The Druid Wielder

Chapter 20

The morning of the fight arrived faster than any other day. The entire camp was bustling as soon as the sun peeked over the desert mounds. Palleas and Carther came to my tent to greet me.

"My, you look like a warrior," Palleas said as he entered.

The Brothers had supplied me with chest chain mail that reflected the morning sun. Upon hearing that I was the daughter of Lord Dazaron they must have thought it humorous to provide me with armor fit for a Lady. Regardless of the reason, I appreciated having some armor over none, which is usually what happens. If it weren't for the battle that would begin moments from now, my concern would be that the Brothers would disclose my location to my father. However, this was not the time to think of such trivial things. I needed to beat Trogan and survive.

"Are you ready?" Carther asked.

I took a deep breath. Yes, I wanted to say, but my nerves kept my lips sealed shut.

"Keep breathing. You can do this. Where he has brawn, you have brains. Remember that."

I nodded. He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me in for a hug.

"Choose the sword on the right." Carther whispered.

He patted me, then left. Palleas wished me luck then quickly followed.

My hands resumed shaking, and my heart began to thump wildly in my chest.

"Ezailia." Kana snuck into the tent. With furrowed brows, she looked around.

"Kana, what's wrong?"

"You can't go into this match. You can't fight Trogan." She walked up to me.

"What are you talking about? What do you mean?"

She gripped my arm.

"My black bottle, it's gone. I usually have it hidden, but I thought I saw Beatra leave my tent and when I checked it was gone."

"What?" She wasn't making any sense.

"Ezailia. Inside the black bottle is Amaranth."

My brows raised.

I thought about what she was saying. Amaranth had quite the story for those who knew about it. An author many years back published a tome describing a beautiful purple flower, known as the Amaranth, a plant providing immortality if consumed. The rumor spread throughout Galasia and in no time the woods filled with many who dared to live forever. Soon most of the Amaranth plant had vanished as did the people who found it. My father used to say, "the blind who learn to see, will discover they can no longer speak," meaning those that attain their dream will most likely forfeit something else along the way. In this case, those who desired to have everlasting life discovered soon after that the flower was a deadly poison. Over a thousand people died that year to Amaranth poisoning. The man who published the book was found later as a crazy old kook who had gone mad after the fact that he made his entire family consume the beautiful flower.

"You think Beatra is trying to poison me?" I asked Kana. I thought about what I ate earlier. I felt fine. Besides, I hadn't seen Beatra at all this morning, which might also be a bad thing if Kana was correct.

"Yes, Beatra has been very suspicious lately, so I've been keeping my eyes on her." She explained.

"Well, we should probably explain this to the Blood Brothers-"

"No! They can not know. I am not even supposed to have the poison. Please."

Why did she have it? Was she hiding something just like the rest of us? It was weird to think so. She seemed so innocent. Then again she had to be placed in this camp for a reason. This just proved to me that I was placing trust in people before I had a right to.