Sixty two
Gwenn Pov
My head felt like burst from the knowledge that was flashing through my head, the closer I got to the camp, my people were in. Hundreds and thousands of things, I never knew existed not to talk of need to learn ran through my mind and sank in my brain, most of them were powerful words… not spells. My brain provided me with the right word to use.
“Are you okay mistress?” Sorens asked in worry behind me.
I wanted to laugh, how do you define okay anymore? My life had stopped being okay a while ago when I was wedded into Northshore. My best friend died for me, my husband was probably on top of another lady at this moment, I just learnt that my new people were not demons but something close to, I had a war to fight and I could not even be left alone to mourn. I didn’t bother to try and answer Sorens question because it was clear that I was not okay.
I got to the camp to meet the rest of the legion on their knees staring at me in marvel the same way that Sorens had looked at me. “What’s going on? Why am I being stared at like that?” I asked.
“You are the mistress.” Came the simple reply, it was in the same way they replied before, that seems as if they were all talking at once but to me it was now normal, something life changing happened to me when Elison died and that life changing event was related to my new people.
“And you all really could not realize this before Elison died for me, could you?” I said bitterly and when the army before me bowed their head and I turned to look at Sorens who had tears in his face. “What?”
“Since we took the oath, we have never felt anything… we have lost our blood in battle, watch our mothers cry and never felt anything, but we feel your pain Mistress. We mourn for the loss of the commander too.” Sorens explained. My brows farrowed as I tried to read meaning into what he said but I could not, maybe it was because I was now the ruler, I didn’t spend much time in Northshore to observe other legion commanders like me but I noticed that they were inhumane, maybe the reason my legion could feel my emotions was because I was more humane than them, I chalked it up to my being different and put it away from my mind, that will be something that I would worry about when I get to my husband kingdom later.
“We are going to fight the Erisean army and you will do everything in your power to make sure that we will win, no other option will be accepted okay?” I commanded as their head touched the floor in front of me.
“As the mistress desires, we will die trying to achieve her desires.” They all chorus and I was struck dumb at it, so all I had to do was to be pompous and not give them a choice and then they would have obeyed? Everything has been pointing to the fact that maybe I was the reason why Elison was dead now, if only I had reached this current stage whatever it was then, Elison would still be joking round and tempting Sorens to put his dagger in him by touching me whenever Sorens was around. I know now that I was the cause of his death.
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I learnt five new things over the course of the next few days, some of them pleasant, others not so.
My legion magic was insane, the battle was over before it began.
We had to take out the king of Erisea, he was a magician, a powerful Dark one according to my people because they could sense remnants of the protective spells, he used for his army when fighting.
Although we defeat the bulk of the army, the ones remaining are going to be the hardest to kill since they are going to be in close proximity with their king who was protecting his people.
Themis was right about nipping the whole thing in the bud, I and Orel wanted to do nothing more than to stay with Elison ashes because we burnt the body but we still had duties to do.
Themis was hiding something.
I don’t know what it was but it was something big and it has to do with where we are going, she was being so subtle about it that I never thought anything about it because I am still feeling sorry for myself until we woke up this morning only to discover that Themis is missing along with Cory, there was no doubt in our mind about what she went to do, we were riding hard as if our lives depended on it and given Orel’s rage, if anything happens to Themis, our lives were going to be in danger but there was no way possible we could catch up with two people, we were an army moving together because we could not afford to leave some people behind.
“…Of all foolhardy things that she has done, this takes the cake.” Orel rants besides me.
“You would not have married her if she didn’t do a foolhardy thing.” I replied him, rolling my eyes, Orel has been doing nothing but complaining and raging when if he has been paying attention, he would have noticed the signs she gave him, hell I noticed them and I don’t sleep with her every night, she have been acting weird and doing as if she was saying goodbye.
“What do you mean?” Orel asked sharply, normally his tone would have made me rethink my next words but right now I could not care, Orel will always be my big brother and I owed it to him to be blunt and to myself, I was a ruler now, I cannot cower to another kingdom ruler, that will be doing my kingdom a great injustice.
