Keeping pace with Darius as we continued to circle slowly, we both waited for the moment when we would be needed. Before that time could come however, Milo and his guards came out of nowhere and broke through the lines of enemies that our guards had been fighting. I had to blink a couple of times to make sure that I was actually seeing this and it wasn’t just my brain recreating the moment when Darius and his guards joined us and my brain had just switched their faces. When our guards’ circle got bigger as Milo’s guards joined it and Darius and my circle got bigger as Milo joined us, I had to admit to myself that this was actually happening. “Hello Milo. How have you been doing? Did your plan work out?” I kept my tone casual and light. Grinning eagerly at me, I could tell that Milo had a lot of adrenaline running through his blood right now.
“It has been going really well. Our plan worked really well. As the fight wore on though we had to adjust our plan. Afterall, everywhere needed help. So the next time we joined the battle we stayed in that area and began working our way inwards. It was really a coincidence that we saw you.”
Ethan now spoke up. “Is it the best idea for all of us to be gathered together like this? We could help the strangers more if we split up into our separate groups and went to different parts of the battlefield.”
There was a brief moment while we considered this and then Tyler broke it. “Our chances of winning this fight are a lot better if we split up, but we then put our charges in the most amount of danger. So I think that we need to take a vote.”
I started speaking so fast that my words jumbled together a little. “I vote that we split up. If we lose this fight then your charges would be in more danger then if we had split up and you had allowed us to fight alongside you.”
Alex sighed. “I think that we should make this decision without the votes of our charges. We all already know what they are going to vote for anyways.” Grumbles came from all of us in the middle of the circle but agreement came from everyone else and we knew that we were outnumbered and that we weren’t going to win this argument. We would have to hope that they saw the sense in splitting up and would let us fight. I was grateful that our guards weren’t able to talk quietly to each other since they couldn’t huddle together seeing as they were still fighting. Listening closely to what they were saying, they did try to keep their voices down, a flicker of hope welled up in me when I heard that at least some of them were considering the splitting up idea. It seemed to be around half and half right now on opinions. Right now it appeared that my guards were mostly arguing against splitting up, Milo’s guards were arguing for splitting up, and Darius’s guards were split down the middle. A little exasperated with my guards, even though I knew they were trying to look out for me since I was still tired from my part in this battle, I barely resisted yelling at them. I only succeeded in holding my voice back because I knew that my yelling wouldn’t help anything. Or if it did do something, then it would most likely do the opposite of what I intended.
It would probably make my guards fight harder against splitting up. Clenching my teeth to smother the shrinking part of me who still wanted to yell out loud, I let out a slow exhale to release all of my exasperation into the air. Keeping with our slow pace and continuing to circle, it seemed to take forever before some of our guard’s opinions began to change as they were convinced by others with a different opinion. The only problem was, it still seemed to be pretty even. Each time that one side would win someone over, the other side would as well. I was beginning to think that this argument would never end when one side finally began to get more people then the other. All of us in the middle were now holding our breaths as it became clear who was going to win. Hoping that a unanimous vote was not needed, I cheered along with Darius and Milo when a decision was finally made. “We will be splitting up. I am sorry, but there is no way that we are going to get a unanimous vote, so we will have to go with a majority vote.” Jet sounded apologetic, but I was definitely not.
“Oh thank goodness. I thought that was never going to end. I am also grateful that you were all on the losing side and not the side that was victorious. I understand the reasoning behind your votes, but that doesn’t make me any happier that you all voted to not split up even when it was clear that was the better decision.” All of my emotions showed clearly in my words and tone and my guards all rolled their eyes at me. Or at least I imagined them all rolling their eyes at me. I would have to get on the outside of the circle to see their faces and that was not going to happen. Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t even sure that they would let me out of the circle once we had split up. That thought made me panic a little until I realized that I was going to have to think up a plan just in case that happened. As I began thinking, I stopped circling with Darius and Milo. At least until Milo ran into me which didn’t take long. Muttering apologies while still in the midst of deep thinking, I began moving again. It was a touch slower then the pace we had been going at originally, however they didn’t seem to care. It was clear that we were all thinking along the same lines and were all caught up in them. All three of us now feared being stuck in the middle of a circle even after splitting up.
