Mercenary Little Death Bringer (13 page)

“Marin!” Mother yelled as she ran down the
hallway with her dress in her hands so she wouldn’t trip over it.
She looked like she was floating and her face looked as angelic as
ever. How I envied her beauty. She wrapped me up in a hug and
immediately started crying. “I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.
Please don’t be mad at me.”

I hugged her and patted her back
reassuringly. “I’m not mad at you, Mother. I forgive you.”

She pulled back and then gave me the mother
glare. “Don’t you ever run out onto the battlefield without Favian
beside you again! Do you understand me?!”

I giggled and nodded my head. “I
promise.”

She smiled. “Good, now let’s go eat
dinner.”

“You didn’t happen to grab some meat for me,
did you? I’m starving,” I said as we walked and I rubbed my
growling stomach.

“No, but we can pick some up on the way to
school,” Favian said, “I saw you eyeing the shop on the way in last
week.”

“I try not to complain when I’m here and most
of the time I’m fine, but I am really craving meat right now,” I
said as we headed into the dining hall.

“No more talk about that,” Mother chastised
me, “Now you must act like a lady,” She looked at my dirty pants
and shirt and said, “Since you cannot look like one at the
moment.”

We stepped into the hall with Favian and me
giggling to be bombarded by Amile as she shoved me out of the way
to fawn over Favian. “Are you alright? I heard you battled the
ogres yesterday. Were you injured?” she asked.

My fists clenched at my sides and I was ready
to punch her when Father put his arm around my shoulders and
steered me away from them. “You look thirsty, are you thirsty?”

“I’m irritated,” I said, “Though I’m not sure
why.”

He laughed. “I’m sure you will figure it out
soon. You are a very smart girl.”

Favian detached himself from Amile’s claws
and took his seat next to mine. “The chef went all out!” he said
happily as he surveyed the banquet on the table.

I looked at the new bracelet on his wrist and
bit my lip. I did not want to make a scene like I’d done last time.
Besides, why should I care if he received gifts from his subjects?
Weren’t the royals supposed to be given gifts? At least he was
still wearing my necklace.

“Yes, it seems so,” I replied.

We ate our food and talked about anything not
dealing with the Academy or the ogre attack and I actually enjoyed
myself quite a bit. I truly had forgiven everyone for the hostage
situation and knew they had only done it out of love despite my
mood initially. It was strange how feelings could change so
quickly.

I had just finished my food when Maddock, a
close friend of mine and Favian’s and a very handsome elf, said my
name softly to get my attention. He was one of the few elves with
blonde hair instead of silver and also one of the few with arm
muscles.

I stood up and curtsied to him, playing the
lady as Mother would have wanted me to. “Maddock, what brings you
to my side?” I asked with a smile.

“Would you take a walk with me?” he asked,
“I’d like to speak with you.”

I looked at Mother who nodded her head
happily. “Of course,” I said.

“It’s not safe for her to be alone,” Favian
said as he stood up with an irritated look on his face.

“She is not alone,” Mother said, “Maddock is
with her. I’m sure he would protect her if need be?”

Maddock bowed, “Of course, Queen Amadis.”

She nodded her head. “Then please be on your
way.”

“Mother,” Favian began.

She shushed him. “Sit down and finish your
food.”

Maddock extended his bent elbow to me and I
set my hand on it, letting him lead me from the dining hall. “I’m
very happy to see that you are well,” he said as we walked down the
hallway. “I heard you fought very hard yesterday.”

“That’s what I hear as well,” I said with a
smile. He opened the back door and we walked out into Mother’s rose
garden. “What has brought your urgent attention to me this night?”
I asked him. It wasn’t rare for him to visit me to go on rides or
spar, but he had never visited me like this before.

He stopped at the stone bench in the center
and we sat down on it. The roses were in full bloom all year long
thanks to Mother’s magic and the reds and yellows were bright even
in the darkness. “I came to be sure you were alright and to speak
to you before you left for the Academy again,” he said.

“Thank you for your concern. I am feeling
very well.”

He turned to face me and said, “I wanted to
give you a token of my friendship.” He pulled out a shell necklace
and set it in my hands. “I know you aren’t technically royalty, but
I hope that you will still accept this as my friend. I worry for
your safety and hope that maybe this will assist you someday in the
future.”

