Anilyia (33 page)

The horrible Rojuun tried to make her wear
those stupid robes and treated her as though
she
were the
servant. Anilyia was a princess, not a servant and made the Rojuun
serve her instead. Except that when no one was looking, they would
hurt her. Rojuun assigned to serve and protect her would squeeze
her arms until she cried. They insulted her and one had even tied
her down and cut her in places that would be covered by
clothes.

Anilyia still had nightmares about that
Rojuun . . .
feju.
Whenever she said the word it was an
insult. That one hated the princess and liked to make her suffer.
She would gag Anilyia’s mouth to muffle the screams then pretend
nothing had happened when others came. Yes, being a princess was
wonderful until it became hell.

Now she was being ‘rescued’. What a
wonderful word. The reality wasn’t so great. The reality was that
her rescuers consisted of a man with a sword that ate light, a
woman who shot blue fire out of her body, and a knight who somehow
managed to convey expressions through a helmet. There was something
wrong with all of them.

Worst of all was the evil dragon. Everyone
knew dragons loved to eat princesses. Anilyia glanced at him. He
was in human form now, but his teeth were bared and she was sure he
wanted to eat her. Anilyia knew she would taste yummy because
sweet, wonderful princesses like her tasted best to dragons. The
girl called Liselle and the dragon called Vevin were even bigger
nightmares than the Rojuun.

“Alright, let’s head out,” Tathan said. He
stood up from the rock and stretched. They had stopped to eat and
sleep in a cave with a tiny waterfall that flowed into a small
pond. The splashing water was peaceful and relaxing after their
long, exhausting escape. Liselle had told them about it and they
went away from tunnels leading to the surface to get to it. She
said they would be able to rest for the night without being
disturbed. Anilyia wondered how Liselle could know these things.
She also wondered what Liselle was, because no girl that she knew
spoke in a freaky, otherworldly voice and had eyes that turned into
blue fire.

Tathan led the way out of the cave, passing
through the skinny tunnel that was just big enough for one person
to fit through at a time if they turned sideways. He gestured for
the princess to follow him. Anilyia stood and walked to him
timidly, taking his strong hand. She was very happy that Sir Danth
came next so that she wouldn’t have to be next to one of the other
two.

Anilyia hadn’t said anything since the cave
where the evil Rojuun performed their horrible acts upon human
bodies. It all seemed like a hundred little bad dreams lumped
together to create one colossal nightmare.

A few times, the party had come across
Rojuun. Sometimes Liselle would hold them with magic or create
barriers. Tathan would knock out others with leaping blows to the
head. Sir Danth had tried to subdue a few but always seemed to kill
them instead. He was more powerful than any knight of her father’s
kingdom. He made the princess feel safe at times, but every once in
a while he scared her. There was something very dark and dangerous
about him and it bothered her that he never took his helmet off so
she could see his face.

Tathan led them into the hallway where they
had originally turned off to get to the hiding place. He tried to
release her hand, but she held onto it, not wanting to let go of
the only thing that felt real. He stopped to look at her with his
intense grey eyes. They were so deep that she thought she would
fall in and sink for eternity if she gazed into them for too long.
He smiled, and let her continue holding it.

Before sleeping, he had washed up in the
pond. Anilyia stared at him the entire time. A princess wasn’t
allowed to see men unless they were completely covered and it was
the first time in her life that she had seen a man’s bare chest.
Tathan was strong, with muscles everywhere although he wasn’t
bulky. A few scars marred the muscles, but they just made him all
that much more attractive. He was a man who lived life and faced
danger all the time, the sort of man bards sung about in court.

He led her down the hallway and a few
moments later, they reached a small cave with more passages. It was
hot and humid in this area. “Take the tunnel to the left,” Liselle
said from behind. “It leads to the northwest. More importantly, it
will start to travel up to the surface.” Anilyia glanced back.
Somehow, Liselle knew the way out of the tunnels. She had known the
way out since doing the cleansing back in that cavern. The ‘world’
spoke to her. As if Liselle weren’t scary enough with the fiery
eyes, now she was best friends with the entire world.

