Blood King

Chapter Forty Seven

Ada rubbed her hands together and blew her breath on them in an attempt to get them warm. Three years had gone by and yet she still wasn't used to the cold. It shouldn't have bothered, her mother had been from the Northlands, the cold was in her blood. her father wasn't one for the cold however, it made Ada wish that she was more like her mother.

Her mother would laugh if she could see her daughter now. Ada hoped her family was doing well. Her blue gaze looked in the direction of Labadire, she hoped to return home soon, the coldness of winter blew past her hair in the wind, flurries of snow brushed against her cold cheeks as she pulled her cloak tighter to herself. Her gaze then shifted to what lay below, and beyond. Countless lights from torches and fires, many of the men huddled around them to try and keep warm even though it was close to evening. The sun only beginning to set.

Even those from the enemy's side seemed to do what they could to try to stay warm. Part of her couldn't help but feel sorry for those men, the few that had been captured seemed far more concerned about their families and children rather then their own lives, one of which the men who guarded those who were captured, taunted and mocked that their families would no last long when they got a hold of them. she thought that the men of Valdoria would lash out, but instead they were merely quiet, staring at them with silent rage. As if they knew lashing out would only get them killed.

Yet it made her wonder, were all men of Valdoria like this? Did they all hold their loved ones in such high regard? Or was it because of their King and how he seemed to rule them?

"Ada, what are you doing?" one of the older women asked as she stepped out on to the terrace from the Tower. "Why are you out here in the cold?"

"Just getting some air," Ada told her. "It's stuffy in there."

"It tends to be when there are so many inside," the older woman, whom she had gotten to know as Erin, said as she came closer. "None of them tried anything to you?"

Ada shook her head quickly, small shakes not wishing to move just yet. Her dark blue eyes looking out to the battlefield. "It's been three years and not one side has shown to back down. Do you think that something will change?"

"If anything will change it will probably be Valdoria, their supplies and men are starting to dwindle, they might not even last another year if this goes on."

"But they have been fighting for almost one hundred years to try and reclaim the Tower, surely they wouldn't give up that easily?"

"Times change," she said. "As do with rulers, the Vladorian's would need a miracle to win this war the way it's headed." She turned to head back inside. "You should come back in soon before you freeze to death. I know you say it's stuffy, but at least you'll be warm."

"I will soon," Ada told her before looking back out to the field, letting out a breath as her shoulders slumped. How she wished she could just return home, she gave one last look to the direction of her home and was about to head back inside, when something caught her ear.

Beyond the coldness of the wind she could have sworn to have heard something strange. She looked up to the sky in the direction where she thought to have heard it. Moving further away from the door, craning her neck back, as she squinted her eyes in the dark to try and see what it could have been.

When she was little, her mother would often tell her stories of dragons flying through the night skies during storms so not to be caught by human eyes, but on occasion they could be seen. Many of which humans would leave alone for not wishing to cause an ill omen, or the like. Since in the Northlands, dragons were seen as creatures not to be trifled with. That they should be both revered and feared all at once.