The Song of Blood and Bone

Chapter Eight

After about three days on the sea Aliyah finally found good balance and after a week passed she was almost an expert. Though there was only the sea to look at she preferred it over training. Hayden and Avyil decided she was good with hand to hand combat so they started weapon training. Lith decided to oversee the weapons training because Hayden was accused of ‘coddling’ her. No one blamed him, because of the mating bond Hayden felt inclined to protect her not hurt her. Though it was awkward with Hayden training her the first day she preferred it, Lith by no means necessary took it easy, but because Hayden could heal the wounds he felt no need to be easy. None of the wounds were indeed fatal, however it didn’t change that it still hurt. Since she got on the boat her scars tripled and her hands had several blisters. Sometimes despite the pain she liked the training, the muscles straining in her body gave her an odd sense of relief.

As far as Aliyah and Hayden went, they tried to laugh and joke, but they had a hard time with it. Aliyah didn’t like the idea of having a mate and felt as if it was awkward between them due to it. Some nights she had to admit it was nice, though she hated it. According to Avyil, Hayden did not want to tell her, but that night she was spinning out of control. Tonight is no different, she laid in her small cot tossing and turning trying to get rest. For some reason many things weighed heavily on her mind.

Everyone else seemed to be asleep, with the waves crashing into the boat , how could they not. The boat practically rocked everyone into a deep sleep, so why was she struggling to sleep? Eventually she got tired and crept to Hayden’s cot.

“Are you awake?” Aliyah whispered. Hayden opened his eyes.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Hayden asked her. She shook her head.

“No, I could quiet my mind.” Aliyah said. “Can I crawl into bed with you?”

Hayden nodded and rolled to his side making more room for her. She laid his head on his chest and began to listen to the soft beats of his heart. Her mind got lost in listening to his heart and counting the beats until eventually she fell asleep.

Laughter filled the giant hall. The dinning room table almost as big as the hall itself. What must have been a hundred people sat at each one of the seats. Aliyah and Hayden sat side by side holding hands under the table. They were so wrapped up in each others own conversation they didn’t hear Lith call their names several times. Finally Lith got frustrated with the two and threw a roll. The roll hit Hayden in the side of the face.

“Did you need something Lith?” Hayden asked c*****g an eyebrow at him. Avyil chuckled.

“Yes, I wanted to know when the baby was due.” Aliyah looked down at her swollen belly and got a sense of panic. Her eyes as wide as saucers she looked at Hayden.

“Any minute now.” As if on cue Aliyah’s stomach began to twist in pain. She called out. Hayden jumped up yelling for a doctor, but everyone in the room sat there in silence staring at them.

So Hayden decided he needed to deliver the baby despite Aliyah’s protests. She kept yelling to stop over and over. Her mind began to melt in agony until she heard a cry. That whole time Aliyah hadn’t realized she was pushing, but it was truly over now.

“She’s losing to much blood, she’s dying.” Hayden panicked.

“Let her die, you have your heir and she made you king. You have everything.”

“I wont let her die.” Hayden snarled at Avyil. Everyone began chanting to let her die but Aliyah tried to fight. The pain growing to much until her whole body numb. Though she could still hear Hayden screaming for help sobbing over her.

Aliyah woke with a start, Hayden was gone. So she decided to head up to the deck to look for him. Sure enough Hayden was standing at the edge of the boat with his head in his hands. His breaths were shallow as if he couldn’t stand to breathe. She walked to him and put her head on his shoulder.

“That was your dream, wasn’t it?” Aliyah asked with a small breath.

“Yeah it was. They started since the bond. Not all the time are you with child, but every time you die. The first time Lynce killed you, I thought that was the worst but it got worse. Sometimes I was holding the knife. I don’t know why.” Hayden ran his hands through hair and wrapped Aliyah in his arms. “Listen, this past week has been.. awkward to say the least. I do not want it to be this way Aliyah, I want to be..” he cut himself off.

“To be what?”

“Civil around each other. If you don’t want the bond that’s fine. Aliyah please at least allow me the curtsy of being my friend.” Aliyah didn’t move but looked to the sea for answers. The reflection of the dark sky only seemed to mock her. In her mind she knew what she wanted but her body told her something different. With such a moral dilemma like this Aliyah felt confused.

