The Princess of Cithrí - Chaol Westfall Fanfiction

Part 14

I leant on the edge of the bed, my eyelids drooping shut, then flickering open. My fingers were numb, from all the pressure of draining the abscesses all over Rowan. They had been so disgusting, most of it had been fire hot liquid, mixing with blood, but then there was the occasional lump, no bigger than a bean but it made me gag. Having to then bandage them all, try to reposition his bones. I've never done something so distressing in my life, and hoped it would remain the top one.

Rowan snored lightly on the bed, his chest barely rising as his broken ribs creaked. I had washed him, mainly because of the smell of the sewers but also the blood and straw. I had spent all night toing and frowing between the city centre and our tweed room, buckets of water splashing at the end of my arms. Now sore, tired and upset that Rowan hadn't woken since we rescued him I was slowly slipping off into sleep.

The door flew open, I turned with sluggish eyes to snap at the person to go away, but my words caught in my throat. On the floor Varin and Helsha were rudely awaken, both groaning at the sudden intrusion of light. "You need to come with me!" Dorian said striding over to me, he was dressed up for riding, a long sword at his hip with a round pomel unlike Chaol's ornate eagle. "Dorian!" I whined, rolling my head back, Rowan the only one now asleep.
Dorian picked me up by my arm, gesturing to the other two. "I need to show you all something now, hurry up we don't have time." I was only in my trousers and undershirt, and Dorian was wanting me to go outside! "Dorian!" I whined again, now on my feet. "Please, I need to be here for Rowan, can't you come back later?"
He shook his head firmly, pushing Helsha and Vanir out the door, and down the stairs onto the muddy streets of Cithrì. I sort of wished men would stop doing this to us. He came back for me. "Help me get Rowan." His hand reaching out, I slapped it away. "He is sick! The last thing he needs to do is being walking around outside."
Dorian didn't seem to be in a rush, but he glared at me with his sapphire blue eyes, and then he knelt by Rowan shook him and looped an arm around his shoulder. "I need to show you and the others something." I groaned, deciding it was better to help than resist. I took Rowan's other arm my body burning with desire to sleep. Rowan stirred a rumble emitting from his chest, and a groan of pain as he limped between us.

We got a couple houses down when Dorian made us go into a run down building, it appeared to be abandoned. "How do you know of this place?" I asked, the funiture was full of wood worms and rot. We sat Rowan down in a chair, his hair slopped in his face but he was too weak to even reposition it. I brushed his hair away, cupping his cheeks, they were icy cold. Dorian slipped his hand into mine - I see what Chaol meant, he was a little too touchy.
"Upstairs, I want to show you something." He dragged me off up the stairs, the last look from Rowan a murderous one. He took me up the stairs and then up some more until we were standing on the roof of the building, the musty dawn of the city lurking low in the air. "How do you know this place?"
Dorian shrugged. "I didn't Chaol told me about it."
I drew a sharp breath at the mention of his name. My heart beat rapidly increasing. I span around checking to see if he was with us, he wasn't. "Where is he?" I whispered.
Dorian pointed with a gloved hand out into the mist. I followed it over the house tops, out towards a small lopsided building, the bottom window had a streak of toilet deposition down the wall. I knew the second floor of that building, with the falling down stairs to reach the little door, the room, which window we had relied on for light only a few hours ago. It was our room, the one where we spent our night curled up in the cold. I gulped. "Why would he be there?"
Dorian held a finger up to his cherry blossom lips. The clatter of metal like a parade of horses bounced down the narrow streets, the barking of orders. I watched horrified as the procession of royal guards, personally led by Captain Westfall, marched up the stairs and stormed into the house, swords drawn, bashing through the door.

