Not All Heroes Are Guiltless

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The snow peak vision plagues my dreams every single night. I wake up crying and restless every time. I’ve managed in the past month to only see Andrew during general training, and even during the last mission we had, he understood and assigned me furthest from him. I spent most of my time with John guarding the supplies, but I was grateful. I really didn’t think I could hold my temper with Captain Andrew’s disappointment in his very tone and demeanor. Our missions have been less adventurous than the one with the lupine.

I keep trying to find more about Delia and her light swords but so much information from that time is a scramble of legend and myth and even with some of the awe-inspiring this the oldest of mages can achieve. Swords summoned by light alone is a little farfetched to believe. I haven’t even learned anything about the allegedly ‘immense evil who planned to lay waste to our lands’. The direct quote from the one record of which the light swords were supposed to be helped protect Redland.

We are returning from our latest mission when Andrew does something I didn’t expect. He smiles at me, haltering my path towards the palace. He looks exhausted and depleted since we traveled all night, and the smile was a strange contrast to the now rising sun. I look at him suspiciously, “Don’t you need to escort the prisoners?”

“No. I just want to escort you to the palace. The others can handle the prisoners.” He smiles at me almost, mimicking a sly starved fox with its eyes set on its prey. I’m now weary of his intentions. He keeps the silence as we walk to the palace.

I can’t predict what he is planning to do. It's been a month since our verbal disagreement. He’s been avoiding me and allowing me to avoid him, but now his friendly manner is very concerning.

‘A trap.’ A whispers echo from somewhere far away. I glance around and search to see who could have said anything to me. No one seems focused on me, and I shudder at the cold shiver of fright rippling through me.

“Princess, are you alright?” Andrew says sternly. I lift my head and nod before proceeding up the grand stairs.

The footman rushes in front of me to catch my attention, and I stop to look at him, dreading his order to see my aunt. “Princess AmAela, the Queen requests you greet her before retiring to your chambers.”

With a political nod, hiding all sense of annoyance, I travel through the halls with the early morning sun. When I reach her quarters, she is having breakfast with a few of her ladies on the balcony. I stay in the sitting room adjoining the balcony when she sees me and excuses herself. I turn around, and Andrew is standing in the room behind me.

The whisper is back, and it's now persistently drilling the words ‘danger’ and ‘trap’ over and over. My head begins to throb, and I pull my hands to my temple to gain some momentary relief. I turn around to hide my expression from Lana. I see Andrew has a dangerous smile, and I’m instantly frightened. He is planning something, and I’m scared of what he will do to worsen the overwhelming dread I am feeling at this moment.

My aunt walks in with a proud smile on her face, “I’m sorry, Aunt Lana. I didn’t want to interrupt your breakfast.”

“Nonsense, dear child. I am always overjoyed the moment you return home. Now, tell me why Captain Andrew has joined you?” She smiles brightly between us almost with some hope in her eyes, and I’m already repulsed by the idea she believes we are a couple.

Andrew coughs and looks down at his shoes, “I fear, your majesty. I came to ask for a request.”

Aunt Lana pulls my hands into hers, and she stands straighter at his formal tone. She looks so strong and regal I can’t help but admire her. “Speak, Captain.”

“I wish to have Princess AmAela discharged from her position.” Andrew is so formal and detached, and I tremble at his words. He’s stripping me of the only freedom I have beyond these stone walls. I hold my anger as I try to find a way to negotiate the terms he will accuse me of.

“On what grounds?” Aunt Lana keeps her tone passive of all emotion as an amiable queen would. Her hands clench on mine, though, so I know she is holding back her emotions. “If it’s a lover’s quarrel, sure we can do something less drastic than discharge?”

Andrew shifts his weight, “I fear, your majesty, the madness she’s prone to is appearing in glimpses. She hasn’t been the same since I used the Zeal Crystal.”

Aunt Lana’s grip becomes deadly tight as her eyes flitters to mine, then back to Andrew’s. I look down and feel the embarrassment and shame filling me to the brim, almost allowing tears to fall from my eyes. “When did you use the crystal on her? Why was I not informed?”

Andrew steps back with a confused look, “I didn’t use it on her directly. When we ran into a stray Lupine a month ago, I used it on him, but she was too close.”

Lana hands fall down to her side after she drops my hands. I’m standing in horror about her pushing me away. She’s my only family member. She looks skeptical at Andrew, “The crystal shouldn’t have done anything but stun her. Wait, what stray lupine?”

