A Peasant's Hope

Chapter 9

"Yes. Oh, Laura, don't look so shocked! You should have seen it a long time ago. When he was in the woods, and you thought he was trying to find berries. He was meeting with me. How else would he know how to get here if I hadn't given him instructions. You see that's how he knew how to get through the tunnels and arches and passages. It all connects, sweetheart. "
By the time the Queen had finished her sentence Laura was furious. But that's when she looked to her left and saw the lifeless body of her brother. He was pale, so pale. As her anger rose, Laura realized that Bayne had a look of terror on his face that made her wonder what was going on in his betraying mind.
"Why are you looking at me like that, Baynne?"
All Bayne did was point at her hands with a very shaky finger and say,"Look!"
She cautiously brought her hand toward her face and was amazed to see her hands were producing a bright light. At the same time that this was happening, she felt a rush of power, confidence, and pride swell inside her. But the feeling was gone as fast as it had come, and the light followed shortly after it. She asked Baayne with a slight bit of dissapointment in her voice as she watched the light fade from palms. This made her uneasy because he looked as if he wanted to say something but he was too scared. She knew something wasn't right, she just didn't know what. She tried to return to the anger that she had before, but she found something stronger, hatred. She hated the Queen for killing her brother. She hated Bayne for betraying her, but most of all she hated herself for being so weak. She felt the same feeling she had before, only this time it was stronger and it wasn't happy emotions. She was driven by a will to avenge her brothers death. How could she ever forgive them? She was on her own once again. The world seemed to spin into slow motion as she forced the emotions to channel themselves through the light she had once felt in her veins. There was a warm rush and her eyes closed. The next thing she saw was Bayne lying on his back struggling to breathe. For the first time she had won. But her victory only lasted for a few moments. The Queen had also been knocked back in the force, but she hadn't stayed down for long. She regained her footing and had drawn a long straight sword out of its place in her belt.
Laura lept back as the QAueen took a jab at her arm. She smiled as the blade missed her, but her smile faded as she realized that she didnt know how to harness her powers to defeat the Queen. Now all she could do was try to dodge the blows. As she was distracted by her thoughts, the Queen had readied herself for another blow. At the last second, Laura saw her and without thinking about it she stopped the blade short in the air. After she realized that she had triggered her powers, she grinned once more.
"Now what are you going to do? This is the ending that you deserve!" Laura yelled as she ripped the blade from the Queen's hand with a large jerk. However, what Laura saw next reminded her of what she was doing. As she let the sword drop to the ground and raised her hand to strike the Queen, she looked into Jaria's eyes. There she expected to see hatred and malice, but she only saw fear. Her first thought as, "What a weakling! She's afraid of me?" However, her hand dropped, and the light once again faded from her hands.
"I'm sorry. I am acting just like you have acted, but I don't think that you realy want to be a tyarant. I can see the desire to become something more than you are. You don't understand why you can't come back to what you once had. You loved what you had, but you destroyed it for power, and you regret it. I don't want to be like that. You are free to go."
Jaria turned to run, but she stopped. "Laura? Why are you letting me go?"
"Your Highness, just because I am angry at you and do not beleive in some of the thingd you do, doesn't mean that I can't kill a person who has been corrupted from the inside out because of her choices. It isn't right to let you die with that on your heart. I hpoe you find what you seek."
With that the Queen turned and left the castle. Lara turned her attention to Bayne, who was still struggling to breathe. His eyes fluttered open, and with much difficulty scooted up to sit against the wall. He said nothing, but reached over an grabbed a piece of coal from the fireplace to his right. on the wall her wrote three words 'I AM SORRY.'