Mercenary Little Death Bringer (15 page)

“You are so dramatic sometimes.”

“You need to keep guard at all times,” Favian
said seriously.

I took the plate back from the chef and
asked, “Is this safe? Or have you poisoned it?”

The chef waved his ladle at me. “Watch your
tongue, girl.”

“Blame Favian, sir. He’s the one telling me I
need to be on guard from everyone.”

“He is right that you need to be on guard,
but one must not forget their comrades when enemies are after them.
Your comrades may be the only ones who can save you,” the chef said
as he served the student behind me.

We ate our food and then I went to my dorm
and took a nap. Favian’s protectiveness had exhausted me. I had
planned to take a short nap, but ended up sleeping through the
night and waking up just as the morning call rose in the school. I
rolled out of bed and screamed when I tripped and fell on top of
Favian.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked
him.

“You left the door unlocked,” he chastised me
as he roused himself from sleep. “And I wanted to be sure you were
safe and the only way to do that was to sleep in your dorm.”

“You cannot sleep in my dorm. Rumors will
spread and…”

“I do not care about
rumors
,” he said
angrily, “I care about your safety.”

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and sighed.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you, but you scared me.”

“Better I scare you then an enemy.”

I resisted the urge to kick him and quickly
grabbed my belt with my sword and throwing knives. He followed me
out the door and as I expected students were already out and we
received quite a few stares. I held my head high, refusing to be
embarrassed since nothing had happened and walked confidently to
the food hall to eat breakfast.

Usually people tried to keep their voices
down when gossiping, but today it seemed that no one cared. Wild
gossip raged within the food hall about my night with Favian, but
unlike with Amile, the people here assumed that he had pushed
himself on me. For some reason that made my day a little bit
brighter and put a smile on my face.

“You seem chipper for someone who is being
gossiped about,” Favian commented as we exited the food hall.

“Well it’s not bad gossip for me,” I said
with a smile.

“You’re incorrigible,” he muttered.

We headed to the covered fighting ring and
thankfully found it empty. The arena was filled with a soft dirt
that was easy to move around on and didn’t hurt you when you were
thrown on it or tackled.

“You want easy or hard?” Favian asked as we
stretched.

“Hard,” I said as I stretched my hamstrings.
“No weapons though.”

He gave me the do you think I’m stupid look
and then took a ready stance in the center of the ring. I met him,
mimicking his stance. “You attack,” he said with a smile.

I took a deep, calming breath and then
attacked him. My attacks were essentially pointless since he
blocked each and every one of them, but it was still good to
practice the punches. He kicked at me and I blocked it with my leg
while trying to hit him with my hand. He let me attack him for
forty minutes and then switched from defensive to offensive.

I blocked as many hits as I could, but he
still managed to land a few on my ribs. His fist flew just passed
my face, barely missing my cheek as I leaned backwards to avoid it.
I hadn’t known we had attracted an audience until I heard the
reaction to the near hit. For some reason the audience made me
fight harder and I could see the frustration in Favian’s face as he
tried to hit me and kick me, but none landed.

Finally he grew tired of the hand to hand
combat and tackled me to the ground. The air rushed out of me in a
loud grunt when we landed, but I immediately brought my knees up to
keep him from pinning me. I pulled my leg up slowly from between
his legs and then used it to propel him up and off of me.

Some of the crowd cheered while others booed.
I ignored them all to focus on Favian. It wasn’t often that we got
to goof around like this and I was enjoying myself. I lunged
forward and slowed to use a low kick, but Favian caught me off
guard with a downward punch that caught me in the cheek and knocked
me onto my back. My vision blurred and bright lights danced across
my vision as I groaned in pain. He really was playing hard because
he hadn’t held anything back from that punch. I’d been punched by
him before, but never in the face. It was a whole other type of
pain that I was not used to.

