Orphan Princess

Chapter 22

    I had been traveling north through the forest when I started to get a bad feeling, not like an ‘Omgosh! I left my wallet at the store’, bad feeling, but an, ‘I think someone’s following me and I’m in the middle of the forest… alone,’ bad feeling. I finally broke through the trees, and I felt a bit safer… until I realized I was in the rose garden of my nightmares.

    I felt my heart sink, but why? Didn’t I want the Prince to capture me? But for some reason, the Darkness in my dream had never really ’felt’ like Marcus. It felt much older, and wiser, and if possible, eviler. My heart started pumping, and I couldn’t hear anything over the pounding in my ears. I looked around and it looking like shadows were pulling themselves out of the forest towards me.

    This was it, my nightmares were never just a nightmare, they were a vision, a warning. I felt paralyzed and I wanted to scream. Why me? Please, please, please let me move. The darkness was starting to form into… a man. Recognizing something, anything, gave me the ability to move again. I turned and ran north as fast as I could. I tried not to look back as I tore through gold roses, but the darkness was almost on top of me.

    “No!!!” I screamed, and a fountain of water burst up, lifting me up into the sky, reminding me that I could fly. Unfortunately, so could the darkness. I looked forward and saw Marcus’ castle just a mile away. If only I could outrun the darkness! I should have known I would never be that lucky. Just as I turned my head, I only saw darkness. Ice cold tendrils wrapped all around me, and I immediately passed out.

    I woke up and groggily rubbed my eyes. What happened? I had the nightmare again, but Brayden hadn’t been there to wake me up, he was always there. I looked around me and saw torches lining the walls, wait… this wasn’t my bedroom.

    Suddenly all my memories came flooding back with such force it felt like someone had thrown a brick at my head, and I screamed in pain as my vision went black.

    “My dear, do not fret. All is well, I suppose,” a deep voice mumbled almost as if to himself.

    “Wh-who are you,” I stuttered. I was absolutely terrified, especially because I was tied to the bed. Tears silently traveled down my cheeks. “You aren’t Marcus, are you?”

    A bitter laugh echoed through the room. “That miserable excuse for a son?! No!”

    “Wait, are you… Oh my goodness! Your Brayden and Marcus’ dad! I thought you were supposed to be good?! Why did you kidnap me?” I whispered.

    There was that bitter laugh again. “So he didn’t tell you?”

    “Tell me what?”

    “Marcus isn’t really the big bad. He pretends to be because he like the power, but really, I think I would beat him in an evil contest.”

    “Why do this then? Why kidnap me? What would you gain?” I asked him, my mind was completely overwhelmed.

    “Oh, my dear, neither of my sons have appealed to me. One betrayed me, and one sought complete goodness though he is a dark elf. He has hated his heritage, and pretended to be a light elf, and that dimwitted mother of yours took him in. Marcus loved being a dark elf, and he embraced it, but we were a peaceful union of dark elves, and he didn’t think we should be like that. He thought everything about us should be dark, and he wanted to be in charge of it all. He betrayed me, and made me the man I am today. I am alone, but I am powerful. In some ways I should thank him.”

    I was stunned. Brayden had lied to me, and I trusted him with my life, I…loved him. I felt weak, but I couldn’t show him that I did. “Okay, but why kidnap me?”

    “Oh yes, a war, my darling. Think of it. They both love you, they would die for you. Light clashes with dark, and no one pays attention to me. I could rule the entire world!” his voiced boomed and thunder shook the room. “My dear, I must ask, you didn’t love your maid too much, did you?”

    It was then that I realized that I was stuck who knows where, with a man that was pure evil. “What made you so bitter?” I spat out each word as if it tasted like poison on my tongue.

    “My sweet dove,” he chuckled harshly, as he brushed my cheek with his fingertips, I jerked away. “Being lonely, betrayed, and hated for over a millennium can do that to a man.”

    He put his hand on my cheek, and I saw visions. I was standing on a balcony over looking my kingdom, er Marcus and Brayden’s dad’s kingdom. I felt like it was me looking down at my kingdom being torn apart. Havoc and chaos enveloped the streets, filling me with despair. My people, men, women, and children were being murdered in cold blood. Half of my people were killing innocent families. I felt myself look at the leader and fall to pieces, my son. Marcus looked up at me, and smiled, crept towards my wife, his mother, who had been on an afternoon walk, but was now screaming and running away, and while looking at me the entire time, he stabbed his sword straight into her back. “No!!!!” I bellowed, but it wasn’t my voice, it was the man’s. I fell to the ground and kept muttering to myself over and over. “It will be okay, yes, okay,” but inside I felt anger beginning to swell. Marcus would pay. I would kill him.

    The scene changed and I was in the forest in a small cottage, surrounded by the all too familiar rose garden. I walked into the cottage and saw my second wife who had escaped the destruction of my kingdom, lying on the floor barely breathing. I dropped the wood I had just cut, and ran to her. I gathered her in my arms and began to cry, “Please Adrienne, don’t leave me!”

    “Marcus," she whispered, and went limp in my arms.

    “Why?!” I looked up to the heavens and yelled. I cursed Corellon, he was supposed to be a protector and preserver of life, but the only life he was preserving was mine as I watched my family die. I didn’t have anyone left. My second son left me saying how he was going to find the light. He kept talking about how the dark elves weren’t really bad. Nonsense!

    The scene changed for a third time, and I was in a dark room. There was an altar at the front and I was kneeling in front of it. A torch cast eerie shadows to the sides of me as I bent my head in worship. There was a symbol above the altar that was a pair of elven eyes in the darkness, Fenmarel. God of survival, spying, camouflage, deception and secrecy.

    A spider crept across the floor, and I smashed it with my eyes still closed, and I felt pure hot anger seep through me. All spiders reminded me of Lolth, the Spider Queen God that I loathed. She had tricked Fenmarel, and had betrayed him. What’s the point in love? All it brings is grief.

    I was back in the room tied to the bed, with the man peering at me while I gasped for air. “What was that?”

    “Memories my dear, my memories,” he whispered.

    “But I felt like it was me,” I panted.

    “Yes," he agreed.

    I looked at him and almost began to cry. “Th-that’s horrible.”

    “Indeed, but when I turned to Fenmarel, he protected me. He helped me. He told me that my life would never be bad again.”

    “So living alone in pain is supposed to make things better?” I asked.

    “Never mind that child! I will soon rule the world, and all will be well.”

    “But-”

    “Silence!!!” His voice boomed, and the tower vibrated with thunder again. I cringed and remembered the man’s name, Osarius.

    I had to tell someone or else there would be an all out war, and no one would live to tell the tale.