I do the only thing I can do at a moment like this. Laugh. I laugh because it is the funniest joke someone has ever told me. That guy, the nephew of King Hannes? He is crazy, and Kalen is even crazier for believing in a word he says.
I keep laughing until I notice both of them looking at me as if I have lost my mind. I stop laughing and get my serious expression back. The stranger has definitely lost his mind and is blatantly lying; he has to get out of our lives as soon as possible.
"You expect me to believe that?" I ask keeping my eyes on the stranger. ''You see… in my nineteen years of life I have gone through so many things I can't even count. I have gone through many losses and more pain than you can imagine.'' My voice has completely lost any trace of laughter; the stranger just stares at me as if he doesn't understand where I am going with all that. "I don't believe in fairy tales anymore. I don't trust kings, queens, princesses, or princes and, you can call me a cynic if you may, but I definitely don't trust you."
"I'm sorry but I cannot understand." He blinks at me. "I am telling the truth.''
And then I am furious. That stupid little boy thought he could fool me? acting as if I was the crazy one in the room as if he thought I would fall for his story without questioning it.
I want to break every bone in his body and throw him back where my brother found him. In less than a blink, I take the dagger that was on top of the nightstand and, before Kalen can stop me, I manage to hold it near the stranger's neck.
"Do you think I'm an idiot?'' I hiss. ''People have tried to fool me in many different ways, but this is undoubtedly the most ridiculous one."
"Enia, what are you doing?" My eyes travel to Kalen, he looks at me with caution, as if he doesn't want me to do something crazy. He believes what the stranger said, that much is clear.
"Do you think he is telling the truth?" I ask him. The incredulity in my voice is evident. "Do you believe in his word? Really?"
"Enia, he's the prince,'' Kalen says moving cautiously towards me. ''The heir of King Hannes, his nephew. He has the mark."
"That doesn't prove anything!" I am losing all my patience. The whole thing is completely ridiculous. How could my own brother trust a stranger more than me? "The Kingdom's guards and soldiers are also marked. Don't you see he's pretending? He is lying to us!'
"I'm sorry to interrupt." the stranger speaks calmly. With such a calm that drives me out of control. "But the marks of the royal guards and soldiers are placed on their left wrists," He says. ''and it doesn't have the arrow of guidance.''
"You shut up! " My patience is almost completely lost. I look at my brother with pleading eyes. "Come on, Kalen..."
"He's right sister, besides ..." Leaning over the bed, he takes the dirty coat that the stranger had been using. It is a light shade of gray with golden strips going from the shoulders to the wrists, in the right forearm there is something embroidered with golden thread. A coat of arms, the same one he has marked in his right wrist. "This is the uniform only that men in the royal family wear. He's the prince."
I can't take my eyes off the symbol. What Kalen is saying is true. But it can't be true. The heir of the Lord of the Wind couldn't be here, with us. The stranger couldn't be the Prince Diamond.
I look up at Kalen who seems more relaxed, looking at me carefully, waiting for my reaction. Then I look back at the stranger on the bed, Sedrik, who looks unconcerned, as if being threatened with a weapon was something he was used to. With a quick flip, I move the dagger away from him.
"I ... I'm sorry," I whisper. I don't know what else to say. Whether he is the prince or not I am not sure, but he is royalty and I had just threatened his life.
"Don't worry, I'm really used to this. " He lets out a slight sigh before continuing. "Anyway, I must thank you. Your brother told me that it was you who healed me. If it hadn't been for you, I would be dead right now."
I look up again, Sedrik is staring at his hands. When he raises his eyes, a big smile crosses his face.
"I have to admit that destiny has a strange way to make things work out." He says.
"What? " I ask. Hearing his words is a sort of key, a calling that is trying to bring back a memory that had been locked up deep in my mind for years. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, it's a long story...'' He stops before looking around, and then smiles. ''but since we seem to have time, maybe I can tell you about it."
He keeps talking with that big smile on his face and the thought that he is crazy comes back to me. Looking at Kalen's face I know he thinks the same, but then the smile on Sedrik's face is replaced by a grim look.
"Everything started exactly one year ago;'' he starts, ''the day of my seventeenth birthday. As it's a tradition in the court, when a member of the royalty turns seventeen, he has the right to obtain a prophecy.''
"A prophecy?" Kalen asks exchanging a look with me.
"Yes, it has been that way since I have memory and up until now no prophecy has ever failed,'' Sedrik explains. His eyes are fixed on the cup he is holding. ''Every prophecy has been fulfilled as dictated by the oracles."
"So ... What did your prophecy say? " I ask him. The weird feeling of a memory in the back of my mind is still there. It is as if I already know what he is about to say.
"My oracles predicted that my eighteenth year of life was going to be a year stained by the start of a new era where pain and misery would reign. A new era ruled by evil and dread." His look gets darker. Every word coming out of his mouth makes my body shiver. "That on the night everything would finally unfold, chaos was going to take over, the king was going to be betrayed, and death was going to visit me three times."
"What are you talking about?" Kalen seems as shocked as I feel. "Someone betrayed the king? How were you visit by death? Why didn't you do anything to stop any of this?" I look at him thinking that if he stops asking questions Sedrik might be able to give us that information. He looks back at me and I know he understands. He stops talking.
"The king, my parents, and other members of the royalty tried to get rid of possible traitors,'' Sedrik continues, his look is tired and sad. "They did their best to make sure that what was said by the oracles didn't come true, but it wasn't possible. We didn't know when it was going to happen, or how, or even why. You cannot change a prophecy once it's been told. And we never imagined that the traitor was someone so close to us.''