“It’s very beautiful,” I said sincerely.

“If you whisper the Elven word for fire, it
will light anything touching it on fire, except you of course.”

I stared at the shell necklace in disbelief.
“Really?”

He nodded his head. “Yes, I’ll show you.”

He put the necklace on his own neck and then
picked up a yellow flower petal from the ground, wrapping it around
the necklace. “Fira.”

The petal burst into flame and drifted away
from him to settle on the ground in a charred little piece. He took
the necklace off and I was shocked to see no burn marks on his
throat. “That is truly amazing,” I said in astonishment.

He smiled. “So you’ll accept it?”

I smiled. “I would have accepted it if it had
been a simple shell necklace, Maddock. You have been a good friend
to me and I truly appreciate it. Not everyone would take to a human
living amongst the elves.”

He tied the necklace around my neck and shook
his head. “I would fight each and every one of them if I
could.”

I laughed at the inside joke. We had all been
fighting various elves over that issue for as long as I could
remember. “Remember when I fought the older girl and she ran to
Amadis crying about her muddy dress only to have Amadis punish her
for being cruel to me?” I asked him.

Maddock laughed. “Yes, that was very
entertaining watching you knock her into the mud puddle and then
throw mud on her face.”

“I’m sorry I am gone so long at school, but
soon it’ll be over.”

He shrugged. “And then you and Favian will be
out on missions as mercenaries.”

“I’ll visit often,” I promised him and then
punched his arm playfully. “Who else will be here to put you in
your proper place?”

He laughed and then hugged me quickly. “You
are a good person, Marin. Don’t ever forget that.”

I wasn’t sure why he had said that, but I
smiled back at him and then stood up. “I should get to bed and
ensure everything is packed for the trip tomorrow. Thank you again
for the necklace.”

He bowed to me and then kissed the back of my
hand formerly. “Good night, Princess Marin.”

I frowned at him. “I am not the princess.
Stop that.”

He smiled. “In my eyes you’ve always been a
princess.” With my face stuck on dumb, he left the garden and left
me to stand in utter disbelief. Had he just flirted with me? Surely
I had misinterpreted that. Surely he only meant it because I was
raised with Favian in the castle by the king and queen, right?
Right.

I walked into the castle and found Favian
pacing up and down the hall. He spotted me and hurried over. “What
happened? What did he want?” His eyes found the necklace and he
asked, “Did he give you that? Did you accept it? Why are you
wearing it?”

I ignored all of his questions, looked down
at his wrist and said, “Amile must truly like you to have made a
replacement piece so quickly for you.” He looked at the bracelet
and then sighed. I patted his shoulder. “You know Maddock and I are
friends. You two are best friends, Favian. He gave me a gift to
protect me, that’s all.”

“What does it do?” he asked curiously as he
followed me down the hallway.

“If you are so curious, go ask him.”

Favian turned me around and asked, “Did he
ask to court you?”

I laughed so hard that I began crying as the
ridiculous notion was hilarious to me. “Favian, you are very
comical. Of course not. He simply gave me a gift as a friend.” I
looked at his bracelet. “Wait, is that why she gave you that? Are
you courting her?”

He glared at me. “Of course I’m not courting
her.” He leaned forward and whispered, “Have you seen her face? She
is homely.”

I smiled. “Oh, so she’s courting you?!”

He glared harder at me. “No.”

I shrugged and continued to smile at him.
“Whatever. I don’t care. Good night, Favian. I’ll see you and the
horses in the morning.” I jogged up to my room and grabbed clothes
to change into and then hurried to the bathing room.

The maid who worked in the bathing room was a
female elf about my age and she and I had been good friends, at
least as good of friends as I could be with a female that I rarely
saw. She smiled at me when I came in and said, “I knew you’d be
coming for a bath. I could smell your stench from here.”

I laughed. “If you knew then you should have
had my bath all ready,” I teased back.

“You’re too dirty for a bath as usual. To the
stones with you,” she ordered.

