Following the sound of the sobs, it wasn't difficult to find Rayla. When he reached her, the Moonshadow elf's cheeks were streaked with tears, and her body wracked with sobs. He knelt down beside her and reached out to touch her. As his hand brushed her shoulder, her head whipped around, her eyes reminding him of an angry banther. Her hand flashed up to his wrist, before she recognised him, and her face softened.
She opened her mouth to speak, but only a hoarse whisper came out.
Callum reached into what he recognised as Claudia's ingredients satchel, quickly finding a pair of stoppered glass bottles. One of them contained a familiar golden mote of light, while the other contained what looked like a slice of the moon.
He pulled the stopper out of that bottle first, following with the bottle containing his own voice.
He noticed that the frantic, panicked look in her eyes seemed to bank down as she discovered she was able to speak again.
"I hate humans who use dark magic." She commented. "It's just..."
"Yuk." Callum completed.
"Sounds about right." Rayla responded immediately, with a faint brittle edge to her voice. "Where's out?"
Amaya signed "We need to find Claudia and Soren first." Calum relayed her words to Rayla.
Rayla looked rather alarmed at that.
"She... he..."
Amaya's eyes suddenly scanned Rayla's body.
"Not... they didn't... Claudia used dark magic on me. She wanted to resurrect her father. Using me as the battery."
"You're safe now." Amaya told her. "But you'll be safer once they're in the castle dungeons."
Rayla trembled for an instant. "You're right." She replied, before setting off down the dark corridor, slowly, but surely leading the way back to where she'd been held. She couldn't contain the shivers of fear running down her spine.
Easy, Rayla. You're not alone or chained to the wall this time. You've got friends. And they'll protect you.
But I shouldn't need a human to protect me!
That's what friends do, Rayla. They protect their friends.
I've only known them two days…
It didn't take you that long to start soaking Callum's tunic, did it? That was what, a few minutes after you did your best to kill him?
GO AWAY!
Callum looked at her in shock, and she realised that she'd screamed the thought out loud.
"Are you OK?"
"Oh, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be? It's not like I've been chained up in a dungeon, force-fed dark magic potions, had symbols forcibly painted on my skin using Moon-knows-what as ink…"
Callum realised he literally hadn't noticed the arcane symbols covering Rayla's exposed skin and looked away.
"Aunt Amaya…" he signed. "If Rayla tells you the rest of the way, can you go in there with a few guards instead?"
"I… is this necessary?" She looked at Rayla, and actually winced. "Callum, take her back to the tower."
Callum gave her an abbreviated salute, before leaving, guiding Rayla by the arm at first.
"I can find my own way!" She snapped, after a hundred yards. "Let go of my arm or I swear I'll snap your wrist!"
Callum didn't argue, and just led the way out, straight through the secret passage behind her wardrobe. Rayla followed him, smouldering in silence.
"Corporal, take five men and…" She heard Callum instruct them on the route to where he'd left General Amaya, and the directions Rayla had given them. "General Amaya should be waiting for you."
Rayla bristled as they stepped past her into the narrow tunnel, before suddenly feeling a strangely fuzzy arm wrap itself around her shoulders. Before she could overcome her startlement, a large, hot mug was pushed into her hands.
"It'll be ok, duck." She heard, and relaxed. "It'll all be ok. Prince Callum, out of the room, please."
Callum beat a hasty retreat, as Rayla turned around, cradling the mug of tea Sadie had handed her.
"It's just you and me, darling." Sadie said, as Rayla began to sip at the contents of the cauldron-sized mug. "Did… anything happen that you might not want to tell the prince about?"
"No." Rayla said, slowly. "Nothing like that. Just…" She gestured at the runes painted all over her body. "I don't even know what they were painted using… and they're all over my skin." She began scrubbing at them, quickly reddening the patch of skin, without making much of an impact on the rune.
"Let me help you with those." Sadie said, gently. Rayla didn't even realise how much she was starting to relax until she felt a warm, wet cloth running over her skin, and just melted into a chair. It wasn't long before tears were streaking down her face, and she suddenly emptied her stomach onto the floor, doing her best to expel whatever potion had been forced down her throat. She could smell an almost acrid scent that wasn't normally there, as Sadie continued to gently erase the markings.
You… you were supposed to get markings after we came back from the mission. Elven ones, to show that I was an assassin. But… now, now the best markings you can hope for are ones that show you're a traitorous kinslayer who should be forced to spend the rest of her life among humans, just waiting to be used as a battery.
I gave Runaan a chance. I showed him the egg. I offered him my idea of calling off the mission. But he chose to go through with his mission, even when he knewit was wrong and some of it was literally avenging a slight that hadn't happened.
You still plunged your sword into his back, though, without even warning him.
