by Jade White
We hid in the forest behind trees, but I didn’t want to be anywhere near the people who were talking. It seemed as if they had their own plans for all of us.
“What is this that you bring to me?” the man’s voice hissed in quite a high pitched voice that shrilled with such anger.
“I thought you would be interested in the fact that the shopkeeper said that Merek had purchased the warrior outfit. Do you know what that means? Do you know what it means to have her by his side? We all will be in trouble then.”
“If you carried out your job like you were told to do, this would never have happened. I knew we should have sent someone a bit more enthusiastic about killing the princes and the bride warrior.”
I didn’t even dare to breathe. Before I could stop Rowan from moving, he had already shifted his weight, breaking a twig. The sound seemed to echo.
“Who is there?” the man with the shrilling voice screamed.
Darts of lights darted between the trees as it lit up the whole forest.
“No one is there!” the man that showed up at the pub said with such annoyance in his voice.
“Do you think I am stupid, Frank? You really think that I am going to believe you aren’t trying to ambush me? This is going to be on your permanent record. Frank, I swear if anyone is there, that you are going to pray that I won’t be able to strangle you with my own bare hands.”
The light cast a shadow from the men standing on the roadside as they searched for us. I was wishing that Rowan hadn’t shifted his weight since every limb and branch seemed to be laminated with the light. The man sniffed the air.
“Do you smell that, Frank? I smell living creatures! I also smell that two of them are dragons.”
I began to push Ryia deeper in the forest as Rowan followed us. It wasn’t easy having everything illuminated, yet we still had to escape.
“There is no one out there, for Pete’s sake. Put your wand away and stop fooling around! Nobody knew I was coming to meet you and no one followed me here.”
I watched from the shadows as the man that had been waiting in the middle of the road shot something out of his wand. The short burst seemed to make the other man wince in pain and grab his abdomen.
“Quiet, Frank! I am tired of your belly aching already! I don’t care if they did or if they didn’t follow you! There is something wrong with the fact that you had someone show up here to try to ambush me!”
I wasn’t sure who these two people were, but I knew it wasn’t good having them around.
“I know they were here, Frank. I can smell the fact that they used the path and darted into the forest.”
“Nobody traveled with me! I can promise you that, sir.”
The man held up his wand and screamed. “Bring before me the unpleasant guest.”
I could feel my feet suddenly become incredibly light as a strong force tried to pull me to the man. We all seemed to be holding onto trees and rocks for dear life. We knew that if we didn’t, our fate would be gruesome and we would die by the hands of this man.
I still was trying to wrap my mind around this madness. It seemed lately to be quite a chain of events that was happening.
“I told you already that no one was there!”
“Twigs don’t break themselves, you moron.”
Once again the man screamed for the force to bring us to him. I was sure he wasn’t just an assassin at the guild, but one of the elite masters who was also a warlock. There weren't many assassins that could do magic, as well as be a stealth killing machine.
Ryia closed her eyes as we suddenly fell back to the ground.
“I am positive someone is there. It wouldn’t smell like a dragon in these parts. You know I am positive of the fact that you are harboring the princes as well as that warrior. When I find them, the whole lot of you will be killed. I will torture you to figure out where they went if I can’t catch them in this forest.”
I grabbed Ryia’s arm and we once again began heading deeper in the forest and further away from the path we were supposed to be on. I knew the assassins wouldn’t give up anytime soon. The price tags on our heads were too much just to walk away from.
I pushed Rowan and Ryia into a cave that seemed to be very shallow, but it would do the trick to hide from the assassins for now.
I could hear the assassins as they searched the forest. One of them seemed to be on top of the cave. His weight was causing the dirt and rock to crumble from the ceiling.
His raspy breathing reminded me of our uncle. My heart plunged deep into my stomach. I tried hard to breathe through my mouth and not to make a sound.
“It takes a lot more than that to fool me. I know you are below me! You aren’t going to get away. This is the end of all three of you. No one will know where the princes, Merek and Rowan, as well as the warrior, Ryia, disappeared to.”
I swallowed hard as I didn’t want to believe that this could possibly be the end. I began groping the side of the cave walls, hoping to find some sort of exit.
“Who is there?” the man said in a confident, yet curious voice.
“I thought you promised that our brothers would be dead by now. Must we have to do everything ourselves?”
The most hideous sound was beginning overhead and I could hear the assassin wince with pain. Even my ears felt as if they were going to explode.
“Where are you?” I whispered.
“Don’t speak! We don’t want your brothers to find us. It looks as if they are accompanied by a wizard or a witch.”
