The Dragon Bond: Heirs of Lyra

Chapter 55

For the next two days Elysia worked nonstop, pretending to evade her guardian. She had a plan. Part of the plan involved pretending to have other plans, and allowing herself to get caught. She climbed out the window of her bedroom three different times, went for a ride only to urge her horse to sprint away from her guardian, tried several distractions on Shade, and even attempted to shoot him with an arrow. None of these plans worked, though one could say that would mean they all worked.

Elysia had no intention of escaping her guardian at this point. She only wanted him to think she was genuinely trying. That way, his guard was up. If his guard was always up, then it was never up all the way. Had Elysia not tried to escape, Shade would be on high alert all the time. Instead, he expected it from her. This made him think her best efforts had already failed.

"This is getting ridiculous," Shade commented as he dragged the Princess back to her bedchambers. She pretended to fight him off. He held her tighter, his grip practically breaking her. He shoved her inside the room, a little too roughly in her opinion. "Enough of this. Your efforts are futile."

"We won't win the war if I don't go," Elysia whined. "Come with me, I would be safe with you."

"While your confidence in my abilities is flattering, you fail to understand the difficulty of the task you so desperately wish to accomplish. Niebla is crawling with patrols, people who are paid to keep Lyrans out of the kingdom and capture anyone who looks like a royal. They also have dragons keeping watch from the sky, looking out for anything suspicious. Not to mention they are on high alert searching for your brother. It's too dangerous, even for someone like me."

This was the first time Elysia had ever heard Shade sound doubtful in his abilities. It almost made her question her plans to go alone...almost.

Her plan was already in motion. She only had a few more steps to carry out. First, she needed to get Shade out of her room.

"I need to take a bath," she stated.

Shade narrowed his eyes. "Are you done trying to escape?" he looked ready to secure a cloth around her mouth and tie her to a chair in the corner. No doubt he was fed up with her attempts to run. The Princess had already made numerous efforts to rid herself of her guardian, to slip from his grasp. The longer she stared at her guardian, the more she noticed his eyes looked tired. It was draining him. Good, she thought to herself. The more tired he was, the more her plan would work.

"For now," she conceded. Fortunately, her guardian granted her wish and left the room. She was certain he was just outside her door, listening in for any more schemes. Little did he know her biggest scheme was already happening.

Yesterday she had slipped a note to Gavin, one of the knights that fawned over her. She made sure to do it when Shade was distracted and made sure she slipped the paper into the knight's hand smoothly and secretly. She had practiced the maneuver for hours the night before, making sure Shade wouldn't have the slightest idea she had done anything.

The note she gave to Gavin had simple instructions. She asked him to retrieve a substance that was deadly to most people. Noxious to some. It was a chemical that dissolved in water, leaving no trace of itself behind. No scent, no powdery residue, only a faint metallic taste. Something most people would overlook.

Fortunately, the knight was head over heels in love with Elysia. Despite having few interactions with her, he would do anything to gain her favor. The Princess decided this would be the very last time she used her beauty for her own benefit.

In the note she gave him, she provided specific instructions for him to put the vile in the dresser in her bedroom while she and Shade went out for a walk. She specifically requested he speak to no one of this note, and make certain he was not seen going into her room. She also added that his quest would not be in vain. She promised him something he could not resist and something she didn't plan on doing.