He took a deep breath and looked away from her. “Are you familiar with the Life Debt?”
Those simple words sent an icy chill over her, and she couldn’t repress a shiver. “I have heard of it before. When a person’s life has been saved, the Life Debt states that they literally owe their life to their savior, to put it simply, but I thought it wasn’t used anymore. Too many people disputed whether their lives were actually in danger, and other times the savior didn’t want the responsibility of holding another person’s life in their hands.” It was more of a statement than a question, as she was hoping he would only confirm what she had said.
“You are only partially right. It is not required to be enforced anymore because of the problems you have listed and many more. However, there is a provision that if the threat to life is clearly defined and the savior so chooses, they can invoke the Life Debt.” He paused for a moment and looked at her intently. “I have already talked to my father and to your parents. They all agree that if I had not helped, you would have died. My father has allowed me to invoke your Life Debt.”
The silence and tension in the room at that moment could have been cut with a knife. The realization of what he was saying hit her like an icy wave. She was his, it was already decided, and there was nothing she could do about it. Everything else she had learned that day shrank in comparison.
After a few moments of her utter silence, he stood up. “I realize this is a lot for you to take in right now, but I don’t want you to worry about it. I want you to concentrate on getting better. Your parents will be by in the next couple of days, and you can tell them what you need from your old house.” Those words had a kind of finality to them, letting her know her old life was over.
“Professor Fredrick Gilbert was my old tutor. I have learned that you have worked closely with him in the last couple of years, so when I spoke to him he agreed to continue your graduate studies here as soon as you feel well enough. I hope that will be all right with you. Also, I will be continuing our visits; I find them absorbing. If you need anything, let Olva know, and I hope you will come to accept this in time. I know it will turn out for the best.”
With that said, he turned around, and before she could say anything, walked out of the door. She sat stock-still for a moment, and then it hit her. She would never play in the forests by herself again or sit and chat with her friends. Her life was no longer her own. No matter how much he tried to make it seem like it would continue to be the same, things were changed forever. All because of some stupid twist of fate. Even the formality with which he’d delivered her sentence to her was in stark contrast to his warmth of a few moments before.
She couldn’t take it anymore; it was too much all at once. Even the sight of the park from her window seat was depressing. She lay down on the bed and, finally giving in to the tears she had been fighting, cried herself to sleep.
3. Nightmares
The young girl woke up, and her head was pounding. She was completely unfamiliar with her surroundings. When she tried to move, the whole room started to blur and fade out again, so she decided to stay still. When the blurriness passed, she was able to focus on the pain in her head. It was coming from the right side, above the temple. As long as she didn’t move her head, she felt all right. She moved her hand slowly and touched the spot where the pain was coming from. She felt a bandage there, but it was wet with something, and when she brought her fingers around in front of her face, they were red. The sight almost made her fade out again, but she refused to let herself get scared by the prospect of a little blood. She couldn’t quite remember, but she had the feeling she had seen enough so that it shouldn’t bother her.
She slowly put her hand back down and tried again to see where she was, this time without moving her head too much. She could tell she was in some sort of bunk, and by the looks of it, she was on a space liner. The room had one other cot, a desk, a door marked with the lavatory symbol, and a smaller door that was presumably a closet.
After her quick inspection of the room, she closed her eyes and tried to remember how she had come to be there. For the life of her, she could only remember bits and pieces of bloody images that were too outlandish to be real. The only thing she could think was she had somehow taken a nasty bump to the head and, in the meantime, had some scary dreams. All she could do was wait and hope that someone who knew what was going on would be able to help.
Just as she was about to drift off to sleep again, she heard a sound that brought her fully awake. She couldn’t identify it at first, but it soon got closer to her room. When she heard it up close, the gunfire brought back memories of her bloody dreams much more vividly, and she began to wonder if they had been dreams at all. There was a great blast almost right outside the door to her room, and it made her jump, which caused the room to spin again. While the explosion was still echoing down the hallway, the door to her room burst open, and she screamed. The face that appeared was battered but somehow familiar. She felt she should know this face, and it was no threat.
“My lady, you are awake. That is good. I don’t mean to frighten you, but we really must be going.” This calm, matter-of-fact statement seemed almost absurd coming from this man, but all her instincts told her she should listen to him.
“I will try to move as fast as I can. The slightest movements make me dizzy, so I will need your help. Will that be possible?” As she said this, she got up and tried her best not to fall over, fighting the dizziness with every step and using the wall as a prop.
“I am sorry, but they have found us even here. I trapped them in the far end of the hallway, but it will not take them long to find a way through. I will help you as long as I can, but when they start to come again, I will have to stop to take care of them.” She was still totally confused about what was going on, but her instincts had kicked in, and they told her now was not the time to ask questions. It also did not escape her attention that he did not sugarcoat the situation by saying “if” they got through. She appreciated his candor; this way, there were no false promises or inflated hopes. She had no idea where all these thoughts were coming from, but they made sense, so she went with it.
