Behind The Wooden Door (12 page)

He grabbed Tristan from behind and forced him out of the room. I could see Tristan’s lips moving, but no one heard him over the thunderous cheering and applause.

“NO!” I screamed. “I will not marry him!”

A sudden pain stung my face as my body hit the ground. My father’s steel boot collided with my rib cage and knocked the breath from me. His foot reared back again, but Artair placed a hand on my father’s shoulder to stop him from kicking me a second time.

“Uncle, you could not expect her to take the news as joyously as we did. She is surely just in shock,” Artair said.

His grey eyes were full of sympathy as he stared down at me. I did not need his pity though, nor did I want it. I only wanted as far away from here as I could get. “Let her have a good night’s rest, and I’m sure she will feel differently in the morning.”

One of my nurses ran from the dance floor and helped me to my feet. She wrapped her arm around my shoulder and walked me past my father and Artair.

“Come, Lanie, I’ll take you to your room,” she said.

Warm tears fell down my face as we walked down the steps and through the crowd. No one said anything as the two of us made our way through the ballroom. They simply parted to allow us room to get out.

Once outside, I pushed her away from me. “Go back inside. I’m fine.”  My voice was lifeless.

She hesitated for only a moment before going back to the festivities.

The cold night air was bitter and did nothing to help my throbbing side. I made my way to Tristan as quickly as I could. We had to leave.

Despite the cold and their stares, the soldiers made no move to go near the three people by the fire. Cormac stood over Tristan as if afraid his cousin would go mad and kill everyone.

Cormac took his eyes away from Tristan and looked into mine. A large bruise was starting to form around his left eye, but he still managed to smile. Tommy stood quickly and looked from Tristan, to Cormac, then to me. Tristan sat on the ground and stared into the flames of the fire. He never looked up.

“Are you alright, M’lady?” Cormac asked.

I nodded. “Are you?”

He let out a small laugh. “Aye, merely a bruise.”

I smiled and moved closer to Tristan. He kept his eyes on the fire even when I sat down beside him. I heard Cormac and the others leave, but I had a feeling they didn’t go far.

“You ever seen someone burn to death?” Tristan asked. “I only have once. In my dream
s, I sometimes still hear his screams and see his skin melting off of his body. I was ten years old…I told myself I would never wish that on anyone. That no one deserved it…I was wrong.”

I tried to imagine Tristan as a child. His blonde hair uncut and falling into his green eyes. His life not scarred by war but still plagued by death.

Tristan slid his arm around me and kissed my cheek.

“Pack your things as soon as you can. The men are leaving in a few days, but I hope for us to still be gone by tomorrow night,” he said. He forced a smile and continued, “I’m sorry, Lanie, but it looks like you’re going to have to be my runaway whore.”

I went quickly through the night to my room. I didn’t care that my side throbbed or my face burned. I was leaving forever with Tristan. I packed a small bag quickly and stored it under my bed. As soon as Tristan came to my room the next night, I wanted to be ready. I was ready to find a new home with my soldier even if it meant sharing him with battlefields.

I combed my hair and observed my face in the mirror. My cheekbone had begun to turn a nasty purple. I was glad the darkness hid the bruise from Tristan. It was only one more thing that would set him off. He needed to stay calm until we left. Tomorrow night everything would be perfect. Tristan and I would be on a ship heading to God only knew where, and my father would never find us. Twenty-four hours and I would be free.

I suppressed a yawn as I climbed into bed. Tomorrow would be perfect, and this night was the only thing that kept me from it.

CHAPTER 16

Tristan’s voice bled into my dreams.

“Lanie… Lanie wake up,” he whispered.

He sat on my bed and shook me gently. I realized that he wasn’t a dream. He was really here.
We’re leaving tonight,
I thought as I sat up. I kissed his lips and tasted blood. He was hurt. I pulled away from him quickly.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

I reached over to light the candle, but he stopped me.

“I’m fine,” he said and kissed me again. It was a long, hungry kiss. “Something’s come up, and I’m going to have to leave tonight. But where I am going…you can’t come. It has to be just me.”

A thousand bricks fell into the pit of my stomach. “You’re leaving me here…”

My tears came too quickly. How could he be that selfish? The one person I had ever truly loved was leaving me. The person who was going to save me and be my forever would be gone by daybreak. He wiped the tears from my face and wrapped his arms around me. I could smell the blood on him. What had happened while I slept?

“Cormac or Tommy one will explain everything to you in the morning, and if you still want to leave, go with them,” he said.

“When will you be joining us?” I asked.

Silence. I didn’t like this. What could be more important than us being together? He wanted me to go with him…he said so.

“We’ll be together again, I promise. This isn’t goodbye. But you can’t come with me tonight. You’ll understand in the morning.”

Fear rose in my chest as he stood from the bed and walked to the door. I got up to follow him, but he stopped me.

“Go back to sleep, please,” he begged.

He kissed me once more.

“I love you, Lanie. Remember that for me, okay? I want you to remind yourself every single day that I love you,” he said. “And I swear to you, no matter what, I will find you again. It may be a while, but I swear, we will be together.”

His voice shook when he spoke. I could almost see his crooked smile and hear his fingers glide through his hair like they had every day since I had met him.

“I love you too,” I said.

He wiped my tears away and kissed me one last time before exiting my room. The door closed and I was alone. The darkness was thicker than it had been. Something terrible was happening. Something was wrong with Tristan, and I had to know what it was.  I couldn’t wait until morning.

The corridor was eerily silent as I tiptoed through the darkness. I looked out one of the windows and even the stars had disappeared. Dark clouds filled the sky, and the wind had a thick, stormy feeling to it.

