Duty and Destiny

“Don’t do that,” Archer was slowly getting irritated by Adalia’s guilty expression each time they crossed paths with Xander. It made him feel like she didn’t think what they were doing was right. However, to him it felt perfect.

“Do what?” She squeezed back tears.

“I don’t like it when you make that expression,” he pressed his palms against her cheeks. “Like what we are doing is wrong?”

She pulled his hands down. “What we are doing isn’t wrong. But what I did was. I shouldn’t have told him I would marry him without being sure first.”

“Are you sure now?”

“Yes,” she kissed into both his palms.

He felt a whoosh of tense air exhale from his lungs. “It’s going to be fine.”

***

Novia couldn’t help but feel more nervous the further they got away from the palace gates. Part of her wanted to jump off the carriage and run back to her father’s arms. But she couldn’t do that. She was a married woman, a wife and a future queen. She relaxed a bit when Randi took her hand in his. She took a few quick breaths and convinced herself that everything would be fine.

But then the carriage came to a sharp halt followed by a commotion. Novia inched closer to Randi terrified of what they had run into and wishing she was back home.

Randi pulled out his sword and offered it to her. “Do you know how to use this?”

“Yes,” she nodded quickly. “But what will you use?”

Randi reached under his seat and pulled out a scabbard. He held his sword with one hand and Novia’s hand with the other. “When I say so, jump out of the carriage. Stay close to me.”

Novia nodded her response. She didn’t speak, afraid that the sound of her voice would drown out the ready signal. But Randi didn’t say a word. He pulled her arm sharply and she followed him out. Novia cringed at the sight of blood, so when she saw the red liquid spill in every direction, she went numb. It took another jerk from Randi to pull her out of her semi-paralysis.

“You need to run Novia,” she heard him yell.

Novia tried her best to kick one foot in front of the other. The bulky gown that she had chosen wasn’t helping much, but she didn’t fall back. She followed Randi and the little army of soldiers around them into the forest cover. Randi pulled her behind a large tree and urged her to sit down.

“Stay here,” he said urgently before leaving her with a crowd of soldiers to protect her.

Not dropping the sword handed to her; Novia shrunk to the ground and held her knees to her chest.

***

Adalia stared out towards the foggy hills. A heart-breaking chill ran through her bones, and her hand flew to her chest.

“What is it?” Archer, who had been standing next to her, felt her body tremble. “Are you cold?”

“Something is wrong,” she mumbled as she peered through the trees looking for signs of trouble. But nothing.

“If something was wrong, we would have heard-,” a loud trumpet tore through Archer’s thought.

“We would have heard a trumpet?” Adalia finished off his statement with a question.

He grabbed her arm, drawing out his sword he rushed into the throne room. Archer found Ilana in tears, Leora trembling with rage and their father’s getting ready for battle.

“What’s going on?” He never let go of Adalia’s arm and kept his weapon ready just in case the trouble would make its way into the palace.

“It’s your sister and Randi,” Lionell began. “There was an ambush.”

Adalia slowly slipped her hand out of Archer’s grasp and rushed out of the room. Archer knew that she was going to get ready, and he had to aswell. “Where?”

“A few miles outside the place gates,” a soldier, out of breath, gasped out.

“You saw the attack?” Archer let his aid ease him out of his jacket and into his armor.

“Yes sire. They came out of nowhere. It was like they were waiting for us.”

“What do you mean an ambush?” Lionell was getting impatient.

“I think so, sire.”

“The rebels,” a deafening silence fell upon the room when Archer uttered those words. “If I had gone in with the troops this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Adalia walked in armed to the nine. She slid her hand into Archer’s.

“What do we do now?” Leora was trying to comfort Ilana, but it didn’t seem to be working.

“We go get them,” Adalia looked up at Archer. She was going to go wherever he was going. She knew she would lose her last grip on sanity if she didn’t know how her brother, Novi and Archer were faring on.

“Stay close to me,” Archer said to her as they mounted their horses.

An army of men led by the two kings charged on, on their horses while more flew above them to warn of any other ambush.

***

Archer wasn’t sure how he was going to find his sister, but he silently thanked the heavens that he insisted on her learning how to defend herself. Every couple of seconds his eyes would drift towards Adalia, he needed to know she was still beside him. He didn’t know how he would fight knowing that she was in equal danger, but he would have to divide his attention but still stay on point. In a way they were riding towards death in the cooling twilight.

It only took them minutes, after riding their horses’ sour, to get to the ambush site. The men were still fighting, but there was no sign of Randi and Novia. Archer helped Adalia off her horse and sent her as far away from the fight as he could think of.

“Take a couple of men and search the woods. Novia and Randi must have been led away,” he gazed longingly into her eyes vowing that this wouldn’t be the last time he would look into them. He forcefully pulled her into a hug and pressed his lips on hers.

He pulled away then said. “I love you,” Archer moved towards the fight, taking out anyone headed in Adalia’s direction.

Adalia’s heart broke when he kissed her. She felt his fear, his doubt and also his will to stay alive. Her fingers smoothed over her lips. She wanted to say I love you back, but he hadn’t given a chance to. She watched as he fought and knew that she had to do her part. She had to find his sister and her brother.

“Your highness.”