They hurried down the hallway, leaving the sounds of intermittent explosions behind them. Soon the sounds stopped altogether, but that only increased her fear. Something told her this was far from over. They only had to stop twice for her to regain her feet after a fit of dizziness. Each time, the strange man would stand over her looking behind him with a gun that he always kept close at hand, even when he was helping her walk.
In her confused state, it felt like an eternity before he called a halt to their frantic pace. But when they stopped, the urgency in his face only seemed more pronounced, and she thought she could hear what sounded like many footsteps in the direction they had just come from. That might explain his frightening expression. He looked straight at her and tried to school the fear out of his eyes; she was sure for her benefit. “My lady, they are gaining, and I cannot hold them all. Behind us is a single person escape pod. I had hoped to make it to the larger one, but that doesn’t seem like it will be possible. I need you to get in this pod, and I will set the controls to take you where you should be safe until the next person can pick you up.”
For some reason, the thought of being alone again terrified her more than the statement that the unknown assailants were gaining on them. She tried to voice an objection, even tried to convince him she could move faster. She argued that if they left now, they would be able to make it to the bigger pod, even though she had no idea how far that was. She was doing everything she could think of to not be left alone.
He cut off all her excuses and reassured her she would be safe if she did exactly as he said. “We always have a backup plan, and this is one of them. It was decided if we both couldn’t get away, you would leave in this pod after I led them past. I will take the larger one to act as a decoy.”
She fel
t helpless but could think of no more valid arguments. She got into the pod and strapped herself in while he took care of programming the pod’s computer with the coordinates of where he was sending her. He checked her straps one last time and gently laid his hand on her cheek. “You are so young, but I promise I am not the only one that wishes for your safety. You won’t be alone for long.” With those words, he walked out of the pod and looked back to see if he could tell it had been disturbed. Apparently, he found things to his satisfaction because, after a moment, he walked off some ways. He stopped, but it wasn’t long before he started running.
Before she could even begin to feel scared, the footsteps were right outside. When she heard the voices that went with them, she froze. “Hey, look here. This looks like the bandage the brat was wearing. Here’s part of his cloak too. They must have had to stop because she started bleeding again. There’s fresh blood up the hall here too; he must be carrying her now. Maybe we can catch them soon.”
With every word they uttered, the blood in her veins seemed to freeze a little more. She could hear at least five different voices, but to her amazement, they were going farther and farther down the hall in the direction her unknown helper had gone. Before they were completely out of earshot, she heard something that made her gasp. It was a voice she had not heard yet, and the coldness in it made everyone stop talking. “I have informed the commander the only way for them to escape is the double pod on the port side near the rear of the ship. He has informed me his fighters are on the way there now. Even if they manage to make it that far before we catch up, the fighters will blow them into the vacuum as soon as they take off.”
They were too far from her now for her to hear more, but that was enough. She couldn’t let him take off. She had to find some way to get to him and tell him it was a trap. As she fought with the straps holding her in, it dawned on her they were locked in place, and they wouldn’t come undone. When she realized this, she looked frantically around her and realized the takeoff sequence had begun. Either it was set on a timer, or the man had set it off when he was sure the assailants were past where she was.
Within a few moments, she was jolted by the sudden movement of the pod as it released itself from the main ship. It didn’t have a large jet, so there was no noise until it initiated its thrusters to send it in the right direction. Even then, the disturbance was minimal. There were fighter ships out there, and even though they were on the other side of the ship, she knew that had to mean that either a cruiser was close or they were close to a planet.
The question was answered as the pod turned and the planet beneath her came looming into view. She was so awed by the sight that for a moment, she forgot where she was. Then, as the pod turned again, she had an unobstructed view as the other, larger pod took off. Not far from it were two sleek fighters. She couldn’t tell what class or style from this distance. The scene unfolded in sickening slow motion. Just as it seemed the other pod would clear them, the two fighters opened fire simultaneously. In a blast that made her need to cover her face with her hands, the pod was gone in an instant.
Avila woke with a start. She didn’t scream, but then, she’d been having the dreams long enough that she no longer did that. She did notice when she reached up to rub her face that there were tears streaked down her cheeks.
―
The next few days went by in a blur for Avila. Her parents came by to talk to her and reassure her they would still be around for her any time she wanted to see them. They had already been told the prince didn’t have a problem with it, so they would try to come over as often as possible. They also brought a few of her personal things from her room they knew she would want or need and told her they would get her anything else she thought she might want if she would give them a list.
The one question burning in Avila’s mind was if they had known all along that Galdren was the prince and what his intentions were. She was too afraid to ask. The sense of betrayal, that they might have had a clue and had done nothing to warn her or help her in any way, was too much. She couldn’t stand to find out for sure.
Avila tried to fight those feelings. She knew there was nothing they could have done even if they had known. Trying to convince her heart of that was a lot harder than convincing her mind.
When Lissa came to visit her for the first time since things had changed, Avila’s mood was switching somewhere between frustrated, angry, and outright depressed. Her friend seemed to sense some of that as soon as she saw her.
