The Dragon Princess

Chapter 9

Lady Alexa Rossi

Infernal City, Hosephia

I know, far quicker than I would like, that I am still alive. I should have known Brighane wouldn't kill me. I am still too valuable. His position as King of Hosephia isn't final. He needs a wife to make him seem the more responsible candidate, even though there is no one else who can take the throne by blood. If he is found unfit, as I hope God wills, then someone else more fitting will step in. If only Queen Maya hadn't lost her daughter all those years ago. Someone else, with the blood line and more fitting, could have taken control of the kingdom. Someone who deserves it. Someone who can run it with the morals it was built on.

"My Lady?" A voice calls to me in my darkness. I haven't dared move or open my eyes. The longer I stay here in my darkness, the longer I can pretend that death is waiting. I can feel myself trying to be lifted, possibly by someone less strong or smaller than me. "My Lady, it is alright now. He is gone for the day." She doesn't need to explain. He wouldn't trust someone else to go looking for them, not with the traitorous act I pulled. He doesn't trust me. He doesn't trust anyone else either, and never has. He doesn't want to take the chance that the one person he sends out to look for those missing, is the one person I have control over. But I don't have control over anyone. Never have. Brighane saw to it early on that my position as his wife was merely for an image, and not for any sort of power. "Wake up now, My Lady." She urges and I figure I might as well stop pretending I am dead, despite how much I wish I want to be.

I stir and I instantly regret it. The wave of pain hit and I know Brighane did more damage than I could have imagined. Death was too easy. This...this is much worse. "What has he done to you, My Lady?" She asks, more to herself, rather than me. Still, I don't answer. She is doing more harm by trying to help me to my bed, then if she is actually able, so I help her as best I can. "I have sent for the physician. He will be here momentarily, I promise." I try to look at the servant, but my eyes are to swollen to truly see anything. I try to hang on to her voice, focusing on it rather than the amount of pain I am in. "You need help, and not just for this. You should have left when you had the chance, Lady Alexa." I realize that the servant might be older than I think, older and wiser than some of the younger maids in the castle.

"Couldn't." I mumble, feeling the softness of my bed under my fingertips, but with the pain, it feels like a rough floor. "He would...never stop....looking for me." I continue with much difficulty.

"Mark my words, Lady Alexa, God will punish him for what he has done, and not just to you." She voices in a grumbling and cracked voice. "His day of judgement will come, but until then, you need help. You need help from someone who can get you out of the castle and keep you safely hidden away."

I want to refuse. I want to be strong and stand my ground and accept the fate I have been given. However, it was easier when I thought I would die. After a long moment, I nod, but wince from the throbbing pain in my head. "Very well." I almost let out a scream as a wave of nausea and searing pain wash through me for a minute. "Can you write a letter for me?" I ask when the pain has passed.

"Of course, My Lady." I can hear her shuffle a few things, and the sound of parchment being taken out of my writing desk. "What do you wish to say?"

I think about it for a long a while. So long, in fact, that she asks again, fearing I have fallen unconscious. I think on what I want to say, and who I want to say it to. When it comes to me, I realize just how determined I am. Determined for justice. Determined for vengeance. I begin to tell her what I want her to write. "Help me."

***

Heir-Princess Jaymie Dain-Andry

Majestic City, Otega