Desert Flower

Chapter 2

Back to Eile

The four of them stared at each other for a second, the two rouges and two royals facing off in the middle of the palace. Declan shook himself out of it first.

"RUNEILE!!"

Eile ran, feet pounding as she sped down the hallway, away from the men with the weapons and her brother.

Declan.

She almost turned back as she remembered her brother who she was leaving at the mercy of those men.

But then she heard the sound of boots running behind her and panic overruled her thoughts.

This cant be happening she thought as she ran. This cant be happening.

She almost made it.

The doors that lead into the main halls were right in front of her, the people who could help her just behind them. Just a few more minutes...

And she screamed as thick arms wrapped around her waist from behind. The man lifted her with ease as he slapped a dirty hand over her mouth.

"Shut up" he hissed in her ear, and Eile froze as she felt the cool metal of a knife against her neck.

This cant be happening.

           

The man dragged Eile back through the hallways, the girl keeping her body limp, which was the most she could fight back with the knife pressing constantly against her side. By some horrible miracle, they encountered no servants or guards in the halls.

Eile had to force herself not to cry when she saw the other man holding her brothers limp body.

Declan...

           

Then his chest rose up and went back down and Eiles heart started up again.

"What we gonna do?" The man holding Declan asked her captor. " We didn't plan for no kids or prisoners."

Silence.

Eile tried to control her breathing.

"We'll keep the girl." Her heart seemed to be pounding extremely hard. "And kill the boy."

Eile twisted in shock .

They couldn't kill her brother.

They couldn't.

"Stay still you brat." they man snarled as he tried to control Eile, pushing the knife closer into her side till it was a constant burn. She ignored the pain and managed to struggle enough to force the man to release her mouth.

"NO" she panted, holding the man's hand away from her face best she could and twisting her body away from the sharp knife digging into her side instinctively. "Don't kill him!!!"

"Why shouldn't we?" The man tightened his grip around her waist till she could hardly breathe.

"I'll - I'll stay quiet. You'll have an easier time getting out alive if I don't struggle." The two men exchanged a look.

"Alright... but if you try to scream or fight us...my big  friend over there will gut your brother like a fish." He pushed the knife against her harder as if to make sure his point was taken. "Am I understood?"

Elie nodded violently, voice unable to work through her paralyzing fear and relief.  Declan would live.

That's more than I can say about me.

The four of them made their way through the halls, Eile keeping to her word and staying deathly quiet.

She kept a careful eye on the man carrying Declan , and more importantly on the glittering weapons that hung withing easy reach of his hands. Declan himself was still unconscious and was being carried like a sack over the mans shoulder, his hair falling in his face and obscuring it from Eile.

They seemed to walk forever through the hot stone halls, surrounded by the walls that Eile had known all her life, walls she had grown up inside and ran past nearly every day.

Now they seemed scary to her, dark with the shadows of the setting sun.

"End of the line girly. Time to leave."

Eile couldn't breathe.

"Please... can i at least say goodbye?" The two men exchanged glances before the knife dropped and she was pushed towards where Declan was lying on the ground.

"Im sorry" her throat constricted and Eile fought back tears. "Im so sorry, but they were going to kill you and you cant die... so Im sorry. "

Declans eyes moved rapidly behind his eyelids, but there was no response.

The men behind her were getting restless.

"I love you."

She stood up and the men spent no time grabbing her waist and jumping through the window, their escape covered by the early twilight.

Eile didnt look back until they were outside the city, horses galloping across the sand dunes.

"Goodbye" She whispered.

Finally the tears fell.