Love Before Blood

Chapter 11

Avalon’s POV

When I woke up, Azriel was already gone. The maids came in and escorted me to the bath area that was actually right next to our room. The ceilings were so high and it was open to the surrounding area, but I didn’t feel cold at all, even after I stripped my lacy nightgown. 

I could see the mountains for miles. But right where the mountains split, I could see a little bit of the ocean from here. I’ve never seen the ocean in person, but in several paintings that I’ve seen around the castle or in the library, there were many different colors of the ocean depending on the time of day. Hopefully Azriel will take me there someday.

The water however looked cold, and I was kind of hoping for a hot bath...but when I stepped into the pool, The water temperature adjusted to what I wanted. Soon enough, steam was rising from the surface. I got my whole body in and I feel my muscles relax for the first time in weeks.  I stayed in the bath for at least an hour, swimming around for a little bit. I felt the water temperature fluctuate as time went by. When I wanted to cool down for a little bit, it went down.

When I was finished, a set of clothes were set on a dresser behind a dressing curtain. I was a little surprised that the maids didn’t come in to dress me.  I guess the maids here actually respect the privacy of the royal family unlike the maids back home. There was a pair of black leggings with a long purple sweater that went just above my knees and a pair of white winter boots. When I lifted the sweater, a pair of black lacy underwear was revealed underneath it.  Just like last night, I blushed hard care “Princess Avalon?” one of the maids called,” Are you alright?”

“I-I’m fine,” I said and hurriedly changed into the provided clothes.

“Sir Bryce is here to show you around the palace grounds and the queen has invited you for lunch after your tour. Do you need help getting dressed, m’lady?”

“No, I’m fine,” I said as I slipped on the clothes and boots. When I turned around a mirror appeared in front of me.

I scoffed at myself. Even with this sweater and leggings on, it doesn’t hide the fact that my body is scrawny. So sickly.

I looked so sick despite all the food I’ve been eating within the last six weeks when my rank was promoted. Will I ever look better than this anorexic state I seem to have been put in?

Like the maid said, Bryce took me on a tour of the castle. We didn’t talk much. In fact, Bryce did all the talking and pointing, I just looked to whatever he was pointing at. And it was like a maze with brightly lit hallways and the floors were made of what looked like sun stone, the opposite of the walls in the bath area. But even so, I was able to mark specific hallways based on the plants they decorated and the paintings all around. I did the same thing when I was working as a maid. So apparently the maze of hallways was easily solved using what I learned.

Speaking of the paintings, there were many paintings of Prince Grey and Prince Peri, but there weren’t that many of Azriel. I would say at least one-fourth of the paintings were of him. Most of them were of him in warrior’s clothes and him next to his black dragon but a smaller version of it. One painting caught my eye in particular. A small boy with huge wings carrying heavy books.

“That would be Azriel when he was five years old,” a female voice said from behind me. I jumped and turned around with my self defense positioning and see Queen Dia standing right behind me. “Azriel has been reading since the day he could sit.” 

“Your Highness,” I quickly said and curtsied as best as I could.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said to me with reassurance. She was wearing similar attire to me, just a green sweater and beige boots. “But you did have a good stance. It just needs a few adjustments. How long have you been training?”

“I didn’t really receive training…I was just taught enough to just…defend myself.”

She nodded awkwardly and said,” I know I was hoping to eat with you for lunch but is it okay if I walk with you and eat lunch with you?”

I nodded my head and we walked in silence for a bit. I feel like I’m with my mom. Now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder how she is doing? “Do you miss your family?”

I nodded my head. “Well, just my mother. My…father didn’t really care for my existence until the marriage alliance was made.”

She gave me a glance that was sympathetic. “I know what it’s like to have a father who didn’t really care for their daughter’s existence, but they don’t realize that we play the biggest role in politics.”

I didn’t know what to say knowing what Azriel told me last night. “I don’t know much about politics, but I like to believe I’m doing the right thing for the people.”

“I do too,” she said as we were passing through some big metal doors and a blast of cold air came through. Behind them was a balcony, but beyond that a huge field filled with soldiers training and sparring. All of them were shirtless, as if the cold didn't bother them.

