Crown Of The Damned (Damned Book 1) [On Hold]

Chapter 2

Sitting him up, I helped him get onto Midnight’s back. Covering him with what remained of my shawl; I mounted Midnight and rode back to the castle. 

Riding through the forest, I reached the gate to the town. Guards stopped me, pointing their swords at me before recognizing me. “Let me through, I’ll have your head on a pike if this man dies on me. Go get the healer right away, I’ll be in my chamber.” 

“Right, we’ll send James up to the castle then.” Nodding to one another, they let me through. Watching one of them run off, I rushed up to the castle. James was the kingdom’s healer. He was just as handsome as other men. He had very pale skin, short, flowing black hair, and eyes the color of gleaming steel. He is average height and broad-shouldered, and looks somewhat malicious. He regularly wore the Churches robes. Not stopping at the castle doors, I rode Midnight into the Great Hall, accidentally knocking a couple of people over while rushing to my chamber. Stopping Midnight when getting to the corridors, I helped the man off of her and started heading to my chamber with him. 

Getting up the stairs, I carefully placed him on my bed after throwing the silk sheets onto the floor. Un-wrapping his shoulder, I saw that the wound was already getting worse than it had originally been when the incident occurred. Looking at his face, he was dangerously nodding in and out of consciousness. At any moment he could just die right here, there was no way I was going to let that happen. Hearing people rushing down the corridor, I looked towards the door. In rushed both our healer James and my brother. 

“Mira, what in hell is going on, Mira?!” Rushing into my room, he looked at the man and almost immediately ran to his side. “This man, I shot an arrow into his shoulder. The arrow head is still lodged in there somewhere." Looking at me with disappointment, he gestured to the door. “Robert, please leave with your sister.” Nodding, Robert grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the room. I could hear the man’s screams from behind the closed door as James was trying to find the arrow head lodged in his shoulder. I shuddered; I couldn’t imagine how much blood was most likely on my bed at the current moment. All of a sudden, it went silent. A moment later, my door opened and out came James. His hands were bloody and he seemed kind of shaken. Robert looked at me and then towards James. 

“James, your sister shot a guard of Lilia’s. He’s got a paper with orders on it. I know it’s none of my business to read, but he was targeting MiraJane.”

“What? What for? James, tell me what the papers said.” Looking at me, he looked me up and down. I just stared at the floor; I couldn’t possibly imagine why she would want me dead. Maybe just to get to my brother, maybe she wanted both me and Robert dead. 

“Not sure why, but you might want to stop being affectionate with her, she seems to be the enemy. I should get going. He’s fine by the way, Mira.” Handing Robert the papers with his orders on it, he flashed a fake smile at me before walking off.

“Fuck… Mira, I’m going to go and talk to her. Get Mrs. Anders to help you put him in the dungeon. I’ll be gone for at least 3 days.” With that, my brother walked off towards his chambers. Rushing into my own chamber, I went into the bedroom. The man was lying on the bed unconscious. He was targeting me? I knew something was off about that camp site. I called up Mrs. Anders from the kitchen and told her to help me move him into the dungeon. Mrs. Anders was a servant who had looked after me and my brother since our father had disappeared. She seemed too pretty to be a servant. She has pale skin, short, straight russet hair, and eyes the color of spring greenery. She is short and very slender, and rarely laughs. She’s older than most servants we have, and we trust her the most. 

 

Walking with Mrs. Anders down to the dungeon with the man, I couldn’t help but think something horrible was going to happen to Robert. Tonight I had to follow him. It would take him some hours just to calculate the safest route to her kingdom. There were more bandits and thieves on the road at night than any other time which made it twice as dangerous. 

Leaving the dungeon, I thanked Mrs. Anders and headed back up to my chamber and started cleaning off all the blood from my bed. Wrapping up the arrowhead in a handkerchief, I carefully placed it in a drawer. I would keep it to remind me to stay alert so I can protect not only myself, but the remaining family that I have.

Gathering my sword I put it in the sheath and put my bow on my back. Putting my arrows in my quiver, I headed out to the stables to ready Midnight. I had maybe ten minutes to get ready before my brother decided to set out and try to talk to Lilia about trying to target me. If she was targeting me, there had to be an important reason to do so. Lilia either wanted my brother for herself, or she was aiming to kill me in hopes of getting my brother when his guard was down. That would result in managing to win over our kingdom. I’d do anything in my power to keep that from happening. Saddling her and putting the bridle on, I put on some of my leather armor. I tied my hair back and headed out with Midnight. I waited at the crossroads in an old abandoned outlook with Midnight while I awaited the arrival of my brother. All of a sudden, I could see a man walk up to the crossroads. He had a long cloak on and a hood over his face. I couldn’t see what he looked like but I knew he wasn’t waiting for my brother to travel with him. In the distance, I could hear my brother and his Stallion Starfire coming. Getting to the crossroads my brother stopped in front of the man and un-mounted, his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Speak your business, stranger.” Walking towards the man, he tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword and cautiously looked at him. Drawing my bow and arrow, I aimed at the man in case he attempted to assault Robert.

“My business is you, Robert HaMinc.” Drawing a dagger, he lunged at my brother swiftly and attempted to slash his throat open. In shock I froze, I didn’t expect him to be as quick as he was. He was most likely in business with Daemon, a notorious rogue in the country. Nobody knew what he looked like. If you did see his face, you didn’t live to tell about it. But most told stories about how he kidnapped and tortured soldiers which is why most went missing on their night-watches. I knew that wasn’t true, I knew that they all most likely had a run-in with a rabid dog or got eaten by a wolf in their sleep or something. 

Trying to aim for the man, I watched my brother fight back. Sword clashed with dagger as my brother struggled to fight back; he clearly wasn’t as quick with a blade as the attacker. Being cornered, the hooded man lunged at my brother once more, nearing his dagger to Robert’s neck. Releasing the arrow, it shot straight into the thieves head. He dropped the dagger and fell to the ground, my brother looking paralyzed in shock and fear dropped to his sword and fell to the ground. Dropping my bow I ran out of my hiding place and over to my brother.

“Brother! Are you alright?” Dropping down next to him, I hugged him tightly. I knew that following him was a good idea. If I hadn’t been there, I would have lost my brother as well. 

“Mira? W-Was that you that just… killed that man?” looking at me in shock, he grabbed me by the shoulders and inspected me. “If I had lost you, I… I don’t know what I would have done. I couldn’t bear to lose you, mother, and father.” Tightly, he hugged me.

“Brother, let go.” Prying him off of me, I smiled lightly. “If I had lost you I don’t know what would happen.” Thinking, I knew at this point I really had to go with him; I couldn’t bear knowing that he got attacked and didn’t survive it to come back to the castle and live with me as family. “Brother… Let me go with you, I’ll help you. Protect you! I couldn’t lose you.” Looking at me, he stood up and helped me up to my feet as well.

“Mira, if mother knew that I was letting you use your weapons, she’d have a fit. I’ll let you travel with me just as long as you don’t get hurt. You’ve to marry and have a family of your own in the future.” Nodding, I went to retrieve Midnight and my bow. Bringing her over, I mounted and gestured for my brother to follow. I didn’t think that I would actually get to go on an adventure like this with him. Plus, I couldn’t wait to get to see how beautiful Lilia really was.