"Yes?"
"Can I ask you something?"
Throughout my time as a Dragon Slayer, I've found that it's best to talk to Xori if you're wondering about something in life. He's so intelligent, so wise beyond his years... Well, for me it's almost like talking to my father.
"You may."
Dilandau's currently in the healing ward getting cleaned and stitched up. The Dragon Slayers have all decided to just hang out in the sword combat room. Some are fighting, the rest are just sitting and talking. I'm fighting just to get my mind off things, but apparently it isn't working.
Good thing I'm fighting Xori.
"Do you think..." I say, and pause to block his attack, "That if someone had trouble showing... their feelings... that someone else... might get the wrong impression?"
"Hmm." Xori pauses to think- and to block my attack. 'In all honesty, Cherandle... I believe that a person's true feelings will show..." He knocks my sword out of the way and holds it pointing at my face. I've lost, "...But they may not always be directly on the surface." He smiles, "Does that help?"
I tap his sword playfully with mine before sheathing it, "It does," I say, "Thanks, Xori."
*
"Chesta!"
The call makes us all jump. We've been standing in Dilandau's throne room for quite a while- the only sound had been Dilandau muttering incoherently to himself, and none of us had dared to say a word.
"Come here." Dilandau finishes the order. Chesta obeys, stepping forward out of formation.
POW! As quick as anything, Dilandau has leapt up and socked Chesta across the face. Chesta stumbles backwards. Dilandau kicks him, and Chesta falls to the ground.
As Chesta solemnly gets to his feet and steps back into formation, Dilandau simply sits back down. There is no explanation for what he just did.
Then again, Chesta was very quiet about what had happened to him yesterday... Malenla had found him unconscious outside the chamber where Van Fanel, the king of Fanelia, had been kept. Or, so she said. She might have just been trying to spread rumors. Malenla never seemed to like Chesta very much. She always used to boss him around during sword combat training...
"Why must it sting so much?" Dilandau says, and again falls into his incoherent muttering. It almost sounds as if he's repeating the same word, over and over again.
Eventually, another voice speaks up- Gatti's. "Lord Dilandau, maybe it would be better if you didn't touch the wound like that."
"WHAT?!" Dilandau is again on his feet, and Gatti is struck. Dilandau grabs Gatti and pulls him forward, "So, you understand the pain I'm feeling, do you?!"
"Forgive me..." Gatti stammers- it's the first time I've seen him break down like that- and is thrown to the ground.
"My face!" Dilandau exclaims, clutching the bandage on his right cheek, "He cut my beautiful face!" As he says it, Corran, who had been on guard for news of Folken's visit to Asturia, comes running in, "Lord Dilandau!"
"WHAT NOW?!"
"Lord Folken, he-" Corran stammers a bit himself, "He's on his way back, sir."
"Hm." Dilandau grumps. He fingers the bandage on his face, "Well, that doesn't leave me much time, does it?" All at once he runs from the room.
"Lord Dilandau!" A few people shout in shock.
"Lord Dilandau!" Chesta runs after him. The rest of us run out the door and watch them run off- we're lost for what to do in this situation.
I had been somewhat frightened back there in the room when Dilandau was there- but now I find myself almost shivering.
One swipe of a sword. That's all it took. One swipe of the Fanelian sword at Lord Dilandau's face and he plunged into a pit of insanity. He's become a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at anyone he even assumes is questioning him.
Memories flood my mind. The words of my fellow Dragon Slayers come back to me:
I believe that a person's true feelings will show... But they may not always be directly on the surface.
Hey, maybe he likes you!
This time I don't smile.
*
I awake to voices. It's morning. I open my eyes. Most of the Dragon Slayers are already up.
As I climb down from my bunk and start to get undressed- I'm hardly self-conscious about it any more- I notice something.
"Hey, where's Kestrel?"
"We don't know," says Migel, strapping on his sword, "Most of us just got up."
"He might have gone to breakfast," Palem suggests.
"Alone?" Rafael asks, "Doesn't make sense to me."
As if to punctuate Rafael's sentence, the door to the barracks slides open. It's Gatti and Chesta.
"Hey-!" Gatti exclaims, "Lord Dilandau's fighting Kestrel!"
Those of us who are not finished dressing scramble into the remainders of our uniforms and follow the rest towards the sword combat training room.
The sound of clanging swords reaches our ears from a far distance down the hall. We arrive in time to see the final moments of the fight- clang, clash, swish, and Kestrels' sword is knocked from his hands. The sword slides across the sand-covered floor to our feet.
Then Dilandau notices us.
"What are you doing here?" He asks darkly.
Gatti steps forward, "...We were looking for you, Lord Dilandau. We didn't know where you were." I feel a mental sigh of relief run through the Dragon Slayers. Leave it to Gatti to come up with a reasonable excuse, "That was excellent fighting, Lord Dilandau!" Gatti adds.
Dilandau flashes a quick smile at Gatti, "Yes," he says, looking at his sword, and his voice drops again to a quiet level... But the final word of his sentence, though spoken softly, is fierce, and it seems to echo through the room. The name of the one who scarred him.
