The Poison Prince

Chapter XXI

XYLIA never came back to him. She walked ahead the whole time, occasionally breaking Julius' own wishes and storming before the horses. Taiden watched her sadly, wishing he had kept his mouth shut. If he had then maybe he could have done something at the castle to hold her back and protect her. Maybe Julius would have calmed down and agreed to keep her safe while Taiden devised another plan that included spiked wine and concealed poisons. It was too late for that now. Xylia had looked at him with nothing but contempt when he asked her to walk away from Devanna. She blamed him for everything that had happened and everything she had become; and she was right to do so. It was entirely his fault. He had pulled her away from the village of The Draca, desperate to use her as a weapon. He hadn't cared then if she lived or died. That selfish attitude when he first met Xylia was the reason the fates were making him suffer now. He might be forced to watch her die and it would be because he didn't care in the beginning when it ought to have mattered most. As the prince and heir he should have cared about Xylia when she was a stranger to him, but he had only seen her as a way to stop the queen. His mother had always told him to treat everyone with respect and remember that they needed him to protect them, but he had taken one look at Xylia and had instantly been willing to throw her into the line of fire without even warning her. He tricked her into making that decision herself and now he couldn't talk her out of it as much as he longed to.

"I warned you; you cannot control a wild heart." Julius had slowed down to allow Taiden to catch up with him. Zechariahs and Xylia were still ahead and safely out of earshot.

"I didn't mean to tell her." Taiden began, shaking his head sadly. "She just told me how I'd made her feel like she could achieve something and then it poured out of me." He admitted, sighing and twisting anxiously at his sleeve; a habit he thought he had abandoned in his childhood.

"Guilt does that to a man." Julius said with a curt nod. "I have to say, your highness, I am proud of you. In less than three weeks that girl has changed you for the better. You no longer seem trapped in delusions of madness, and you're aware of your conscience."

"She's been good for me." Taiden agreed, but his heart was still tight with the thought of letting her walk into danger. "But I don't want to throw that away."

"If she can defeat the queen though-"

"But it might cost her everything."

Julius glanced up to be certain that the northern two were still a safe distance out of earshot. "It sounds to me as though she's already lost everything."

His words hit Taiden like a punch in a gut. He had wanted to be something special to Xylia. He longed to see this whole battle over and to hold Xylia when it was done. He wanted to promise her a future where people didn't look down on her in disgust because of where she had come from. He wanted to hold her high and announce to Lyris that she was their hero. More than that though he wanted her to be alive and safe.

"She can stop Devanna's magicks." Taiden whispered, his eyes cast to the earth.

"What?" Julius bent down from his saddle, convinced he had misheard the young prince.

"We were being chased by enchanted arrows sent by my step-mother. Most certainly we ought to have been killed, but in the moment when I was expecting death Xylia encased us in a dome of ice. It completely absorbed the magicks from the arrows and rendered them harmless. She had no idea she had done it until I convinced her otherwise. Later, we confirmed it; Xylia can summon up and control anything she wishes from ice." He looked up at his bewildered captain. "I've never seen or read anything like it, Julius. It's remarkable, and I'd bet my life that it's stronger than magicks."