So while we still wouldn’t be doing anything to help our guards, we also wouldn’t have anyone else near us who would be sharing our same boring fate. The instant that our three groups of guards began to break apart all three of us stepped up to our respective groups and joined them in their line. This was our collective way of saying that we were not going to be stuck in the middle of a circle again. That if they tried that again, we were going to fight them every step of the way. Sighs came from all of our guards and we shared a smile before the battle swept us apart. Staying in the middle of the line, I knew that they wouldn’t even consider letting me go anywhere else in the line, I scooped up a sword from the ground after Liam felled one of our enemies. Adrenaline raced through my veins once again and I couldn’t even feel the pains from my various wounds. Making sure that I didn’t swing my sword too hard and accidentally hit one of my guards, I engaged one of the enemies and grinned. It felt good to be fighting instead of just watching. In a way that showed everyone around them, even me, that they had practiced doing this multiple times, my guards curved around until they were in a circle. It was pretty impressive to watch and I felt cool being a part of it. Granted Tyler guided me to where I was supposed to be standing, but I still felt cool.
It was much easier to fight in this positioning because I didn’t have to worry as much about hitting anyone other than the enemy. There was still a chance that I could hit either Tyler or Liam, the two of my guards who were closest to me, but the risk wasn’t as great. About half the time I was in the middle of fighting someone I would watch with resignation as either Tyler or Liam would step in and defeat my opponent. It was quite annoying, however I had expected something like this. I may be part of the circle, but that doesn’t mean that they are going to take any risks with my safety. Shaking away those thoughts and focusing fully on the battle that was raging in front of me, I fought like I wasn’t waiting for one of my guards to steal my opponents to be on the safe side. It would not be good if I expected them to defeat my opponent and let my guard down and then neither of them take my opponent down. I would be in some serious trouble if that happened. In fact, I would most likely be dead if that ever happened. I don’t think that my guards would ever forgive me or themselves if I died. Fighting with all of my might to try and beat my guards to the final blow, I beamed when I finally landed one of them. Yes, Liam might have struck a blow that would have been fatal onto them right after I did, but the only important thing was that I did it first.
Letting out a small, brief yell of triumph I surprised a few of the enemies surrounding us and gave my guards an opening to take them down. Which they did without a second's hesitation. They weren’t surprised by anything that I did anymore. Especially not any sounds that I might make. Afterall, they were always the ones that said that I made too many noises. “Thank you Ari. That was quite helpful.” I barely heard Casey say this since he was one of the two people behind me. Not about to say that I hadn’t meant to scare anyone and had only done it because I was proud of myself, I stayed silent. From the quiet chuckles that I heard emanating from a few of my guards however, they knew exactly why I stayed silent. While Liam and Tyler didn’t exactly go easier on the enemies that they fought, they didn’t interfere with my enemies as much anymore. Flashing them both grateful smiles that neither of them saw, I fought with a vengeance to prove myself. I hoped that if I proved that I could defend myself well enough that I would be allowed to participate in battles more often and be able to do more in them. I wanted to help keep my guards safe just like they keep each other safe. Maybe that was an unusual attitude for someone who has four guards whose whole job was to protect them, but I wasn’t exactly a normal royal and never had been.
