  I sadly pulled my hand from his to pull up the blanket at the bottom of the bed to cover us both and closed my eyes. “Stubborn elf,” I whispered as sleep pressed down upon me.

  “Obstinate human,” he whispered and then we both started snoring.

  ~~~~

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Marin, have you seen Prince Favian? I can’t…” Amile began as she opened my door and stepped inside my room.

  I was still groggy with sleep and Favian was still completely asleep so there was nothing I could do to hide the fact that we had shared a bed. It had been completely harmless, but Amile wouldn’t know that from simply looking and even though I threw the covers back to reveal us both fully clothed, Favian’s shirt was off, but he’d come to my room like that, I couldn’t get a word out before she jumped to conclusions.

  Amile screamed and then charged at me, trying to slap my face. “You evil temptress!” she screamed as she tried to hit me. “How dare you defile him and use your dirty, evil humanness to…”

  “Amile, please calm down,” Favian said as he woke up and figured out the situation. He was trying to get across the bed to intervene, but I was mad now and she was still slapping at my face.

  I had been okay with her displeasure until she had started to insult me. Now I was really angry. I punched her in the face and knocked her to her butt. “Your ignorance was dismissed at first, but once you started insulting me you crossed the line. First, you had no right to barge into my room without my permission. Secondly, I did not lure him to my room. He came here willingly last night and knocked on my door.”