Forged in Frost and Fire (Book 1 in the Chronicles of Kings trilogy)

Chapter Four

-Part Two-

THE KILLERS OF KINGS

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

I dreamed of my sister. Of her and Heather, well, mostly of Heather. In my dream I saw Heather crying, she was holding some sort of dress to her chest, her chin wobbling as she let out sobs. I had heard Heather cry before, she was a soft soul, afterall. She cried after she saw a hawk kill a bunny, regardless of how many times I assured her that was just the circle of life. Or whenever she saw one of us bring in a fresh kill from the forest. She still ate the meat because Heather wasn't dumb, it was either that or starve.

In this dream though Heather was sobbing so hard it was practically like she was screaming. She was trembling, a vein popping out of her forehead. And behind her, I saw Tellie, she was reaching out to her girlfriend as if to touch her, but her fingers ended up inches away, as if she physically wasn't able to. I tried to shout out to both of them, to ask them what was going on, but they didn't hear me. Or maybe they did and they were too absorbed with one another. I awoke before I could figure out the dream.

When I did move into the world of the waking, I heard voices. My eyes shot open and I reached under my pillow for my dagger, it was in my hands before I could totally process what was going on. My eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light of my room and I recognized where I was. The underground, where Elda had brought me. I was in my bed, wrapped up in the soft quilt that was atop the sheets. I was warm. I was safe. Well, as safe as I could be.

I slowly pulled myself out of bed and stretched, my back popping in an array of ways. I grimaced and padded over to where I had left my cloak when I saw a stack of clothes atop the dresser. They weren't there when I fell asleep. I glanced over at the door to see it was still locked. Okay, that was extremely weird.

There was a note on the clothes that said, Get dressed, six o' clock, remember? Somehow I knew Elda had written it. I rolled my eyes, rummaging through the clothes to make sure there was nothing hiding within them before slipping them on. They were nice. The clothes were all warm and made out of a soft material that practically hugged me. It was like heaven. The outfit was a simple tunic and pants and woolen socks, but I felt like a princess with them on. I slipped on my old boots, lacing them on before tucking my dagger inside. The weight of it against my ankle was a familiar, comforting presence.

I walked over to the door and pressed my ear against it. The wood muffled the noises so I couldn't make out any words, but I could hear voices. Maybe three of them? Anxiety nipped at me and made my heart pound against my ribs. I could do this. Maybe it was a stupid decision, but something inside of me made me want to trust Elda, so whoever she had out there wouldn't harm me. And if so, well then I guess I'd have to do another performance like that of which I did to the drunken mongrel who tried to harass me yesterday. And now that I had food in my belly and I was actually warm I was much stronger. I could take on an attacker. Hopefully.

I swallowed down my fear and unlocked the door, and cracked it open slowly. The smell of food assaulted my nostrils first and I felt that ravenous hunger come back out to play. I ignored the feeling and instead focused on what was before me. Three people. All of them sitting at the round table next to the pool table. They were all laughing and talking, it was Elda, and a woman and a man, neither of which I recognized. They were both beautiful, one was a woman who appeared to be from the Asian continents, she was easily the most gorgeous being I had ever seen. She had short black hair and wicked green eyes. Her features were delicate, yet sharply honed, as if she could dance and kill with equal amounts of grace. She looked old yet young, like her body appeared to be that of someone in the mid twenties, but her eyes...her eyes had such depth to them.