Love Before Blood

Chapter 20

We pressed our attack on the village without hesitation. With what they'd told me so far, all the villagers were safe, and held hostage somewhere outside the village, but more like in the maze of cliffs. While I was leading the aerial attack on the village with the Metal Clan soldiers, I sent Cassian to the cliffs with the Mineral Clan soldiers to search and rescue the villagers. Any bandits that came out of the villagers’ huts were immediately taken and hung at the edge of the cliff by their feet using a metal rope.

When I finally saw their leader enter the battlefield, I immediately swooped down to grab him, but he dodged by flipping over me. When he tried to s***h at my wings, I snapped them shut and rolled onto the ground. “How dare you tread on my territory.”

“It’s your fault that I’m here,” I said. “Now then, why don’t we settle this nice and easily.”

Their leader was no older than Cassian, well, at least in human years. Cassian settled around the age of twenty-five. He drew his sword and rushed at me. I easily blocked his attacks with my armor, but they’re not something to underestimate. He is quite strong.

When he lunged at me with his sword, I caught it with my hands and slid down the blade, and shattered it easily. I then subdued him with the metal rope I brought, and took him above the village, just enough for everyone to hear me. “Enough! Surrender now, or your leader and all your comrades at the cliff’s edge will die!”

All the bandits turned towards us. They didn’t know what to do, so they all laid their weapons down. With the wave of my hand, the bandits hanging at the edge were released and teleported back to the village. When their leader tried to struggle out of my arms, I held my sword to his throat and whispered,” Keep struggling, and I won’t care if there are casualties anymore.”

Cassian brought the villagers back, and we kept the leaders and the rest of the bandits tied up. Apparently there were two leaders, twins actually, according to the captured scouts. One enforced their rule on the villagers, while the other took chosen villagers to be sold as slaves. More like a food source for the vampires and werewolves, and now that the war is over, the options are much worse.

The treasury they had in an underground storage had a lot more money than what they could get at an auction. And it exceeds the number of people that have been in this village. What the heck is going on?

While I was interrogating the leaders, General Nami’s healers flew in to help the villagers. The rest of the soldiers were helping to repair the village from the aerial attack and clearing the blocked path. They camped at a separate site. I never doubted their healing skill, or their combat skill, especially since their combat techniques can be pretty brutal.

I had Cassian bring the two leaders to me. “I know both of you didn’t come up with this idea, so who put you up to it?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“If we told you, we would lose our lives,” they both said.

“Is that so?” I asked,” Then how about you lose them right now?”

Cassian slams his sword into the ground near their legs. “I would tell him if I were you. Though, quite honestly, I want to see both of your heads roll on the ground.”

“What makes you think we’ll tell you?” one of them asked.

“Do you think that anyone would stick their neck out to rescue you? Especially after we just exposed your little operation?“ Both of them didn’t—couldn’t say a word. Good.

“Whoever funded your little brotherhood or whatever you want to call it, will also be exposed. And the first thing they’re going to do is cut ties with you and then use you as a scapegoat. Do you get it? Or were you so greedy that you didn’t consider the alternate plans of your supporters if things went south for you?”

Their silence answered both of my questions. “If you tell me right now who your backer is, I can guarantee your safety until your trial is conducted. I will also tell the nobles of your cooperation. If you don’t, I will judge and punish to the full extent of the Drakes’ law, right here.”

“Drakes’ law? But we’re in human territory. This hardly counts as fair!” said the leader I took down.

“And what you did was fair? Then tell me! Now!” I shouted with annoyance.

“I-It was…,” they were both hesitating now. “It was noble.”

“An inhuman noble!” the other added.

“But we don’t know what kind of inhuman, though. He was wearing a dark cloak and a mask.”

“Do you remember his voice? Or any other details?” I asked.

“Tall.” And that doesn’t narrow it down any better, since most fae and inhumans are taller than humans.

“And exactly how did you know that the inhuman was a noble?”

They began to hesitate again. A look at Cassian, and he held his blade against one of their necks. “The cloak was made of a high quality material. No way a poor man could afford it, unless he stole it.”

“The smell of it too. It was freshly made or brand new.”

“The voice was something to remember, too. He had a very distinct accent and voice.”

“So, if I took you back to the kingdom, would you be able to identify them?” I asked. They both nodded immediately. I don’t know whether to believe them or not, but they’re the only leads to get to the bottom of this outrage.

“Good,” I looked at Cassian. “Prepare to fly back with these two and send word to my parents that we’re returning. We will leave once the village is secured. The healers and soldiers can stay as long as they see fit. As for the rest of the bandits, drop them somewhere far from this village, until we decide what we should do with them.”

The flight back will take slightly longer than when me and Cassian arrived. Hopefully, they won’t squirm the entire flight.

Avalon’s POV

I was so bored with all of the meetings and reading books for the past few days. I began wandering around the entire castle grounds. I didn’t know what else to do. Fortunately, I ran into Queen Dia who was walking around the garden as well. Apparently she was looking for me to invite me on a dragon ride.

I am unsure how that would be, since I’ve never actually ridden a dragon by myself. The only other time I rode on one was with Azriel on our date a few months ago. He also prepared riding gear for me to ride Midnight. The riding gear was very form fitting and very sturdy. I don’t know what kind of material it is made out of, but I feel very comfortable and safe just wearing it, probably because Azriel made it for me. Speaking of which, when did he get this made?

