The Dream Keeper's Dragon

45. Martyr

Her grave was at the back of the garden as close to her favorite apple tree as they could dig. They wanted to place her right below it but the roots made that difficult and they had barely any time left as it was. So they placed her in the hole and crossed her arms over her chest. Some people threw in flowers and others just wept. Aurelie did neither. She watched them from a distance and wondered why she felt nothing. Orken said a couple of words. No one else seemed to have wanted to. A couple of dusty bottles of wine were passed around to toast her life and shortly after, the hole began to fill again. The whole thing lasted about thirty minutes and they were off into the darkness of the trees.

For the first time since Aurelie had fled from her home, she was glad for the trees that surrounded her. Kirin walked at the front. She attempted to catch up with him, but the scores of people prevented her. Well, that and her own will. He was like a dirt road, full of bumps and dips. If you weren't careful enough, you'd tread on a rock. She wasn't sure which side of himself he would reveal to her now and preferred to keep their last intimate encounter alive as long as possible.

Though the path was clear, they had been careful to walk the fields, and cross-check tracks, a feeling of uneasiness still drifted over her. She felt watched. Not from behind a tree, or a distance. It felt as if someone was right next to her, close enough to breathe on her neck, but under some sort of cover that made them transparent.

A flicker of heat spread across her cheek. She stopped. Shoulders knocked past her. A head turned, then another, but they all moved on, not paying her any more attention. The heat spread to the right side of her body. The hair on her arm rose and her heart beat with it. She moved to her left, and the fire moves along with her. Aurelie turned again, and it followed. A wave of horror struck her and held her in place.

There was a crack of sorts in the transparency that had followed her and she could suddenly peek through it. There was no direct vision, but through some force unknown to her, she could see or perhaps feel. Who knew? The hooves of her father's dark horse beat against the ground. Pebbles rose and fell beneath them. The souls of those he stripped drifted around him, almost as if they were attached to his cloak—and she knew with profound clarity that only she could see them. They clung to his very breath and quaked with rage. There was a void below him, darkness created by his magic. Aurelie gasped as just a spec touched her. It blasted through her like a wave of lightning on a stormy night, and she bit back a grunt.

Aurelie fell into the back, and slowed, waiting for all the people to pass. She looked around, making sure that none noticed her, and slid in behind a tree. The decision was made before she could properly tear herself away from the confinement of his presence.

The King was near. She had to surrender. They were battered. They were mourners. And, they had Kirin, who she could not endure to lose.

Daerious was right. Love is dangerous and she wasn't going to risk Kirin. If it were not for love, Aurelie's mind would not allow her heart to take the lead in her next step. As she turned to move from the group, Aurelie had to stop, and find Kirin. She crouched forward through the trees, like a predator, and searched for his face. The force to look at him one more time had been stronger, at that moment, than the one pulling at her to leave and save him. Her heart thumped with longing to be near him, but that was a luxury she no longer had.

He walked near Orken, his expression grave—as she was used to. A tiny part of her wished that he would turn, and search for her too. Maybe it was, in part, self-preservation, but mostly, she wanted to see his whole face so that if the King didn't kill her right where she surrendered, his face would burn in her mind for the remainder of her days.

The heat rose, and she rubbed her skin in irritation. She just wanted to say goodbye. Could the world not offer her at least that? Her eyes darted to Kirin once more, but the crowd had mashed, and she could no longer see him. Aurelie shook herself, straightened her posture—as if the King would appreciate her etiquette—and took a deep breath. She cut through the trees and moved to where the heat led her.