The Heart of Trelyssia

by Lisa Chitty

  ‘But then how…?’ James’s gaze turned to the amulet that was lying on the bed then turned back to Abi. ‘You used that to bring me back?’

  ‘Yes, but I didn’t realise that I could. After…’ Abi swallowed against the lump in her throat. ‘After I… killed… the Baron, I went straight to you, to where I’d seen you fall.’ The emotions that Abi had felt when kneeling next to James’s body came rushing back, and her tears began to flow, but she knew that she had to finish what she was telling James. ‘I thought I’d lost you! So did Randall and Steve. There didn’t seem to be anything that we could do. But the amulet had other plans and using me it healed you and brought you back to me.’

  Silence descended as neither of them knew what to say to one another. Eventually James came out of the stupor he was in. ‘How…, how long was I dead for?’ James asked Abi hesitantly.

  Abi shook her head. ‘I’m not really sure,’ she replied. ‘I saw the Baron hit you, and that’s when I broke cover and went to attack him. I can’t really say how long we fought, but it seemed like forever. It wasn’t, but I think you need to be measuring the time in hours, not minutes.’

  James looked at Abi open mouthed. ‘But…, that’s not possible!’ he cried. ‘If I was dead for as long as you seem to think that I was, there’s no way I could still be alive now.’

  ‘Maybe the time was less than I think,’ Abi hedged. ‘But I do know that you must have died shortly after the Baron hit you and I had to fight the Baron before I could get to you. Even then, you weren’t immediately healed. I…’ Abi hesitated, reliving those moments when she thought that she had lost everything because James was dead. ‘You were definitely dead when I reached your side and judging from Steve and Randall’s reactions you had been for some time. They weren’t trying to help you, they were mourning you, as did I’ Abi finished softly.

  ‘You mourned my death?’ James asked. ‘You went through what I did when I thought that I had lost you?’

  Abi just nodded in reply, no longer able to speak because she had given into her emotions and was now crying quite hard.

  James came and stood in front of Abi trying to brush away her tears. ‘I can’t get my head round all this. Hey!’ James grabbed Abi’s arms as she stepped away from him. ‘I’m not saying that I don’t believe you, but if you see this from my point of view, you have to realise it’s not something that can easily be absorbed.’ He paused before going on. ‘But one thing I do know right now is that I’m sorry,’ he told Abi. ‘You don’t deserve to have me treating you like this. I didn’t realise what you’d been through too.’

  Abi shook her head and tried to stem some of the tears. ‘You don’t have to apologise, you’ve every right to feel the way you do.’

  James began to smile. ‘Look at us, what a pair we are! Let’s just forgive and forget shall we?’

  Abi began to smile as well, grateful that she had the James she knew and loved back. She reached for him and James pulled her into his arms, before Abi’s head connected with his armour. ‘Ouch!’ she cried pulling back.

  ‘Perhaps we should get out of what we’re wearing,’ James suggested.

  Abi agreed as she was still wearing her chain mail and it was difficult to get close to one another whilst armoured. She went to give James a hand to remove the various parts he was wearing. Soon he was standing in front of her wearing just the protective padding he had had on underneath.

  ‘Right,’ James grinned at Abi wickedly. ‘Now it’s your turn!’

  It took a lot less time to divest Abi of her chain mail, and as soon as she was in just her underwear, James once more pulled Abi into his arms. He bent his head down to her and kissed her, and this time Abi could feel how much he loved her. She returned his kiss with equal vigour and when they finally came up for air she was trembling.

  ‘You can’t imagine how much I’ve wanted to do that, especially as I thought I’d never be able to do that again,’ James told her.

  ‘Actually, I think I can,’ Abi disagreed. ‘I’ve been wanting to do it to you just as much.’

  ‘Let’s see, shall we?’ James challenged, and before Abi could respond, he picked her up in his arms strode over to the bed and deposited her in the middle of it. As Abi lay there watching him, he divested himself of the rest of what he was wearing before climbing onto the bed next to her. ‘I think you’re a little overdressed’ he whispered in Abi’s ear, before expertly removing the rest of her clothes.

