Candescent (The Opalescent Collection Book 1) (13 page)

“Then I am leaving.”

My father gazed up at me, wiped his hands on his pants. He rested on his back and closed his eyes. “I suggest you get some sleep.”

The next morning I set out with Minx to find Sebastian. No one knew that I had gone, not even my father or Pete, who were asleep. I told Minx that we were going to show ourselves to Sebastian and allow him to capture us. I wasn’t prepared to stay with them for too long, even though I knew I would have to make myself comfortable in order to get Sebastian to trust me. All I needed was to get away from his army so we could attack without anyone knowing. With my plan in mind, I held onto Minx as he flew. I then saw his resting army beside the campfires.

“Minx, land now. We don’t want to look like we’re attacking them.”

Minx landed in the brush and I dismounted quietly. It was early enough for them to still be asleep, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some of them were already awake, preparing for travel. For a moment, I watched their camp to find them all asleep. If I could find Sebastian now it would save me from an attack. Before I could move from the brush, I found a sword to my throat.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”

“I need to speak with Sebastian.”

“I can arrange that.”

The figure wore a mask, which didn’t surprise me. Most of his army members wore masks. Their identity was known by those they chose to tell. He bound my wrists together in chains and even chained Minx’s wings and mouth. Minx would not fight him, since I had ordered him not to.

The figure led me out of the woods to the camp. He took me to a dragon, whose wings served as a tent to shelter Sebastian. The dragon raised its head, growling in Minx’s direction, but Sebastian calmly walked out from behind his dragon’s wing.

“No Marzipanne.” His dragon took a step back and ceased her growling. Sebastian looked me over. “And what do we have here?”

“I found her lurking outside of the camp. She claimed she wanted to speak with you.” The masked figure said.

“Thank you. You can leave now.” Once he left, Sebastian’s golden eyes rested back on me.

“Sebastian I can’t take it. I can’t take it from any of them. I thought they accepted me. I just had to get away.” I hung my head. “If only you could see what they did to me. I’m sure I would have been killed by them.”

              I heard shouts and at once, the dead quiet was alive with commotion. Creatures came to gather around Sebastian. Before I could continue my tale of woe, he pushed me behind his dragon’s wing and ordered Minx into the brush. “Be quiet and stay under my dragon’s wing. Make sure no one sees you.”

              I did as I was told, listening as the creatures packed their things and got ready to travel.  Even before the sun was up, we were moving. I walked beside Marzipanne and kept my eye out for Minx who followed beside us, hidden by the woods. Sebastian led his army deeper into the woods and I was sure we were heading for the Frozen Waterfalls.

              By midmorning, Sebastian ordered us to rest. I sat exhausted, for I had not slept or rested at all. Sebastian quickly hid behind his dragon’s wing and looked at me.

“You know I don’t trust you. If you try anything funny, I will show you before my army. I can only wonder what they’d do if they knew you were here.”

              I tilted my head up to face him. “Thank you for sparing me. I know you still feel for me. After all, you did want to marry me.”

“I only wanted to marry you because you were my only choice. No one else accepted me, and even to my parents a married man has more wealth and honor than one who doesn’t. Who could ever want the Prince of Light after all that’s been said about me? No one would even look in my direction, even after frivolous attempts by my brother to find someone for me. I was almost sure my life would turn around if I got married, but before I could even find you, you were killed. How much disgrace has befallen me over the years?” He turned his face away sharply. “And you want me to believe you now?”

“I thought things would be good. I thought Pete and my family all changed after my death and now they won’t help me. Instead of protecting my palace for me, they all ran away. They would have made me a sacrifice to you if I didn’t escape.”

His eyes moved back to me. “You are not my problem. Ever since you died, my parents constantly told me that you were not an immortal princess worthy of my marriage and still found disgrace in me, even though I was trying to please them. It didn’t matter if you were a princess or even the Queen. It wasn’t about you. It had always been about
me
.”

I found his hands were balled into fists. “Then why are you seeking revenge on us? Shouldn’t you be angry with your parents?”

“I am angry with anyone who doesn’t accept me, not just my parents. You and Pete obviously don’t accept me because you saved him even after he went through a Trial. The two of you performed the Ceremony and it seems you favored him even though he killed you. Can’t you even imagine what I feel?”

“I made a mistake Sebastian. You don’t understand everything behind reincarnation. It takes a while before things make sense again and by the time you realize what you’ve done, you may have made many mistakes.”

He appeared thoughtful and listened intently to what I told him. His eyes became soft. “And after all of this you want me to believe that you came back for me.” As he said this, he reached out a hand as if to touch me, when it became a fist and he withdrew it back. He quickly walked out from behind his dragon’s wing.

He started up orders again, commanding us to move. We would have to wait until noon or later for another rest. The cold dug into my skin and any wind that reached me from behind the dragon’s wing chilled me. I would have been better off if I could clutch my cape in my hands from the cold, if only my hands weren’t bound behind my back. The wind soon picked up and clouds rolled overhead, foreshadowing the forecast for another day.

I could hear the chatter from the creatures behind my leathery wing barrier. I quickly caught on to their conversations. They all complained about something, keeping their distance from Sebastian who still led them. I walked until my feet ached from my dainty dress shoes. I cursed my outfit, my beautiful white dress shirt and fitted pants that were all but warm beneath a cotton cape. My hands were becoming cracked from the cold and my tired eyes became dry and irritated. I looked to see the sun was at its peak, only to assume it was nearly midday. I wondered what we would eat and if I would even be fed because I was a captive. I wondered if Sebastian could summon enough trust to unchain my dragon’s mouth so he could hunt.