It seemed like hours had passed since I had first started fighting in this battle and my adrenaline was beginning to wear off for the second time. My breath came faster and faster as I strove to keep going. My guards were in better shape than I was and they hadn’t been fighting as long as I had, but they were starting to feel it as well. Their breath wasn’t as even as it had been a few minutes ago and their movements were a little slower then before. Knowing that it would only place a bigger burden on them if I stepped back into the circle and forced them to protect me, I tried to shove my exhaustion to the back of my mind and keep going. Minutes now crawled by as the enemies kept coming and we tried to keep up with them. While they were fresh and energized though, we were tired and getting low on energy. My borrowed sword was heavier then my old sword had been and my wrists now burned with the extra weight. It hadn’t bothered me when I had first picked it up, but now the extra weight seemed to be growing with each passing second. Sweat was trickling down from my hair and was heading for my eyes. I knew that I had to wipe it away otherwise it could blind me for a second that I couldn’t afford. There was no chance to however. Swords were always circling me and waiting for a moment when they could get through my guard.
Fighting furiously to try and force my opponent back, I felt a surge of hope when they stumbled on the uneven ground. My left hand almost made it to my face when a sword whipped in towards me. I barely got my sword up in time to deflect the blow up and get myself out of danger. Or at least out of danger of that weapon. I had to contemplate the thought of dying for the first time since this battle started now. My mind flashed back to my family and my friends. I remembered all of the good times that I had with them in the past. Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought about never seeing my family again. When I had left them they had thought that I was in danger and that they would have a very slim chance of ever seeing me again. I guess that assumption was correct because there was a good chance that I was going to die now and they would never even know all the things that I had done since leaving them. They would never know that the people who lived in Raetis weren’t the ones who posed a danger to us. Willing my tears to not leave my eyes, I didn’t want to seem weak in front of my enemies and I didn’t want to get blinded by my tears and not be able to see. As it was, my sight was already blurred because the sweat had finally reached my eyes. My mind now went to my maids and guards. My guards were most likely going to die alongside me.
While my maids had a chance of surviving if they managed to not engage in the battle and run into the forest, I knew that they were never going to leave without my guards and me. The sadness in me turned to anger as I thought about all of my friends dying and my family mourning me without even a body to confirm that I was truly dead. A scream built up in my throat and grew stronger and stronger until it finally ripped free and echoed in the air. In that moment it was like all my exhaustion just melted away and was replaced with raw energy. Whipping my sword through the air faster to counter all the blows coming at me and countering with strikes that were fatal to all enemies around me, I made sure to keep my sword away from Liam and Tyler since my vision was still blurry. My scream had disrupted some of our enemies' concentrations and several had been taken down with quick and decisive blows. Unknown to me, all of my guards had actually jumped a little when I had screamed because of the pure emotion that had been in my voice. As a result of that, Alex had suffered a shallow cut on his arm that, while it didn’t damage anything important, it stung like crazy and distracted him. Liam had gotten a cut on his leg that was making it harder for him to keep standing. It was deeper than Alex’s wound was and the blood loss it was resulting in was concerning to say the least.
When I saw the blood dripping down his leg finally, after several minutes and my anger had worn off a little, I knew that he couldn’t hold out for much longer. “Liam got injured and I am not sure how much longer he will last. He is losing quite a bit of blood.” Right as I screamed this warning to my small circle of friends, Liam’s eyes went slightly out of focus and a sword came through his defenses and slipped into his side. Screaming this time in anguish, I dealt a deadly blow to the person who had stabbed Liam, who took his sword with him when he fell to the ground, and forced Liam inside our little circle. We now had spaces in between each of us because Liam had sunk to the ground and was spread completely out. In order to not be standing on him we had to spread our group out a little which was proving to be dangerous. We were not able to help each other as much as we had before. Spotting a gap in our enemies to the left of me I saw people running into the battle to grab a wounded person and drag them away. Guessing them to be some of the runners getting the injured to the healers, I pointed them out to the others. Without speaking we knew that Liam was going to die if we didn’t get him to the healers immediately. In fact, he was probably going to die even if we got him to the healers.
