“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you,” I said.
Everyone in the palace was excited to have fresh apples and the honey sticks. I was pleased that it was quiet in the kingdom while we were gone. Tyran went to one of the meeting rooms to print out the pictures we had taken in the balloon while Cali and I told everyone about our day.
“Where’s my little Clementine?” I asked. “I missed her.”
“Oh, Sebastian went outside with her,” Mykel said.
I excused myself from the crowd and went to go find them by the waterfall. I gave Sebastian a hug before sitting next to him. Clementine was further away, inspecting the edge of the woods.
“How are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m alright. Believe it or not, Clem has brightened my spirits quite a bit today.”
“Animals are very in tune to people’s feelings. Casper wouldn’t leave my side when I was feeling down.”
When Clementine noticed I was around, she ran at full speed to greet me. I petted her as she licked my hands and happily wagged her tail. I can’t think of anything that compares to a happy dog greeting you home.
“Do you want to take her with you?” Sebastian asked.
“No, that’s okay. I think you need her right now.”
“Thanks Jasmine.”
Chapter 15
Andrea Miller
I went back inside and up to my room. I thought of taking a short nap but as I was headed to the bedroom, I heard Cali coming up in the elevator. She ran over to me and she was crying hysterically.
“I can’t do this,” Cali said sobbing.
“What happened?”
“Nothing! It just hurts so much that I can’t show Storm how I feel about him while I’m in the palace.”
“I know…believe me, I know what you are feeling.”
“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I just need to vent,” she said.
“It’s okay.”
As we sat and talked about Tyran and Storm, we both started to feel a little better. I guess having someone going through the same thing helped. Eventually we stopped feeling sorry for ourselves and went for a walk outside.
Kelly ran up to me and told me that there was no way they could plant anything more than flowers or grass on the farmland at least for the immediate future. I told her that Cali and I would start brainstorming on what to do instead. I really did not like the idea of clearing out trees. We knew this was a strong possibility but I was still hoping for a miracle, so the news was a hard blow. It was hard to still be grateful that the flowers could be replanted since they weren’t what we really needed to survive.
At dinner, we passed around the pictures that were taken at the balloon festival, with the exception of Tyran and I kissing or any of Storm and Cali together. Tyran told me he made a little photo album for us to share.
When I returned to my room, I saw the pictures that were left out and they were probably the most beautiful. I fell asleep as I looked at each one, remembering everything about the day.
At around six in the morning, someone was pounding on my door. I ran to answer it and it was Kelly and Tyran.
“Jasmine! Come with us!” Tyran yelled pulling me with him down the incline.
As we ran, Kelly tried filling me in that there was someone from Pyrencia outside of the palace wanting to get in.
“Please! I come in peace!” someone was yelling. “Don’t hurt me, I have news.” I could tell by their tone that they weren’t lying.
Tyran slowly opened the door while Kelly and I waited about ten feet away. When the door was just sufficiently ajar, he pulled the girl through the entrance and restrained her arms behind her. “What are you doing here?”
“Please! Don’t hurt me, I’ve come with a warning,” she said.
“Tyran, let her go,” I said and I joined them. “What’s your name?”
“Andrea Miller. I’m from Pyrencia. I left last night and I have to tell you what’s going on.”
“We don’t know if we can trust her,” Kelly said.
“Still, I want to know what she has to say. Let’s go to the bronze meeting room,” I said.
When we were seated at the table, she started talking very fast. “The Queen of Pyrencia is planning another attack. I don’t know when exactly but I have lost my entire family in the last battle. I can’t go through this again, so I left. All I know is that she is very serious and has been in meetings for days with what Guards are left. I think they’re planning on recruiting people from the real world to help. I heard someone talking about paying each willing person $300 a day for as long as the battle goes on. I wanted to warn you because I know what they are doing is wrong Queen Jasmine.”
“We can’t offer you a safe place,” Tyran said firmly.
“I’m not asking to stay. I want to get as far away from this insanity as I possibly can.”
“Alright,” I said. “You really don’t have any idea when?”
“I heard them talking about traveling through the snow so my guess is November or December. I tried to stay as long as I could to get as much information as I could for you. There’s a lot of people who have left Pyrencia because of this whole mess. No one really wants to be a part of it, but Queen Aella is doing her best to keep brainwashing us to think that it’s right.”
“Okay Andrea. Is there anything else?”
“I don’t think so. Can I please go?”
Kelly and Tyran looked at me hesitantly and I knew they were thinking about keeping her hostage. Maybe they thought she was now a risk to Tamporlea, but I disagreed and I couldn’t hold her with a clear conscience. “Yes, you may go Andrea, and thank you for telling us about this.”
“You’re welcome. Please do whatever you can to stop them,” she said as she stood up.
