Author's note: I'm really sorry I didn't update this story for such a long time, but I've been really busy and just didn't have time.
I found out almost everything about Aaron by the next evening. But what bothered me the most was the fact that there was nothing wrong with him. I just couldn't believe it. Maybe he had a secret or paid everyone to keep their mouth shut. Or he…I don't know! Something!
"Why are you trying to find something bad about the boy?" Murtagh almost laughed at me. Was I really being silly? My daughter's safety wasn't a silly thing, right? Right? I sighed. Maybe I was just being paranoid, again.
"I don't know." I admitted "I guess I would be ok with him if Eli had brought him here first."
"Oh, please." he said "She's not going to marry him yet. Why would you have to meet every boyfriend she has?"
"But she could marry him! Just to make me angry!" I said.
"She's not stupid, trust me. If she marries him, it will be because she loves him." he sounded so sure about it.
"I hope so." I said "But that won't make me less suspicious about that boy. I'm going to the town tomorrow. I'll find him."
"What?" Murtagh glared at me.
"You heard me." I said "I'm going to find that boy and see how he is by myself."
"Don't be stupid!" he got close to me, hugging me gently "Are you trying to lose your daughter completely? She would never forgive you if you did that."
I thought about it for a second. My brilliant idea didn't seem so brilliant like it did a moment ago. Great.
"You're right." I sighed "I've done already too many things which got me on her 'unforgivable' list."
"Don't worry about that." he kissed me. We stood in the middle of the room for few minutes in silence, just hugging. I finally moved away from him and stared at his dark eyes.
"Tell me." I said.
"What?" he looked at me curiously "What is it now?"
"What will you do when I die?" I said "Will you marry someone else after?"
"What is wrong with you today?" he frowned "What kind of question is that?"
"Just answer me." I waited for his reaction, but he stayed perfectly calm.
"You shouldn't think about that." he smiled at me "Why don't we go out now? I know a perfect place…"
"Don't change the subject!" I yelled, tears already forming in my eyes "I know you'll be young and live for a long time. And I…I'm already getting old! You might even leave me before I die…"
"Amarantha, come on!" he reached for me, but I took a step back "You can't be serious!"
"But I know it and you know it…and…" I closed my eyes for a second.
"You really have to stop this." he said "You'll have a nice, long life. Why are you always trying to ruin everything?"
"You're right." I finally let him hug me "I'm sorry, but it's hard…I just can't accept it."
"Oh, so you would really love me to die first." he said.
"No!" I looked at him "I couldn't live without you!"
"Then where's the problem?" he said "Just don't think about it, ok?"
"Yeah, right." I took a deep breath. He was right. I really tried to ruin everything; my daughter's relationship, my own life… Why couldn't I just be happy about everything? I wish I knew.
"Come with me." Murtagh smiled "I want to show you something."
"Alright." I said as we were leaving the room.
Murtagh took me to one place near the river, where we stayed for a while. It was really nice and peaceful there and perfect to stop my crazy thoughts from bothering me. We would have been in the dark if Murtagh hadn't made small light balls around us with magic.
It was already late when we returned to the castle and I felt some strange uneasiness. I just didn't know why I felt like that.
"Something is wrong." I said and Murtagh just rolled his eyes.
"Not again." he said.
"No, not that." I said "Do you feel anything…I don't know…different around here?"
"No…" he said as a maid came running from one of the halls. Something was wrong because she looked pretty worried.
"What is it?" I ran to her.
"It's your son…" she said, trying to catch her breath.
"What about my son?" I could hear my heart's frantic beating ringing in my head. Please, please, be okay!
"They have taken him!" the maid cried. I didn't understand a bit from what she said. I just stared at her, unable to move. Where was my son?
"Who?" Murtagh was upset, but he didn't really show it.
"Sorcerers!" the maid said, sobbing.
"What sorcerers?" I just didn't know anyone who would dare to even challenge my son. He was young, but he was a Dragon Rider and Murtagh thought him lots of things.
"Damn!" Murtagh said angrily as the maid was struggling for words. Sometimes it was nice to be able to read other people's minds. But Murtagh suddenly ran down the hall.
"Wait! Where are you going? What's happening?" I yelled after him.
"I'll kill them!" he yelled.
"Murtagh, no! Wait!" I screamed as pain shot through my head. For a moment I saw blackness and nothing more, but then my vision started to clear. I could see Max lying in some sort of a cave and he wasn't moving. Then I saw something that horrified me; there was a pool of blood under him. I wanted to scream but I couldn't.
I couldn't even close my eyes. I was looking at my son's body and I couldn't do anything. Suddenly the image shifted and I recognized Murtagh…in completely the same position. The image started to switch back and forth until it was going so fast that I couldn't see anything anymore.
"Amarantha! Wake up!" I could hear Murtagh's voice as I tried to open my eyes. I blinked at him slowly and realized he was holding me in his arms while I was lying on the floor.
"They're going to…kill him." I said in panic "They'll kill him! And they'll kill…you!"
"I'll save our son. I promise." Murtagh said and kissed my forehead.
"Who took him? What do they want?" I asked as I tried to get up.
"I'm sorry." Murtagh said quietly "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have thought no one would dare to…I'm sorry."
"What?" I was still confused because I didn't really know what was going on and what really happened.
"These people…sorcerers…it seems they've be planning this for long time and we hadn't even noticed." he said "They joined forces to try to get to the throne."
"What? But how?" I said.
"Some of them managed to kidnap our son while we were away. They just told their requests to the maid. We have a day." he said.
"Wait, what are you talking about? A day for what?" I said.
"They want me to go meet with them and give up the throne. Then they're going to release our son. If not…" he said.
