The Dragon Knight; The Secrets of the Desert

The Secrets of the Desert (Chapter 16)

I grumbled as I climbed onto Zjarr’s back, sitting in front of Robin. We had flown all the way to Cerasus in record time only to be told that the royal family wasn’t even here. They had gone to Talon, the capital of Tubig Libis. That was annoying; had we known we would have gone straight there. Cerasus is about as far away from Mataharie as Talon is. And the time we wasted just made me grumpy.

“Are you in a hurry?” Robin asked, right after Zjarr had pushed off and started flying away from Cerasus’ royal castle.

“Just a little. I want to get back to Istana Pasir already. For all we know Seelan could have his army of shadows complete and heading for Tanah Bulan already. I simply find it very frustrating, not knowing what is going on. While we were travelling across the continent, Tien knows what happened elsewhere.”

“Good point,” he admitted. “Although, what would you have done if he had gotten his army together and had been marching on Tanah Bulan and you didn’t have a way to fight him.”

I grumbled under my breath but didn’t bother answering his question, knowing very well that it couldn’t be answered. I hated this, depending on others for something so important. Sure, it was always nice to have someone to help you, it was always nice to have someone with you who had your back; but depending on the will of other people seemed dangerous. Those that had decided to join us already could change their minds whenever they thought things were getting too dangerous and leave me to deal with it all.

“But they have more honor than that; they wouldn’t do that to you,” Zjarr said in a reassuring tone. It didn’t quite work though.

“Honor is nothing to you when you are dead, and we all know that as royals. Most of us don’t fight our own battles anymore, letting generals and knights handle it all for us. Learning how to use a sword is for appearances; most will never have to use their skills in a real battle.”

“It is true that royalty has lost its courage and bravery over time since the conquest for lands. When your Kingdoms became smaller you lost the need to send your Kings to the battles to keep thousands of men in place.” Zjarr seemed almost regretful as she said this.

I didn’t reply, not knowing what to say because it was true, and she didn’t add anything else. Behind me I could feel Robin’s unease as Zjarr sped up in the hopes of getting us to Talon as fast as possible. Luckily we had been allowed to stay the night in the Dragon Knight quarters of the castle in Cerasus and Zjarr would be able to get us far today. Nonetheless it would still take us a few days to make it to the capitol of Tubig Libis.

And in the meantime there was no way of knowing what Seelan was up to. That was what worried me and why I wanted to return to Istana Pasir as fast as possible, hoping that was of the undead Knights could tell me what he was doing, or what he needed to do before he attacked my home.

That was the last thing that I wanted to happen!

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As Seelan paced the room, he thought about what he had done and what still needed to be done. Nidhug was watching him with one eye as the other was closed, like a sleeping cat keeping an eye on its surroundings. He could help his thoughts going back to what he had witnessed the Princess do. When he had seen her alone with the pregnant woman he had thought it had been the perfect opportunity to attack her.

But maybe sending those monsters, unfinished and rudimentary, had not been the best thing to do. Seelan had been thinking about the attack over and over again, trying to determine whether he had made a mistake or not. It was complicated because sometimes he would come to the conclusion that it had been a bad idea because now the Princess knew that his shadow creatures were different from the first time he had sent them to war and thus he had lost the element of surprise there.