And because I did so, there's actually a chance of peace. Not war. Not assassinations on both sides of the border. Peace. Actual, lasting peace between humans, dragons, and elves.
But humans will still want to use dark magic.
Did you see the way the king reacted to my reaction? He almost seemed pleased at someone rejecting the price of dark magic, even if it would help them keep their hands attached to their bodies.
Rayla twitched as she felt the scrubbing intensify to deal with one particularly stubborn rune at the base of her neck, and she felt the button holding her vest slip through the loop. She didn't bother to gather it back up, even though she could feel the night air on a thin sliver of chest, and perhaps brushing the very top of her breasts.
She allowed herself to relax, forcing herself to think about nothing but adoraburrs, imagining being back in the adoraburr meadow just outside the silvergrove. She closed her eyes and visualised them, letting them sit on her head, her shoulders, and anywhere else they wanted to, just being in a safe place where she'd never felt the slightest threat. She allowed herself just to drift there, letting the world she was in absorb her. She heard Sadie asking someone to get her another cup of tea, and allowed herself to be guided back onto the bed, several plumped up pillows propped under her neck and shoulders.
She forced herself to feel relaxed, and calm, and all the other things Runaan had insisted she focus on.
And it worked up until she opened her eyes and realised Callum was standing at the foot of the bed, staring at her, cheeks red.
The cold draft on her chest suddenly became intensely embarrassing.
"You. Saw. Nothing." She threatened, buttoning up her vest with a glare at the human, feeling her own face heating up, and the tips of her ears practically burning with embarrassment.
"Uh… yeah, I definitely didn't see anything. Yep, good thing your top was done up all the time… I definitely saw nothing."
"Good. Just remember that." She threatened, as the human hastily staggered out of the room.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
When she woke up, Rayla was actually surprised not to be back in the dungeon, for a moment. Her wrists felt as if someone was trying to crush them. She glanced down, before reaching out and trying to pick up her flask of moonberry juice. Her fingers felt clumsy, and it was hard to hold the flask she'd have considered practically a part of her hours early, and almost as difficult to pour the contents into a glass.
After she'd drunk down the glass, she looked at the moonberry juice flask. It was half empty, perhaps a bit over half. She could probably get some more moonberries, but it wouldn't be the same moonberry juice. It wouldn't taste the same as hers, squeezed from berries picked outside the kitchen door in the kitchen by Ethari, as he bantered with Runaan.
And then it hit her again, just like it was probably going to every single morning for the rest of her life.
She'd killed Runaan.
She'd killed him from behind, with one of the weapons Ethari had made for her.
And she wondered if that was the biggest betrayal imaginable.
She didn't get long to feel sorry for herself, as the door was slammed open by Callum, almost gleefully carrying a tray bearing something that smelt divine.
"Barius did some porridge this morning. I put some in bowls, and then put them in the oven in my quarters."
"Wait… your quarters have an oven? These don't even have a fireplace…"
"Uh…"
"It's fine."
"Oh, uh, good?"
Rayla smiled at him as she began scooping the porridge into her mouth. The top of the porridge was baked solid, but underneath, milk and oats were combined with handfuls of what tasted like fresh fruit.
"It's good."
Callum smiled at her, slightly more shyly, as she complemented the food.
It was roughly at that moment that Ezran barged in, carrying his own bowl, with bags under his eyes.
"Having trouble sleeping, Ez?"
"Uh… yeah. It's really hard to sleep in this tower."
"I'm right across from you, and I've been sleeping like a rock."
"Can you… uh… not tell Dad?"
"You've been sneaking to look at the egg?" Callum asked.
"Yeah." Ezran admitted. "Zym likes company."
"Zym?"
"The baby dragon. He knows he's called Azymondias, but I call him Zym."
"How does he know his name?"
"When he was in his home, both of his parents used to talk to him."
Callum felt a bit of a lump in his throat. Rayla spent several minutes looking away from the humans."
"So, how are you getting in?"
"There's a secret passage that leads into..." He broke off at the horrified look on both teenagers faces. Callum made his decision in that moment.
"We need to keep that egg safe." He told them. "Rayla, I'm going to try and get your blades back off my aunt. Ez, I need you to show Rayla the secret passageway you're using. Get the egg and bring it back here."
As Callum stepped out of the door, he heard the secret passage slide open.
He had no idea what they were going to do next, but whatever it was, he knew they had to keep the egg safe, so that his father's plan for peace could be achieved.
As usual, anyone with thoughts is encouraged and invited to share them with me. I'd like to thank TheFranninator, BlackDragon829 and Wolf 16 for their feedback on the last chapter, as well as CallMeMatrix for pointing out an error I'd made regarding Amaya.