Tathan took that tunnel. Immediately, it
started to slant upward. There was no carpeting or wall decoration.
The light globes were gone, leaving only glowing plants to light
their way. Anilyia didn’t like this tunnel at all and moved closer
to Tathan, gripping his hand with both of hers.

He smiled at her again. It made her knees
feel a little weak, or maybe it was the incline. Tathan didn’t
smile a lot, but it was nice when he did, especially when aimed at
her. “We’re going to be alright, Your Highness,” Tathan reassured
her. “I know it’s scary here. Would you like some more light?” he
asked suddenly.

She nodded, not trusting words yet. Tathan
spoke an incantation and made a gesture with his right hand. The
magical wind rustled his hair, which she had an urge to run her
fingers through. A small orb of yellow light appeared, floating a
few feet above them near the ceiling. Anilyia’s jaw dropped. She
was certain he was a warrior, not a wizard, yet he cast magical
light with ease.

“Oh what a wonderful idea, Tathan!” Vevin
said behind them. A dozen purple light globes spread along the
ceiling of the tunnel for a hundred feet in either direction.
“There, now we can see much better.” Anilyia held on a little
tighter to Tathan’s hand. She looked back at Vevin who smiled
again. With those sharp teeth, it looked like he wanted to eat her.
She was certain he did. “Don’t worry, Your Highness. I’m not going
to eat you. I already made a promise that I wouldn’t,” he said
reassuringly.

Anilyia turned back around and got so close
to Tathan that he tripped over her feet, causing them both to
stumble. He managed to balance so they didn’t fall. Tathan held up
his hand for them all to stop. Then he looked at Anilyia and
sighed. “Princess, I promise you are safe with us. We’re here to
rescue you and take you home.” He ran his right hand through his
hair. She was still clutching his left tightly with both of
hers.

“I can see you’re terrified right now and
I’m sorry. All I ask is that you trust us for now and you’ll soon
discover yourself out of these caves,” he offered, smiling gently.
He had a salty, husky smell about him. “Then we’ll get through the
forest and you’ll see that it’s not so dangerous to us. Then we’ll
get to the Kingdom of Kethril, find a ship going south and work on
getting you back home.”

He kissed her softly on the forehead. It
felt as though lightning shot through her body at the touch of his
lips. She stared at him with mouth open. Nobody was allowed to
touch her, let alone put lips on her forehead. The boldness of this
man shocked . . . and pleased her all at once.

“Will you trust me, Princess?” he asked. She
thought for a moment before slowly nodding. Words just wouldn’t
pass her throat anymore. It was the longest she had gone without
speaking in her entire life. “Alright, let’s go. Just stay close
and we’ll be fine.”

***

Two hours later, the tunnel seemed as though
it would never end. It still continued up, which was great for
getting out of the ground, but terrible for her legs. She hoped
they would take a break soon. From behind, Vevin warned, “There’s a
cave up ahead and I hear a bunch of Rojuun in it.”

“Thanks,” Tathan replied with a look over
his shoulder.

Liselle said, “Tathan, if it does come down
to a fight, don’t risk our lives to save theirs. That goes for you
too, Sir Danth.”

The knight exhaled in relief. “Thank you,
Milady. I’m not very good at letting people live. I have made a
true effort.”

“I know. It’s alright,” she told him with a
smile.

Anilyia wondered if Liselle were actually a
lady. She certainly didn’t act like one. Anilyia would have said
something if she wasn’t afraid of being roasted by blue fire. Girls
who weren’t born of nobility shouldn’t be called ‘milady’.

“Princess, I want you to stay behind me
while we’re fighting. I’ll keep you safe,” Tathan said to her. She
nodded and squeezed his hand. “I’m also going to need you to let go
of that hand so I can use it.”

She looked down at the hand. Her palms and
his were sweaty, which was gross, but she didn’t even care a little
bit about that right now. Anilyia looked into his gorgeous eyes and
shook her head no. Tathan stared at her for a moment as they
continued walking up the tunnel, then he sighed. He seemed to sigh
a lot. She thought it was an attractive quality and liked to stare
at the rise and fall of his chest when he did.

