Draconess

Chapter 19

2 months later

I was sick with a strong fever, resting in the windowsill of my top level. I was covered in a thick blanket around my shoulders, my cheeks too pink, my body trembling with the chills.

It wasn't a common cold, this sickness. It was something else entirely. I had been feeling weak since the morning Zarcar left, ill the day after that and every day onward... even worse.

Most would be worried that this kind of sickness meant certain death. However, I knew it wasn't to do with health, but rather magic.

Andoll had been dropping off these strange roots every morning at the base of my tower, sometimes talking to herself and smiling, sometimes snarling at me.

I had thrown out every single one out of the window, cursing flames upon it. I didn't trust her. Then, she started dropping the roots off outside my bedroom door! Every single morning for the past 2 months! So, at this stage, I had concluded that Andoll had forced this state upon me.

After eight weeks of being looked after by maids at random, irregular intervals, and lying in bed – I felt like I had been wasting away. I also felt quite delirious.

Each day I prayed Zarcar would return early and fix me. When I felt the moon give me the idea that he would be exactly two months, no longer, no less; I then prayed Lixar would come up and help.

But, low and behold – these were the two most boring and simultaneously horrible months of my life.

The Immortal King Rey did not approach me. Not once. Lixar – well, I watched him take his suitcase from the tower and not come back.

As far as I knew, he abandoned this whole Venatores group thing, and ran while he had the chance.

What did I get? Andoll's roots and maids who refused to speak more than a few words at a time to me. While that kind of social isolation might drive someone insane, I didn't mind the quiet part. Or the stuck in the tower part.

Mostly?

I just wanted this damn sickness to end. One more moment of feeling like this and my guts would surely start melting and my brain would fall out of my nostrils, liquefied.

I groan as I lean against the cold bricks of the tower window, gazing out over Swendula and the calm streets.

After Rey's impressive introduction and the slightly violent 'awakening' of me; the monster did not return. The demon dragon inside didn't stir.

I was just sick. My face was pale, my hair was a knotted mess, un-brushed for weeks, my lips were cracked and my patience was waning.

Zarcar would be here any second. It was the day of his return. When he fixed me, everything would be fine.

I eventually doze off thinking about him and with my high fever, my dreams are shockingly dark – even though everything around me is deceptively calm.

I dream of running down streets, red faces, blood tinted grass and broken buildings all around as I search for the deranged lunatics in my nightmare scape. I would kill them all and laugh while doing it. I was pretty sure it was all still, somehow, connected to Andoll. Perhaps I was turning into her deranged self!

My nightmare only sucks me in for a few minutes before I awaken to find my body falling out of the window sill. I screech in alarm as I free fall for but a moment, my hands grabbing for the vines – I grab them tight. I kick the restrictive blanket off me and it falls to the bottom of the tower. I try to haul myself back up but I'm too weak.

My crinkled silver dress, tickles my sensitive skin as the wind gets up the bottom of it. My fingers fumble for the window sill and I fight to get back my breath.