  He knelt over her and looked down into her eyes. As Abi gazed back up at him, she was overwhelmed by the love she felt for him. She reached up and pulled his head down to hers eager to show him how much she cared about him. His response was quick and eager, and Abi arched her back wanting as much contact between their two bodies as possible.

  It had taken them a long time to get to where they were. They had both been through hell, each believing the other dead and that their relationship was over. But somehow the hard times made it all the sweeter now. It was as though after all they had been through they now realised how precious their relationship was to both of them. All they wanted to do was show each other how much they loved one another, which they did in all the varying ways that they could think of, until finally, sated but happy they curled up in each others arms and fell asleep content in the knowledge that never again would they be parted from one another.

  At the foot of the bed the amulet lay forgotten, softly glowing and very gently vibrating, so that it was almost humming. It was as though it was very happy with itself and what it had achieved, not just with the Baron, but with the two people it was watching over as well.

  Chapter 21

  The clear up of the Citadel and the surrounding grounds took over a week. After James and Abi returned to the battle ground and surveyed the carnage that was there, they immediately pitched in to help. They worked side by side, helping to remove debris and try to straighten everything up and return the area to normal, James manually, and Abi using the amulet. Theldon also helped using his powers and between him and Abi they managed to speed up the clear up operation for which the people helping out by physically moving everything, were very grateful.

  There were so many bodies that there was no opportunity to individually honour everyone who had died on the rebel side. Instead, a mass grave was dug, and once they were certain that they had recovered the bodies of everyone who had been on their side, all work on the site stopped and everyone came to mourn the dead, and give thanks for their contribution to the win. The site would remain a permanent shrine to everyone who had given their lives for what they believed in, with the stone masons working on a suitable monument on which the names could be carved.

  With the bodies of the Baron’s army, it was decided that the best thing to do was a funeral pyre. So all of their bodies were taken some distance away and once they were all in place, fuel was added and the mound set light to. It burned for ages, and Abi couldn’t stand the smell. She couldn’t go anywhere near where it was located, not that James would have allowed her to anyway. He was very protective over her now and never let her out of his sight. Far from feeling restricted by this, Abi was grateful for his concern, for every night she was exhausted by her efforts, and only just had the energy to transport the four of them back to their rooms in the caverns each night, and once there, Abi would always give in to her tears which she felt unable to shed during the day.

  They continued like this for several days, until one morning when Abi woke up to find that James wasn’t beside her and the room was empty. Panicking she leapt from the bed grabbing a blanket to throw round herself and charged out into the lounge. There she found James quite contently chatting to Steve and Randall.

  ‘There you are! What do you think you’re doing, leaving me like that,’ Abi yelled at James, angry with him for making her panic.

  James stood up and folded Abi into his arms, kissing the top of her head. ‘Hey, it’s alright. I was only out here. But I am sorry for worrying you.’

&nbs
p; Abi relaxed into him. ‘That’s alright,’ she murmured against his chest. ‘I was just being silly, I don’t know what’s got into me lately.’ She pulled away from him slightly and looked up into his eyes. ‘I think I’d better get dressed.’

  James smiled back. ‘Good idea. I’ll just be out here waiting for you.’ He turned Abi round and gave her a gentle push back towards their room before settling himself down again.

  Abi dressed quickly and was soon back in the lounge with the guys. ‘Right,’ she took a deep breath. ‘I guess we’d better be going. Come on, get up and I’ll take you back to the battlefield.’ Abi gestured to them all to stand and join her, but the three of them remained resolutely sitting. ‘What’s going on?’ Abi asked.

  ‘We’re not going today. We’ve given them a lot of help, and now we need some time out’ Randall told Abi. ‘Take a seat and relax, you deserve it!’

  ‘But we have to help,’ Abi protested. ‘That’s what we’re here for and there’s still a lot to do’

  ‘Not at the expense of our sanity,’ Steve disagreed.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Abi asked.