A voice penetrated the unnerving darkness.

It was Tommy. His voice was strained like he was fighting back tears. He was pleading with someone. I moved closer to where his voice was coming from. I peered around the corner and saw Tommy and Tristan standing alone.

“You don’t need me anymore, Tommy,” Tristan said. “You know why I have to do this. I don’t have a choice.”

“Leave,” Tommy said through clenched teeth. “Just run away and hide. They won’t search for you forever. Please…
please
, don’t go through with this. We’ve already lost Hawk. I can’t lose you too,” he begged.

What were they talking about? Tristan was just going away for a little while, but he was going to find Tommy and me later. He swore to me we were going to be together.

Tristan shook his head.

He held his head high and turned away from his brother. His steps echoed throughout the hallway as he tried to hurry away from Tommy.

“Tristan, please!”

“Tommy, you heard what they said! If I don’t go through with this, they’ll kill you. They’ll kill me. And they’ll kill her! If we just leave, they will search until the end of the world to find us and kill us then. Any way you look at this, I am going to die,” Tristan said. “It’s me or all three of us.”

My body shook. He couldn’t die. He was Tristan Aissur.

Cornelia’s raspy voice swam through my head. ‘There will be great agony for you as you die for the greater good.’

“Keep the men in shape. They’re going to need a new leader,” Tristan told his brother. Tommy cried into Tristan’s shirt, but Tristan continued to talk anyway. “They need you now, Tommy. It’s like I told Lanie…this isn’t goodbye. I’ll see you again, little brother.”

I couldn’t let him die for me. Too many people had died for me and my kingdom already, but this was personal. This was Tristan. My Tristan.

“You can’t do this.” My voice came out as a small whisper.

Tristan looked away from his brother, and all the sadness in the world laid within his green eyes. Tommy’s eyes held only a cruel accusation. I couldn’t hold their stares.

That’s when I saw it. The large wooden door from my dream stood directly behind Tristan. Its large iron hinges were nothing but rust, and the wood on the door was peeling. And there was Tristan in all black.

“Lanie, I told you to go back to sleep,” he said.

“Why are you doing this?” I cried.

I had only seen that door once before. Ten years ago, I walked with my mother down here. She told me she had to talk to my father, and I never saw her again. It was only years later that I discovered it was the execution chamber.

“Someone found out, Lanie. Your father knows about us,” Tristan told me. He pulled away from his brother and walked toward me. “Your father came to my tent with his guards and half the men in your kingdom. He knew I would do anything to keep Tommy safe. Even die. He was going to kill you and me both, but I reminded him he needs you to keep peace.”

So Tristan was going in my place. My father was going to make sure we couldn’t be together. But there had to be a way around this. This couldn’t be real. It was all just a very horrible dream, and in the morning, the real Tristan would be boarding a ship with me.

“Lanie…” His voice was heavy as if he too were fighting back tears.

“We can leave, Tristan,” I said as fresh tears spilled over my eyelashes.

“Then we’ll both die. I have to go, Lanie.” He smiled and kissed my forehead. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

He held my gaze for only a moment before turning his back on me. He placed both hands on Tommy’s shoulders. “You can do this, Tommy. Ahck nosh ah sonten. Ahck wilnt revern zaunt.”

“Ahck wilnt revern zaush,” Tommy choked the last line of the soldier creed back to his brother.

Tristan took one last shaky breath before placing his hand on the iron doorknob that lead to his demise. He looked back at Tommy and me once more. “Remember…this isn’t the end. We
will
be together again.”

How could he even say that to us while he opened the door to his death? He ran his fingers through his hair and disappeared behind the wooden door.

Tommy and I stood alone. The two people who loved Tristan the most had to stand in front of the giant wooden door of the execution chamber. My own father had sentenced a man to death just for loving me.

Maybe I could persuade my father to let Tristan live if I promised not to leave, or maybe I could persuade him to kill me too.

One step forward, then two.

Tommy didn’t try to stop me. He stood petrified as if he w
ere a statue. His eyes burned into my back. Hate, blame, sadness, agony. It was like his eyes willed all this into me. I had to try to end this insanity.

One turn of the doorknob. I was in.

Everything inside the execution chamber was metal. The tables, the chairs, the torture instruments. All metal. Cornelia was right; my heart was going to die in a room full of metal.

The executioner stood beside the largest of the tables. His waxy skin stretched tightly around his bones.  He could have been a true person of death coming back from the grave to create terrible carnage. There seemed to be no way physically possible for him to lift an axe to kill anyone.

My father’s voice rang out and echoed off the stone walls.

“Aissur, you have committed a great crime against Rattonim. You have brainwashed my daughter into believing your lies and wishes. Your time has come to an end in this world. Do you have any last words?”

Tristan said nothing. He stood perfectly still and stared ahead at my father. He was ready to die for me…for the greater good. This was insane. Cornelia had predicted our futures exactly as they were. But I had to stop fate from happening.

“Father, stop this madness! Tristan hasn’t done anything you have accused him of! I am the guilty one, not him!” I cried.

My father face contorted with rage, but before he had time to say anything, Tristan spoke.

“Lanie, get out of here! Forget about this, forget about me, and forget about us. There’s nothing you can do to help me!”

The desperation in his voice almost made me turn around and leave, but I couldn’t until I knew he was leaving with me. I looked away from him and walked toward my father’s throne.

“Father,
please
, let him go,” I begged.

“You ungrateful little swine; I am allowing you a chance to live!” my father yelled. “I have given you everything in this world, and this is how you repay me? Tell me why I shouldn’t execute you with him? Just like I did your whore of a mother when she tried to leave with that damned blacksmith. You’re just like her!”