The Poison Prince

Chapter VIII

"What the hell am I thinking?" She asked herself, striking the flint to start the fire they'd need to make it through the night. Many of the nocturnal forest creatures were afraid of fire and this would keep the two of them safe until sunrise came again.

"You're thinking that you want to punish the person who destroyed your home." Taiden's voice startled her and she fumbled the kindling in her hand. "Sorry, I overheard. I understand rhetorical questions, but I almost always find myself with an answer to them nevertheless."

"I should be with my uncle."

"Julius will bring the best healer to him. That I can assure you."

"I can't do anything. I'm just a mutt."

Taiden sat down next to her on the soft earth. "You are more than that. I saw you rush into that village with no thought for yourself, but for everyone else; for the very people who criticise and scorn you. You saved them when I believe they very much would have left you to perish in that firestorm."

Xylia hung her head, knowing he was right. The Draca would have left her to die if she had been in trouble, trapped and surrounded by flames. She owed them nothing and yet she had given them everything.

"But the queen-"

"Someone has to stop her. I'll do most of the work, I promise, but if the people don't fight back then she will continue to ruin their homes and kill the ones they love most. I believe you can help to make a huge difference, Xylia."

She shook her head, "I'm just a girl," she muttered staring at the fire crackling before them. It unnerved her now to see the flames so close, as controlled as they were in the dugout she had expertly created for it.

"That's all I need you to be. Queen Devanna has hurt the person you love most of all though, and she won't care one grain about that. All she cares about is power and having more of it. The Draca have done nothing to anyone and look what she did to them." Taiden didn't want to lose Xylia, not when he had come so far with her now.

She looked across at him and all she saw was desperation in his eyes. Xylia interpreted it as a desperation to help his people; the people who would one day live under his rule. Taiden was supposedly mad, submerged in a decade's worth of grief, but right then she just saw his need to stop Devanna. She thought about her need to be accepted by The Draca and wondered if it had ever been as strong as that. If she helped him would they praise her? If she got revenge on their behalf would she be one of them then?

"Do you have a plan?" She enquired, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her cheek atop them.

Taiden had to swallow his smile as he realised he still had Xylia where he wanted her. He picked up a stick from the ground and quickly drew a map into the soil. He marked off the Castle of Lyris first, then the outskirts of the capital before plotting out roughly where the main towns and cities were along the way between there and them.

"I can't return directly to the castle. I should only make it back the day of the Queen's Banquet, which is a little over two weeks from now. We can pass through these towns - Adavale should especially prove useful. If we can lower my step-mother's standing and give the people something else to believe in other than the fear she already spreads, then that will be a bonus. Julius should also be able to join us again somewhere on the journey."

"It sounds like you've been planning this for some time." The apprehension was clear in Xylia's voice and she squeezed her legs tighter to her body.

"If you'd have been as close to her as I have and seen exactly how she believes Lyris should be ruled, you'd understand why this is the only way. Devanna is from Nephille. They're the last kingdom in our world whose people harness magicks." Taiden explained, pausing only when Xylia nodded in understanding.

"I live in the far north of Lyris; I didn't live under a rock." She said, raising her eyebrows. He might be a prince, and was nothing remotely special, but she didn't need things to be explained to her as though she was stupid.

"I'm sorry. I don't get to mix with people beyond the walls of the castle all that often. I don't know what you're likely to know." He confessed, ashamed by the harsh, piercing look she shot at him.

Straightening her limbs out, Xylia studied him for a long moment and then sighed in resignation. Royalty did live on an entirely different plane, she supposed. "Tell you what. Speak with me as though I know what you know, and I'll ask if things start sounding like crazy talk."

Taiden smirked, very much liking the sounds of that idea. "Most people would say that everything I say sounds like crazy talk."

"Well, most people aren't a mutt of The Draca on a revenge quest against the queen."