A KINGDOM OF DEAD HEARTS [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 34: AN ENEMY AMONG US

The fake Nydda brought Elisthia back to the palace, and since then the poor woman just existed as a shell of what she once was – spending her days sitting stiff on the bench in the palace garden.

Every day Nydda would come to her, which may have appeared as if she was benevolently checking on her apprentice, but in reality Nydda was doing a sinister thing to Elisthia: She whispered the dark spells again and again, trying to break Elisthia more, to turn her dark like Leidra.

The fake Nydda also cast dark spells on Rovan, turning him more callous with the purpose of eventually making him a puppet of Leidra and telling her where the sword was.

But Elisthia did not die inside completely.

Like a garden ravaged by voracious pests and harsh weather and slowly died out, but not all part of it were dying.

There was a little corner where there was a tiny bud of a new plant still fighting to stay alive. For Elisthia, this little corner was the love she had always had for Rovan.

She first met Rovan when Nydda brought her into the palace as a ten years old girl to save her from a life as a homeless orphan on the street.

Rovan and Elisthia had fallen in love and loved each other since their teenage years.

Their special feeling toward one another had to be put in the back burner when Rovan had to marry Eina to be his queen, a marriage widely used as a way to shore up power and support because Eina was the daughter of one of the richest, most powerful noble families in Halgard.

After the birth of Lyanna and the demise of Queen Eina, Rovan and Elisthia had an affair for some time. A secret known only by the real Nydda, who for whatever reason, did nothing and turned a blind eye toward it – something that Elisthia was thankful for because her affair with the king would have been a major scandal if discovered by people with bad intentions because Elisthia was a sorceress-in-training with no clear family lineage information.

This love that she had for Rovan helped her salvage some of her sorcery from the barrage of dark spells by Leidra.

Elisthia had a talent for a rare kind of sorcery, the one that impressed Nydda enough to take the orphan from the street and train her under her tutelage in the palace, to be her successor.

Elisthia could do telepathy, and she could send her sorcery through the power of her mind. Leidra knew this eventually and that was why she tried to break Elisthia every single day. Elisthia had been sending her sorcery through telepathy to protect Rovan's mind. She sent him messages of encouragement, to remind him of her love, of his daughter's love to him, of the light outside when the dark spell of Leidra flooded his soul. She also made sure Rovan did not fall completely into the darkness of Leidra's spell that he surrendered the sacred sword of Zeus to fake Nydda.

Thus even though Elisthia was weakened by Leidra's constant flooding of dark spells into her soul, she was still able to scrape enough strength to protect Rovan through her telepathy sorcery, and with him, the sword of Zeus.

Now her strength was much more diminished. She decided to take Lyanna and come to Xander's residence.

"Nydda is dead. Our beloved, kind Nydda is dead ..." whispered Xander in disbelief and grief.

Elisthia was not done. She spoke louder. "Listen. Ares has grown mad from his impatience. He and Nydda plan a full attack on Halgard soon. They think Lord Xander is incapacitated, King Rovan is under Leidra's dark spells, and Lyanna is just a child with no power."

Elisthia paused to catch her breath, and continued,"That is why I kidnapped Lyanna from her room and brought her here. The fake Nydda, Leidra, must have known by now that I took Lyanna away. Attack to Halgard is imminent, my lord."