“We can be friends Hayden and nothing else.” She decided on, Aliyah knew that perhaps one day they may become something more, but she couldn’t think about that yet. Not with the pain of Rowyn’s death.

The look of disappointment was clear on his face, Aliyah knew that it was her fault. Though she felt guilty, she didn’t feel guilty about that, she felt guilty that she even had to explain to another man that she only wanted to be friends. She didn’t know what was wrong with her nor did she really know why she felt guilty. Rowyn’s death wasn’t her fault, but for some reason she couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow she was connected to it.

“I don’t want to disappoint you, but it is too soon after Rowyn’s death. I need proper time to grieve and I even need proper time to be able to get to know you. For all I know you could be working against me and trying to kill me. After all you were the one that approached me and told me that I was a princess, how do I know that you aren’t just doing this so that way there is no other claim to the throne? How do I even know that I am the princess?” Aliyah looked at Hayden with sympathy.

“ I know it’s hard to trust me. I just randomly showed up one day out of the blue, and just randomly I ended up meeting with you. Honestly, the way it looks I wouldn’t trust me either, but I hope that one day will be able to get outside our differences.”

The sun began to come up so Moved away from Hayden. She looked over to where the sky barely showed the presence of the sun. In front of them was the only land they had seen in days. “Is that our destination?” She asked pointing to the docks. It was hard to see them in the distance, however they were there.

“No, though the captain will stop for the night.”

“I thought captains didn’t really stop.” Aliyah furrowed her brows.

“Normally a captain won’t stop for any reason, however this is just a carrier boat. He transports several people to their destinations, this was one. There’s another thing I forgot to mention, we wont be traveling through Volalela. This boat will take us around the kingdom. Which is great, one less thing to worry about.”

“Isn’t the quickest way through though?” Aliyah questioned.

“I am not comfortable with taking you through there yet. We would have been there nearly a week ago, Volalela is a dangerous place and you weren’t ready.”

“It would have saved us time.”

“That’s true but this way we can take some more detours to gain support.”

From below the deck emerged Lith and Avyil. Aliyah began to laugh, Hayden turned to find Avyil. Normally Avyil is a neat man, though his hair stuck up in all directions and his clothes were very rugged. The two stopped in front of Hayden and Aliyah.

“You look like you’ve had a rough night Avyil.” He glared at Hayden than yawned.

“What is the bloody time?” Clearly he was in no mood to joke this morning.

………………………

Everyone looked at Aliyah as she passed, she didn’t know if it was indeed the men behind her they were glaring at or her new scars that she sported. Either way she didn’t like the attention. If it weren’t for the blistering heat she would have warn her brothers slacks and a long sleeve shirt, but she stuck with a dress and a velvet cloak she bought off of a merchant.

Hayden grabbed Aliyah’s arm and pulled her to the side away from people’s curios eyes. Silently he strapped a dagger to her hip, with the cloak as cover many would think it was a simple belt to add style to a plain grey dress.

“Incase we’re separated, I know you know how to use it.”

“Why are they staring?”

“They can see our mating marks. Most people only know the stories of general mates. Generals often abuse their mates and steal their strength to boost their own power. An offense which is punishable by death. Most probably want to set you free.” Hayden rolled his eyes and put his forehead to hers. “Be careful.”

Aliyah nodded and they walked back into the street hand in hand. She was more aware of her surroundings than she ever was before. She didn’t quite know if it was because of Hayden‘s warning or if it was just her heightened senses, but she could feel everybody looking at her. This made her feel on edge and worried that something may happen. In her small town that she grew up in it wasn’t normal for people to stare, almost everybody knew each other except for the few that would pass through the town so this feeling was new her.

She walked as if she was on egg shells because she didn’t know what was going to happen. Eventually they came to a stop in front of a large shop. The shop looked as if it has been there for decades and something told Aliyah that she was right. They walked in and were immediately greeted by a man that smelled like fresh cinnamon. He had no hair except for his long black and grey beard. His brown eyes have laugh lines. Aliyah had always hoped that when she was older she would have laugh lines. Many people believed it to be it wasn’t a beautiful thing to have, but she always found them beautiful.

