The Darkness Beyond the Stars

Chapter Fifteen: He leaves like an idiot

All my breath was suddenly gone. A shaft of sunlight fell on my face, touching it with warmth, blinding my eyes with gold. Why would anyone want to kill me?

"And it gets worse."

I tried to talk, to stop him, but my voice had vanished, and all I managed to do was squeak.

"Each of the names were strange, like someone had mangled an Elvish name into something contorted."

"So all seven of them are Twisted Ones." I managed to gasp.

"Yes."

I felt tears trying to fall from my eyes. "Why? Why me? What did I do? I..."

I have done literally nothing my entire life. Nothing dangerous had ever come near me, I had never even traveled beyond the palace forest since a week ago. I hadn't had any adventures. I'd never been hurt worse than a scraped knee. Everything exciting in my life had been in the books I read.

It's true.

And then Raön, this person in front of me, with the eyes that shone as brilliantly as the sea, had come into my life. And everything had exploded.

Dramatic, but true again. Well, not literally exploded. But you get the idea.

"As soon as you're a little better, I'm going to leave."

"What??" I jolted out of my thoughts.

"I need to go to my home. There are books there, scrolls, writings on the Twisted Ones. How to kill them."

"How to kill them? But you've killed one!"

"The one who tried to kill you? He's not dead. When I had the guards go back to look for the body, it was gone."

A chill crept up my back. A shadow seemed to cover the room.

"You'll be safe here."

More tears threatened to spill. This place didn't feel safe anymore. Nowhere felt safe, unless...

"Take me with you."

His eyes widened, and softened somehow. "You would come with me? You...No. It's too dangerous." He stood, towering over the bed.

"They've gotten in here once, they can do it again." I resisted the urge to reach out to him. Don't be silly. "And...I need you to teach me how to fight. Because if...if they catch me again..."

"They won't."

"But just in case?"

He closed his eyes. "Alright. I'll teach you some things. But only once you've healed some."

I smiled a little.

The corner of his mouth twitched up, then he stepped forward, leaning over me, and pressed his lips to my forehead. I froze. A moment later, he was gone.

.....

The next day dragged on endlessly, minutes lasting for hours. Or something like that. My sister Iiosola never came to visit me, and when I asked my attendants where on earth she was, they said she spent most of her time in bed. That perplexed me to no end. Whenever anyone came to see me, they were always blisteringly polite, never mentioning the fact that I had been abducted, or Raön either, for that matter. It was as if I had a mere cold that kept me in bed. I wanted to scream at their faces.