“Hey, I thought I might drop by and see how things were going since I haven’t got to see you for a while; you know, make sure you’re feeling better.” Avila didn’t even know where to begin, so she sat there until Lissa continued like there was no problem, “I was going to come by last week, but your parents said it probably wasn’t a good time. I asked them when you might be coming home, and they said you were going to stay here for a while, but they didn’t say much else.”
Avila knew Lissa was trying to make polite conversation, and that her questions were aimed at finding out what was wrong. However, they brought every feeling she had gone through in the past week back to the front of her mind. She knew she had to say something to stop the questions before she exploded and said something she didn’t mean.
“Lissa, stop beating around the bush.” Avila realized that had come out a little harsh, so she tried to soften her words with a smile. “I can tell you want to know what is going on, but I barely know myself. If you’ll sit down and listen, I might be able to explain what I can.”
She paused for a moment, then continued after Lissa sat in the chair by the window, a place Avila tried to avoid these days. “Okay, where do I start? Well, I am going to stay here . . . as long as . . . as long as Galdren wants me to. I don’t know how much you know already, but I will start at the beginning. Besides, I could use a friend to talk to right now anyway.” At that last statement, Lissa looked sharply at her and seemed like she was going to speak, but clamped her lips shut when Avila caught her eye.
“Do you remember what happened on the day of my accident? I know we haven’t talked about it.” Before Lissa could reply, Avila continued, “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I was told that if Galdren hadn’t been there, I probably would have died.” Avila repressed a grimace as she said that last part, but she went on anyway. “You know, it feels a little strange to call him that, even though that is what he had me call him from the day we met.”
Lissa was clearly trying to follow Avila’s broken thought patterns, but she looked totally lost. “What are you talking about? I thought his name is Galdren; why would you call him anything else?” The question bothered Avila as soon as it was out, and she felt like she was either about to start crying or laughing hysterically; it was hard to tell which.
She did neither. Instead, she told herself to pull it together. It wouldn’t do her any good to lose it again. “I guess they really didn’t tell you anything, did they? One of the bombs they dropped on me was his title. His full name is Prince Galdren de Althmear, heir to the throne of Aril.”
After she said that, she felt a little bit of gratification, because the look on Lissa’s face was as shocked as she had felt when she first found out. Unfortunately, the satisfaction wore off quickly, and the despair started to set back in before Lissa could find the words to reply.
Still, Lissa recovered far more quickly than Avila herself had. “Oh, wow! You mean you have been living with the most eligible bachelor in the whole of the Trading Alliance and didn’t even know it, and he wants you to keep staying here, and—what are you so upset about?”
Lissa’s excited chatter was barely understandable as it tried to all come out at once. It brought a small chuckle out of Avila until what she was saying sank in. It hit her even harder that her situation was not at all what Lissa was thinking. Once again, the tears started to come, and this time she didn’t even bother to try and stop them. Lissa
had been her best friend as long as she could remember, and if she couldn’t cry on her friend’s shoulder, then she didn’t have anyone she could turn to.
Lissa was obviously shocked by the sudden outburst from her usually levelheaded and sensible friend, but she pulled Avila into a hug anyway. It was exactly what Avila needed.
After a few minutes, Avila had cried herself out and felt she at least owed Lissa an explanation. “Sorry about that. I know it might look like this is every girl’s dream, you know, being rescued by the prince and him falling for her, but this isn’t exactly like that.” She paused to try to figure out how to tell her best friend that she didn’t know how much longer she would be able to spend time with her.
“When Galdren—I mean, the prince, rescued me, he saved my life, and now I owe it to him. I mean that literally. He has invoked the Life Debt, and I am now his to do with as he pleases.” Avila watched as the look on Lissa’s face changed to one of complete shock. “I know it sounds like an old story, but the law still exists. It’s rarely used anymore, but it can be. For reasons I haven’t even been able to bring myself to ask about, Galdren was granted my life.”
Both girls sat there for some time. Lissa in stunned silence, and Avila still trying to come to terms with the reality of what felt like a horrible dream. Finally, Lissa broke the silence in a soft voice as she grabbed Avila’s hand. “What is going to happen to you, then? Has he told you anything about what he wants? Are you going to be able to keep seeing the other people in your life, like your parents and me?”
Somehow, Avila managed a weak grin to make Lissa feel she was helping. “I don’t know what he wants yet. As far as what will happen to me, I have no clue, but he has told me, for now, I can continue to see my family and friends. I can even keep up with my studies, but it all must be done from here. He hasn’t expressly forbidden me from leaving, but every time he says something, it is always ‘they can come here anytime they want’ or ‘you can vo-im anytime.’ As far as my studies are concerned, and this is unreal, Professor Gilbert has agreed to come and tutor me privately.” She smiled with the last part of her explanation. The fact that her favorite professor also mentored the prince was one of the small miracles helping her keep her sanity.
Shattered Dreams Page 3