The Druid Wielder

Chapter 31

Fire engulfed the entire camp. My heart pounded in my chest, terrified. Had I really woken up or was I still in the nightmare?

I gripped my sword tightly. Something wasn't right.

"Teren! Iliyana!" I shouted out. I didn't care who I found, I just wanted to see someone. KuRath must have attacked at night. Right? My dream last night was just a nightmare. It couldn't have been related. It must surely be a coincidence. I stopped in the midst of the ashy fog.

If I hadn't paused to catch where I was, I wouldn't have heard the whispering of my name through the flames. My eyes scanned the fire until they spotted a gray silhouette approaching.

Illyana walked out coughing. Ash covered her body, her shirt was soaked with blood and recent tears soaked her cheeks. She looked up at me.

"What happened?" I asked her.

She didn't respond. I saw her hands form fists and a dark gaze spread across her eyes.

"How dare you act as if you did nothing." She pulled out her sword.

"Illyana, what are you talking about?" I took a step back.

"You killed Bazel! You killed everyone!"

"Illyana." Teren grabbed her shoulders.

"Let me go! She deserves to die, too!" She struggled against Teren.

I heard someone behind me. They grabbed me and threw me forward. I fell to the ground.

"Hey!" I yelled at them. It was Nathanael and Gretchan. They held my arms. "What are you doing?" I asked. Since when were they here? Especially here at the assassin's camp. I looked to Teren for help but he avoided my plee.

"Take her away." It was Prince Andrion's voice. He walked in front of me. I lifted my head towards him. "I'm sorry, Emilea. Until we can decide if you are guilty of the crimes they accuse you of, you will be detained."

Crimes? Like what Illyana said? I didn't kill Bazel. I never would. But I didn't say this. I suddenly found silence in my voice.

"She killed them." Illyana collapsed to the ground. Teren crouched down with her.

My eyes wandered. There were burned bodies everywhere. How had I not noticed it before?

I suddenly found myself nauseous. Deep down, in the nightmare that haunted me last night, there was a pang of swallowing guilt that led me to believe everything they said about me was true. Was it true? Had I done this? Why? The vision of KuRath flashed through my memory.

"It was KuRath! I saw KuRath. It must have been him." Nathanael and Gretchan began pulling me away. I desperately looked around. Why was no one listening? "Why would I do this? I'm not a killer!"

~

It came again in the night. The nightmare. This time it was different. The burning bodies had faces. I saw them all. I saw each person I cut down. I swung and swung until there before me was Bazel. Just as Illyana had accused.

"Emilea, wake up, this isn't you. Please stop. You are killing our family!" Bazel yelled at me. Unlike the others, his body was not on fire. I watched him grab my arm. His touch was cold as ice. I recoiled and screamed. It burned. Somehow it burned my entire body. He stepped closer.

"Get back!"

He didn't listen.

"I will hurt you!"

He reached out for me once more. My arms swung without warning. His body collapsed to the hell below. As did I.

I woke up crying. The cold shackles bound my wrists together as I lay on the ground, alone in a tent they put me in. My eyes drifted over to a long object that lay near the entrance. My sword. I observed it closely. It appeared different in the night. Why? I stared at it until my blurry eyes finally made sense of the blood that in fact stained it. The realization of the truth in everything I was accused of hit me like a wave against a rock. My lungs suddenly felt ten times smaller. I laid there terrified. Just as the people I killed.