I stripped my dirty clothes off and tossed
them onto the floor in the corner. She always washed my clothes for
me and returned them to my bed afterwards. I walked down the tile
floor to the stone area where she splashed warm water on me and
then used a hard sponge to scrub at the ogre blood staining my
body.

“One of these days I’d appreciate it if you
came to me unstained,” she muttered.

“If I weren’t stained there would be no
reason to come here.”

She laughed. “Maybe you’d just like to smell
nice for a certain boy.”

I scoffed. “Boys smell just as dirty as me.
Why should I clean myself when they don’t?”

“Because ladies aren’t supposed to smell like
boys,” she said in a very good imitation of Mother.

“Well I’m not a lady.”

She laughed loudly. “I’m well aware of
that.”

After scrubbing my body and hair clean she
poured a bucket of warm water over my head to rinse off the rest of
the dirt and soap. I sighed happily. “That’s my favorite part of
this whole visit.”

“Being clean?” she asked.

“Having the water dumped on my head.”

She smiled. “I’ll be sure to tell Prince
Favian you like it. I’m sure he’d be more than willing to do it for
you.”

I gaped at her. “You wouldn’t dare?”

She shrugged. “Perhaps.”

“You know if you told him that, he would dump
water on me every chance he got.”

She smiled. “I would love to watch it.”

“You’re cruel,” I said sarcastically.

“Go on to bed. You’ve got a long journey
ahead of you. Plus you’ll be baked in dirt before you make it to
school so all of my work is for naught.”

“It makes me feel better so it’s not for
nothing,” I assured her as I dried off and put my fresh clothes
on.

“Be safe,” she said to me as I walked
out.

“You as well,” I told her before jogging down
the hallway and up the stairs to my room. I crawled into my soft
bed and warm covers and wished I could always have such niceties.
That dungeon floor had not been comfortable.

Perhaps tomorrow I would complain to Favian
about not at least bringing me a pillow, while he’d held me
prisoner. I closed my eyes and tried to remember what had happened
the day before. It bothered me that I couldn’t remember fighting
all of the ogres. Had I been in some kind of trance? Or had
something possessed my body? Surely I would know if I was
possessed, right?

If I had been possessed it would have made
more sense for me to attack the elves as opposed to the ogres
though. So that ruled out possession. Unless it was some part of me
I always carried within me, but that didn’t make sense because I’d
fought ogres before and never lost control of myself and forgotten
what had happened.

It was all very suspect and I hoped to one
day discover the truth of what had happened. Thinking on it would
only upset me and keep me awake longer. I closed my eyes and willed
myself to sleep, but I couldn’t. I’d slept so much the past few
days that I wasn’t tired. I was just getting ready to sneak out of
my room when someone knocked on it quietly.

I walked to the door and opened it, surprised
to find Favian. “What’s up?” I asked him quietly so we wouldn’t
disturb anyone else.

He stepped into my room and shut the door
behind him. “I can’t sleep.”

I smiled. “Me either, but at least I have an
excuse, you drugged me so I slept a lot.”

He frowned. “I thought you weren’t mad
anymore.”

“I’m not mad. Stating a fact doesn’t mean I’m
mad. Why can’t you sleep?”

He flopped down onto my bed and sighed. “I’m
too worried.”

I sat down next to him with my legs folded up
underneath me. “Worried about what?”

He turned his head and looked at me, his grey
eyes sparkling. “About you. I can’t stop thinking about everything
that has happened to you recently and about how we were attacked at
the school.”

“It’ll all be alright,” I assured him.

“You don’t know that.”

I shrugged. “I have to believe it or you’ll
find me sitting in a corner rocking myself and screaming at shadows
that move.”

“What if I can’t protect you?” he asked,
“When I was fighting the goblin and human in the forest another one
grabbed you and could have killed you.”

“But he didn’t because I protected myself,” I
said, “Favian, you can’t be there to protect me all the time.”

“Yes, I can,” he said adamantly.

I lay down beside him and sighed. “It’s not
your job. I know you’re noble and keep your word, but keeping a
promise you made when you were four isn’t the same. You didn’t know
back then what you were getting into and if you can’t protect me,
that’s okay. I would never blame you if I got hurt and you hadn’t
been able to prevent it.”