Chapter One #2
“You know the jewellery stalls are usually every second Monday. I don’t know why you are so surprised.
Why do you need a new necklace so badly, anyway?
You have around twenty already.” Noor began to blush.
Holy Ether! Had someone finally turned her head?
Was she trying to impress them? “Noor, is there something you need to tell me?” I gasped, grabbing her arm gently.
“It’s nothing, really, but I have felt a small connection with Lito.
” He was Xavier’s second in command. Lito seemed like a fairly decent male.
I hadn’t had that many dealings with him, other than watching him train with Xavier.
“Why are you giving me that face?” Noor questioned.
I hadn’t realised I was even pulling a face.
I had been fascinated by the laws of attraction for quite a while now.
What made someone commit themselves to another?
Not a single male had caught my attention, not even Xavier, who I had been promised to.
Don’t get me wrong, he was an attractive male, with a strong, muscular body, short, dirty blond hair, and dazzling light brown eyes, but Xavier hadn’t ignited anything inside me that would allow him to lie with me.
“How do you know there is a connection?”
“You kind of feel it.”
“Where do you feel it?” Why was Noor being so coy?
“Oh, I don’t know, Alora. Stop questioning me!” It was a simple question to me. There had never been anything that Noor and I couldn’t talk about. How was this any different?
“Tell me! I demand to know!” Using my authority wasn’t something I was proud of, but I wanted answers.
“Okay! Okay!” Noor spun around and pulled me into a side alley near the market. “You feel it down there.” She motioned towards her sex and I gasped. That wasn’t an area for our pleasure until we found a male to lay with.
“Please tell me you haven’t tainted yourself, Noor!” Dylin females couldn’t bring themselves pleasure. To do that would offend Nantu and the Holy Ether.
“NO! Of course not. I would never sacrifice my powers!” Relief washed over me. Little was known about the consequences, but powers and souls were rumoured to have been taken in the past. “It’s an urge. That’s the only way I can describe it, and I’m desperate for Lito to help me calm it.”
“You’re still making no sense,” I giggled, pulling her back into the market square. The hood from my cloak fell to my shoulders. A few faces around us gasped as they realised who I was.
“Princess Alora!” They all began to chant around me, reaching out to touch my silver hair.
“We are so honoured.” When Noor got pushed out of the way, I called out to her.
The mob was growing larger and more aggressive.
“Praise Ether. You will be our saviour.” I was becoming lost in a sea of bodies as they all tried to reach for me.
“Stop crowding the Princess,” a strong male voice called.
My eyes snapped up to see Xavier pushing his way through the crowd effortlessly.
“Give her some room! Anyone that touches her will answer to me!” When he lifted me into his strong embrace, I wrapped my arms around his neck.
“How many times have your father and I told you that you must be chaperoned when you visit the market?” he scolded.
Worry lines appeared on his forehead as he gazed down at me.
“I have a pending war raging with General Nox. I can’t afford to be worrying about you, too. ”
“I’m sorry. I was with Noor.” I motioned behind me where she had suddenly appeared.
“You can’t send a female to do a male’s job, Alora.”
“Alora and I have been to the market plenty of times with no issue. I do have powers, Xavier! I’m more than capable of looking after her!”
“It shows,” he seethed towards her. “Can you give Alora and I a moment? I need to speak with her in private.” Noor didn’t give him so much as a glance as she stormed off, using her powers to kick some dust into his face.
“You really should try harder with her,” I suggested. He was still carrying me, so I gathered he was taking me back to the palace.
“She is nothing to me. I have no need to be on her good side. You, however, are a priority.”
“Because you are my father’s right hand man?” It always made me wonder where Xavier’s loyalties lay. Did he care about me because of who I was or what I was? A descendant of the light guardian bloodline was a high prize for any Dylin male.
“You know it’s more than that. When your powers materialise, you will finally understand. We could be as magnificent as your mother and father.”
“I am not yours yet. What if I connect with another that I wish to bond with?”
“Alora, you will bond with no other. Zohar has forbidden it. You, sweet Princess, are mine. When you are ready to be bedded, the only male that will be deflowering you is me!”
“I have no choice?” The burning desire to find my own destiny had been playing on my mind a lot lately. Life with Xavier wasn’t what I wanted, but I was trapped.
“We have to strengthen ourselves against the Noxlin. Our wars will have many casualties if we don’t. You have my word: one day, we will take down the Noxlin bloodline together, and we will finally be free of our enemy.”
“I want that, too—more than you could ever know—but wouldn’t I be more powerful if I trained in battle and used my powers with it, as you do?”