Moments later they came back out, swords sheathed, empty handed, they looked disappointed as they marched back down the stairs, less eager than earlier. All but one looked disappointed as the captain flicked us a small glance.
"Chaol warned me this morning, he said you should see it. You should know that my father is hunting you down." Dorian explained, his black hair was damp with frost from the gentle morning breeze.
"Where can we go?" I whispered. How had the guards known we were staying there?! Who had betrayed us? Where were we meant to go now? Rowan can barely walk, he isn't going to be strong enough to sleep on the streets. I was rattled with questions, I couldn't stop worrying as I bit my nails.
Dorian shrugged. "I can't help you with that sorry... Chaol says he will try to divert them, but there is only so much he can do." His sapphire eyes fell sadly running over me in my night clothes, spots of blood stained into the rugged cloth, my dagger proudly strapped to my waist belt. It glimmered as the orange sun rose over the horizon, it really looked like orange water the way the light flowed across it.
I rested my hand on the black handle, loving the feel of it in my palm. "I know, thank you for everything Dorian."
He smiled warmly, his face lit up by the sunset. "It's been my pleasure princess, also you looked particularly stunning at the ball."
I laughed, "did you recognise me?"
He shook his head laughing. "No unfortunately not, if I had then I would have certainly asked you for a dance."
I blushed at the thought of dancing with the crowned prince. Then blushed further at the embarrassment of even thinking about it.

"You'll tell Chaol I say thank you won't you?" I turned back to the door we had come threw, the others were all down stairs still, Helsha would be trying to quieten down an overly bored Vanir whilst Rowan would have his chin pressed against his chest as he tried to sleep off the pain. Something wet fell down my cheek, running over my lips and dripping off my chin. I was so tired, and I knew what my problem was, I was afriad to go downstairs. Here with Dorian, I could be the girl I was in Rifthold, not the girl who carries her family on her broken shoulders. The moment I went down those stairs I would have to deal with Vanir, Helsha and the never-ending guilt i felt whenever I saw Rowan. Plus the confusion of captain Westfall, I still loved him so bad, but could we ever be? In a world like this? We had argued so much when the problems had ran shallow, not this deep.
Dorian walked up besides me, his hand soft through the leather as it ran down my arms and into mine. "Your doing well y/n." He said, slowly, tinderly pulling me towards the door. "You are having to bare so much, and you will have to bare a lot more. Don't loose yourself."
I snorted. "I think that might be too late."
Dorian shook his head firmly. "You still care, you still smile and you still love. You are still the princess of Cithrí."
I rolled my eyes, staring the descend down. "Why am I the princess? Helsha is my older sister surely she should be the princess."
Now it was Dorian's turn to laugh, his masculine voice cutting shards into my skin thay pickled me. "Helsha is just another lady, but you, y/n, you are the opposite lady which makes you unquie."
We paused at the bottom, the sound of Helsha telling Vanir to sit still the only noise to be heard. "Yeah, well I don't want to be unique, not now, I want to get Rowan better, that is all I care about now."

I tugged my hand out of Dorian's, but he was nodding as if he could emphasise. He gestured a hand for me to enter the room first, like he would do if I was a princess in the castle. I took a deep breath, resting my hands at the bottom of my rib cage, squeezing my eyes shut. I pulled my lips up into a tedious, painful smile. And entered.
Vanir was indeed causing mischief, running around like a lunatic, bashing into piles of wood thay used to once be chairs and a table. He was doing the opposite of everything Helsha told him to do, and who could blame him? He had gone from having everything; games, friends, miles of endless corridors to run down, and now he had very little; only the scraps I could scramble up for dinner, his only toy was a wooden knight that Korgan happened to have, and only his boring sisters and sick brother to entertain him.
Rowan, he broke my heart to look at. He was slumped in the same chair, his head resting on the wall behind, hair splattered against it, his eyes barely visible under his bruising. I knelt by his side, and kissed his hand.
Dorian sighed. "I must be going princess, my father will not believe me if I am riding for too long without an escort."
I nodded, pulling my fake smile bigger. "Of course, thank you for your help Dorian."
I hugged the prince, he was freshly washed and smelt of lavender, his muscular body showed he had eaten well this morning, he had slept well. It was a lie to say I was a little jealous, I craved for that life again, I craved to be on the training grounds with my men again.
He smiled saddly, kissed Helsha's hand, ruffled Vanir's hair and bowed to Rowan, then made for the door. "Oh y/n?"
"Hmm?"
He turned the door handle. "My father has ordered for you to be killed on site for treason if you are caught."
I gulped, that was not at all good. "I had better not get caught then."
He smirked and left.
"Your smittening again." A strangled voice tried to joke behing me.
I turned to Rowan hand on my hips, impressed he had even been able to talk. "Shut it or I will give you an overdose of hemlock brother." I laughed, and went to attend to his wounds again.