Diamond Elf - Chapter 28

Chapter 28

     Chelindra hugged the members of the royal family, who were happy that she was back. The last news they’d had of her was Colonel Randy’s report that she had taken off on a rescue mission.

     “Do you wish to hear my report in private, or right here in front of the court?” Chelindra asked.

     King Collin gave this some thought; that she didn’t request privacy meant that it was good news, but that she didn’t just come out and say it meant that there were parts she did not want to share with everyone. “In private.”

     Chelindra, Randy, Aeryc and Gabriel followed the Royal Family to their private sitting room. Queen Haylee ordered a servant to hand out refreshing drinks, and they all took a few moments to relax. All of the servants took the opportunity to leave the room, and Queen Haylee was proud that they were well trained enough to read even her slightest signals.

     “Now then,” King Collin smiled. “What is it you have to tell me?”

     Chelindra and Gabriel looked at each other, and Gabriel said, “I should start.”

     Chelindra nodded.

     “While Chelindra was away fighting at a field camp, I moped and didn’t have an appetite,” he began. “A PFC named Candace came to me and insisted that I eat something. Shortly thereafter, two men kidnapped us…”

     “Wait,” Chelindra asked him to pause his story. “I never thought to ask, but were you kidnapped out of my tent?”

     “Yes,” Gabriel confirmed.

     Chelindra turned to Randy. “Did anyone ever report seeing or hearing anything? Was anyone killed or knocked out?”

     “No,” he replied, not needing her to say the rest out loud. “Which means that someone in our camp helped them.”

     Chelindra growled softly. “Has anyone else mysteriously disappeared since?”

     “I will have to look into the matter,” Randy stated.

     Chelindra nodded and motioned for her lover to continue.

     Gabriel took a deep breath. “Candace was raped to death, and I was…” He hesitated when he saw that Princess Amara was paying close attention. The details weren’t fit for her ears. “Tortured,” he decided upon. “The man who abducted me was the Emperor’s favorite lover for years, and he knew something I didn’t. The Emperor knew my name, despite the fact that I was a lowly slave, and often kept an eye on me. M-m… John took me because he thought the Emperor would be pleased to have me as his slave.” Gabriel nearly called his torturer master, and was glad he caught himself in time.

     Randy took the next part. “Meanwhile, the camp rumors were that Gabriel had run away with Candace. With no reason to suspect otherwise, Chelindra focused on the war, and sent me out on a mission. I led a few small groups of men out to harass the approaching army, well inside enemy territory. As fate would have it, I was captured by the same man and his followers. I witnessed some of Gabriel’s… torture.”

     Amara suppressed a sigh. The looks they kept giving her stated plain as day that they were trying to protect her fragile ears. What they didn’t know was that from the moment Chelindra found out, her magic boosted outrage sent out psychic shock waves that had reached her within moments. These waves had activated her vision, and she’d had nightmares ever since. Nightmares in which she was Gabriel, so she knew exactly what he’d gone through.

     Randy continued. “After – what did you say his name was again? John?”

     Gabriel nodded.

     “After John fell asleep, Gabriel crawled over to me and freed me, but… he was much too weak to move. I was afraid he was going to die at any moment, and there was no way I could carry him back to safety, especially if they pursued us. I had no weapons to defend us with. I decided to leave him behind, but only because he was reasonably sure they didn’t want to kill him.” Randy shook his head, indicating that he was ashamed of his decision.

     “At the same time,” Chelindra took over, “I was nearby, having followed Randy once I learned he had been captured. Randy thought I was an enemy tracker, and evaded me. I decided that since he was capably headed to safety, I would go spy on the enemy army, and as I previously confessed, I slaughtered half their army, and returned here. Until I received word from Randy to return to the base camp right away…”

     Randy decided to tell this part. “As soon as Chelindra made it to camp, I told her what had happened to Gabriel, and she… screamed.” He paused. This simple word could not accurately convey her response, but since she had never screamed before… he knew the royal family would understand the depth of her emotions.

     “After that, she vowed to kill everyone in the Empire if she had to, and I swear to you, You’re Majesty, she was literally on fire! She… opened a doorway?” Randy looked at her, and she nodded. “Stepped through it, and was gone.”

     Aeryc decided it was his turn to speak. “I am a bodyguard for my King, and now a Prince of the Realm. As such, I was finishing up some paperwork when a terrified elf ran in to tell me that my wife had arrived suddenly, and looked ready to destroy everything in her path. I ran to see for myself, and met up with my King just as we reached her.”

     He turned to Randy, “Chelindra appeared to be on fire to me as well, but when I touched her later, it did not burn as much as it should have.”

     “I’m sorry,” Queen Haylee interrupted, “but I seem to have missed the introduction. Who are you?”

     Chelindra blushed at her lack of manners. “I completely forgot to introduce you; Aeryc, this is King Collin, Queen Haylee, and Princess Amara… You’re Majesties, You’re Highness, this is my husband, Aeryc.”

     “Husband?!” They gasped.

     “Yes… it happened rather recently,” Chelindra admitted.

     “I was chosen by King Chehiro and my grandfather Phineus – the mate chosen for Chelindra by her father – as the best elf to marry her and rule at her side some day,” Aeryc clarified.

     King Collin stroked his chin, “So, when you said that only the royal elves can create doorways between the realms, implying that you are a member of the Elven royal family, you forgot to mention that you are the Heir to the throne?”

     “Yes, sire,” Chelindra admitted.

     “In any case,” Aeryc picked up his part of the tale, “she had come through to scry in our scrying basin, demanding to know where her lover was. Locating him, she created a doorway to leave, and as she did so, I realized that she needed me. I quickly obtain permission from my King to leave, and went with her.