Moving in synchronization we forced all of our enemies in front of us and formed a line in front of Liam. Screaming at the same time for a runner, we all let out a tiny breath of relief when we saw a runner coming towards us at full speed. Holding our line with all of our remaining strength, we hoped with all of our might that Liam might live. If he didn’t live I at least hoped that Sophia wasn’t the one who tried and failed to save him. If that was the case then I wasn’t sure how I was going to keep Sophia from dropping into a hole she might never come out of. Seeing that Liam was now being carried to safety, another runner had come over to help the first runner with Liam, we all spared a quick glance at each other. We knew that we were going to continue fighting until the battle was over, one way or the other, and we wanted to look at each other one last time just in case all of us ended up dying in this battle. We all took deep breaths as we faced our enemies again and kept our swords moving. As our energy leached away and our swords moved slower and slower we suffered more injuries as time went on. Cuts were appearing on everyone and we had to go back to our circle in order to better protect each other and to keep people from getting behind us.
Grimances seemed to be stuck on all of our faces as our bodies began to hurt more and more. The enemies in front of us kept coming and by now we were resigned to the fact that we were outnumbered and were going to die. However, we were going to take out as many of them as we could before we died. Right when it seemed that we were finally going to be overrun and be utterly destroyed, something unexpected happened. Arrows started to rain down all around us and our enemies began falling in waves. We gathered together as close as possible and sheathed our weapons quickly. Putting our hands in the air in a clear sign of surrender, we hoped that it was our allies that were shooting. While we waited barely breathing, each second that passed and we weren’t shot made us a little more hopeful. All of a sudden people were throwing ropes down from the wall and repelling down as others ran down the stairs. These new people quickly surrounded us and held their weapons at the ready. My guards’ and my shoulders slumped in defeat. These people didn’t appear to be our allies and we were too tired to fight them. Our weapons were taken away from us once again and we were propelled towards where it seemed they were gathering everyone up. Spotting my maids, Liam, Darius, Darius’s guards, Milo, Milo’s guards, and Brendon among those in the group, I walked a little faster.
Reaching them I threw my arms around my maids. “I am so glad that you are both alive. I was worried that something had happened to you two.” I glanced down at Liam and dropped to my knees beside him. His eyes were closed and he was so pale that for a moment I feared him dead. Only the faint rise and fall of his chest told me otherwise. “How is he? Is he going to make it?” I had completely forgotten about our new captors at this point. I was too busy making sure that my friends were fine. Sophia dropped down by us and shrugged a little helplessly.
“I have no idea. His wounds have been cleaned and bandaged, but he lost so much blood. There is nothing else we can do but wait.” As tears gathered in her eyes I knew that she was on the verge of losing her control over her emotions. Pulling her into a tight hug I felt her barrier break and her tears began to flow freely. “I should have been able to do more. I should have treated him faster or better. If he dies then it is my fault.” Her words were starting to mush together and I knew that she was becoming hysterical.
Gripping her shoulders I put a little space between us. “You’re wrong Sophie. Even if he dies, there was nothing you could have done better and he would not want you to blame yourself for his death. He would want you to move on and be happy.” Seeing her nod her head I knew that even though she knew the truth in her heart, her head wouldn’t let her accept it. Wishing with all my might that Liam would live, I knew that we had to get him back to Raetis as soon as possible. There was a chance, a very small chance, that Aeson would know some way to help him that no one else knew. If not, I doubted that Liam would survive. His breathing was already getting shallower and his pulse was slowing drastically. I was thrust out of my thoughts when Darius placed his hand on my shoulder. Grabbing his hand I knew that I had to leave Liam and see what our new captors wanted from us. Getting up with help from Darius I saw Hazel drop down to take my place by Sophia with Joshua keeping a tight hold on her shoulder. Taking a deep breath I turned to face where Brendon was talking with one of our captors. Guessing that he was talking to the leader of our captors I walked a little unsteadily to them.
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I caught the tail end of their conversation before they stopped to look at us. “... So let me get this straight. This was your village, but then those people came in and took it over? Then another group of people came in and started attacking because they are trying to take all the villages over?”
“That is right.” Brendon said this after a short pause of them seeing us and Brendon nodding hello to both of us.
