The Three Enigmas: The Diamond of Strength

Chapter 24

Rebeckah was on the ground; blood puring out of a wound on her leg. She wasn't dead, however if she  let it continue much longer, she might be. Her bone potruded slightly from leg, and though it was covered in warm blood, the wound itself felt strangely cold. It was numb and had a tendency of jerking when she touched it.

She had approached Icarus Bizzel, arrow knocked and anchored. He had his back turned and no wand. She had the perfect shot until a great big Minotaur came up from behind her, without her notcing, and kicked her in her calf, it's claws digging into her muscle. Her arrow had gone straight up, and killed the Minotaur, and it's lifeless body falling on her already sore leg. She joined the mass of dead bodies which had gathered on the ground, and pray no one kill her. So instead, she decided to play dead and lied there limply, only taking in small breaths when necesary.

After three hours, the battle had toned itself down. Hostiban commoners had saw the battle too dangerous and saw it fit for them to leave. Just as well. When no one but soldiers had been left, a few screams echoed in the air, as well as a few gunshots. Rebeckah wasn't sure when to get up, surely, she would be the HS's most cited target, so she decided that if they weren't dead yet, she'd wait for James, Rupert or Damon.

Rebeckah managed to fall asleep, even with the cracks of gunshots and the distant marching of soldiers. Only when she heard a familiar voice say her name did she begin to stir. "Rebeckah. Rebeckah, get up, we need to get you out of here. Rebeckah's eyes fluttered open, and at first she thought she was blind due to some horrible wound she wasn't even aware she had. But then she saw a stocky , but still strong figure approach her. Even in the drak purple sky matted against him, Rebeckah could still make out the deep blue eyes that most certainly belonged to Damon. "Rebeckah we need to get you out of here. Your leg, oh God Rebeckah, we need to get that fixed."

Before she could protest, Damon had grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. On her bad leg, Rebeckah immediately sunk to her knee, but tried to keep the other one erect. Damon put her arms around his neck and swept her off her feet. She rested her head on his shoulder and let him take her off to wherever he was taking her too. She was limp in his arms, and felt somewhat like a ragdoll. The thought was cute, and comforting. He cradled her all through the capital streets, and then on into the dark forest. "Where-where are Rupert and James?" she whispered innocently.

"Manheim Manor," he answered firmly. "They both got out scathed, but they'll heal in time."

"Are you taking me there?" asked Rebeckah.

"Yes. but we'll have to walk, to ensure we're not seen. I expect the HS will be extra suspicious and will go to more secuity measures after the battle," Damon explained, still hugging her in his arms.

"They know that the Regnumese Cour members are alive?" she inquired dubiously.

"Of course they do! But Rupert said that your still safe in Manheim Manor. They have extra protective and unbreakable charms. It makes the castle invisible and whenever an intruder comes near, they take a wrong direction. Quite useful, actually," Damon said fondly.

"Will you stay in Manheim Manor?" asked Rebeckah sweetly, trying to persuade him.

"I wish I could. But my father is commanding me to be back in Hostibus. And I have to folow his orders, otherwise... well he's not above abusing his own kids," Damon added in sadly.

"That's horrible," said Rebeckah snugling into his chest, trying to make him feel loved. "Do you follow his orders?"

"I don't have any choice. I don't want to though. If I didn't, he'd kill me."

The words seemed to hang in the air like a heavy laden mist. "He's a horrible man. Why has no one tried to stand up to him, or to assasinate him?"

"The Hostibans worship him, basically. We came from a horrible time, and when Hostibus invaded Regnum, suddenly there was wealth and food. They're so ignorant and selfish thy don't care if their luxury comes at the expense of so many other people's lives."

Rebeckah, on her own train of thought, asked, "Where's the Diamond?" She knew it was most likely in hostiban control, meaning every fear she faced and every measure they took was in vain.

"So after you were taken into custody by the Minotaur, me, Rupert, and James were taken into questioning. They put us in straight jackets, and questoned us, using the memory torture. None of us broke but I did manged to make up a lie. I could see the diamond from where I was, so I told them that father had wanted me to retrieve the diamond from the cavern. I told them that you, Rupert and James were Regnumese guests who had followed me down. As an order, they had to believe me. So they gave me the diamond and said to give it to my father. So instead when I left, I came to the castle and hid it in the library," Rupert explained to her, having to punctuate his sentence with a heavy sigh. 

"In the library," Rebeckah repeated."Where?"

"Where books are hidden." Rebeckah knew exactly where he meant.

They were now in the Dark Forest, almost to Manheim Manor. Damon stepped heedfuly, careful not to trip over a root, and send himself and Rebeckah spiraling down. There was silence for a time after, and after a long day of fighting, he decided it was best to to keep it that way. It took a certain amount of time, but Rebeckah evetually fell asleep in Damon's arms. Her hands clutching his chest, her rhythimc breathing floating up to Damon's ears, and the innocent look on her face, only made her seem more beautiful and peaceful than beforehand. 

Once they pathed their way out of the Dark Forest, Damon approached Manheim Manor to find the moat wide open and a guard standing next to it as well. "We've been expecting Her Royal Highness Ms. Hughes. Give her to me and I'll see it that she makes it too the infirmary."

Wary of letting her go, Damon tentatively put her in the guard's arms. He watched as he walked away with the girl with the big brown eyes, wrapped up in his arms, when she should be entwined in his instead. Damon began to walk back through the forest, feeling like when Rebeckah left, she took a piece of himself with her.

_*_*_*_*_

Rebeckah remembered being placed in unfamiliar arms, but then feeling the bright and comforting lights of Manheim Manor pound down on her, it covered up her sadness of not having Damon's chest against hers head anymore. The guard who was clutching her safely in his arms, rested her on  a cot in the infirmary next to Rupert and James.

James had a perfect scar slicing down the side of his head right next to his ear. This was stitched up, as well as his broken leg put in a cast. However he still had a black eye, gleaming tragically against the light. Rupert was in worse conditon, unfortuneately. He had been struck with a horrible curse, the Long Legs Curse. It caused your legs to grow wildly without stop. By the time he was found, only partly alive and bleeding wildly out of two cuts in his thigh and his forehead , he was 16 feet tall. They first reversed the curse but his bones were weakened and wouldn't gain strength for another two weeks.

Rebeckah had to go through two intensive surgeries. One to fix the bone in her leg and the other to retrieve the pieces of metal still buried in her skin. As for the state of her arms which had agaping wound due to being sawed apart in questioning, the nurses were able to put a healing cream on her arms, which basically glued her back together and cured the infection.

She wan't shiny and new, but after that experience she wouldn't ever be the same, emotionally or physically. But Rebeckah managed to carry on, and when the nurse had given her consent to leave the infirmary, she immediately went into the Forbidden Library, unlocking the shelf, and finding none other than the diamond of strength there. It was the best place to leave it, considering Regnum had neither time, nor the money to build an elaborate underground passage of chambers and tunnels to confuse any searcher. 

Soon James was out of the infirmary. The twins spent most of their time together in the Courtyard, reading, relaxing, and practicing arhcery or any other skill they might need in the forseeable future. They visited Rupert often, only talking about mundane things, not wanting to bring up the previous battle or any other battles in the future. They were all still rcovering (James specifically was having a hard time coming to terms with the sight of Rebeckah and Damon kissing). And until the time when trying to find the sword was necesary, things would stay this way.