Tyran walked her to the door as I told Kelly to gather the rest of the heads and go to the platinum room. I ran to get Cali from her room; I stormed through her door and frantically told her what was going on.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“What choice do I have? We need to attack first.”
Inside the platinum room, everyone was chattering about what we just learned. I let them continue when I came in because I wanted to hear what they were saying. When they settled down, I noticed that Tyran sat next to Mykel at the table. Tyran was probably able to convince Mykel to let him join the meeting because he was there when Andrea showed up.
“We need to attack,” I said. “We need to do it soon and we need to do it fast.”
“What do you suggest?” Mykel asked.
“We have the map that Lilliana drew out. It’s the most accurate thing we have for Pyrencia,” Cali said.
“How long do you think it will take to get our people organized to head out?” I asked.
“A day or two if we start immediately,” Mykel said.
“Oh hell no!” Tyran said out loud.
“Excuse me?” I said.
“You get that thought out of your mind,” he said to me after obviously reading my thoughts. “You will not be going. I don’t care what we have to do to keep you here.”
“I’m not arguing about that right now.”
“You are nuts if you think that’s a good idea!”
“He’s right,” Cali said. “You can’t go with them. Everyone would be more worried about protecting you than finding Aella.”
“Okay, I hear you. Listen, I want a copy made of the map a little larger if possible. Cali, can you go do that?”
“Sure,” she said as she got up and left.
“We would have to take the tunnel to Pyrencia. It leads inside their walls and there’s no other way to get inside without it. We tried going at them from the outside before,” Storm said.
“Okay, so for that to work, we are going to have to get through as fast as possible before they even know what’s going on.”
“We’ll have to do it in the dead of night, maybe two in the mo
rning,” Mykel said.
Cali returned with the copies of the maps and I laid them out on the table. Looking at the map, we all determined that as soon as they got through the tunnels, they would have to split up in five different groups. Tyran’s group would be the largest and would go inside of the palace instead of fighting on the grounds. We took different colored markers to draw the path each group would take. Each group would have at least one Guard with them and the last group would be stationed in front of the tunnel in case anyone from Pyrencia would try to escape using that pathway.
We spent three hours going over the plan, analyzing every detail. We tried to determine what would happen and what we would have to overcome. The biggest concern would actually be getting inside the palace, but Tyran was sure he could accomplish it along with Mykel. I felt guilty having Mykel join the fight after just having his daughter but I knew he wouldn’t stand on the sidelines as everyone else went along without him.
From the map Lilliana had drawn, we knew that Pyrencia’s most powerful Guards lived in the palace and the strength of the people’s abilities was determined by where each person lived on the grounds.
“Kill the Queen,” I said. “Make that your number one priority. We won’t have a secure Tamporlea unless that is done.”
“We’ll start telling everyone immediately,” Rebecca said.
“Rebecca, I want you by Tyran’s side,” I said. “I’m sure he will over extend his powers and we don’t need a repeat of what happened last time.”
“Not a problem,” she said.
“We’ll leave the day after tomorrow,” I said. “Let’s get going and get packing.”
Tyran followed me along with Cali back to my quarters. I knew he was going to freak out about me wanting to go.
“Tyran, please! I can’t just sit here not knowing what’s happening to you guys!”
“You can, and you will,” he said. “You have no powers to protect you and I won’t be able to concentrate on anything other than protecting you.”
“You can’t go,” Cali said. “If you go and something happens to you, everything we’re fighting for will mean nothing. You cannot do that to Tamporlea, Jasmine!”
“Alright, fine,” I said knowing she was right. “I can’t argue with that.”
“We’ll be okay,” Tyran said a little calmer. “I promise you, we’ll be fine.”
“Alright, you need to go with Mykel and let the other Guards know what’s going on.”
“Okay. I will see you later.”
That night there was no palace dinner as everyone was getting ready for the battle and saying goodbyes to the ones staying behind. Cali and I had dinner together and we discussed what was happening. I made it quite clear that this had to be the last battle. I was so afraid we would lose more people not just to the war but there was bound to be more people of Tamporlea who would leave if this wasn’t finally ended.
When she left, I went to find Sebastian and Clementine. He was down the incline talking with Tyran.
“Sebastian, may I talk with you for a few minutes?” I asked.
“Yeah, let’s go outside. I’ll catch up with you later Tyran.”
As we went out to the grounds, Clem took off to the field and grabbed a stick in her teeth. It was so funny that she was doing exactly what Casper would do if he were still here.
“I taught her how to play fetch while you were at the festival,” he said.
“Sebastian, I know we usually keep our conversations light, but I need to be serious with you.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“You need to make me a promise,” I said.
“Anything, you know that.”
“You need to promise me that you will come back to me.”
“Jasmine, I don’t…”
“Promise me!” I yelled with tears streaming down my face.
He hugged me tightly and said, “Okay, I promise. I promise I will come back.”