The forest turned a bright white in color that seemed to make the headache I had from the pub worse.
“It was completely a simple task in which you were to kill my two brothers which were direct and specific orders from King Athalos! Here you are playing in the forest and hiding from us? What do you think is going to happen when we tell our father?”
I could tell by the voice it was Prince Terrain that said this.
“I was dealing with the fact that the assassin had allowed them to go before you showed up. I was chasing them.”
“I wasn’t looking for any excuses! I wanted answers!”
This was suddenly the signal for my wife to take the lead as she led us deeper into the cavern that we were hiding in. Something was about to happen and I was sure, knowing both my brothers, it wasn’t going to be good. Someone was going to die and none of us wanted to die by the hands of Princes Terrain and Sadon.
Ryia was now zigzagging us through the darkness of the cavern as if she knew this place like the back of her hand. I was hoping she did, because I didn’t feel like getting lost in the darkness with only Ryia’s hand guiding Rowan and myself.
The air began to get heavier as the dense smell of rotting leaves and fish filled the air. I wasn’t sure where she was leading us to, but I knew wherever it was, it seemed nowhere near the forest. The smell itself was putrid!
The floor itself was quite slick with what I could imagine was the rotting leaves. I was unsure where the leaves came from since we were quite deep into the cavern. There was no light or signs of life in here. There were also no signs of holes in the ceiling of the cave which I was hoping there was because they would be an easy escape route, if necessary. All we had was wherever Ryia was guiding us to.
“Where are they since you keep swearing that they were here?” Prince Terrain screamed with such a booming voice. At that very instant, he sounded exactly like King Athalos.
I couldn’t make out any of the response, but I knew it was more likely not what either of my brothers wanted to hear. I knew that the king would be trying even harder to get rid of us from this moment on.
With the fast pace Ryia had been dragging us around with, it concerned me deeply when she stopped and caused us to bump into her.
“What are we doing by stopping?” Rowan asked.
“Something is up ahead and I am unsure, but I think we are trapped in here.”
“I thought you knew this place like the back of your hand.”
Rowan must have touched the wrong stone with his hand because I could feel the floor beneath us let go. We were now falling backward and I knew as we fell into the darkness, we were going to be worse off than where we were. No longer could we track any of this on the map. We were completely lost. I wasn’t even sure how we were going to get to the airships now.
To be incredibly honest, I was curious if I was dying since it felt like I was falling forever.
Perhaps this was one of the spells the warlock with my brothers happened to use. There was nothing we landed on or even bumped into.
Rowan hit first, which made a splash. I was next as I suddenly found myself in racing water.
“Rowan! Ryia!” I screamed as I was plunged under the water. The current was too strong for me as I finally fought my way to the surface.
I was positive this wasn’t going to be easy since I couldn’t see anything in the pitch black darkness while in a racing river.
“Merek hold on! We will come to you!” Ryia’s voice said as it was drowned out by the raging and angry waters that surrounded me.
“Merek! Hold on I am going to swim to you,” Rowan screamed.
Just as those words hit my ears I found myself back underwater as I struggled to get to the surface. Every muscle in my body began to ache as it felt like I was paddling and not getting anywhere. Once again, my lungs felt as if they were going to explode before I reached to the surface. I was unsure how much more my body could take from being tossed around in this river of darkness.
“I am right here!” I screamed to Rowan as I pushed myself towards where I had heard him last.
Rowan and Ryia reached out and dragged me to the edge of what felt like a beach. It was nice to feel the sand since I nearly drowned in the angry waters.
“I am too tired tonight to make camp,” I whispered as I looked at Rowan.
“I think that we will be safe if we are close to the beach. I think all of us are too tired. I really wasn’t expecting for the cave to dump us out in any waterway like that. I am pretty sure this is as close to the depths of hell as one can get,” Rowan replied.
I started laughing. My life had been close to ending and yet here I was still thinking how good it felt to be alive with my wife and brother surrounding me.
I was positive that our bags and the map didn’t survive the current since it was tossing me every which way. I was sure that it was tossing Ryia and Rowan as well.
“When sunrise comes, I am sure we will be able to figure out where we are and go from there.”
Ryia didn’t say anything at first. After a few minutes, she said, “The maps were lost in the water.”
“Don’t you know how to track it using the sun, the stars, and the planets? It is how the ships navigate when their first mate throws the compass overboard,” I said as I started laughing.
There was no way I could allow any of us to lose hope. We were so close to freedom if Maelyss listened. If we turned back, or didn’t even try, our fate would be death. It wasn’t as if we had a choice, but I knew that Ryia was contemplating if death wasn’t such a bad choice.
