Be My Princess [Editing]

Ready For Death

Chapter 32

We rode for the whole night without taking a break. I could feel myself dozing and when I did I would make the horse go faster as a way of waking me up. None of the soldiers said anything to me really but I would occasionally see one or two of them staring back at me before it got too dark to see much of anything. I had no idea how far away the Central Kingdom was so the ride seemed to go on forever.

At the battle field I couldn’t help but stop.

“Has the war ended?”

I had to ask because there were men out but none of them were at war. In the distance I could see fires and men sitting around them. Many seemed worn but for the most part, from what I could tell, they were happy to not be fighting.

“The High King put a stop to it earlier today.” One answered though none turned to me at that point.

I nodded reflectively. I was glad that he had. The war was unnecessary and I had a feeling that too many people had already died.

“Would you like for us to stop for the night Princess?” One asked. For the first time I felt that they were actually talking to me; he had stopped and turned to me.

I shook my head. “No thanks.” I wanted to get it all over with as soon as possible. The war was over which meant that Rolan and the other men would be headed home and I wanted to be there when they got back to help welcome them. I hadn’t seen him in so long . . . I couldn’t remember what his fingers felt like against my skin nor could I remember the feel of his lips against mine. It had literally been weeks and up until now I was too preoccupied to realize just how much I missed him. . . “Can we hurry? I want to get back as soon as possible.” I asked.

He nodded then turned and they began riding again.

It was morning before I could finally see the palace. By now my eyes were threatening to close but I wouldn’t let them. I was finally here and it was probably some great honour to be able to see the High King so I couldn’t mess it up by being sleepy; it was bad enough that I looked like a ragged street kid.

Dismounting my horse I was attacked by a sudden déjà vu feeling. My hand shot to my head and I tried to get rid of a dizzy spell that came out of nowhere.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, let’s go.” I said, waiting to be led inside. The feeling was probably just from a lack of sleep. I dismissed it all together and tried focusing on the task at hand.

“Please step this way.” One said pointing to a room that had a large, elaborate door. The wood, itself had patterns of angels and a carving of a . . . a lotus that I almost thought might have been . . . rare. Without thinking I ran my fingers against the door and the image of a large room flashed before be. I could see the door open slowly and the room had a bright light. People . . . people were dancing and laughing and I could faintly hear what sounded like a violin . . . if I was right then this might have been the ball room . . . “Princess.” The rough voice pulled me from my little daze.

Looking forward I saw that the door was opened and waiting for me to enter. I stepped in cautiously and was taken aback by all the stares and also by the fact that I was right . . . it did look like a ballroom only a few things had been rearranged. What I found strange was that all the kings who had been fighting for me  were all in the room, as well as some men, who by the way they dressed, I also assumed were kings. Each seemed apprehensive as they looked over to the man I assumed was the High King. He on the other hand seemed unimpressed; perhaps even disgusted.

What was going on . . . ?

              “Bring him in.” he said in a tone that said he had both authority and an arrogance about him. The indifference in his eyes made me shiver. I tried staring into his blank face; I had remembered something about this place twice so maybe he was familiar too. No such luck though. His cold look wasn’t very familiar at all, infact it scared me. Without much of anything else to do I followed his gaze to the door.