"Who was the traitor?" The question escapes my lips before I can stop it. He doesn't answer right away. I can see in his eyes just thinking about it hurts him. Then he says something I am not expecting.
"My own sister."
Absolute silence falls on the room. His sister. His own sister betrayed him. What kind of person would do something like that? Who can do that to their own family? I look up at Kalen. Never in life, ever, could I think of doing something like that to my brother; he is the only thing I have left. Looking at his face I know he could never betray me either. It is just out of the question.
"My sister betrayed me, our parents, the king, the queen, and the whole Kingdom.'' His voice becomes hard, full of hatred as he continues. ''She joined the Ruby Kingdom, she joined the Lady of the Flames and together with the Fire Prince and the Fire princess, and their whole army, they arrived at what was supposed to be our birthday celebration. They attacked every one of the guests. Even when we thought we were ready; we weren't ready enough. Even when we thought we could fight; we weren't strong enough. They murdered dozens of people. They murdered my parents."
His hands tighten in the sheets that are covering his legs, and I can almost feel his latent fury as if it was mine. I feel a knot in my throat, and everything starts making sense now: The reason why the Ruby army was in the Palace City, Sedrik's prophecy.
"When I tried to stop them, my sister was the first one to try to kill me,'' he continues in a low voice. The hatred scaping with every word. ''That was the first time death was around me. I was forced to flee. I went out to the gardens where I found myself face to face with the daughter of the Lady of the Flames, Nimphora. She was the second one to try to kill me, but the King stopped her so I could run away again. I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to leave without fighting, but I knew it was my duty, if not, there would be no one who could save our Kingdom. So, I had to do it and that was when I ran into the person who would make the third attempt to kill me, and almost succeeded at it. The prince of the Ruby Kingdom; Prince Breogan."
Breogan, the name he kept repeating in his dream, the murderer, was a prince. The prince of the Ruby Kingdom. A prince who tried to murder Sedrik, the heir of the Lord of the wind.
"He followed me for a long time. I managed to get into the woods and flee. I kept flying for a long time. Aimlessly, with a big wound in my chest and with little strength. The only thing that kept me going was this,'' He points to the cane next to him. ''I didn't know where I was headed, but I knew I was doing the right thing. I don't remember much of what happened. I just remember being conscious enough to realize I was back in the ground, in the middle of the woods. That is when…''
"When I found you." Kalen interrupts. "You said something about salvation, a war, and a prophecy. I thought you were hallucinating because then you fainted in front of me."
"That's right." He nods. "Anyway, I knew that would happen. That I would be saved."
"How could you know? " I ask surprised, but I am sure I already know the answer.
"The oracles said that out of all the death and sorrow, hope was laying within. The chosen ones, the warriors destined to help me fulfill my task, were going to save me. The oracles said that was going to be my test to finally ascend as the Deakin, the son of the Deases, the gods, destined to bring peace and balance back to this world.'' He makes a brief pause before shaking his head as a mirthless smile appears on his lips. ''That's why everyone risked their own lives to protect me, and why the Ruby Kingdom tried to kill me. I am the last hope, and that is why I spent the past year getting ready for this moment. I just never imagined everything was going to unfold exactly during the night of my eighteenth birthday."
One more time the room is deep in absolute silence. I can feel Kalen's gaze on me as I keep my eyes focused on the ground. I know he is thinking, I am thinking about it too. What Sedrik is saying makes perfect sense. It is true. It was our mom's story. The bedtime story she used to tell us when we were kids. I always knew deep inside me that it wasn't a simple story, but I didn't want to believe it. Believing meant to have hope. And I had lost hope a long time ago. But now…
"Enia…" Kalen's voice is a whisper. I meet his eyes and nod.
"My mother told us," I whisper looking now at Sedrik who looks confused. "When we were children my mother used to tell us a story about two warriors who helped a young man change the destiny of humanity. Together the three fought against evil to bring back peace to the world. At least that is the short version of the story.''
"But how? How did your mother know that?" disbelief now fills Sedrik's face, he is moving his eyes from me to Kalen, and back to me.
"My mother always had some… visions.'' Kalen is the one who explains. I can't find my voice to speak again. "She always told us that it was a divine gift that not everyone understood. She said that her heart told her what was going to happen and that she couldn't stop it.'' As my brother speaks his voice starts getting lower. The memories are too painful to bear. ''Nobody in our town ever understood her... gift. They thought she was a witch. They treated her as a pariah, and us along with her. They hated her because most of them couldn't understand her. They said her visions were bad omens, and most of them were. But she couldn't help it.''
Kalen stops talking, remembering our childhood was painful sometimes. Remembering what our mother went through. But hearing Sedrik's story I can now understand what my mother was. I finally understand that the story she told me, and that I tried so hard to ignore out of fear, was real and there were worse things to be afraid of.
"She was an oracle," I say softly looking up. Sedrik watches me carefully as if he expects what I am about to say. "She predicted your arrival, just as your oracles predicted ours. Destiny is never wrong."
The smile returns to his face. He seems satisfied with my response as if he had been worried I wasn't going to believe his story, and of course, I wouldn't have, if I hadn't heard it before. Kalen's eyes look at me with sadness still in them, he finally nods, agreeing with my words. When I look back at Sedrik I know there is no way out of this anymore. I let out a trembling breath before speaking.
''I saw their troops in the city this morning,'' I say, panic replaces the sadness in my brother's eyes. ''The Ruby army has taken over the Palace.''