The leader of our captors now eyed Darius and me curiously. “Then who are these people? From the way they came over here they seem to represent their own group.”
Darius, after a glance at me to see that I wasn’t completely emotionally stable right now, spoke up. “We were here visiting when this village was attacked. We are staying in Raetis as guests of Milo and his parents.” When he said Milo’s name he pointed him out to the leader. The leader’s eyes snapped over to where Darius was pointing and his eyes narrowed in consideration.
“You are saying that Crown Prince Milo Bullara is right over there? Would it be possible for him to come and join us?” There was a trace of eagerness in his voice that made me wary, but we didn’t see the point in not bringing Milo over. If we didn’t then some of our captors probably would. Heading over to him we told him that the leader of our captors wanted to talk to him and Jet immediately said that he was going with him. Bringing them both over the leader seemed a little confused. “Who is this other person that you have brought over as well?” His gaze was mostly focused on Milo, but he spared a second to look at Jet.
Putting his hand up to signal that he would answer this question himself, Jet replied. “I am Crown Prince Milo Bullara’s head guard. Wherever he goes, I go.” Nodding in understanding, the leader dismissed Jet from his mind.
Bowing a little in Milo’s direction, he now addressed him directly. “My Prince. It is so good to finally meet you in person. I have heard many things about you, all good, and have wanted to meet you for many years now.” Milo looked a little suspicious still, but seemed to have relaxed the tiniest amount. It seemed like he had heard others say this to him before.
“I am always happy to meet with my people. However, I wish that we were meeting under better circumstances. I am glad that you joined this battle, afterall you most likely saved all of our lives, but we are your captives right now which isn’t the best situation to meet in.” It was like the leader just realized that we were still being held as his prisoners.
“Guards, you may release them. If Crown Prince Milo is with them, then we are allies.” His tone was firm and his guards backed away from us as soon as they heard his words. You could almost hear all of our collective sighs of relief. Knowing that we were as safe as we could be right now, I sank down to the ground and laid on my back. All I wanted to do right now was sleep and there was nothing that was going to delay that any longer. I heard laughter come from my friends and then I was fast asleep. I was woken up 3 hours later by someone shaking me. Blearily opening my eyes I was ready to throttle whoever had woken me up. It was Casey and there were tears streaming down his cheeks. My heart sank. Before I could voice the words that were going on repeat through my mind, Casey spoke.
“Liam’s going to make it.” I just froze after hearing those words. Casey wasn’t crying because Liam was dead, he was crying because Liam was going to make it. My heart leaped for joy and I reached my hand up in an obvious signal for Casey to help me to my feet. He heaved me to my feet so fast that I flew. Sprinting over to where everyone was gathered around Sophia and Liam, I shoved them all aside and couldn’t stop my own tears from flowing over my cheeks when I saw Liam with his eyes open. He was staring deeply into Sophia’s eyes, which I had to wonder if she could even see his stare because of how many tears she was shedding. Liam’s head was lying in her lap and she now leaned down over him to kiss him soundly. He eagerly returned the kiss and the rest of us were left feeling both awkward for intruding on their moment and so happy that Liam was alive. When they broke apart I knelt down beside them both.
“I am so glad to see you awake Liam. We were all really worried about you for a while there.” Here I smirked at Sophia. “Especially this one. She literally never left your side the whole time.” For a moment there I wondered if Sophia had even heard me. She was so absorbed in Liam’s eyes that it was a huge possibility that she hadn’t. Finally she turned her head to look at me and rolled her eyes.
Then she grinned at me and said, “Be honest, if it was Darius, even though there would have been no way for you to help him, you would have stayed by his side the whole time too.” Throwing a hand to my heart I pretended to deny her words, but everyone could see the truth in my eyes. That is exactly what I would have done. The healer probably would have had someone pick me up and carry me away because I would have been hovering so much. The sound of Darius’s laughter behind me caused me to turn around. Spotting the glare that I was throwing his way, he laughed even harder.