I shook my head to clear it and stood up to
face him again despite my throbbing cheek and the embarrassment I
felt at getting caught so off guard. I took a step to engage him
again when Master Martin’s whistle pierced the noise of the crowd
and brought me to a halt.

“You’re supposed to be resting,” he chastised
Favian and me, “Not fighting each other.”

“We are resting,” I said with a smile, “We’re
sparring, not fighting.”

“Go to your dorms,” he told everyone. “Today
is a day for meditating and preparation mentally for the upcoming
final test.”

“Yes, sir,” Favian said as he grabbed my arm
and pulled me towards the exit to keep me from talking.

“I don’t want to meditate in my dorm,” I
complained to Favian as we walked towards it.

“Just stay silent until we get to your dorm,”
he said as he looked around nervously.

“You’re not coming into my dorm again,” I
said seriously.

“Yes I am and there’s nothing you can do to
stop me,” he answered in his prince’s voice. It was the voice that
told me not to even try to argue or he’d tie me up and throw me
over his shoulders. He had done it once and I did not want to
relive that embarrassing moment again so I followed his orders and
ignored the curious stares of the other students as we walked into
my dorm and Favian shut and locked my door behind us.

I sat down on my bed, feeling tired and still
shaky from the hit that Favian had landed and took deep, slow
breaths. Favian squatted down in front of me and turned my head
with his fingertips against my chin. “How does your face feel?”

“Like I got kicked by a horse,” I answered
truthfully.

“I’m sorry, Marin. I thought you were going
to block it. I would have held back if I had known you would miss.”
He probed it and I hissed in pain.

“Don’t apologize. It’s my fault for not
paying attention,” I whispered as he continued to inspect the
swollen spot.

“Do you still have some of that pain
medication?” he asked as he looked underneath my bed.

“Yes, it should be in the leather pouch,” I
said as I lay down and tried to hide the blush now on my face. I
did not like these new feelings which made me feel uncomfortable
when Favian touched me in certain ways. I’d been his friend for too
long for stupid things like this to bother me!

“Here it is,” he said as he pulled the
leather pouch out and scooted out from under my bed with it. He
opened the bottle and said, “Open your mouth and stick out your
tongue.”

I did as he asked and he sprinkled some of
the pain medication onto my tongue. I let it dissolve and then
closed my eyes. “Thanks.”

“So be honest with me,” he said quietly, “How
do you feel about the mission?”

“I am terrified, but know it needs to be done
and I am really looking forward to it all being over,” I answered
him. “How are you feeling?”

“Worried because I am scared something is
going to go wrong and using you as bait will be your death
sentence. There are too many variables and too many things that
could go wrong, especially since we are facing other mercenaries
that attended this school and learned everything we did from the
same teachers.”

“If they do capture me you have to promise me
something, okay?”

“What?” he asked skeptically.

“If they try to lure you with me, don’t do
it. Promise me you will stay with the Academy and work with them to
figure out how to rescue me. Please promise me that you won’t come
after me yourself.”

Favian looked down at his hands. “I can’t
promise that, Marin.”

I slid out of the bed to sit on the floor in
front of him. “Favian you have to promise me. I will not be able to
focus on the mission tomorrow if you don’t promise me that you will
be safe if something happens and I’m kidnapped. Please. Please
promise me.”

He met my eyes and shook his head. “I won’t
promise you that, Marin because I couldn’t keep that promise. I
promised you I would protect you and if you get kidnapped I will do
everything I can to get you back.”

“You will be walking to your own death!” I
yelled at him. “You can’t do that. It’s better if one of us dies,
not both. If I die few will mourn about it and then be done. If you
die your kingdom will lose its prince and lose what would have been
an amazing kingdom once you were in control. Your father and mother
will be crushed. Your people will be crushed. You cannot die!”

“I would be crushed if you died!” he screamed
at me, “Don’t you understand that? If you died I would never
forgive myself. Never!”

I knew he felt strongly for me as friends,
but his declaration shocked me. “Favian,” I whispered.

