Chapter 6 – Death of Innocence

A long shadow fell over him from above.

He inhaled sharply and scooted backwards into the darkness of the shack he had found refuge in until he was pressed against the cold wood wall, splinters pressing into his skin, making him hiss. The shadow stopped moving and seemed to move in his direction before turning and wandering off. For the first time in a week, he had managed to evade an abuser. However, his frightened and ragged breathing never stopped. He simply sat there in the darkness. A thirteen year old boy, thin as a leaf and shaking like one too.

He didn't belong here.

He should be at home; safe and warm in his father's palace. He could feel the warmth of his comfortable bed and hear the fire crackling in the hearth on the opposite side of the room. But all of that was miles away. And he was alone. So very alone.

He didn't realize right away, but tears had gathered in his eyes and begun to slide down his cheeks in a never-ending cascade. They stung his sunburned skin, causing him to hiss, as they dripped from his chin or slid down his neck. It was pain, but he welcomed the sting. The tickling kind. It was better than the beatings he had received at the hands of these monstrous people. He snapped his head to the side when he realized what he had just thought.

He was nothing like them!

That's right. He was weak.

He shook his head again and eased himself onto his side on the thin pallet on the ground. If he wanted to keep up his end of the deal, he needed to stay alive. He had to stop thinking about going home if he wanted to survive.

He had to think about Thea.

In a flash, he remembered the events of that fateful day.

~oOo~

His eyes widened in terror as his father's blade rose in a graceful arc backwards. His target sat kneeling on the floor, tears flooding from her eyes. She was only seven years old. A mere six years younger than him. In that moment, he made a decision. He leapt into range of the blade.

"NO!" he shouted, falling in front of the girl, in front of his sister, the blade connecting with his throat instead.

~oOo~

Al Sah-him jolted upright into a sitting position. He was breathing fast and hard and his shirt was soaked with sweat. His shoulder muscle throbbed, though the pain had died down considerably since the night before. He shivered as the cold air of the desert night finally reached him. The fire had gone out, probably hours prior as all that remained were ashes and a few wisps of smoke trailing upwards into the starry night.

Al Rami nickered behind him and Al Sah-him found a velvety black muzzle nudging the back of his head. He reached a hand up and stroked his horse's face, telling him that he was fine. After making certain that his master was indeed telling the truth, the faithful stallion wandered off to stand next to palm tree and lowered his head to sleep.

Al Sah-him rolled onto his side once more and shivered against the chill. He hadn't had that dream in years. The one in which he gave his life for Thea's instead of the current arrangement. He hadn't dreamed about the first time he had run from a fight. He had more than proven that he wasn't a coward. He had defeated so much, knocked down every wall that stood in his way. He screwed his eyes shut and tried to get some sleep as the sun would be coming up in a few hours and his internal clock would force him to awaken fully at the break of dawn.

He reached a hand up and fisted his hand around the small arrow pendant that hung around his neck beneath his shirt, a gift from his mother. No one knew about it, not even his father.

And he intended to keep it that way.

Especially with his brother poised to take the throne.

That meant he couldn't risk it slipping even to Princess. He rolled over onto his other side, wincing when his bad shoulder heated and throbbed. He pushed the pain away and then lifted his eyes toward the young woman adjacent to him; she faced in his direction, a few locks of her wavy golden hair had fallen over her face with only her even breaths to disturb them.

She looked incredibly peaceful right now; the thin veil of black netting that had covered her lower face through the day had slipped off to reveal the rest of her features unobstructed by shadow. Before he realized what he was doing, his free hand extended towards her and hovered for a moment over her face, prepared to tuck the unruly strands behind her ear. However, he stopped and withdrew his hand. She was promised to another man, thus he dared not touch her in such a manner, despite the fact that the man she was engaged to was Al Sa-her.

He frowned and rolled back over. That man had better know just how precious this young woman was. Though he had long since stopped feeling envious of his brother to prevent a situation similar to the one they were in right now from happening, he couldn't help but stiffen up and clench his fists again. He wished that he could have been in his brother's position. Then he might have been able to meet someone like the Princess, maybe even married someone like her.

But what of Thea and the others?

He screwed his eyes shut and shuddered. Had Thea been Al Sa-her's brother, she would be dead. Even then, that boy wouldn't have jumped in front of the blade like he had for her, causing his father to stop the execution. And Dig, Roy, and Maseo wouldn't be in the positions they were in right now. Dig would still be acting as the abused bodyguard to the last Ruler of Lian Yu. Roy would still be a petty thief experimented on by a terrorist. And Maseo. Maseo would still be an empty man with no hope.

He felt one weight lift from his shoulders at the thought of the good he had done for his city, but another one was lowered at the thought of his friends. They were still in Nanda Parbat, which meant that they were most likely being interrogated or had been imprisoned. He prayed for their safety and a life sentence in prison instead of an execution. After all, if they couldn't get any information from his friends (information he knew they didn't have), they would have to hold them until the true perpetrator of the crime could be discovered and taken in.

They would never capture him.

Once he reached Lian Yu, he would rally his forces and take Nanda Parbat by storm if necessary. He relaxed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

He would need the rest.