"No!" I yelled "You can't go there! It's a trap. They'll kill you!"
"I know." he said.
"They'll kill you both!" I yelled "I saw it! You can't…"
"And what am I supposed to do?" he yelled "Let them kill Max?"
"No! But…I don't know." I said "What about the dragons? Can't they do something…? Wait! Why didn't they do something?"
"They were hunting. Someone obviously knew well when they're going to do that. And there is enough of them to hide everything with black magic." he said.
"But the dragons are here, right? Both alive?" I asked.
"Yes." he said "Probably so we could know Max is still alive."
"Yeah, but can his dragon sense him?" I looked at Murtagh. He frowned for a moment.
"No, he can't." he said.
"So we can't find out where Max is." I said "But if they're blocking that connection, it means Max might be…"
"Dead. I know. But they'll have to keep him alive at least long enough for me to appear. They can't allow that we think there's nothing we can do." he said "Then I would never give up the throne to give it over to someone of them."
"Then it's important you don't give them what they want." I said "If they just killed you, I would still be a queen. And…where's Elisabeth?"
"But they'll kill Max if I don't!" he said.
"Don't you get it? If you do that they won't need you anymore. Then they'll see you as a treat because of magic and dragon. They'll kill you both!" I cried "Where's my daughter?"
"I'm here, mother." Elisabeth said behind my back. I turned around and saw her and Gerald standing there.
"Oh, you're here!" I let out a sigh of relief, glad that she hadn't been taken too.
"How did you let this happen?" Gerald seemed to be angry on Murtagh.
"That's not important!" I said "We can't just stand here doing nothing! My son needs to be saved!"
"Calm down, mom." Elisabeth rolled her eyes "We'll find him and bring him back."
"But how?" I looked at her "They want to get rid of us! None of our ideas would work."
"Then you have wrong ideas." she said coldly.
"Eli…I know you don't like him, but please, don't…" I said.
"Don't what?" she said, taking out her sword "I know what you saw. I saw it too. And I know where it is. I'll bring Max back."
"What?" I opened my mouth to say something more, but stopped. My daughter had seen everything? And she knew more about it then me. How could it be?
"I know where's that place. I've been there before." she said.
"Wait, what place?" Murtagh looked at me. Oh, I actually forgot to tell him what I saw and he didn't really ask. I guess he though he knew everything and he couldn't really read my visions in my mind most of the time.
"Some kind of a cave." I said "Dark, small place."
"That's not the place where they told the maid I should meet them." Murtagh said.
"Exactly." Elisabeth smiled "So, to make the long story short, they have a really evil plan. But we can ruin it."
"I…I don't get it." I said. Well, I really didn't get it. So what if those were two different places? We still had to save Max!
"Ah, mom." Elisabeth sighed "They probably didn't count on the fact that we can see things. That's why they took Max to one place and most of them is in the other place waiting for Murtagh, to fight him if necessary. Max is probably unconscious or something so there is no need for lot of people to keep him."
"Oh." I said as my mind tried to process that piece of information. Now the plan of the bad guys seemed stupid. Would they be stupid and do exactly what Eli said? I thought about it for a moment. Sure they tried to make this plan so perfect.
They've watched us for months probably, learned when the dragons were going away to hunt…Damn, I didn't know we were so predictable. And of course, they would need full force to fight Murtagh. But why weren't they afraid we would attack with both dragons or with the whole army? Ah, yes, because we wanted Max alive. And that guy or whoever stayed with Max would kill him, just I wasn't sure when or in what condition.
"Tell me where is he." Murtagh got closer to Elisabeth. I looked at him. Was he trying to read my daughter's mind? Because if he was, then I would be pissed, just I didn't have time to think about it right now.
"No." she said "I know where it is. I'm going there. Alone."
"No!" the three of us yelled in unison. Ok, I yelled, Murtagh and Gerald just said it.
"Fine. Then Max dies." Elisabeth smiled.
"Eli…" I didn't know what to say. How could she be so…heartless? This wasn't some kind of game!
"You're going to tell me whether you like it or not!" Murtagh took out his sword and pointed it against Eli's neck in a second. I didn't have time to stop him. I just stared at them in shock. But Eli didn't move a bit, she just laughed.
"Oh, please. Kill me and you'll never find out." she smiled and Murtagh put away his sword in an angry movement.
"Damn it, Elisabeth! What are you trying to do?" Murtagh looked at her.
"Nothing. Really." she said "I'll do what I want, not what you want. Any of you."
She looked at me then, perfectly calm like nothing was going on. Suddenly, Murtagh grabbed her arm and pushed her across the hall, pressing her against the wall. Her sword fell down on the floor.
"Murtagh, no!" I yelled, trying to move him away from Eli but he didn't move. He put his hand on her forehead and she closed her eyes.
"You can't…get…into…my mind." she said. I finally realized what he was doing. It didn't make sense to me since he couldn't read her visions, but he could maybe see the place if she'd been there. Oh.
"Murtagh, stop it!" Gerald said. I've already forgot he was even there. But Murtagh finally let go of Elisabeth, frowning desperately.
"I'll bring him back." she said, picking up her sword "I can't use magic, but I can protect my mind. People use to pass near that place not even knowing it exists, so whoever is keeping Max won't suspect I'm up to something. Plus, I don't look threatening at all."
"Eli, you can't!" I said "I don't want to lose you!"
"You're not going to lose me, mom." she said "But you might lose your son if you don't let me go now."
I looked deep into her eyes, realizing she really was capable of doing that.
"Alright." I whispered "Go."
I hugged her and kissed her and then she was gone. Tears started to fill my eyes as I turned to look at Murtagh.