“Ambrose!” Lith said shaking his hand. The exchange between the men was brief though fruitful.

“Ah, what are you all doin her’?” Ambrose spoke with an accident Aliyah has never heard before, she found it somewhat entertaining.

“Oh you know, causing trouble!” Hayden laughed and pulled the man in for a short hug. The only one that didn’t seem to be over joyed seeing him is Avyil. For some reason Avyil looked at Ambrose in disgust. Aliyah wrote off the mean looks and the quick hello Avyil choked out as she went to meet Ambrose.

“It is nice to meet ya!” Ambrose exclaimed while bowing. He placed a quick peck on her hand before standing up. “I be Ambrose, the Fae blacksmith. Have been for centrie’.”

“I’m Aliyah, Hayden’s companion.” She could feel Hayden relax beside her. It must have relieved him to be thought of as her companion even if Aliyah didn’t know why she said it.

The Hayden and Lith went off to talk to Ambrose while Aliyah and Avyil stayed by the baked goods. The bakery must be some sort of cover up for his smiths shop, it all kind of seemed odd. Who would hide a shop inside of a bakery? It seems a little to easy to sniff out, the bakery definitely stuck out like a sore thumb. Maybe that was the point of it though.

“So,” Aliyah started while looking at the cupcakes. “You’re not to fond of Ambrose?”

Avyil gave a ‘shocked’ expression. “Whatever gave you that idea?” Avyil said sarcastically. So Aliyah rolled her eyes and sat at a small table. There were several different sized tables, some could no doubt fit a whole family, Avyil sat with her.

“You don’t have to tell me anything, but the exchange between you two was kind of, forced.”

“He’s my father. And in all his incompetence he’s never figured it out. As a young man I’d come here and hope he’d put it together. He never has. My Ma said that he left for the war on day and never came back. She showed me portraits of them and I knew it was him instantly.”

“He has black hair though. You have a very noticeable red, not that Im calling you a liar.”

“Long ago he suggested I dye my hair, but he was the only one that the advice. Something about not sticking out. The white bits he’s had his whole life.”

Aliyah nodded, she couldn’t help but to feel bad for Avyil. When she went to respond the three men returned, a big sack bag thrown over Lith’s shoulder. As they got closer Aliyah could see Hayden’s happy face, she smiled. She’d never seen that happy face before, the one that made his eyes squint. To her it made him look more handsome. She quickly shook off the thoughts and stood up.

“What are we doing now?” Lith smiled as if he loved the answer to Aliyahs question.

“There’s a man here they call him the Grim, he’s been selling children. We,” he pointed to Avyil, Lith, and himself. “Are going to stop him.” Aliyah kept a level head, she always knew bad people were around but she didn’t know how bad they could be.

“Okay, I’m coming with.” Aliyah said with complete confidence. Avyil smiled beside her but Hayden shook his head. Immediately Hayden knew his answer was no, but now it was a battle of wills. Sensing the impending battle between the two everyone else found something else to do, away from them. Aliyah tapped her foot on the ground.

“You wont come. It is too dangerous for you.”

“No, no. You don’t get to tell me whats to dangerous for me, Hayden. It is not your choice to make.”

“Its too dangerous”

“Are you scared for me or for yourself?”

“I an terrified for you.”

“No you aren’t. You’re scared that tonight will be the last time I see you. You’re terrified that tonight is the night you lose me. I don’t know how I know thats what you’re scared of but I do. I need this! I need to know what I’m capable of before we face Lynce because if I don’t, Hayden, if I don’t better myself I will die. I cannot guarantee that I won’t die, but you cannot guarantee that I will. I have been training for a week, doing everything I’m asked of now I’m the one that is asking. I am asking you for the sake of preparation. Even if you say no I will still go because I am no ones pet that will obey.”

“Aliyah,” Hayden whispered. He looked into her eyes and sucked in a deep breath. “Okay, yeah I guess.”

Aliyah nodded in thank you. “Should we begin our plan?” Aliyah said loud enough for everyone to hear. They all sat down at the table with some salmon and ale. After everyone is full they begin to unravel a fool proof plan.