The King of Swords and Serpents

Kill

            “What delights you in the early morning, Elicia?” hissed Ninasa, then she lifted her head up and she crawled up on Elicia’s bed, and swirled around her and rested her head on the lady’s shoulder. Elicia smiled, faced the green eyed creature and said, “in my dream, I saw a man.” Her voice was seductive and soft. “I never saw him in my other dreams,” said Elicia in a serpent tongue.

          “Who is this man?” asked the enormous black snake. “What does he look like? Do tell what happened.” The snake replied, and vivid to her eyes is the excitement.

          Elicia sat up straight, the snake repositioned herself in the lady’s front. Then, they stared at each other eye to eye for a moment. She held Ninasa’s head, and for a while, all her thoughts were transferred on the serpent. Ninasa’s green eyes bolden. She flung herself down. “The man is beautiful except the scar,” hissed the snake.

          “That is not a problem, Ninasa.” Elicia got up, picked out the knife inside her drawer, and then she sliced off the skin in her left arm. Then, Elicia puts down the knife, held her wounded arm close, and as her wound heals, the serpent’s skin bled open. Ninasa’s green eyes quivered. Elicia knelt before the black serpent and said, “now, find him before the longingness stabs my heart to death.” Then Ninasa vanished out of sight. Elicia went out of her room to see Shesha, the elder of the Serpent tribe.

          “Unlike those other strange dreams I had, last night’s dream was I like the most,” bubbled Elicia. Shesha was not interested to hear what the dream is about. She just held the lady’s hands, looked at her eyes and in an instant, she saw everything, heard everything, and felt everything in Elicia’s dream. Shesha’s face turned white, she puked herself in fear. She saw the scarred Zanucean like Ninasa, and Shesha knows—this could mean one thing—the prophecy has begun.

          “What is it, Shesha,” asked Elicia while nursing the old woman back to her bench.

          “Nothing. I just had lack of sleep,” replied she.

          Elicia took some Pokingan leaves, mixed it with honey juice and hot water, then she gave it to Shesha. “This should make you feel better,” assumed she.

          “Thanks for your kindness, dear,” replied the old woman. “You can leave me here now.” Shesha was insistent in her tone.

          Elicia stood up, she took some steps back—but before she left—she said, “I wish you will figure it out very soon, why, in my dreams, I’m living someone else’s life.” The old woman nodded.

          “We’ve been doing this ritual every time,” complained Elicia. “And I’m getting sick of it. And worse, I’m starting to feel violated for letting my thoughts be seen by someone else every day. Oh, before I forgot,” she added. “Ninasa is getting bigger, and she complains for hunger more often now.” Then she shut the door behind.

          “What did you see?” Gorona appeared. He rolled himself beside Shesha while levitating his head.

          “The boy in the prophecy is in Dervanna,” whispered Shesha almost in silence, voice shaking.

          “But how? There’s only one way from Zanuce to Dervanna, and that is crossing our little village. No royal blooded Zanucean can pass because that’s our truce with the emperor.”

          “I don’t know, Gorona,” answered Shesha while shaking her head. “It’s only a matter of time, we’re all going to die,” cried she, and the snake sighed in disbelief.

          The clouds darkened in the little village, and that a meant a day of warning. Shesha spent the day rereading and rereading the prophecy—looking for a sign of hope to avoid it. Ninasa told the snakes to find the scarred Zanucean, she knew—her master has no patience so she has to find Raqhan immediately. Elicia stayed in the little forest—the boundary between Zanuce and the little village. She was thinking of the man in her dream.

          When it was the hour of Goblet, Elicia heard the sound of horses. The travelers are quick on their pacing, before she knew, countless soldiers appeared before her. “Let us pass,” said Marcus, the general. Elicia’s heart pounded in agitation, she saw a familiar face—except this time, he hasn’t got a scar on his face.

          “We can’t let the royal blooded pass,” warned Shesha. “Respect our truce,” exclaimed she. Elicia never noticed that she was there—she fixed her eyes on the man.

          “Shesha,” cried Elicia. “That’s the man in my dream—but, he hasn’t got a scar. Oh, he’s real. I knew it. And his name…Raqhan, right?” The Zanucean heard her, he went down on his horse and approached the ladies.

          “Tell me what you know about my twin brother,” said the man. “The one with a scar.”

          Ninasa crawled up and whispered to Elicia in a serpent tongue, “you can tell him in exchange of a life of a royal blooded Zanucean. That’s the truce.”

          “In exchange of a royal blooded life,” shouted back Elicia. The general raised his sword, the other soldiers did the same too.

          “Do not harm Emperor Raqman’s son, or else we shall s*******r all of you,” warned General Marcus. Elicia disregarded the general’s threat, she was listening to Ninasa.

          “Do you want to know about your brother?” asked Elicia, facing the emperor’s son. He raised an eyebrow. “There’s another royal blooded here,” informed Elicia, and then she gazed at the general. “You, are a bastard son,” said she. “Ninasa can sniff around the scent of your blood.”

          “Take him as my end of the bargain,” ordered the emperor’s son. Then, in one quick wavy motion, Ninasa slithered toward General Marcus and bite him. He has fallen down from his horse, his soldiers were watching him struggling against the huge black serpent sucking him off his blood.

          “Now, tell me,” demanded the emperor’s son.

          Elicia held his both arms, brushed her palm up to the man’s broad shoulders while the man has no reaction. She touched his chest, his neck, his face, and then she pressed her lips on him hard and her thoughts travelled through.

          As she released him, the man whispered in skepticism, “My brother Raqhan is in Dervanna? How?” And then he spitted the lady’s kiss. “Now, let us pass,” commanded he.

          “It requires another royal blooded life for that,” insisted Shesha.

          “Well then,” spoke the man, facing his soldiers.

          “Kill!” said the emperor’s son in a cold, monosyllabic voice.

          And for all it went through that bloody dusk, the Dervanna heard the following day that lots of snakes died in the little village.