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

Chapter 3

Riding off towards Lilia’s castle, I couldn’t get the look on my brother’s face when he was attacked out of my head. I always thought that he was much stronger both physically and emotionally than I, but seeing him so scared like that was the worst thing ever. 

“Brother, were you scared?” I looked straight forward at the path ahead of us; I didn’t want to look into his eyes.

“Scared about what?” Glancing towards me, he knew what it was that I was talking about; he just didn’t want to say anything about it. 

“Were you scared of dying? When you were attacked by that rogue, I had never seen you look so terrified in my life. I’d never seen you struggle to fight anyone back either. He was very talented with his blade. Don’t you think?” Looking towards him, I could see the fear in his eyes still. He was very scared to die. The way that he swung his sword to keep the rogue from attacking his throat was extremely flawed. 

“Yes, yes I was. Mira, you would have been too if you were in my position. But then again, I’ve never seen you when you wield a sword. Your archery skills are far better than I thought though. You hit him right in the head, any closer and you would have managed to hit me as well.” Laughing slightly, he looked back towards the path we were headed down. Far in the distance, you could see Lilia’s castle. A paved road overgrown with moss leads through the overcrowded halfling town to a large castle of white marble beside a lake. Some say the caves nearby are a dragon’s lair. I never believed the tales, but some tell stories of a fierce, large, dragon whiter than the clouds and snow its-self residing in the caves eating those that dare to get close.

“Brother, any one would have been scared in your position. Not even then. If someone had a blade, be it a sword, dagger, or even a butcher knife, any one would be terrified.” Laughing, I smiled and shrugged. “But let’s just focus on getting to Lilia’s. I would like to find out why exactly she sent someone to try to kill me.” Nodding, Robert focused on the road, and what all lied ahead of us. If Lilia had sent someone to try to kill me, I’m positive she would know that it didn’t work. She might have been told and knows we’re on our way. If she does, I’m sure she will do everything in her power to try to stop us.

She won’t manage to kill us; I would never let anything hurt my brother. He’s the only family that I have left. I don’t want to be alone for the rest of my life.

Setting up camp, it was already starting to get dark rather quickly. We had stopped by a small river that we had found out of complete luck. Midnight and Starfire were eating under the trees nearby. Robert was setting up his tent while I was gathering sticks and twigs for the fire. I could smell trouble in the wind, the air around our camp site felt heavy and I knew that something was off. Fear and sorrow seemed to be lingering about in the air. 

“Brother, I’ll be going in a little farther in the woods to get some wood. I’ll be back.” Nodding at me, he continued to put up the tent with trouble. Despite him not saying anything, I knew that he wouldn’t want me to go in very far and I wouldn’t. It was far too dark already to wander around in the woods for too long, or wander too far into the woods on account of being able to get lost. Searching around, I continued to pick up sticks and twigs. I began to feel as if there was someone there. Like there was someone watching me. All of a sudden, before I was even able to blink, I was shoved up against the nearest tree. The twigs and branches I was holding were now on the ground. When I had realized what had happened, I looked towards the hooded man who had pinned me up against the tree. I couldn’t see his face; he even had black gloves on to cover his hands. From what I could see, no skin was showing. I was feeling more confused than I was scared. Even if I couldn’t see his face, I knew that he was looking at me. Inspecting me and memorizing everything he could about me.

“I-Is there something that I c-could help you with?” You could tell how scared I was just by my tone. I couldn’t imagine what would happen to me. 

“MiraJane, I won’t hurt you, there’s no reason for you to be so afraid, yet, at least.” He was talking quietly, as if he didn’t want anyone to hear what he had to say to me. I wasn’t even sure how he knew me. “Here, information you will need to give to your brother about Lilia. You’ll thank me later.” Handing me a sealed envelope, I watched him let go of me then looked down and opened it. Skimming over the words, I looked back up only to find the man was gone. Inspecting the envelope once again, I noticed the crest in the wax used to seal the envelope, a fox and rat. Was it Daemon? I couldn’t possibly believe a rogue nobody had ever seen would deliver something to me. There’s was clearly more than I thought to Lilia. Shoving the letter in my pocket, I picked up the twigs and sticks and rushed back to the camp site. I wasn’t sure if I should tell Robert yet or not. I suspected I had to. I made a decision that I would show him later, maybe in the morning.

Reaching the camp site, I set down the wood for the fire and sat down next to Robert. Tossing in a couple twigs, I looked towards him. “Brother, is there something wrong?” Looking towards me, he shook his head.

“No, everything’s alright. I promise you that.” Smiling, he turned his attention back to the fire. He watched the dancing red and orange flames engulf the wood and take the life from it, burning it. I didn’t believe him when he said everything was alright. Everything was clearly not alright at all. 

“Robert. I know there’s something wrong. I’ve never seen you stare at anything with such intensity before. Please tell me. We’re family, we protect each other and love and support each other through thick and thin.” Smiling, I looked towards the flame.

Laughing, he looked towards me. “Mira, I promise you that everything is alright. I’m just thinking about whether Lilia really wants you dead, or if she wants both of us dead.” He couldn’t accept the fact that she wanted us dead. It kind of bothered me but I couldn’t really do anything about it any ways. I just had to deal with it.

“Alright then, we should sleep. We need to get to her castle by tomorrow.” Nodding, he stood up and headed into his tent. I followed and sat in a corner. It was larger than I thought it would be. Sighing, I lied down to sleep. It didn’t take too long for me or my brother to fall asleep; we had already had a rather tiring day. Tomorrow would be just as tiring.