COLONY WARS

CHAPTER 19-YER MOTHER WOULD BE PROUD

LEIF POV

We all gathered before the table, every one of us. This would be the last night that we would be like this, because tomorrow, I was to become a soldier and Piper someone's wife. There was so much food before us, and we were allowed to drink wine for the night.

Laughter from the wives filled the room while I drank from my glass, feeling ashamed and unworthy. I placed the glass before me and then poured some more wine for myself once again.

I caught Piper from across the table. She barely touched her food, disappointment in her face. She did not even bother to hide it, stabbing her food and not eating it even.

The sound of the fork hitting the glass silenced the hall.

I looked at the man that stood proudly, carrying his glass of wine.

"I believe this is the last night that I have both my oldest daughters sitting before me. Tomorrow, they will embark on their own journeys." He began.

I forced myself to watch him, a knot growing in my throat. I was disgusted by him.

"Leif is joining the army. She will be fighting for us and for her people. I am proud of ye. Ye continue to prove to me that ye are strong."

Everyone inside the room forced a smile. Sometimes I wondered why they even stayed with a man like him?

"Yer mother would have been proud."

I took a sip on the bottle, not hiding my emotions towards him. I could care any less about a mother which I never knew of. His obsession with his dead wife had turned him into this monster of man.

Piper rose from her seat before rushing out of the hall.

"Piper!" Barbara yelled,

The sound of the door being slammed filled the room before silence followed. The other wives gasped, especially Lilith, who by the look on her face, enjoyed the tension. It was all a spectacle to her.

"Leif will leave for the boarders, where they are to watch over for any bandits," father continued, not even acknowledging that one of his daughters had stepped out of the hall. He could care any less.

The other younger daughters stared at me, some already bearing the expressions of their mothers. Give them two years and they would be just like their mothers, unlikable women who took pleasure in someone's pain.

"Cheers to Leif."

"To Leif!" everyone mumbled around the table before they took a sip on their glasses.

I gulped up the beverage before wiping the back of my mouth and swallowing slowly. My eyes met father's and he looked satisfied. There was this evil spark in his eyes, as if he had accomplished so much in life.

He was deliberately doing this, creating tension between Piper and I. He knew just how I cared for her, and he was using her to challenge me, to get to me. What did I ever do this man, for him to want to bury me like this?

After dinner, everyone began to leave the table, leaving just him and I. While the maids cleaned the long table, I watched him. He took pleasure in his wine, savoring the taste before slowly shaking the glass.

"What do ye gain form this?" I asked him.

"Pardon?"

"Ye are sending Pier and I away, why? Why now?"

"Ye wanted to be a soldier now did ye not?"

"I am not a fool. None of this makes sense."

"The truth is in front of ye Leif. Ye love to look for answers even when they are right before ye. Ye always suspicious of everything."

"Yer decision to send Piper away is unjustified. She is too young and ye know this."

"Piper is more matured than ye. She is responsible, listens, and I cannot say the same about ye. Ye know that too."

I snorted, pushing the empty bottle before me.

"Look at ye, ye drunk on the night before yer departure. Is that mature? Hhm?"

"Ye are a bastard Bjorn." I rose to my feet before staggering out of the hall.

My vision was distorted as I walked down the hallways, heading to my chambers. I could hear the distant chatters that gossiped from the passages. Lilith along with two other wives huddled at one passage, discussing something.

I walked past them, and they went silent. I continued my journey, entering the familiar passage, where the daughters' rooms were. I knocked on Piper's door, resting my forehead on the wooden surface.

"Piper!"

There was no response.

"Piper." I lazily knocked.

Still, silence.

Of course, she hated me. I had betrayed her.

~~~

Dark brown hair fell over my shoulders while Ragnar cut my hair. I stared at my reflection on the mirror, my grey eyes hazy from the lack of sleep and misery. My head throbbed and I felt under the weather, like a damp coat.

"I remember the day I joined the army, years when I was younger." Ragnar began, his blue eyes focused on what he was doing. "I was nervous, I thought that I would die. It was an experience, I met my wife, Josephine there and life changed for me."

I said nothing. I did not want to say anything to anyone.

"Who knows, ye might meet someone. Ye might get married to someone too and stop being so miserable."

Piper was gone. I had watched the strangers come to fetch her early in the morning. I did not even say goodbye. I felt cheated.

"As long as ye don't find someone as wild as ye. My mother said that opposites attract, someone unlike ye. Also, he will need to be understanding...to keep up with ye." He chuckled,

Unless this was not Father's thinking, but Lilith's. Why was it that just after she had caught Piper and I talking about father and necromancers, Piper was supposed to leave? Lilith seemed like the kind of woman to do such.

"Ragnar, how did Vivi leave her chambers the other day?" I asked,

"Vivi?"

"Aye, she was flying around the kingdom..."

"I don't know. Was it not you?"

"Why would I? Someone opened her gates."

"It could have been anyone," he shrugged, before stopping to admire his work. "Not bad!"

"I look like a man!" I snorted.

"A beautiful man," he winked.

"Thank you, my old friend." I said, dusting the air from my shoulders before rising to my feet. "I will miss ye."

"Come here," he embraced me. "Ye will be back before ye know it."

"When I do, ye will be the first person that I see."

"Aye! That would be lovely." He laughed.

"Take care of yerself Ragnar. Take care of Josephine II too."

"Aye. Ye do the same."