“I am sorry, but it is so true. If I was hurt then you wouldn’t leave my side until you were forced away or I was all better.” Darius had now started crying; he was laughing so hard. His laughter was so contagious that soon I was laughing as well. Holding my hands up to him I let myself be pulled to my feet. Using the momentum of him pulling to my feet, I leaned in close to him and kissed him. That stopped both of our laughter quite effectively and his response was immediate. Breaking apart after a couple seconds I had to put my hands on his chest to keep my balance. His eyes looked a little glazed and I grinned. Shaking himself back into the present he gazed down at me with an intense look. “If you were hurt, then I would stay by you the whole time as well.”
Sliding my hands from his chest to his back I pulled him into a hug. “I know that you would. In fact you already have.” His only answer was to hold me to him more firmly. Drawing back a little to look at his face I asked, “What happened after I fell asleep? Are we free to go back to Raetis?”
“Yes. Milo worked it out with their leader and we can leave anytime we want. I am guessing that we want to wait a while so that Liam can stay here and heal some more.” I was about to agree with Darius when I got interrupted.
“No. We are not going to wait here on account of me. I will survive the carriage ride back to Raetis and then Aeson and Sophia can both take care of me.” Liam’s voice was determined, but he wasn’t going to change my mind. The only person who could change my mind about staying here for a time was Sophia. She was the healer afterall. Sophia seemed to sense my glance and seemed to be thinking it over. We all watched her, some more patiently then others, as we waited for her opinion on the matter. Eventually she sighed and met all of our eyes.
“He should be fine going back to Raetis right now.” She cut off Liam’s victory shout and stared him down. “IF, and only if, he lays down the whole time, does his very best not to move, is carried to the carriage, and submits to an examination by both Aeson and me as soon as we get there.” Liam seemed so happy that he was being allowed to leave this place right now that he nodded his head eagerly to her demands. “Well then we should prepare and then leave.” Chaos erupted as the rest of our group heard that we were heading home. People were running all over packing everything up and stuffing both their stuff and themselves into carriages. Meanwhile, other than Darius who left with his guards to go to their carriage and Hazel who went with him, my group stood in a circle around Liam. As soon as everyone was ready both Alex and Tyler leaned down and scooped Liam up. Carrying him gently and walking slowly they made their way to our carriage and placed him down on one of the benches inside. Sophia would be the only other one on that side of the carriage. She sat down and laid Liam’s head on her lap. She then stroked his hair as the rest of us squished onto the other bench. The ride back to Raetis was a joyous affair. Sure, Liam was injured, but he was alive. That was honestly better than we had anticipated.
He was even cracking jokes with the rest of us. Yes, it hurt him to talk and basically do anything, but that wasn’t going to break his spirits. Though he did have to stop talking for the second half of the ride because he was in too much pain. The next time I looked over at him he was fast asleep and Sophia was gazing down at him with so much love and tenderness in her eyes that I felt like I was intruding on a private moment. When Raetis came into view we all cheered, which woke Liam up and Sophia had to hold him down since he tried to shoot up into a sitting position. Waving to everyone that we could see outside of our windows we tried to see how many people we could get to wave back. It seemed that most people were too surprised to see people waving at them so exuberantly from a carriage that they were unable to wave back. I guessed that I would forgive them. This time. Reaching the palace we hopped out as soon as the carriage stopped. Casey then ran inside as quickly as possible to get Aeson so that he and Sophia could conduct their examination of Liam. They came running back a couple minutes later and Aeson looked very concerned.