Vevin’s purple lights started going ‘poof’
one at a time until they were all gone. He and Liselle were
giggling madly while Tathan and Sir Danth laughed quietly. Anilyia
didn’t see the humor in it. The hall had become darker and it
struck her as absurd that the light balls went ‘poof’. Tathan waved
his hand at the one he had created and it went ‘poof’ too, causing
a new round of laughter.

He saw her frown and smiled down at her
again. “We have to extinguish the lights so that they don’t see us
coming,” he told her.

“They’re going to hear the laughter though .
. . why
are
you laughing?” she asked in puzzlement.

“It’s a long explanation; something to do
with the word ‘poof’ and making things disappear.”

“Oh. It just seems . . . silly, that’s all,”
she informed him seriously.

“It is silly, but sometimes the silly things
help alleviate the darkness and the scary parts of adventuring,”
Tathan clarified.

It was a good enough explanation for her and
she leaned her cheek against his strong, muscular arm. Tathan
didn’t look big, but the muscles felt amazing through the shirt and
jacket he wore. She wondered if he would be willing to take them
off. It was warm in the tunnel. She was warm at the moment, warm
all over. Anilyia sighed contentedly.

The thought occurred to her that she was
supposed to be getting married. Most princesses were married by the
age of fourteen or fifteen, a few as young as nine. She shuddered
to think about how horrible that would have been. Her father and
mother had three sons, but she was the only daughter. If there had
been more daughters, they would have been married off to various
lords and nobles in exchange for political favors or influence.

Her betrothed, Prince Albrato of Brindlyn
was handsome enough. He was skilled with a blade and knew which
fork to use at the table. Anilyia had met him three times at
heavily guarded diplomatic meetings. His laugh was as fake as his
smile, which suited her just fine. He was everything a prince was
supposed to be, just as she was everything a princess was supposed
to be.

Their kingdoms hadn’t gotten along for
centuries and the marriage was supposed to bring peace. However,
both of their fathers kept haggling over who was going to pay for
what, what sort of gifts were going to be given, where the location
of the wedding was going to be, which season to have it in, what
priest was going to preside and a thousand other details. The
wedding that was supposed to take place five years ago still hadn’t
happened. Anilyia was twenty years of age now and was starting to
get worried about becoming an old woman unable to bear
children.

Tathan stopped, breaking her reverie. There
was a cave ahead that echoed with the voices of Rojuun. Tathan
moved forward then stopped when she didn’t let go of his hand. He
sighed yet again. Anilyia smiled apologetically at him. There was
simply no way she was letting go.

“Let me go ahead. I shall clear the cave and
remove any danger,” Sir Danth stated. At a nod from Tathan, he
moved to the end of the passage. It struck Anilyia that the knight
didn’t make any noise. There was definitely something off about
him. That much metal should clank and echo through the tight caves
and tunnels. She also observed that he deferred to Tathan. How in
the world did this man next to her inspire the loyalty of a knight,
an evil dragon, and a witch-woman?

Sir Danth made it to the end of the tunnel
and disappeared. He didn’t turn in either direction. He just wasn’t
there anymore. A scream came from the cave, then numerous screams.
Rojuun certainly did scream a lot. It was very unpleasant,
especially since they had two of those whiney voices and sometimes
even three if they were very upset.

Liselle and Vevin dashed ahead. Anilyia
leaned into Tathan to let them by. Tathan led her to the cave as
well. She moved as fast as her little feet would go. Tathan took
her to the right as soon as they left the tunnel.

Sir Danth killed one of the Rojuun and then
shifted next to another, slaying it as well. The Rojuun he was
dispatching were in uniform. Not all of the inhabitants were
warriors and the ones that weren’t ran screaming into other
tunnels. The knight appeared in front of another warrior, swinging
the sword high at the feju’s neck. The sword stopped just before it
cut into the neck after the warrior dropped her knives and began
crying in fear.

Anilyia had no respect for Rojuun. They were
cowards who ran at the slightest hint of danger. Only three Rojuun
were left in the cave. The other two had attempted to cast a spell
at the knight, but Liselle threw her holding spell and they were
frozen mid-casting.