Heart of darkness

Chapter Fifteen

"Calia, who was that?" I asked, even though I knew fully well who and what she was.

"She's just a witch, the guards have been bringing them in all week. Garrett and Damian wanted them in for questioning." Calia responded as I looked back to where the guards had taken the girl.

A sudden thought entered my mind, what would they do to her? How would they question her for answers? What the King had done to me? Torture and beat her until she was a bloodied mess on the cold concrete of the dungeon floor? I couldn't let that happen, she was only a girl.

"We have to help her!" I worried. In my haste to help the girl, I had pulled my arm from Calia's hold and lost my balance. I hit the cold, hard stone floor on my left side. Pain flooded through my arm and I struggled to keep my cry of pain in. Tomorrow I would surely have another bruise that would add to the ones I was struggling to heal.

"Aurora!" Calia shrieked and took hold of right arm, careful not to do anything that could cause me anymore pain.

"We have to help her. We don't know what they might do to her." I said again, ignoring the pain of my arm.

"Aurora, dear. We can't save a witch, they're vile and evil." Calia said and I was shocked by her words. I had thought that Calia would believe the beat in people, even if they were a witch. "Now let me take a look at your arm, it may be broken."

" No, Calia I'm fine." I said, feeling my annoyance rise. "How could you assume that witches are what you say? They have a right to be angry with us for what we did to them. Taking their home and claiming it as our own. It's not right. The best thing we can do is save all the witches down there, including that girl."

"Well... maybe we could-"

"That's all I needed." I interrupted. "Now, I need to talk to that witch. How would we get down to the dungeons without notifying the guards."

I was mostly talking to myself as I scanned the dungeon door and the area around it.

"Is there another entrance to the dungeons?" I asked Calia, knowing she would have information.

"Well..." She paused and looked around us. Seeing if there might be anyone listening to us. "Let's go outside first."

It seemed that she had forgotten about checking my arm when I felt her tug on it as we walked towards the doors that led to the terrace. When Calia opened the door, I was transported back to when King Garrett had been beating me and the queen. The blood on the pavement had been cleaned up and was now a spotless beige. Fear crawled over me as I stared at the table and the area beside it. I gulped and turned my gaze somewhere else, I felt my breathing grow short and I became alert, as if something would jump out from a bush and try to hurt me.

"Come darling, there's a place we can talk in the garden." Calia said, pulling me the opposite way we had gone last week.

I let out a silent breath when we passed a tall hedge and I could no longer see the terrace. Relief washed through me, as if the impending danger I had felt was suddenly gone and replaced with calm. Calia gently let go of my arm and let me follow her into a maze.

"Calia, where are you taking me?" I asked as she led me through the rows of hedges.

"Somewhere no one will hear or bother us." She said, her voice sounded determined and confident.

After about five minutes of navigating through this impossible maze, we came upon a small clearing. I became breathless, it was beautiful. A large fountain was placed in the middle, the sun streaming down on the water making it shine like a thousand tiny diamonds. Roses grew all across the hedges, adding more beauty to the scene. I looked around to see that there were no other entrances except the one we had come through. It seemed as if there were no way anyone could find this place.