Climbing into the carriage he gestured for all of us to stand outside the carriage so they had more room. Piling out we stood right outside of the carriage and watched curiously. Moving quickly but efficiently they pulled Liam’s shirt up and unwrapped his side. Turning him onto his uninjured side in order to see his injury better we all gasped when we saw it for the first time. After all the healers had allowed no one near them when they had been working on him. There were black stitches along the whole length of his side almost and the whole area was very red and swollen. Liam tried to keep from showing his pain as they poked and prodded to see how well it was healing, but he was unable to keep several pain filled sounds inside of him. Eventually they stopped their examination and turned to us. “He will heal, but it will take a lot of time. This injury is very serious and will take weeks to finally get to the point where he will be able to move normally. Once we hit that point he will take several more weeks to get back to normal.” Aeson could tell that we didn’t understand the last part of what he said so he elaborated. “He will have to do a lot of exercises to strengthen specific muscles so that he doesn’t hurt himself again. It will take time for those muscles to get strong enough that I would feel good about him doing guard duty again.”
Alex looked slightly worried and I knew why. “You are worried about me being with only three guards for that long.” Alex nodded.
“That is what I am worried about. However I wouldn’t want to give you a new guard for only a couple of weeks. By the time Liam would be healed we would probably just be getting used to the other guard and trusting them.” He shook his head in frustration. “We will just have to make do with only three guards for a while.” Casey and Tyler exchanged looks and I knew that they were planning on being even more observant in order to make up for one less guard.
Liam sighed. “I am sorry that I am the cause of this. If only I had been less careless in that battle then I wouldn’t have gotten injured.” That was when I remembered that Liam had gotten injured in more than one place and that Alex had also gotten an injury. Neither of them were as painful or serious as Liam’s injury to his side but they should also be taken care of.
“Alex did you get your arm looked at? I just remembered that you got cut there during the battle. Also Liam you got a cut on your leg as well. Was that taken care of?” Alex held up his hands to calm me down.
“Don’t worry Ari. We all got our injuries looked at when you fell asleep soon after the battle. They have all been taken care of and bandaged.” He even pulled up his sleeve so that I was able to see for myself the bandage wrapped around it. Nodding my head I felt relief flow through me. I would have never forgiven myself if I hadn’t inquired about the other injuries that had been sustained by my guards.
“I need someone, or two people, to carry Liam in and to the healing room.” Aeson inserted himself back into the conversation with authority and the response was instant. Tyler and Casey stepped forward and scooped Liam out of the carriage and into their arms. Sophia stayed right beside him the whole time we walked through the palace. We got several strange looks from the people we passed, but we ignored all of them. At least until we passed Valeria. We passed her and everyone nodded to her and she nodded back as she continued on her way. Until she realized what she had just seen. Then she turned around and sprinted back to us.
“What happened? Is Liam alright?” She sounded so worried that we hurried to reassure her. We allowed Sophia to tell her what happened since it was her love. Once she had told Valeria the whole story we assumed that she would have gone back to doing what she had been doing. That didn’t appear to be the case though. “May I walk with you to the healing room?” We weren’t sure why she would want to walk with us, but we weren’t about to deny her. After we had told her that she could accompany us she thanked us. Since we had expected her to talk to us on the way there we were surprised when she stayed silent. Sending confused looks to each other we finally decided to just go with it. We were almost to the healing room when she finally spoke. “Am I correct in assuming that you aren’t comfortable with only three guards guarding Ari for the next while as Liam heals?” Soft chuckles came from everyone in the group when Valeria addressed this question to Alex. It was almost like she could read his mind. He nodded sheepishly.
“That is correct. However I don’t really want to find a new guard for only a couple of weeks. It would take time to find the right person and then make sure that they are good enough to be part of Ari’s guards. And then by the time we finally get used to having them there, Liam would be ready to retake his position.” A gleam came into Valeria’s eyes and I had a feeling that she already had a solution to our problem. Alex seemed to come to the same conclusion. “Do you have a way to fix our problem?”