She heard someone say behind her. They were waiting for instructions. She had always wanted to be a warrior in her father’s army. But now as they stood in the thick of things, stepping into pools of blood and over lifeless bodies, she suddenly realized her idea of war wasn’t as poetic.

“We are going into the forest. Find the prince and princess,” she barked out and led them.

Adalia bit down on her trembling jaw. She couldn’t show fear, not to her men. She held her sword in front of her as she tiptoed around the leafy forest. But when she heard the sound of a branch break underneath someone’s weight, Adalia went into attack mode. She swung her sword forward and heard the loud clang of two metals meeting.

“Adalia?” It was Randi. His clothes were torn and bloodied.

“Randi, dear God,” she pulled her brother into an embrace, a silent prayer of thanks escaping her trembling lips. “Where is Novia?”

“I’m here,” Novia stood up from where Randi had hidden her.

“Thank God you are both safe. We will stay here until Archer sends for us,” although part of her wanted to go back to the fight, she could see her brother was weak and Novia was scared. She had to stay with them until Archer came for them or sent someone to get them. “Don’t worry we are safe here.”

The minutes that ticked by seemed like hours. But it was minutes after when someone was sent to get them. Adalia and Novia helped Randi when he felt too weak to walk. She watched as her brother and his bride whispered incomprehensible things to each other. She couldn’t wait to do the same thing with her Archer.

They got to the clearing where the once green grass was now littered with bodies and painted red. Archer stood in the midst of it all waiting for them. His once white shirt was now soiled as his armor had smears of blood that didn’t seem to belong to him. Adalia passed her brother off to someone else and walked towards him.

Her breath caught and her heartbeat in her ears when she saw a dark shadow emerge. Panic ripped through her, her heart raced, skipping and sinking. But even with all this adrenalin soaring through her veins Adalia couldn’t move. Her body was cemented to the ground.

Adalia was trapped in her fear. But when she saw his large body drop on the ground, she regained the use of her limbs. The liquid darkness of the man slipped back into the trees. She tried to hold Archer, but her amour was in the way. She clawed it off and tossed it aside. With all the strength her shocked muscles could master, Adalia pulled Archer to her laps and into her arms and cradled him.

***

Archer saw the look of panic in her eyes. But when he turned around her was too late to react, too late to defend himself, too late to stop himself from dying. The pain was shocking; vicious he couldn’t breathe over it as the tip of the silver blade went into his side. The blow crushed his lungs so that he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. He heard a whisper of words then he felt the blade tear out of his body. Archer felt his body drop to the ground. He could taste a mix of dirt and the coppery taste of his own blood as it filled his mouth.

He could hear his heartbeat, slamming and slamming in his chest and his head. He tried to gasp for air, but the pain was too much, and the fear beyond the pain overwhelmed him. His first instinct was to get up, pick up his sword and protect his family and his loved one. But his body didn’t seem to be responding.

“Breathe!” she shrieked. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes, leaving her face stained with blood and dirt. “Please-please-please-please-please just take one breath for me.”

Archer could hear her. But through the shuttering explosions of pain that ripped through his chest, he couldn’t grant her, her wish. He held onto her hand and felt her warmth wash through him, as the cold began to set in his body.

“I love you, I love you. Please don’t leave me,” Adalia was trying to use her free hand to rip his armor off. She needed to see how much damage had been done and if he could be fixed. “You are going to be fine. I won’t let you die.”

Archer could feel his body go weak. He knew he was dying but he wasn’t going to let Adalia watch him die. He stopped her desperate hand from removing the armor. “I love you,” he whispered before he felt himself slip out of consciousness.

Xander ran into the clearing, his clothes torn and a smudge of blood on his armor. “We need to leave, more of them are coming!”

“No,” Adalia whispered. But when Xander tried to get her up, she shouted desperately. “No!”

“He’s dead, we have to leave him,” he pulled her into his arms.

***

Lionell reluctantly left the clearing with his daughter, as his heart remained with his son’s lifeless body.

Adalia fought against Xander’s tight hold. But she was no match for him. She didn’t stop screaming even when they pulled away from the clearing and headed back to the North Kingdom.

Gabrielle held his daughter in a vice as he dragged her into the palace doors.

“Daddy, I have to go back. I need to go get him, he’s waiting for me,” she managed to kick out of his strong hold.

“He’s dead sweetheart,” Gabrielle said slowly. He needed her to understand. The faster she accepted it the better it would be for her.

Adalia swung around from him, shaking her head wildly as if she were throwing something off. “No, he’s not,” she pounded her fist in her chest. “I feel it here.”

Leora was pulled into the great room by the sounds of her daughter’s terrified voice. “Why is she so hysterical?” She tried to hold her, but Adalia wouldn’t let her. Leora watched helplessly as her daughter’s red eyes went round in shock, her head still shaking her raven hair wild.

“It’s Archer,” Gabrielle began but stopped when Ilana walked into the room. He would have to wait for Lionell to explain it to his wife first.

“Where is my son?” She looked around the grief-stricken room. There was no sight of Archer and fear began to weigh down her heart. “Lionell where is my son?”

“My dear,” Lionell chocked out. “There was a surprise attack. Archer didn’t see him in time. He’s dead.”

Ilana sank to the ground, her husband’s quick hands catching her on her way down.

A deathly silence fell upon the room. Even Adalia had stopped crying. She just stood there, lifeless, motionless.