“Alora,” Xavier let me slide down his body as I found my feet again, “we have been through this countless times. You are female and of direct Dylin bloodline. Your father forbids it.”
“Can’t you make him see sense?”
“Not on this. I don’t want you trained in battle.”
“Maybe I’ll pay my father a visit and see what his decision is!” Rage soared through me. “You don’t make all the rules!”
“He wants to keep you safe, as do I. Losing your mother was enough for him. He won’t risk losing a daughter, too.”
“Perhaps if my mother had been trained for battle, she might have stood a chance against the darkness.” I never understood my father’s refusal to allow females to train in combat.
“Is that what this is about? You think Duska could have fought it? Alora, it was pure darkness that overcame her. It suffocated over two thousand Dylins in a matter of minutes. None of us stood a chance. It wasn’t about one-on-one combat. We had to retreat.”
“Did you see her fall?” My voice was but a whisper as we reached the side entrance to the palace. It didn’t matter how many times I had heard this story, I still tried to dissect it in my mind over and over.
“No. The darkness had already taken her. When your father and I searched the battlefields for her the next day, there was no trace of her. The Noxlin must have taken her back to their city as a trophy.” If that was the case, when I was strong enough, I would take the Noxlin city down and bring her body back to give her the burial she deserved.
“You have to stop carrying this guilt around. What could a mere princess have done, anyway? Even if you had come into your powers, you are no match for General Nox and the Noxlin royalty. They are the strongest of them all. They would split you in half in a heartbeat with or without your powers. This is why you must leave the battles to me and my army. I will win this war for you, Alora.”
We were back inside the main area of the palace now. A few servants bowed as they walked past Xavier and me.
“Have you thought anymore about who you want to accompany you on your pilgrimage to The Barren Lands?” Xavier asked as we entered the great hall. I was already in search of my father.
“I will be happy with any warrior that you see fit to send with me.” It was still months away, but it was a right of passage for all Dylin females to pilgrimage and pay their respects to Nantu, the moonlight goddess on the sacred mountain.
“I would go with you myself if our borders weren’t constantly under attack.”
“Asking a general to accompany me would be abusing my power.” He gazed down at me, disappointed.
“Is that all you see me as? You’re general?” Xavier gripped my arm, pulling us behind a pillar so we were out of view. “Why won’t you let me in?” He put an arm on either side of me, trapping me against his body. “You have no idea how beautiful you are. Every male in this city desires you.”
“Why would that matter to me, when my fate has already been decided by you and my father? I have no choice in any of this. What about choosing my own fate?”
“Any other female would see me as a great prize. The general of a great army. Second hand to the King. Why do you torture me so?”
“I don’t do it intentionally.” His grip on me tightened.
“I need to get to my father. Let me pass, Xavier.” This conversation would have to wait for another time.
I didn’t have the answers for him. All I knew was that I felt nothing for the male in front of me. To me, he was just my father’s general.
“Of course, Princess.” He sighed, dropping his arms that had been holding me prisoner. I could feel his eyes on me as I walked away.
Wandering around the Palace, I found my father in the bathing pool with his mistress, Elin. She was a lot younger than him, with tanned skin and long blonde hair. Her eyes were the shade of moonlight.
“Alora, my darling!” my father called when he noticed me.
“Why don’t you join us? The water temperature is invigorating.
” His short silver hair was glistening in the midday sun as he bathed.
Being more than three hundred thousand years old, he looked older than a lot of us, but still had his youthful features.
“Maybe another time. I have only come to ask about the battle training. Have you given it some thought?” Xavier might have said no, but my father had the final decision. I had been pleading with him for months now. He looked towards Elin and then back at me.
“Xavier and I spoke about it. I don’t think it’s something the princess should be doing.
Wielding a sword...it’s not the impression I want to give.
Not to mention, if anything were to happen to you on the battlefield, my bloodline would be lost. I can’t risk you.
” Was that all he cared about? His bloodline.
“What if it helped me come into my powers? I’ve been getting really dull sparks on my fingertips. Wielding a light sword might help them to finally manifest.”
“You are one thousand, five hundred years old, Alora. You are still young. Your powers will come when the time is right. I can’t see how sword wielding would help your powers along any faster.
In my three hundred thousand years, I’ve never heard of such a thing.
” Elin whispered in his ear and he chucked.
“You’re more suited to your harp playing, Alora.
Perhaps you should concentrate on that.” Elin seemed more in his ear than usual. With a defeated sigh, I nodded.
With my birthright, I had all this power at my fingertips, but felt as trapped as a bird in a cage. Would I get to make any decisions with my life?