“If she hadn’t done the foolhardy thing of trying to outrun you and had simply laid on her back for you to have your way with her then you would not have married her.” I pointed out.
“True but still, she is pregnant…” Orel started.
“Doesn’t mean that she is invalid, I am sure that she can take out an enemy just as fast as you and it would be because she is pregnant and has the protective instinct of a mother to protect her child.” I tell him as he nods.
“Still I am worried about her, I cannot lose her Gwenn.” Orel breathes sounding not like a warlord but a terrified little boy, something that Orel had never sounded like in his life.
“You and I both but she is probably safer right now than any of us.” I tell him.
“How do you mean.” Orel voiced as I stare at him in shock, he could not be this distracted.
“I am sure that you must have noticed that tower, that the palace of the king of Erisea, he had already seen us approach, they will be waiting for us. Themis isn’t here and it seems like only she will have the power to take out the king.” I explained.
“Crap.” Orel cursed.
“Don’t worry about your wife Orel, she has a good head on her shoulders and she has a third eye watching and guiding her.”
“Cory?” Orel said with distaste.
“No, her goddess.” I replied simply and kept quiet, I was done talking. Orel could handle the rest of his thought process by himself.
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THEMIS POV
The fight rage on outside… Cory had been struck down a while ago when a guard had smelled foul play and he wanted to protect me, I have to end this fast so that I can finally have peace of mind, I opened the door of the bedchamber of the king only to see him by the window sipping tea.
“Came to kill me right.” The king asked not removing his eyes from the window where I am sure that he is watching the fight.
“Yes I did, you disturbed my empire and the gods are not happy about that tidbit.” I said bravely even though it was a lie, I didn’t know about other god’s just mine and I knew that she wasn’t happy with the threat because if she was, she would not have helped us so far.
“What do you know about gods little girl, I am the only god here.” The king said with an evil look on his face.
“No, you are not a god, you are not even blest by one, you are just a human who dabbled in Dark arts and wish to rule the world… that will never work.” I inform him, I was not worried about this, I was the only one who could kill the king because he could not get into my head, he could fill me up with self-doubt about the future and make my will weak so he can take control of my mind.
“I have nothing to prove to you, you see my power and the strength of my force and say that I am not a god…”
“Yes.” I answered him cutting him short. “Yes, even with all these you are not a god, my husband have exactly what you have but he doesn’t go around calling himself a god. Yes because gods don’t need someone to fight their battle for them, they don’t need armies and yes because gods cannot die, you will die today”
“I can have you killed, where you stand.”
“Try.” Themis said and when the man closed his eyes Themis advanced towards him.
“You should not be able to come towards me, the barrier…” the king said slowly losing his cool.
“Is still there.” Themis answered as she sat close to the king.
“I can break your neck…”
“It would not work, you know that. Just like you know that I can kill you.” Themis said.
“Your husband will replace you easily if you die.” The king said adding a weave of Dark magic in the words, this was the king greatest power, something he didn’t often do but it was lethal.
To any other person, no matter how strong willed he is, doubt would have started to creep in but not for me, not when the future plays out in my head at his every word. Orel would not marry after me, if anything happens to me at this battle, he would leave the position of the warlord, retire early and leave out the rest of his days alone with only visiting Gwenn on rare occasions… also he killed Estrid in a foul mood.
“You will be completely forgotten and laughed about, your memory will be in shambles, all these would not happen if you don’t strike me for only me can protect you.” The king said.
I smiled at that, he would kill me the moment he got his hand on the dagger I was holding, a dagger which contain poison of likes no one has ever seen, the dagger which killed Elison, it seems fitting to bury it in the heart of the cruel so I did without any sign that that was what I was going to do. “I don’t need your protection. I got the protection of a goddess and I don’t care about any other thing you mentioned.” I waited patiently until the light fade from his eyes, no fight was given because he never saw me as a threat that was the biggest mistake he could ever make. I yank the dagger out of his heart and opened the window, took his crown from his head and threw in into the battle happening in the courtyard… it took a while but when the Erisean saw the crown, they slowly stop fighting and went on their knees while gazing at me, the glint of the dagger caught the sun everything I shifted my hand…they knew their king was dead.