Kingdom of Life and Death (The Fifth Element Chronicles)

Chapter 20: Running out of time [part 2]

The whole plan crumbled before my eyes as I saw Brennus standing ready with that long, sharp sword pointed straight at me.

What am I going to do?

Julyana rose from her throne.

She was not to interfere, she was to be indifferent. If Brennus knew she was on my side, he would know she had given me her sign. But she didn't seem to mind, as she began to approach me.

'Brennus, I'm calling the last few minutes,' she said, walking towards me lightly and grabbing my hands to pull me out of his sight.

'Don't take too long,' he replied with amusement in his voice. He knew he had got me in trouble and he was loving making me suffer.

The last few minutes.

Those who were dueling could ask for time before the duel to prepare. At that moment, the last few minutes was not a very encouraging phrase, not at all.

She led me out into the corridor, ignoring the smug look on the face of Eurus's bloody nasty Ruler.

'What are you going to do now?' she asked me as if I knew the answer.

'I have no idea, I don't know how good he is with...'

'I suspect pretty good,' Aurora appeared down the corridor, Mena at her side.

'You didn't think we'd sit around doing nothing waiting in our rooms, did you?' Mena asked and patted my arm. 'You'll be fine Gaia.'

I didn't want to be encouraged, I wanted to understand reality, so I could face it.

'Aurora, the truth,' I asked because I knew she would tell me.

'All Rulers receive Angeli training. Though he is young, he's certainly had a good few years of practice. To someone like me he would be no threat. He's skinny, sloppy and with no strength in his arms. But to you...'

'I trained with Galaga and with Caelus...'

I couldn't continue the sentence because naming him made me realise how much I missed him and needed him. I needed him to be by my side right now. Why? Because I was scared and I wanted the person I loved to be there to tell me that everything would be alright, even though I knew it wasn't.

I might be a Queen full of power, but I was still human, a human who had feelings and at that moment I couldn't stop shaking like a leaf.

'Dammit, he'll finish me in a second, I've already lost without even fighting,' I said in a panic.

'We could summon Phoenix, to take your place, he's royal, he can do it,' Julyana suggested, remembering the rules of the duel. 'I'd like to take your place, Gaia, but I've never really needed to learn how to use a sword. Let's just say my powers do all the work.'

'Phoenix is on Vulcan and we only have a few minutes,' I reminded her. 'He won't make it in time.'

There was no time.

Just a few minutes.

Julyana asked her guards to unlock my chains. Aurora stepped away for a few moments into her chamber, emerging from it with two swords.

'You can use a wider one, but I would suggest a thinner one...'

'I have a sword.'

The sword that the Tree of Life had given me. The sword that would be my companion forever. The sword that I had left in...

'It's in the Lost Kingdom Gaia, remember? You didn't want to give the image of someone who went into battle when visiting the Kingdoms. There's no time to retrieve it either, so one of these will have to do the trick.'