Chapter 32 Alfrie
Chapter thirty-two
Alfrie
Screams and cries of pain and death ring in my ears.
The heat alone, from the flames that swallow my entire universe will burn me alive.
I’m running toward her, knowing I’m too late yet I race through a sea of headless bodies and billows of smoke that come from every corner of my world.
My lungs burn and I struggle for air. I look back over my shoulder at the giant monster who's chasing after me.
His black eyes hold no depth. No soul. Only hatred and malice and the desire to see my body added to the death count.
I know his wrinkled face. He knows mine.
I run even faster, tripping over a root in the dirt and my body flails through the air and lands with a thud next to a burning hut.
Pain tears at my shoulder and I roll to my side, forcing myself to get up. To get to her before the monster does.
She wails from the other side of the leather flap of our hut, and I crawl on my hands and knees, sinking deeper into the mud with every movement.
I won’t make it. The creature's closing in and will kill us both. I can’t do anything to stop it.
I’m completely covered in the mud from the sinkhole up to my neck and I descend deeper and deeper into the ground until I’m buried alive.
Her screaming is muffled now and as my world fades away, her hazel eyes are the last thing I see in this lifetime.
“Zara!” My eyes shoot open, and I claw at my chest, gulping in the air. My heart is pounding, and I sit up in a panic. There’s no burning village. No screams of terror. Nor am I dead. I don’t think, anyway.
I collapse back down on the bed that I’m in and gaze up at a celestial paradise of stars painted on the ceiling above me.
I don’t recognize the room, but it’s definitely made for a royal.
I’m lying in a canopied bed with red velvet curtains tied to large oak posts with golden ropes.
Voices mumble all around, but I can’t pinpoint where they come from or who they belong to.
Suddenly, scared hazel eyes hover above me. Glowing like gold in the candlelight. Zara. Her beautiful lips tighten in a grim line and worry creases her brow. “Alfrie? You cried out. Are you okay? How do you feel?”
I search her face and my gaze flits around the room again making sure it’s real, anxiety and adrenaline still plaguing me.
My breathing slows, and I close my eyes.
It was all a dream. A fever dream. Thank the gods.
I must've gotten ill. Relived my past. Imagined an attack. Imagined fighting Unseelie soldiers.
Of course, I was dreaming.
Pain courses through my shoulder and travels down my spine causing me to lurch and roll into the fetal position. I brush my fingers over the area where the sting originated and wince. My hand is moist with blood and poison.
I didn’t imagine anything.
Masseda was attacked. I was hit. Fae died.
“Alfrie?” Zara lightly skims her fingers over my temple as though I’m a sick child. I close my eyes, comforted as she strokes my hair. “He’s soaked with sweat.” She turns and addresses someone else in the room.
Leer. She moves away from me, and Leer leans over to have a look at my wound. His eyebrows knit together, and his eyes are dark with exhaustion.
I sigh sending fire through my veins. He’s okay. Zara's okay. I roll onto my back. “You’re alive.” My voice doesn’t sound like my own, and I’m not sure if it’s even audible.
“You were shot with poison. I tried to replicate the antidote you made with the healer after Emlyn was attacked. As best as I could remember, anyhow.” Leer stands with his hands on his hips, assessing me and then reaches for a damp cloth, pressing it to my forehead.
“The healer—” I try, but it hurts. Everything hurts.
“Dead.”
Dead. There's no emotion in his tone. It is simply a matter of fact. Dead. I attempt to push myself up again but fail. “Who else…did anyone else…”
“The king. King Jeffery. And many of the servants and guards.” There's a faraway look in his eye resembling regret.
I should’ve gone to find Leer instead of Emlyn. I could have fought off more soldiers. Saved more lives.
“Alfrie, can you tell me the ingredients you used for the antidote? I want to be sure I did it right. We need to leave for Lanray as soon as possible. Once they realize the royal families haven’t been annihilated, the soldiers will come back to finish what they started.”
I nod weakly and rattle off what the healer and I concocted for Emlyn.
I think of Emlyn then, remembering getting her and Zara into the tunnels and helping Alix fight off an Unseelie soldier.
The soldier’s face. I knew his face. From my past. From my nightmares.
“Where is Alix?” I ask into my pillow. I can’t lift my head again. The pain is too intense.
“He’s fine.” Leer frowns and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Don’t worry about that right now. Rest. I’m going to check my elixir and I’ll be back to pour some more on your shoulder.” He gets up from the bed and fades into the background that blurs around me.