“I just don’t want to even think of you not being here.”
“It’s going to be okay Jasmine. I really think this is going to be it.”
“It has to be. I don’t think I can take losing anyone.”
When we went back inside, I really wasn’t feeling any better because I knew Sebastian had no way of guaranteeing he could keep his promise. Clementine jumped up onto the bed with me and I hugged her. As I lay there, I started thinking of how unfair it was that this was happening all over again. It just didn’t seem right. The chances of losing Tyran was so much higher now that we were going into their territory. I was falling apart as I held onto Clementine.
Chapter 16
A New Plan
I thought I should go talk with Cali, but I knew who I wanted to be with. There was no ignoring the magnetic pull toward Tyran. I ran to his room and he opened the door before I had a chance to knock. He knew I was coming, my thoughts were probably stronger than they had been since arriving to Tamporlea.
“I don’t care anymore,” I said through my sobs. “I am not going to let you leave here without being committed to you.”
“Jasmine, slow down. What are you saying?”
“Please, just marry me now. I don’t care how selfish I am being, I can’t let you go without giving you a wife to come home to.”
“Are you serious? Jasmine you’re only seventeen,” he said.
“I don’t care! You know how much I love you! That’s not going to change. I might just be seventeen but I am probably the oldest seventeen year-old on earth.”
“Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked.
“Are you trying to talk me out of it?” I said suddenly nervous.
“No!” he said before kissing me. “Come on.”
I followed him up to Cali’s room and he knocked on the door until she answered.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as she let us in.
“Cali, the Queen and I are here to be married.”
“What?!”
“Yes, that’s right, I’m being selfish right now and I’m changing the law. There’s no way I can be with anyone other than Tyran. I’ve known that all along.”
“Tyran, you need to get Mykel. He’s your Head, he needs to approve as well.”
“What?” I asked with a sinking heart.
“Don’t worry, it’s a formality. You think anyone is going to go against the Queen’s wishes?”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this! It’s so crazy!” she said when Tyran left the room.
“I know but I don’t care anymore. You know this is the right thing and because of that, everything will fall into place. It won’t be easy but it will be worth it. I’m sure of it. I’m just tired of all the restrictions on love. It’s so unnatural, you know that.”
“I do,” Cali said.
“We’ll make the official announcement when everyone returns from Pyrencia. I just needed it to happen now.”
“I know.”
When Tyran returned with Mykel, he had a worried look on his face. It was obvious that he had no idea what was going on.
Cali said, “Mykel, it appears as though Guard Tyran and Queen Jasmine wish to be married.”
“What the…”
“We need your consent as Head Guard.”
“And if you go against what the Queen wants, you know what happens,” Tyran joked.
“Of course! Oh wow, how did I not see this coming? This is just too much!”
“Please keep this a secret. We won’t be announcing the union until you return from Pyrencia.”
“Not a problem,” Mykel said.
“Okay, let’s get this going,” Cali said excitedly.
There really wasn’t much to the ceremony and I was sure that Cali was probably giving us the cliff notes version while still making it official. The kiss that sealed us as a married couple was short and sweet.
“Congratulations!” Cali squealed before hugging us both.
“I can’t believe you’re married! When did you two
even get together?” Mykel asked.
As Tyran filled him in on our history, he was very surprised that he had not noticed what was going on. He promised to keep the marriage a secret, even from Angel before he left. Tyran and I were about to leave as well when Cali said that we couldn’t leave together.
“People will know something is up if you two go up there and Tyran doesn’t leave. Take the elevator,” she said.
“Elevator?” Tyran asked.
As we made our ascent to my quarters I was very aware that there was nothing stopping us from finally making love for the first time for the rest of our lives.
I was startled out of my restless sleep at around five in the morning to really strange sounds. I thought we were being attacked at first but then I realized it was whispers I was hearing. It was very disorienting because I couldn’t understand anything. I slid out of bed and Tyran woke up, “Hey where are you going?”
“Um, Clementine needs to go out,” I said.
“Okay, you don’t need to yell about it. Hurry back,”
I didn’t think I was yelling. What the heck was going on? I thought taking a little walk with Clem would help, but as we made our way around the palace and back again, the whispers were getting stronger but I still couldn’t understand. Then I suddenly realized what was happening. As I opened the door to the palace, it shocked me, like what happens after dragging your feet along the carpet.
I made my way up to Mykel’s room and knocked on the door, being shocked again in the process. He opened the door and let me in asking what was wrong. “I need to talk to Angel,” I said.
“Why are you yelling?” he asked.
“Queen Jasmine? What’s wrong?” Angel asked as she came into the living room.
“I’m hearing voices, not voices really, whispers,”
“Okay, you need to stop shouting,” she said.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“It’s okay, you’re just trying to hear yourself over the voices. It’s normal.”
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