The Dragon Knight; The Secrets of the Desert

The Secrets of the Desert (Chapter 14)

I gave Robin a nervous look as the silence stretched itself out longer and longer. Had I said something wrong? I had told this story quite a few times now already and yet never had it been met with such a long and heavy silence. Then I saw Prince Cyril cast a sideways glance to Anne-Belle and I guessed that they just waited for her to have the first reaction. Although the Queen did look quite shocked as well.

Robin gave me a small and brief reassuring smile before his face went blank again. It didn't seem fair to me that I had to do all the talking, that I got all the looks of either pity of admirations; on the other side, I would rather have them on me than on Robin and have him regret his choice not to take Svadilfari's potion.

Anne-Belle blinked rapidly and let out a sharp breath; she rubbed her eyes and put a lock of hair back behind her ear. She was either stalling or just finding a way to word whatever it was that she was thinking. Nothing gave away whether her thoughts were good or bad though. Strangely, what my sister thought mattered more to me that what my parents thought about this whole situation; she used to be the one I looked up to, she used to be the one who could convince me to drop a bad habit.

But now I was only met with silence, which was very unnerving.

Then finally she looked up and right at me. "Those are quite some adventures you have lived. And they don't seem to finish anytime soon." She gave me a weak and uncomfortable smile as she said those last few words, like she knew they would come to an end sooner than expected. Maybe she had seen the prophecy too, maybe she had read all the words that had been revealed up until now; if she had then she had read those few words that even scared me a little.

And only her blood will be spilled.

It would explain why none of them look particularly happy about what I had just told them. But I mean, it wasn't as if it was their blood on the line. It was mine. And I had accepted it already. And then I glanced to the side and wondered if Robin knew. I had written the prophecy down but when I had gone to show him, the Queen and her daughters had been there, and then the whole thing with Zjarr happened. I hadn't shown him in the end and I had no idea when the last time was that he had read it.

"I think it is very unlikely that he doesn't know," Zjarr interjected. "He must have read it at some point. Maybe he got a chance to do so at Sablier while you were still missing."

I was close to shrugging when I remembered that Zjarr couldn't see me and I didn't need to give these royals any more reasons to worry about me. So instead I put on a smile and replied to my sister. "I think it is amazing! I finally get to travel, and I feel like one of the heroes in the stories I used to read. The only thing that I'm less fan of is the fact that I have to do all the thinking and there isn't a writer to put it all on paper for me."

Anne-Belle offered me a weak smile but didn't say anything else. Cyril passed his arm around her shoulders and told her softly, almost too soft for me to hear. "Don't worry about her; from what you have told me I think she is more than capable to handle herself." She nodded and smiled a bit brighter at him, a smile that he returned easily.

"Do tell me, Princess Blanchefleur," the King started until he saw my grimace.

"Either Blanchefleur or... or nothing."

"... or young Knight. Or is that only for dragons to use?" Robin asked with a slight mockery in his voice.

"Dragons and Dragon Knights who have been dead for thousands of years," I grinned back at him before turning back to the man with the crown on his head, who looked a bit confused.

"So, Blanchefleur," he started again, "As lovely as this visit has been, how wonderful it has been to hear about your adventures, I doubt you have come all this way, in the time of great troubles, just to see your sister again. A Dragon Knight never stops by without a good reason from what I have heard, seen and read."