Chapter 4 #2
“Heal her,” Orithyia ordered the healer.
The woman bent over her leg and began her work.
Aurora gasped as the fiery pain of the healing magic began.
The paladin behind her clamped a hand over her mouth.
Aurora sank her nails into the woman’s leather arm guard as she screamed against her hand.
Orithyia raised a brow at the paladin as tears clouded Aurora’s vision.
“When Stentor left, so did the soldier who muffled the sound,” the paladin explained.
The healing was slow agony. It might have been less awful if she’d merely cauterized every gaping hole. As it was, Aurora feared her heart might give out before the woman was done.
“Aurora, you must be more cunning than this if you’re to win the support of the Viridian soldiers.
As it stands, you’ll be lucky if they’d be willing to spit on you should you catch fire,” Orithyia sighed.
“During the next vision you give, you must be quick-witted enough to spin whatever you see in the recipient’s favour.
I won’t always be able to salvage the situation for you if you foresee death and destruction. ”
The healer paused in her grim task, wiping sweat from her brow. The paladin removed their hand from Aurora’s mouth long enough for her to speak.
“You think I can gather my wits when my leg’s been maimed?” she hissed.
“Then perhaps we should, at the very least, not show them your visions with a mind’s eye stone. You’ll have the chance to regain your composure and relay what you’ve seen with your words.”
“And do what? Lie?” she whimpered as the healer resumed.
Orithyia stamped her cane on the ground.
“If you must! Drakon and the other great serpents must be slain. Trisia’s survival depends on it.
You need the soldiers more than you need a clean conscience!
” she snapped. “Trust that I will beseech my goddess for forgiveness on your behalf for every lie you speak to spare Her people’s lives.
I think the Divine Triad will understand the necessity, given They sent you here for this very purpose. ”
Why must it always be her pain and suffering which were minimized for the greater good? Why couldn’t any of this be easy and simple? Why must Orithyia always be right?
Another paladin entered the tent in a flurry of movement and knelt before Orithyia.
“Your Holiness, the king has left Myrina’s tent.”
“Then our time is at an end,” Orithyia said. She looked tellingly at the state of Aurora’s leg, the job of healing incomplete, her lips pursing. “Bandage it as well as you can. And you”— she looked to the paladin—“get her back to that tent as swiftly as possible.”
The moment the healer tied the rough bandage around her still-bleeding leg, the paladin grabbed Arora by the waist and hauled her from the tent.
She felt like a much-abused sack of grain as she was dragged through the camp, biting her lip to keep from crying out in discomfort.
By the time she was roughly shoved back into the tent and the split in the fabric repaired through wild magic, Aurora was dizzy and nauseous.
She stumbled into the bed and pulled the covers over her, praying the bandages wouldn’t soak through in the night.
And not a moment too soon. Theron strode through the front entrance, a dark scowl on his face.
“We need to talk.”
Of course they did.
“Tomorrow.”
“No. Tonight.”
“I’m not leaving the bed.”
“Childish, petty…” he grumbled, grabbing one of the chairs and slamming it down in front of her.
He sat and folded his arms as he glared.
“I’ll keep it brief, then. Whether anyone cares to treat you as such, you are now a princess of Viridis.
The…civility of our marriage affects more than just your feelings.
It affects the likelihood of war between my kingdom and this wretched excuse for a queendom.
The moment you became a princess of Viridis, your duty became one of keeping the peace between realms. Do not expect to wear a crown and shirk the obligations it entails. ”
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, his tone softening almost imperceptibly.
“If you can’t see your way to treating me with any respect, then at the very least consider the lives that will be lost if you incite a war during a cycle of chaos.
I’m willing to play my part—protecting you and treating you with whatever respect your actions earn.
That includes protecting you from being Flora’s sacrificial lamb in her quest for the Dragon’s Flank.
I hope we can come to an understanding.” He eyed her guardedly.
He didn’t want to talk, he wanted to force her to listen to his lecture.
Where did he get off spouting nonsense about protecting the peace of Trisia when he was creating the beasts that would rip it to shreds?
But she didn’t have the energy for a fight.
Not now, when her leg pained her and her strength was failing her.
“What kind of understanding?”
“That you give me a chance to prove your suspicions wrong. And that when I do, you agree to send the Viridians back to the holes they’ve crawled out of.”
He wanted to give himself time to craft another lie to bamboozle her with, is what he wanted.
To send away the only hope she had of truly slaying Drakon.
The one she’d just paid in blood and agony to secure.
Aurora closed her eyes. She wanted to argue, but she could barely string her thoughts together.
“Do what you want. Now let me rest.”
It was a dismissal he took surprisingly well, if the angry grumbling was anything to go by. When he finally slipped under the covers, Aurora did her best not to whimper. Every movement was agonizing.
“You’re in pain. Why?” he asked, his tone suspicious.
Her heart seized in her chest. She reached for the only lie that might put him off.
“It’s my monthly courses. Just…leave me in peace.”
She held her breath, waiting to see if he would accept her lie.
“I’ll have the attendants bring you rags and a medicinal tea,” he said, levering himself from the bed.
“I’m fine for now,” she stopped him. “I don’t want to move.”
“Very well, I’ll have them brought in the morning.”
Aurora sighed, relieved. But as the night wore on, she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep despite her exhaustion. An hour passed and she knew from the cadence of Theron’s breaths he’d not yet fallen asleep.
“I can help with the pain,” he whispered.
“Just…leave me alone.”
He grumbled and turned away from her.
When she was certain he’d fallen asleep, she gritted her teeth and let the tears fall.
It was going to be a long night.