  James stood and pulled Abi onto the sofa next to him. ‘We’re all knackered. But you, especially, are finding this wearing. Everyone needs some time out, and that’s what we’re doing today.’

  Abi sat thoughtfully in silence for a while. ‘You do know that I could just take us all back to the city, whether you want to go or not?’ she asked them.

  Randall grimaced. ‘We did think you might be capable, but we’re hoping that you’ll listen to common sense and take today off.’

  Abi stared at Randall for a while before making her decision. ‘Fine, you win,’ Abi told them. ‘There’s no point taking you guys where you don’t really want to go!’

  ‘Great,’ was Steve’s response. ‘I’ve been wanting to know everything that’s happened since we parted and I bet you want to know what we got up to.’

  ‘I’m going to guess that you were making battle plans and learning how to use swords,’ Abi cheekily responded.

  ‘Well in that case,’ interjected Randall. ‘I’m going to guess that you were learning to use the amulet!’

  ‘Touché!’ Abi smiled back at Randall. ‘Why don’t you go first?’ She settled herself comfortably on the sofa, curling into James’s arms, listening to the three men tell her exactly what they had been up to. They were thorough and left little out. It wasn’t easy, listening to some of what they had to say, especially when James told Abi about how he had grieved for her. She did have a question about that though.

  ‘So, is my name still on the Wall of the Dead, or has it been removed now? Because I really would rather it wasn’t there anymore.’

  The three men were stunned into silence. ‘I hadn’t even thought about that,’ Randall confessed. ‘We’ll speak to Sasket about it.’

  Between the three of them Abi was soon brought up to speed on everything that they has accomplished.

  ‘Wow,’ Abi said once they had finished. ‘You certainly managed a lot! I just wish I could have been there when you were learning how to use a sword, Randall!’ Abi grinned across at him, before becoming serious again. ‘I wish I could have been here for everything,’ she said quietly.

  ‘Hey!’ Randall reached across for her hand. ‘You can’t change the past, so don’t dwell on it. What happened, happened.’ He let go of Abi’s hand and sat back. ‘Now, let’s hear your side of things.’

  Abi resettled herself into a position to be able to talk to them and regaled the three of them with tales of her time in the cottage with Theldon.

  ‘I’m surprised that Theldon put up with you for as long as he did!’ James told Abi.

  ‘Oi, you!’ Abi dug him in the ribs. ‘You’re meant to love me unconditionally, remember?’

  ‘Doesn’t mean I can’t tell the truth as I see it,’ James jested back.

  Abi gave up and carried on with her tale.

  ‘What happened to your horse?’ Steve asked Abi when she got to the part about the horse suddenly appearing and her learning to ride him.

  Abi looked at Steve, startled. ‘You know, I’d forgotten about him! I guess he must have gone back to wherever he came from. I do hope his injuries are healed now.’ Abi frowned thoughtfully before she continued with her tale. She stopped when she reached the point at which she had joined the battle. ‘That’s pretty much it. The rest is history,’ Abi said.

  ‘To the three of you maybe, but not to me,’ James said in Abi’s ear.

  Abi looked up at him questioningly.

  ‘I was dead at this point remember? I don’t know anything more until I wake up on the battle field and discover that you’re still alive!’ James reached forward to kiss Abi, to soften his words.

  ‘You want to hear about my fight with the Baron?’ Abi whispered.

  ‘Yes, every last detail,’ James requested.

  Abi realised that James had every right to know what had gone on, so she wet her suddenly dry lips and reached for a glass of water to sooth her parched throat, before going on. To start with it was easy, she could talk about the beginning of her historic fight, but as she went on she was finding it more and more difficult to continue. Eventually she stopped, just where she reached the part where the Baron had been shot with an arrow.

  The silence dragged on until Randall decided to say something. ‘Do you know where that arrow came from?’ he asked.

  Abi shrugged. ‘One of the rebel archers at a rough guess.’

  ‘Nope!’ Randall’s face was lit up with glee. ‘I fired it!’

  Abi laughed. ‘Yeah, right. You’ve just told me that you can barely handle a sword and now you’re trying to get me to believe that you could pull, aim and fire a bow and arrow?’