I feel her worry and concern, so I try to match her regal tone, “The lupine we captured before the Solstice ball.”

Her eyes glare at me, and her concern now turns into a fiery wrath, and her muscles tense up, and her jaw squares. She nearly spits at every word holding her fury back. “I didn’t get a report. Where is he now?”

“Last time we dropped off the prisoners, he was still there.” Andrew says, as confused as I’m starting to feel.

At that very moment, several guards rush into the room, “Your majesty, General Tolston is requesting your presence. He says it’s a matter of urgent importance.”

Aunt Lana steps away from me and straightens her dress before walking out of the rooms without even dismissing Andrew or me. She’s walking faster than I have ever seen her, and I am in a full gallop run to catch up to her. I only follow out of curiosity, and Andrew is right behind me.

When we reach the deepest of cells, General Tolston is standing next to a pile of bodies, including the prisoners who just arrived with us alive that very morning. “I’m sorry, your majesty. I didn’t even realize he was there until we were checking on them. Every one of them is dead except him.”

“Not your fault. He’s a slimy bastard and I never would have imagined him hiding in my own dungeon.” Aunt Lana says with so much venom I’m nearly shocked she never shows that much hatred for anyone before. She opens the cell, and the lupine mage is still there in the same position. It doesn’t even look like anyone has even checked on him since I left over a month ago.

His head rises slowly when the Queen enters, “How nice. Strapped up and ready for me. Nice that you considered giving me your presence, then hide from me. Too chicken to face me?”

“I’ve missed you to mother.” He spits out with as much matching venom as the queen had been spewing. But I’m more shocked about his taunt of her being his mother. Aunt Lana has never been able to conceive. She’s never been pregnant, right?

“I heard a rumor you were executed. Leave it to the Shadow to kill an innocent in his place.” Aunt Lana laughs and moves closer to him with her face in his face. “It’s not like you to be a spy. No, this is too dirty for you. You are always more of the in-and-out style, aren’t you?”

Aunt Lana grabs his chin and then digs her nails into his neck to watch the blood dripping from his neck. He doesn’t even flinch. Aunt Lana turns away from him in a scour, then she sees me and freezes, “Aela, why are you down here? I thought I ordered you to stay.”

Andrew speaks up in my defense, “We followed you, and you never said anything to us.”

Aunt Lana mouth drops open, and then she turns to her son. In a shrill of high-pitch anger, she shrieks, “Are you jealous? Force my child to learn about my biggest disgrace to have her turn from me? If you do anything to destroy our relationship. She doesn’t deserve it; the child has gone through enough. Hate me, but keep her out of it.”

The queen’s son just laughs, and it's disturbing as it bounces off the walls and echoes through the dungeon. Someone who just had someone scratch his throat shouldn’t be laughing like that. “Mother, you get to decide. Cure yourself or save your people. I was just the distraction.”

Aunt Lana moves closer to him like a predator about to pounce, “What did you say?”

He smirks deviously, “Go look in the mirror.”

Aunt Lana huffs and storms out of the dungeon. Everyone follows, but I stare at the form, still hanging from the wall. Andrew grabs my arm and tries to pull me away when I want to ask him so many more questions.

“Aela, run. Leave the city now.” He yells, but Andrew is guiding me further away. I was bewildered and lost in my thoughts when I recognized Andrew brought me to my own sitting room in my quarters.

“Are you alright?” Andrew is stroking my face and arms in my stupor. My body flinches, wanting to shove him away from such an intimate position.

“He is her son?” I mumble in the disorganized mess of the information I just learned. “Wouldn’t he be a potential heir? He must be older than I.”

Andrew shakes his head at me, and I sit down, still reveling in this new information. “Aela, forget about her child. He’s stronger than we were led to believe. He’s been here for the last month playing mind games. He evidently coerced everyone to mask his presence from her. I didn’t feel compelled to talk about the crystal until we arrived at the front gates. He wanted her to find him today. Just the notion that he is able to manipulate so many people means he may be more out of our league than we believed. He did something to kill everyone in that dungeon. He also had to be the reason why General Tolson intel was dangerously wrong. He had to have been feeding bad intel into the prisoners.”

His words now register, and I look at Andrew, “He was a distraction for her to keep from saving the city. He told me to run.”

Andrew cups my hands, “He’s mistaken. No one could hurt this city as long as the Queen is here, you are safe.”

I stepped away from him, shaking my head in an argument. He yells out angrily, and he stomps out of my rooms, slamming the doors. I look around my sitting room and fall to my knees and cry.