~oOo~

Felicity woke up the following morning to the smell of meat being cooked. She slowly rose into a sitting position, her back stiff from lying on the ground all night. She brushed what sand she could off her person and looked around to see Al Sah-him roasting some strips of meat over a small fire. Occasionally he would wave his hand through the smoke drifting up into the morning sky to clear it away.

"Good morning, milady," he said quietly. After a second glance, she could tell something was off. She frowned suspiciously at him for a moment before shaking her head, unable to pin down exactly what was wrong. His fist was either clenched at his side or it was wound tight around the poker stick he had used the previous night.

She sat in silence, observing his movements around the fire as he turned the meat suspended on another stick to make certain it cooked through. When it was finished, he removed it from the fire and put out the lingering flames on the poker. He peeled the strips off and stepped around the fire, kicking sand over the remains as he did so. He crouched down beside her and held out the ration to her.

She took the charred strip of meat and nibbled the edge. Meanwhile, he stuck the whole top quarter in his mouth and snapped it off in a single bite. She listened to him as he crunched and munched the ration. He finished the rest in two more bites and wiped his hands on each other to rid them of the greasy crumbs. He then set to work covering all their tracks and possible clues that would help anyone see that they had stopped here for the night.

By the time she had finished her ration strip and wiped her hands off on one another, the fire pit was completely buried and Al Sah-him was leading Al Rami toward her. She stood and he offered her his hand. She accepted it and climbed into the saddle. He hauled himself up behind her and once again reached around her to the reins, clicking his tongue to get the stallion to start off through the desert once more.

~oOo~

Two days of following the same routine later found them nearing the Third City. Or so Al Sah-him had said. In order to save time, they had continued on through the night. Not long after he announced that they were not stopping, he had also instructed her to get some rest if it were possible. So, she had eventually drifted off to sleep between his arms.

When she woke up, she realized that they had stopped. She moved to stretch, but found her arm blocked by something. She looked up and gasped, realizing that she had snuggled up to Al Sah-him's chest in her sleep. However, the man sitting over her looked nothing like the man who had held her the last three days. His head was wrapped with a mask and hood which left only his sky blue eyes visible. She felt small in his grasp and he looked imposing as he loomed above her. She unwittingly folded in on herself, not helping the situation in the least.

Her slight movement caught his attention and his eyes flicked down to meet hers. They softened slightly before he looked back up again and said, "We have reached Lian Yu." She sighed inwardly. Since his small revelation to her three nights ago (or was it four?), he had closed himself off to her. Not that she was trying to gain more information from him, but she had spent the last couple evenings around the fire with him babbling about nothing. He never seemed to look like he was listening, but whenever she would fall silent, he would look up at her as if to say "continue, I am listening."

So she would keep spouting nonsense to him and embarrass herself hundreds of times in a single conversation than she would normally. And now here he was, with his arms all but wrapped around her and her head resting against his chest. As soon as the thought entered her head, she sat upright, almost falling out of the saddle until he steadied her to stop her flailing.

She exhaled and looked up, her mouth dropping open when she saw what lay ahead of them. Gigantic gates, standing tall and imposing in the morning sun, wrapped around out of view as far as she could see. Beyond them stood a truly rugged and gulp-worthy sight.

The city walls.

They were made entirely of wood, trees judging by the foliage and moss that protruded and hung down the sides of the structure. She could hear shouts from here. Or was that just her imagination? From what she had heard from her companion, she felt more than a little apprehensive about going into that dangerous city. However, a small comfort to her remained that Al Sah-him was not simply "all bark and no bite." He was in charge here for a reason.

Suddenly, something blue came into vision. Her eyes widened for a moment before she squinted. It was a flag, waving around in the wind. It suddenly dawned on her why they had stopped.

"Is that…what I think it is?" she said quietly. Part of her prayed that it wasn't, but she knew it was. His silent nod only served to confirm her suspicions. The Second City had invaded and claimed the Third City as theirs. She looked down to see that Al Sah-him was gripping the reins in his fists so hard they were shaking.

She recognized nearly immediately after that that one of two plans could be circling around in his head right now. One, he could enter the city secretly and retake his home from the inside. Or two, he could find somewhere else to hide until the heat of the incident last week blew over.

Had it already been a week?

She shook the thought off and sighed. If she thought about it, she knew deep down he had nothing to do with his father's murder. He had spoken so earnestly when speaking a simple phrase that could be said as a lie. It was almost a childish honesty. Just to reaffirm her thoughts on this matter, she decided to bring up the topic.

"Did you have anything to do with-"

"I had nothing to do with my father's death."

She gave a quick smile and extremely minute nod before she made her decision.

"I know where we can go," she said, not looking at him. She could feel his eyes on her once again. She clenched the pommel of the saddle once more and took a breath, screwing her eyes shut. "We can go to Starling. My father will believe me if I say that Al Sa-her sent me here in your care to be safe. We can convince him that you've been sent as my guard. It'll be safer for a while."

She bit her lip and waited for his answer. She didn't receive one right away, but he jerked the reins and turned Al Rami around. "Thank you, Princess." She started for a moment, but then looked up at him.

"Felicity. It's Felicity."

"Thank you…Felicity."

A/N: I bet you all thought I wasn't going to update.

LQTM! Ha ha! I did! You must be so happy. This one took some time to finish, plus I got sick this week (so done with allergy season) see you next sunday!