Once the maids helped me put on the clothes, I went straight to the royal stables where the dragons were being held. Queen Dia prepared the saddle for Midnight and her dragon. “The riding gear looks really good on you?” she complimented me with a smile.

“Thank you,” I said and smiled back.

“Whatever you do, don’t let go of the saddle, alright?” I nodded.

She hopped into her saddle easily and a magic chain appeared, linking her to the saddle. There was no way I would be able to do what she did to get into my saddle, so I stood there awkwardly not knowing what to do. “Uh, right. Reach for the saddle and use Midnight’s front leg to lift yourself into it.”

I did as she said, but it honestly didn’t go too well. I was struggling to keep my balance on the saddle. When I finally found my balance, the chain appeared and linked me to the saddle. “When we’re going at high speeds, just lean all of your weight forward and let your balance flow with Midnight. Turn when she turns. Once you start fighting against the shift in balance, you’ll most likely fly off or crash with her. And that is only for the take off. If you want Midnight to slow down for a leisurely flight, just tug on the saddle twice.”

I nodded my head again. Sounds easy enough. “Let’s head outside,” she said, and had her dragon walk outside.

Midnight followed and stopped just enough that we wouldn’t get hit by her dragon’s wings. With one powerful flap, her dragon pushed off the ground and hovered just above the height of the stables. Inside, the horses were frightened. “Just yell up!” Queen Dia shouted from above.

“Um, up?” I said with hesitation. And up we went. Just as she said, I leaned forward with all of my weight and held onto the saddle with all of my strength. Midnight catches up with Queen Dia and we both take off.

We flew around for a while. At one point, we began to zoom around the skies. We were going so fast that I felt my chest tighten. When we finally slowed down, my fingers were numb from how tight I was holding onto the saddle.

I was so curious about how the kingdom looked. I wasn’t ready to see what was truly down there. Closer to the castle, the streets were cleaner and busier, but just a few more blocks from that area were dirtier streets and people coming out of their houses watching us. “Queen Dia!” I called her. “Could we land down there?”

She looks down and then flies over to me. We can’t land the dragons exactly at that spot you were pointing at. There’s no room for our dragons. We can circle around a bit longer until we find a good landing spot.”

“I’ll follow you,” I replied.

We landed in a plaza with a fountain in the center. I didn’t get off of Midnight as I took in the view around me.There was no water flowing through it. The water inside was black, and the fountain was dirty. The area was so quiet that I found it eerie. “I’ve never left the castle before. I never would have guessed that the suffering of these people was to this extent.”

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way,” Queen Dia said with sadness in her eyes.

“Does Azriel know?” I asked.

“We guessed it would be to this extent,” she said. “During the war, the majority of the troops were made up of men. The women were the vampire and werewolf generals who were commanding them behind the front lines. At first, we didn’t care because the royal family declared war on us first, because we refused to join their lands and live as one land. Later on, we took note of how many casualties there were and how old they were. We figured all of them had families they needed to take care of. The numbers of men they sent to the field in each battle were high, at least at the beginning. Azriel began to notice the age range of the soldiers began to decrease and they were using turned soldiers to fight the war.”

“Turned?” I asked.

“Vampires and werewolves who turn a human into their kind, but more like a bloodthirsty soldier. The process for turning a human is painful, and they would purposely send them onto the field with an insatiable thirst for blood. Any blood. The only way we could save them was by killing them right there on the battlefield,” she said. “Many of our soldiers died because they didn’t want to take away an important person from another person’s family. They would even quit after their first battle because they couldn’t fight knowing what they had done. Azriel almost did the same, but as a third prince and role model for the people, he’s forbidden from having such thoughts.”

“I never knew. And I regret it so much,” I said, on the brink of tears. If I had truly known, I wouldn’t have said no as my first response. “When I agreed to this alliance, one of my conditions to the King was to make sure the people were well provided for, decrease taxes, and make sure the lives of the soldiers were well compensated by their families. Now, I only see that the condition I made was all for nothing because there were no families to truly help.”

A few tears slipped past my eyes. I could feel Midnight adjusting her tail to wrap around me in comfort. Queen Dia looked at me with sympathy. “I could never blame you. The treatment you went through in the palace was beyond horrible. I probably would’ve put the concerns of other people in the back of my mind if I were put in your shoes. Right now, it no longer matters because we can’t change what has already happened. We can only move ahead, toward the future and make sure their sacrifice was not in vain.”

I wiped my tears away and nodded with determination. “We should head back,” I said. “It’s going to be dark soon, and quite honestly, I’m famished.”

Queen Dia laughed and launched first. In no time, we landed in front of the stables. When my feet touched the ground, my legs were wobbly and Midnight caught me with her wing. I stroked her wings in gratitude. “Your Majesties,” a Drake servant came up to us. “We had just received a message from Prince Azriel.”

“Is everything okay?” I asked urgently with concern. The maid nodded and handed the message to Queen Dia. It was written in the Drake language. As she read through the message, her facial expressions changed twice.

“You should change. Azriel will be here soon.” And with darkness in her eyes she said,” Things are about to get interesting around here.”