“Can we at least stay here a little bit of rest?” Rowan asked.
“No, we will get going in the morning. Terrain and Sadon will be on our trail since our father has even brought in the assassin guild to kill us.”
“I don’t think any of them would survive the rapids,” Rowan replied.
“We survived, must I remind you that? The assassin will walk underwater if it means getting to a person that they need to kill. They have magic on their side. We don’t have that. We have two dragons who stink to high heaven from being in that water, and a warrior.”
“Where are we going to go from here? I am sure wherever we are, we aren’t near the airships and we aren’t near Maelyss’s Lair.”
“We will figure that out when the sun rises. Until then, we will rest and try to get some sleep. My body aches from being in the river and fighting to breathe.” I knew that was an extremely close call for me in the river. I was lucky to even be on the shores.
My lungs still burned as I looked up in the sky. Wherever we were, we no longer were in the cavern. I knew that, since I could see the dots of the stars in the sky. We were in the middle of nowhere and out in the open. There wasn’t much protection and I was too tired to search. I was just hoping that my brothers didn’t chase us down.
The way the moon was in the sky, I knew it had to be close to midnight. It seemed as if I could at least get several hours of sleep before dealing with this.
“In the morning, we are going to have to find another way out of here. My body won’t be able to handle another experience like that with the water,” I said.
“I think that is completely understandable. I am just hoping they have food since we lost our packs,” Rowan added.
“I should have listened to you when you told me we should have never stopped at all.”
“You can’t blame yourself. I allowed you to do it!”
Chapter 7
The sun was rising over the beach in this strange land. I was glad nothing had happened to any of us. I was the first one to be awake, but I didn’t seem to be myself. I’d been confused since the wind storm. I felt off and easily bewildered.. It was as if someone was taking control of my life.
I had no clue where we were. All I knew was that we were in a strange place. Everything seemed different, including the sky. All I saw was murky water that seemed to be dark and almost filled with more than just water. I knew whatever the rough waters seemed to bring, it also brought the struggle in which I almost drowned.
All I could see on the horizon was that this water surrounded the shoreline. I couldn’t help but wonder where we were or how we would even to get to the Dragon Kingdom. We were completely lost and we also lost our maps in the water. I knew we were going to have to use the placements of the planets and sun to get us back.
Ryia rolled over and looked at me. My surrounding was turning fuzzy, but I didn’t care. The way she was looking at me with those hungry eyes made me feel as if she finally accepted me as her husband. The memories of my brothers stating that they were going to kill us didn’t seem to echo in my head as I stared in her eyes. She could calm my soul. I was just hoping that we could move forward with our relationship.
Whatever was happening between us, it seemed as if the magic in the air helped lift the mood for the both of us. She reached over and began to cuddle me as she looked deep in my eyes.
Most of the time she was tired of the reminders that we were married. Perhaps that was why I was so surprised that she was even touching my body. It was the first time she had done this since we got married. It seemed as if being married to me was a fate worse than death itself, or at least that’s how she acted.
Ryia had proved herself by being loyal at times throughout this journey, where she used her warrior abilities to show us things such as where my other two brothers were located.
“How did you sleep?” I asked looking at her.
She looked as if speaking to her brought her back to reality.
“What?” she asked in a soft voice.
“I asked how you slept. Did you have good dreams?”
Ryia’s face turned a shade of crimson
“I did have a good night’s sleep, and yes I had quite pleasurable dreams,” Ryia stated vaguely.
“At least you slept. I have kept tossing and turning, wondering if we would ever find a way out of this place.”
“I guess you could say that. It has been awhile since I slept, since we have been so worried about trying to get out of this place.”
I looked over at her with a sudden desire to make love to her. I had been wanting to ever since we got married, but it see
med as if I had been waiting for her to make the move. She seemed anxious about having sex with me since I was a shape-shifter who turned into a dragon.
My stomach was in knots as I held her close to me, since this was the first time she actually allowed me to do this. If she only could see me for the man I was instead of the dragon, then perhaps we wouldn’t have to struggle with any of this.
“I wish I could wake up every single day like this, with you in my arms,” I whispered.
Ryia nodded. “I might just like that. I know that I haven’t been the best wife to you.”
We both knew that we had problems that still needed to be sorted out, but slowly this journey was bringing us closer together. It was much different from the beginning when Ryia had constantly reminded me that she hated my guts. It was as if she was beginning to warm up. There were no words that could express how happy I was feeling over this. It seemed as if we were reflecting one another as I looked deep into her eyes.