“We can stop to rest now. Don’t unpack your things. We have a long way to go before we reach the Falls. We can only allow a few minutes of rest or we will never reach them before sunset. We won’t eat until we set up camp, which will hopefully be in a few hours,” Sebastian called.

Marzipanne stopped to lay and rest. I knew her wing ached from keeping it in such an awkward position to keep me hidden. I sat down beside her and waited for Sebastian to return to me, but instead I was left alone to rest. I wished I could rest against Marzipanne, but she was not my dragon and would never have permitted me to do so. I sank back, feeling comfortable and closed my eyes. I managed to take a nap before Marzipanne’s wing nudged me awake and I was forced to move again.

I braced myself against the wind as Sebastian urged us to. He urged us on even in defeat with the wind in our faces. We had no choice but to go head-on. By the time the wind calmed, we were all dragging our feet and several creatures refused to go on.

“We are at the Frozen Waterfalls. Just follow me, be cautious. We will set up camp as soon as I inspect the water.”

He went to inspect the Frozen Pool and even went to the hidden cave where Taj’ and his sons had lived. After several minutes, he returned to the pool and stood before his army again.

“The snakes and the mermaids that could read their pool and see the future have all left. They left before I had the chance to see the future.”

“Why do you need to know about the future?”

Every muscle in my body grew tense upon hearing Prusaious’s voice.

“Seeing the future could help us avoid future attacks.” He shook his head. “No matter. We’ll just have to set up camp. You can all find shelter out here. I am taking the cave for the night. You may hunt now. Marzipanne, come with me.”

All of the creatures disbursed. I walked beside Marzipanne into the cave. It was warm and for once I was grateful to be his captive. “Go and hunt Marzipanne.” He turned to me. “You can come with me. Call your dragon.”

I walked to the cave entrance and only had to whisper his name and Minx came bounding from the woods to be at my side. He pressed his cold nose to the side of my face to greet me since he couldn’t speak.

When I returned to Sebastian, I saw his abject face as he rubbed his hands together. My torpid steps made imprints in the dirt.

“Sebastian, can you let my hair down? It’s too cold for it to be up.”

He took a step into my space to grab the clip from my hair. He looked down at the clip, rolled it around in his hands and chucked it to the side carelessly.

“Can you take the chain off my dragon’s mouth so he can hunt?”

He looked over my dragon and then back to me, his face filled with amusement.

“You know, for a captive you do an awful lot of demanding.”

As he said this, he broke the chain from Minx’s mouth and sent him off to hunt. When he was gone, Sebastian turned and gathered a few sticks outside of the cave to make a fire. He brought the sticks to the back of the cave where an old wood-burning stove stood tall against the wall. He piled in the sticks and effortlessly made a fire without assistance from a dragon.

When he was finished, the fire roared as though it was alive and cast light and heat into the cave. Sebastian freed my hands, but kept the chain handy at his belt beside his sword. Before I could take a seat, I heard the roaring of dragons and loud perpetual screams. I ran from the cave into the open, no longer hidden from the frozen falls.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s Minx and Marzipanne. They are fighting.”

“I doubt it. They’re probably playing or showing dominance.”

              I watched as they gawked and hissed until Marzipanne reared up onto her back legs, flapping her wings and striking down at Minx with her claws.

“Minx!”

              The moment I screamed for him I heard Sebastian’s army gather to see the dragons fight and at once realized that I was there. Desperately I ran to my dragon to seek protection from the army that now knew who I was, not seeing that I was in fact a captive and not an intruder. I ran across the frozen pool and slipped on ice, causing my foot to attempt to catch my unbalanced body, but it got snagged on tangled brush and tree roots. I was sent downhill as soon as I landed on my knee and heard a deafening crack.

              I heard the army coming closer, charging downhill after me. Minx turned, hit Marzipanne with his tail and gathered me from the tangled brush where I laid. Marzipanne struck Minx’s face and he recoiled, sending me back down into the brush. Their cries echoed off the Frozen Waterfalls, sending a warning to anyone who came too close. Their bodies collided and their scales harshly clashed together like armor. Marzipanne rose up again, launched at Minx’s vulnerable chained wings. He pressed his body to the ground as she tried to strike him. From the corner of my eye, I watched her frost-colored shadow blur past him and she took flight, blasting him with an icy flame.

              I had seen this before. Marzipanne was the same breed of dragon as Moonscale, who was also capable of breathing out icy flames. Stunned, Minx jumped back, nearly landing on me. The dry ice coated his scales, burning his exposed, patchy skin that was still growing back. She raked her claws into his exposed skin, a perfect target. He struggled beneath the weight of the chains and tried to open his wings to break them loose. His struggling only gave Marzipanne an advantage as she let out a series of aerial attacks. She pursued her aerial attacks until I was sure Minx had enough and that he was defeated.

              I looked away, my gaze settling on my injured leg. My pants were torn, twigs and brambles stuck out from every angle. My leg was bloody from scratches, but I knew that was the least of my problems. I could not feel pain in my leg, no, it was not pain. This was torture. Agony caused my leg to swell and sit like a rock in the middle of the brush. I knew it must be broken. I began to panic, the image of my gross injury filling my head, making me sick to my stomach. I turned my head to meet my dragon’s gaze as he started to feel my shock, my sickness, and thrived on what I felt. He turned to Marzipanne, his wings broke the chains and he sent her down as he blocked an aerial attack. He took flight, was after her in an instant, still feeling my pain.

              He couldn’t stop to help me or else he would have risked me getting hurt by Marzipanne. I could only wait for Sebastian to come and silence his dragon, but I knew he was probably caught up in the crowd, convincing his army not to attack. I continued to wait, my eyes never daring to move back to the injury that would have made me pass out. I turned my attention to the dragons and Marzipanne flicked her tongue out to speak.