Here Valeria hesitated. “I may have a solution to your problem, but I wish to talk with Jonas first to see if he agrees that it is a good idea.” She then bid us a hasty goodbye and rushed away. We were left staring at her back and then at an empty space in shock. None of us had anticipated her doing that. Shrugging we resumed following behind Aeson to the healing room. I was sure that we would be told what was going on when the time was right. Or never if we didn’t need to know. Either way, I was fine with that. When we got inside the healing room Tyler and Casey laid Liam down carefully on one of the beds in the middle of the room. Sophia and Aeson then ran around the room collecting things that they would need to rewrap Liam’s wound. Sophia got the bandages while Aeson got a vial filled with a greenish liquid. Meeting back up at Liam they got to work. First Aeson helped Liam take his shirt off so it wouldn’t get in the way and then spread some of the greenish liquid all over Liam’s stitched up side. Liam gasped when Aeson first started spreading the liquid and we all instinctively moved closer like we could do something to help, but stopped ourselves when his whole body relaxed. Relief shone on all of our faces as we looked to Aeson for an explanation.
He held up the vial. “This is a painkiller. It will only work for a couple of hours until we have to reapply it. It will also speed up the healing process.” Here he had to pause because he could see the hope blossoming on all of our faces. His sigh of regret punctured our bubbles of hope but that hope didn’t completely die until he spoke up again. “When I gave you the timeline of his recovery, that included me knowing about this mixture.” All of our expressions turned to disappointment. I was the first to recover. Taking a deep breath I stood up straight again and looked back at Liam.
“We really appreciate your help Aeson. It pained all of us to see Liam in that much pain so seeing him like this is really great.” Liam cracked his eyes open to peer at me and I could tell that my words really touched him.
“And I really appreciate all of you. Without you I definitely would have died in that fight.” Liam’s words almost made Sophia cry. She teared up but managed to keep them from spilling over. Covering her pain she began wrapping the bandage around Liam. His eyes met hers and they kept eye contact the whole time she was wrapping him up. The moment that she finished Liam grabbed her and pulled her close to him. Sophia met him halfway and the rest of us found things to keep us busy as they kissed. Since there wasn’t much we could do in the healing room we basically just stood there awkwardly with our eyes averted. Liam and Sophia laughed at us after they broke apart and saw how we were acting. They both broke off abruptly when Liam stopped from being in too much pain. As he gasped for breath a little we all went right back to being worried about him. Aeson understood what we were feeling, but he still had to stifle a laugh.
“I am not a miracle worker. I can’t just heal someone immediately. He will still be feeling pain if he does things that he isn’t supposed to do.” Aeson took a moment to glare at Liam here. This almost caused Liam to burst out laughing again which would have made Aeson even more mad at him. The rest of us all bit our bottom lips so that we could hold in our laughter towards their exchange. The worries that had come back as Liam struggled left us again in this moment of levity. There was a knock on the door right after we had all calmed down and weren’t on the verge of laughing. Alex promptly went over to the door and opened it. Outside of it was Valeria. Stepping quickly out of the doorway in order to allow her to walk inside the room, Alex went back to my side. When a man stepped into the room behind her my guards tensed. The only way I could tell was because they all went so still that they almost looked like statues. Even Liam became a statue. If there was trouble I wasn’t quite sure what he would do, but it was apparent he was ready to do something. Without his sword though, it had been taken away from him by Sophia once she knew that he was going to live in order to prevent him from even thinking about doing something he wasn’t supposed to, he would have to be really creative or his opponent would have to be really bad if Liam was going to beat him.
The man who had walked in with Valeria held up his hands in a clear surrender sign when he saw all of my guards tense. Impressed that he had noticed that I gestured for all my guards to stand down. I trusted Valeria and if she had allowed this man in then she must trust him. She noticed my gesture and hurried to speak. “There is no need to fear or protect your charge. Zoran is a friend and I have actually brought him here to solve your problem.” Alex still seemed slightly wary.
“How exactly is he supposed to solve our problem?” It was clear to all of us what the problem they were talking about was, but all of us were clueless as to how Zoran was supposed to solve this problem. Afterall, we had just talked about how if we got a new guard then it would just be annoying because once Liam was better we would just get rid of them.
“Jonas and I have been talking about your problem and we both agreed on this solution as being your best choice."