  ‘It’s true,’ Randall asserted. ‘Ask Steve.’

  Abi turned disbelievingly to Steve. ‘Is he right?’

  ‘Much as I hate to say it,’ Steve began. ‘Yes, Randall did shoot that arrow at the Baron.’

  Abi turned back to Randall. Then she got up, walked over to him, leant down and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t know if I could have won without that arrow.’

  For the first time since Abi had known Randall, he looked embarrassed and slowly his cheeks flushed. ‘It was nothing,’ he shrugged.

  Abi smiled knowing that it wasn’t nothing, before going to sit back next to James to continue with her tale. She was very hesitant and there were long gaps, but the guys sat patiently and quietly waiting for her to finish. When she got to the part where the Baron was kneeling before her, she just stopped. She couldn’t go on and explain to them why she had killed the Baron. What had turned her into a cold blooded murderer.

  ‘Well, that’s basically it,’ Abi said and went to get up, but James prevented her, pulling her back down into his arms.

  ‘That isn’t it,’ he said. ‘What aren’t you telling me? Telling us.’

  Abi shook her head. ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Don’t lie to me, Abi,’ James told her. ‘I can tell when you’re not being honest with me.’

  Abi once more shook her head. ‘I can’t tell you. Please don’t make me.’

  ‘There needs to be no secrets between us if we’re going to have a solid relationship,’ James persisted.

  ‘No,’ Abi protested and began to struggle in his arms. ‘Let me go!’

  James held Abi resolutely, not giving in. ‘No!’ James was very firm. ‘You need to get whatever it is out of your system so that you can move on, instead of coming back here every night and crying. I’m not going to let you run away from this.’

  Abi stopped struggling and looked at James in shock as she suddenly realised the real reason they weren’t helping at the battlefield that day. ‘Is this why we’re staying here today, not helping out? Because you all seem to think that there’s something I need to tell you all?’ Abi asked.

  James paused before replying. ‘We had to do something, the three of us agreed on that
. We’ve been watching something gradually tear you apart and we, well I mainly, wanted to prevent whatever it was before it destroyed you.’

  Abi looked over at Randall and Steve who nodded, agreeing with James’s words. ‘We didn’t mean to deceive you,’ Steve affirmed. ‘But we couldn’t think of any other way.’

  For a long while Abi was silent contemplating their words whilst James still held her, to prevent her getting away. Suddenly she relaxed, catching James off guard who thought she was going to dive away from him. But instead she curled up closer to him, resting her head on his chest, her face turned away from Randall and Steve. Abi couldn’t look at them or James whilst she finished her tale.

  Abi took a deep breath because she knew that once she started she would have to carry on going or the moment to tell them about the final minutes of her battle with the Baron would pass, and she would never again be able to gather the courage to say what had happened. Abi would lock everything inside her, and like James had guessed, the unspoken words would eventually tear her apart.

  Abi spoke rapidly, not really listening to what she was saying so she had no idea if she was even making sense. All she could see was the Baron in front of her, yielding to her. The images the amulet had thrown at her, and then her ignoring the Baron’s surrender and killing him. Abi felt guilty and sick. She was repulsed by what she had done and knew she couldn’t look at the others and see that revulsion mirrored in their eyes.

  ‘So, that’s how it all ended,’ Abi summed up. ‘I’m a murderer. There’s no other word for it.’

  James’s arms were still round Abi but no longer preventing her from moving, so she stood up quickly, still avoiding eye contact with the others. Abi wanted to get out of there but James had other ideas.

  Before Abi could take a step he quickly grabbed her hand and tried to get her to sit down again. ‘Don’t go yet,’ he requested. ‘You need to hear what we think about what you had to do.’

  Abi stood next to him trembling, her head bowed. The last thing that she wanted was to hear their agreement with her opinion of herself, but she knew that even if she managed to avoid them now, eventually they would find her and tell her their thoughts. Abi sat back down on the sofa and stared at her hands that she folded in her lap.