Everything is spinning. And I’m on fire.
More voices sound from everywhere and nowhere all at once, and a weight settles next to me on the blanket.
I blink my eyes open, but everything is cloudy.
I can’t quite make out her face, but I know it’s Zara.
“I’m sorry about your father,” I whisper.
She leans close to my ear and the sweet aromas of lavender and citrus fill my nostrils.
I love lavender. And citrus.
“Thank you for keeping me safe,” Her melodic voice is soft along the shell of my ear, and her fingers gently stroke my hair.
In this moment, I know that I am wholly enraptured by her. I am hers. Completely.
Even if she will never be mine.
I try to hold my eyes open. Try to tell her that I would do it again without thought. Without care even if I died in the process. “I…I—” But the words don’t come, and my eyes flutter with the effort of trying to stay awake.
“Shh…rest.”
And I do.
When I wake, the blackness of night darkens the bed chamber and there’s only a single lantern lit in the corner of the room.
I open my eyes to the sound of voices, and I stare up at the ceiling of stars.
I’m drenched in sweat but there's little pain from my wound.
The murmuring around me is muffled then clears after several moments.
The voices belong to Leer and Alix. I hear them, but I can’t see them. I struggle to sit up in bed, dizziness sweeping in. I shut my eyes to ward off the queasiness in my gut. The room is empty except for the two males discussing plans to leave this court at first light.
“The horses ran out into the pasture during the attack, so at least we have means to travel.” Alix sits in an armchair, leaning forward, with his forearms resting on his knees.
His black hair is disheveled and there are deep lines under his eyes.
He appears to have aged twenty years in the last couple of days.
“I just don’t understand why they would simply—leave. Why not take the palace?”
Leer drags a hand over his face. “I have no idea. None of this makes sense. Where were they the last decade?”
They are silent for a minute, then Alix leans back in the chair.
“One of the servants is loading up a carriage, but it’s only large enough for the females and Alfrie, if he is still unable to stay awake longer than ten minutes at a time.
The other servants and the three of us will ride alongside the carriage. ”
Have I been in and out of consciousness? I remember the burning in my chest and stomach as the poison flooded my bloodstream. I remember Leer asking about the antidote…I remember Zara…
Leer rests his head against the back of the armchair he's lounging in. “We should have left immediately after the first attack.” He says this more to himself than to Alix.
Alix doesn’t respond, but his jaw twitches slightly. He probably blames himself, but it wasn’t up to him. King Jeffery could have forced us all to leave.
But he didn’t.
Now he’s dead.
I clear my throat and wince at the burn. I reach for a glass of water that's by the bed, but before I can grab it, Leer's there and passes it to me.
“Welcome back.”
I try to hold the glass, but my grip is too weak, and I flush in embarrassment as he holds it to my lips. “Thanks.” My head is so heavy. I lean back onto the headboard, barely able to keep my eyes open. “How long have I been out?”
He sets the glass back down on the table. “Almost two days. You’ve woken a couple of times, but you were talking nonsense. Something about a monster…and a rag doll? I think you said something about a village at one point.”
My throat is on fire, as though long jagged nails scrape against it each time I speak. I swallow. “I—I don’t remember that.”
He nods. “I’m sure you don’t. Do you think you’ll be strong enough to travel tomorrow? We’re hoping to leave for Lanray before the sun comes up. The soldiers haven’t returned, but I don’t trust that they won’t soon.”
“I think so.”
“Good. I’m going to help my father to get everything ready. Alix can stay if you need him to.”
I shake my head feebly. “No. I’m okay.”
“Okay. Then I’m going have him come down to help round up the horses. I’ll check on you this evening.” Leer inches the glass closer to me then motions to Alix and they leave me alone in the massive bedroom.
Monsters and a village. The rag doll. I struggle a bit and reach into my pocket, pulling out the doll I found in the woods. It hasn’t left my person since. I sigh in relief that it’s still safe and sound and I tuck it back into my pocket before weakly falling onto the pillow again.
I must’ve been having fever dreams as the medicine took its time to rid my body of the poison. I vaguely recall the first nightmare. I was sinking in mud trying to get to…to whom? My mother? But I don’t remember seeing my mother’s face as I sunk below the earth.
It was Zara.
I imagine her golden eyes flickering in the faint glow of the candle near my bed and feel her warmth next to me when I close my eyelids. I drift off to sleep with the image of her in my mind.