There is a long pause, in which none of the Dragon Slayers know what to do or what's going to be done.
Then, finally, and without a word, Dilandau sheathes his sword and walks from the room. We part to make way for him.
*
We are now on our way to dinner. Lord Dilandau has been in his throne room pretty much since what happened this morning... And we can't do training without him. So besides relaying a message from General Aldelphos, Gatti drilled us on sword technique for almost the whole day. It's true that if Dilandau had found out, Gatti probably would have been in big trouble... But Gatti had seen no reason for us to waste the entire day. Besides, though he wouldn't admit it, he can take anything Lord Dilandau can dish out. Gatti's a lot tougher than most of us.
Suddenly, I happen to find myself looking down-
"Oh, no!" I exclaim. I stop walking.
"What?" Kestrel, who had been walking at my side, stops as well.
"My sword," I sigh, indicating my empty scabbard. My sword... I put it down on the training room floor to talk to Viole during a short break, after which Gatti had announced it was time for dinner. I must've left it there. I turn and start walking back, "Tell the others I'll catch up, okay?"
"All right," he says, and we part ways.
I arrive in the training room- but my sword's not where I left it. I look around. What else could have happened to it...?
"Looking for this?"
I turn, and stand at attention. Lord Dilandau is in the doorway- and he has my sword.
"Yes, Lord Dilandau," I answer.
"You know, you really should be more careful with your sword..." His leather-gloved hand runs down the flat side of the blade, "...Wouldn't want to be without it at a time when you needed to fight." He is silent again.
I pluck up my courage in order to speak again, "I'll try... To be more careful, sir..."
"Excellent," he says, but there is no reflection of the word in his face. There is a long pause. Then Dilandau holds the sword out in front of himself, tilting it so the handle faces me.
"You'd probably like this back, wouldn't you?" He asks, and pauses again, "Well, come and get it."
I hesitate. What's he getting at? Finally I obey- I walk towards him, but as I reach him, he turns and walks off down the hallway. I pause, watching him walk away.
But he turns again.
"I thought I told you to come and get it, " he says fiercely. I quickly begin following him again, down the corridor and through another. It is a little while before he finally turns and walks through a doorway. I follow him in. That cold fear from two moons ago- was it really that small a space of time?- returns with a vengeance. This room is Dilandau's private chamber.
For a while, he just stand there with his back to me. Then he turns, slowly walks over to me, and slides my sword into my scabbard. His hand hovers by the sword's handle even when he's finished the job.
"Thank you, Lord Dilandau," I say quietly.
I see his eye twitch involuntarily. He turns and walks away from me again.
I have no clue what to do. Am I dismissed?... He isn't saying anything. He isn't doing much, either. It's almost as if he's thinking very hard about something...
"I have to kill him."
I start. "I... beg your pardon, Lord?"
"Van Fanel." He lets out a sinister little laugh. His fingers brush the bandage on his face. He turns towards me, but he's not looking at me. His eyes seem almost glazed over. "I'll run my sword right through his puny little heart..."
Oh, Gods. I know what's going on. Of course. He's been by himself the whole day and he needed to go off on someone. And I was the first one available. I sure am in for it now...
The dim light adds an eerie quality to the already dark tone of the situation as Dilandau settles his eyes on me, "It's the only way I can get back at him for what he's done..."
I'm standing straight and still, but I'm really shaking in my boots. He's walking, very slowly, towards me now, as he continues to speak. My mind races- but there's nothing to do but watch him. Just keep your eyes on him, Cherandle. You'll make it...
"I'll destroy him." Dilandau's eyes have a madness to them that's almost unbearable to look at. But I can't look away, "Like I destroyed his worthless little country. I'll throw him on the fire and watch his corpse burn! "
A sweat has broken out on my forehead. Too close, he's too close to me, I can't stand it. His hand snaps up in readiness to make sharp contact with my face. Every muscle in my body tenses, and my eyes flash from his hand to his face-
Nothing. Nothing's happening. We're both still. Frozen. And then...
Oh...
There it is...
I can't explain it, but my muscles are relaxing; I'm standing straight and tall again. our eyes are connected like focused beams. He's not going to hit me...
But...
His eyes flicker from me to the floor back to me. His hand snaps back to his side. he turns away, "You're dismissed," he says darkly.
Oh, Gods... No! I can't leave, not now, we were on the verge of something, I could feel it. In his eyes I saw- well, something, something I hadn't quite been able to translate. I can't leave now, we were too close, too close to... to... whatever it was. Not now...
But he is, after all... My commander...
NO! Something inside me screams as I watch him walk away from me, into the darkness.
In indecision, I lean against the all- and push the door button with my back. The door slides shut. I start at the noise. Dilandau doesn't move.
At first, that is.
"You think you're pretty clever, don't you, Cherandle Zarain?" Dilandau's voice says, icily.
I don't answer.
"Well," he says, turning and walking towards me again, "Let's just see how clever you are ..."
A familiar light is gleaming over his face...