“We like to train our soldiers in close to harsh conditions,” Queen Dia told me.  “The mountains provide the harshest of winds that kill you if your wings aren’t strong enough. Not only that, the cold and elevation also brings benefits as well.”

I nodded my head and looked around toward the sparring rings. I saw two soldiers going hard in hand-to-hand combat. And then one of them grabbed the other by the waist and threw them over. But I noticed another thing, those soldiers were girls.

She must’ve seen my expression and said,” We believe that girls also have the right to serve in our armies if they are more than willing to.”

I felt jealousy rise in me a bit. I wish people back at home would care more about the girls like they do here. I had to learn self-defense through scratching and biting.

“I know that humans don’t offer girls to do this sort of training, but you are more than welcome to join them anytime,” she offered.

“I-I don’t know. I feel like I would only hold them back.” Queen Dia gave me a sad look. I wanted to say something to reassure her, but no words could form.

“Actually, Your Highness,” Bryce said and she turned abruptly to face him,” Cassian, Azriel’s commander, offered me and Princess Avalon some sparring and hand-to-hand combat lessons.”

I thought she was going to yell at him and have him punished for speaking out of turn like Queen Rosario, but instead she smiled and said,” Wonderful. He is an excellent teacher, and one of our best military officers. In fact, I don’t know if you saw it just now, but he is sparring with Prince Azriel right now.”

I turned to look for him in one of the sparring rings, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. Why am I trying so hard to look for him when I had just met him and married him yesterday?

“He is in the far corner sparring ring. Would you like to go see, Princess?”

I smiled and nodded. With a snap of her fingers, I was lifted into the air and I flew with her to the sparring rings. We landed in the farthest corner of all the sparring rings, where there were a lot of tiny rocks sticking out from the ground. Unlike all the other sparring rings, there was no one gathered around this one.

Azriel wasn’t wearing a shirt, but he was covered in sweat and very defined muscles. The sweat that was dripping off him only defined his muscles more. Him and Cassian were moving around so fast it was hard to keep up and see their movements. Finally, Azriel got a hold of Cassian and easily threw him over his shoulder like a huge sack of flour. And Cassian was a huge, buff guy. Just how strong is Azriel?

He then threw Cassian into the dirt and knelt on his back, making sure he didn't have any chance of getting up. Queen Dia applauded, and said,” Well done, Azriel.”

Azriel helped Cassian up before he turned to acknowledge his mother, but when he glanced at me, he looked a bit surprised. He gave me a small smile. “I see you’re here, but not your brothers. Where are they?”

He looked guilty and said,” I don’t know.”

“You don’t need to tell me, I know exactly where they are at this moment, and don’t say not here, Azriel.” He nodded.

“Bryce, Avalon’s bodyguard, has told me that Cassian will be training them in hand-to-hand combat.”

Azriel nodded and said,” I was thinking of personally training Avalon, but I do have a lot of political matters to take care of.”

“You could’ve asked me and I would’ve easily taken care of it,” she said with a smirk.

“And by ‘taking care of it,’ you mean by passing it on to my brothers, who we both know are the biggest procrastinators ever! Things never get done with those two.”

She chuckled in agreement, while I tried to stifle a laugh. “When will Cassian start training them?”

He looked at me, trying to figure out when a good time would be for me. The look he gave me almost looked like a signal. I looked at Queen Dia and said,” I would like to start as soon as possible, if that’s okay. Tomorrow would be great, besides as far as I’m aware of, I don’t really have much to do. I would love to spend my time to something more productive”

I thought I saw joy and pride in Azriel’s eyes. “Then, I’ll have Cassian start training you tomorrow morning,” he said to me.

Before he could walk off, I said,” What time in the morning?”

“How does seven o’clock sound, Princess?” Cassian asked.

“Perfect,” I said. That shouldn’t be a problem, given that I’ve had to wake up before dawn just to clean the palace grounds.

“Tomorrow then,” Cassian said. And all of us went back to the palace.