He shook his head and wrapped me in a tight
hug. “I will not allow you to die. I would rather I died. If you
died I wouldn’t care about my kingdom or my parents. Everything
would lose its meaning without you breathing in this world.”

I pulled back from him so we could face each
other again. “You’re making it sound like you love me,” I joked
with him. “I understand you would be upset, but eventually my
memory would fade and…”

“Never,” he said fervently, “I will never
forget about you. You don’t get it do you?” He shook his head and
laughed miserably. “No, of course you don’t.” He grabbed my chin
and stared into my eyes. “I will not make you that promise. I will
promise you instead that I will travel to the ends of the earth to
save you when you are in trouble. You are my best friend and my
partner.”

I didn’t have any words to respond to him so
I hugged him again and sighed. “You are such a stubborn elf.”

He laughed. “I learn from the best.”

We sat in each other’s arms for a few more
minutes and then I grabbed my sword and knives and started cleaning
them to give my hands other things to do to avoid letting them
touch Favian in the strange ways that I was now wanting to.

We sat on the floor next to each other and
cleaned our weapons and reminisced about prior events and laughed.
It was calming and exactly what I needed the night before I was to
be used as bait.

The time passed and we went to the food hall
for dinner and then returned to my dorm to talk and tease each
other more. I knew he was trying his hardest to keep my mind off of
tomorrow’s plan and I appreciated it more than he would ever know.
After the sun set and the reality set in, I lay in my bed going
over the various mistakes that could happen to try to plan out my
actions in those events. I was convinced I’d thoroughly worked
through every possible situation and yawned loudly.

“I’m going to get some sleep,” I said as I
pulled the blankets up around my shoulders.

He nodded his head. “It is getting rather
late.” He double checked the locks on the door, set our swords on
each side of the bed so we could grab them in case we were attacked
and then blew out the lamp on my side table. He climbed into bed
with me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me tight against
his body. “One more day and then we will be free to take jobs as
mercenaries and live our lives as we are supposed to. One more day
and then we will be adults.”

“One more day,” I whispered sleepily.

He kissed the back of my head and whispered,
“Sleep well, Marin. I am here and I will protect you while you
sleep.”

“Only while I sleep?” I asked in a fake
shocked tone as I pondered over the kiss he’d placed on my head.
Had it been friendly? Was he actually interested in me?

“While you breathe,” he said, “Or until I
stop.”

I rolled over to face him and stared at his
outline in the dark. “I will ensure you live the longest.”

He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear
and my heart began beating faster. “We will agree to disagree on
the matter. Now, go to sleep.”

I relaxed and closed my eyes, but then asked
a question I was dying to know. “Are there any at the court that
you are planning on courting when we return?” I knew he didn’t like
Amile so I wasn’t thinking about her, but the other hundred
beautiful elf women that were eligible and would die for his
attention and affection.

“There is one,” he said, “But now is not the
time to discuss that. Now is the time for sleep.”

“Right,” I muttered as I rolled over and put
my clenched fists under my armpits.

“Are you jealous?” he asked with humor in his
voice.

My mouth gaped open. “Of course not!” I said
angrily, “How could you even ask such a preposterous thing?!”

He laughed and kissed the back of my head
again. “Okay, go to sleep.”

I closed my eyes and relaxed with him at my
back. Finally my emotions settled down enough and I slept in his
arms.

~~~~

CHAPTER NINE

“Marin! Favian! Time to get up!” Micah called
through my door.

“We’re up,” I called back just as Favian
opened the door to step outside.

“Morning,” Favian said.

“You look awfully dreary for the day of your
final,” Micah said cheerfully.

“I seem to be the only one who truly values
her life so of course I am dreary.”

“Don’t start with that again,” I said as I
walked out behind him. “I get to go shopping today, aren’t you at
least excited for me?”

Favian rolled his eyes and walked on to the
food hall. “What’s wrong with him?” Micah asked.