     “We stepped through the door, and found ourselves in a field where thousands of men had been burned –“

     “The men I had massacred,” Chelindra interrupted.

     “We left, and shortly came across the remains of…” Aeryc turned to Chelindra questioningly.

     “Candace,” Chelindra replied softly.

     “It was not a sight I would ever willingly see again,” Aeryc decided a detailed description was not necessary. “Chelindra gave her a funeral pyre, and then…”

     “Broke down and cried,” Chelindra confessed.

     “You? Cried?” Randy asked in disbelief. In his opinion, neither Gabriel nor Aeryc knew Chelindra well enough to know that this had never happened. She had been the sole survivor of many battles, and her response was grief, yes, but never accompanied by tears!

     “It is true,” Aeryc responded, “that elves never cry, so I was a bit baffled myself as to how to deal with this. It seemed cold to try to guide her into meditation at that moment, but then, I remembered that she is half human, and that sometimes humans just need to cry.

     “The next day, we ran to the Imperial City, and invaded the Palace,” Aeryc decided not to dwell on the emotional part.

     “Ran?” Randy asked, and then looked to King Collin. It was technically the King’s job to ask the questions, but Collin merely waved Randy’s informality aside. “But there’s days’ worth of travel between that field and the Imperial City!”

     Chelindra smiled. “That was unexpected and wonderful. Aeryc suggested that I use my magic, the human kind that I inherited from my mother, in order to learn to control it. So, I did, and by using it, we managed to run the entire distance in mere hours!”

     Princess Amara took the opportunity to interrupt their tale. “Before you continue, I must know something.”

     “What?” Chelindra asked.

     “According to my… nightmares – activated the moment I imagine you found out the truth about Gabriel – and hinted at by the Colonel – Gabriel was not just on the verge of death, he had massive internal bleeding and there was almost no way he should have lived. Yet here he is, hale and strong.” The princess looked directly at a stunned Gabriel. “How did you manage to survive?”

     “You had nightmares about me?” Gabriel asked.

     “Yes,” Amara confirmed.

     “What kind of nightmares?” Gabriel wanted to know.

     “And why didn’t you inform me?” Her father wondered.

     Amara sighed. “Protocol dictates that you all must protect me from those things not fit for a young lady to know, but am I allowed to speak of them?”

     This stunned everyone, except for Aeryc, who didn’t know the Princess or the human customs enough to know that this subject was taboo.

     King Collin sighed. “Yes, I wish to hear these nightmares that have destroyed your innocence.”

     Amara nodded, faced Gabriel once more, and took one of his hands in hers. “According to my nightmares, you were tied up, raped, beaten, whipped, forced to drink-”

     “You can skip the rest!” Gabriel interrupted hastily.

     “How was this information presented to you in the nightmares?” King Collin near demanded.

     “In them… I was Gabriel…” Amara disclosed.

     “I am so sorry you had to go through that!” Gabriel wiped a tear from the corner of his eye with his free hand.

     “You’re sorry?!” Amara exclaimed. “You actually lived it, I merely witnessed it. I daresay that the experience was far more unpleasant for you than for me!”

Gabriel nodded, and sighed. Chelindra was glowing just a bit red. Forced to drink what?

     “It’s my turn to talk again,” Gabriel stated. “John knew he had gone a bit far, and decided to get me to the Emperor before I died. As a slave, I fully expected that the Emperor would dismiss me out of hand, and toss me aside to die. I was actually unconscious at this point, but he did not. The next thing I knew, I regained consciousness in the healer’s quarters.

     “I was summoned before the Emperor, and allowed to watch as he executed all of the men who had abused me.” Gabriel paused to relive that moment.

     “Thank the gods!” Amara praised. “I have been terrified that these men would somehow find out that I knew what they had done, and abduct me too!”

     Gabriel noticed that they still held hands, and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Just before they died, the Emperor told us all that… that… I still can’t believe this… I’m the Emperor’s son! Therefore, every single thing done to me was considered a treasonous act against… the Heir to the Throne.”

     Amara burst out without thinking, “Then it’s you!”

     “I beg your pardon?” Gabriel asked for clarification.

     “You – you’re-” she shook her head. “That is not important now. Please, continue with your story.”

     Gabriel skipped his awkwardness at the Imperial court, and jumped right to Chelindra’s rescue. “It was amazing, guards flying in every direction! I had no idea what was going on, she was moving too fast to see clearly, but not so fast that she was invisible. She stopped with her blade at… my father’s throat, and demanded me back.”

     Chelindra was absently staring at Amara’s hand holding Gabriel’s and fighting to control a strange desire to force their hands apart. This part recalled her attention to the story, and she took over from here. “I was fully prepared to kill the Emperor, and everyone in the Palace, if that’s what it took to get him back, but Gabriel stopped me.”

     “I have no idea why,” Gabriel continued, “but my father decided not to fight Chelindra at all. Instead… he presented us with this.”

     The King closely inspected the document that Gabriel handed to him, gaping in astonishment. Queen Haylee read it over his shoulder.

     “A truce!” The Queen gasped. “This is… wonderful!”

     Collin finally looked up from the document. “This says truce, but sounds more like he’s asking us to surrender.”

     Chelindra growled softly. “Yes, the Emperor is a prideful man, and he simply cannot admit defeat. This is his way of trying to save face, but he has hinted that he expects you to send him a counter offer. Perhaps, if you think it through carefully, you may be able to come up with a solution that satisfies the Emperor’s pride.

     “I have already seen this in a vision,” Amara stated. “I know exactly what to do.”

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