The Royal Brigade

Chapter 16: Beauty Laced With Poison

Haiden's POV

".... and we have to set off to the kingdom of Airy right away," Tarah was saying to all of us. "We have to find the Daughter of Airan as soon as possible in order to complete the Royal Brigade."

"That sounds fine since the kingdom of Airy is the nearest kingdom from Scandra," Avery agreed.

"So the kingdom of Enthrall is the last kingdom where we'll go?" Evanity asked.

During the time that Tarah and Avery were both discussing our next plans I had kept my gaze fixed on Evanity hardly believing my luck that we saw each other again for the second time around. When she spoke up, I replied, "Yes, of course. And you're the one who's going to lead the way towards your own kingdom, right?"

Evanity stared at me for a split second her emerald eyes meeting my brown ones. She tucked a stray strand of hair on her ear self-consciously and shuffled uncomfortably on her feet after averting my gaze. I suppressed a smile from the corner of my lips noting how pretty she looked with her long, curly chestnut blonde hair glinting in the sinking rays of the sun. But before she could even reply to my question, Solaire suddenly collapsed on the ground next to my feet.

"Sol!" I cried out and then immediately bent down on the ground and the others did the same as well. I picked her up and cradled my twin sister in my arms, noting that her face had become a light shade of blue as well as her entire body.

Glancing around at the others, I saw that they wore the same stunned expression on my face as they stared at Sol wordlessly.

"What happened to her?" Tarah asked sounding frantic finally recovering from her shock.

I barely heard what she said next because at that moment all I could hear was my heart pummelling fast against my chest as I tried to figure out what just happened to my sister. I examined her from head to toe and the blood drained from my face when I saw her right arm. There was a slash on her skin where something had pierced her while the area all around her wound had turned into a sickening shade of lime green. Fresh blood continued to leak out from her wound which was also stained by little bits of grime and dust which she had gotten awhile ago from the battle.

I drew a sharp intake of breath at the sight of blood and I shut my eyes closed fighting back the tears that were starting to build up on my eyes. It wasn't until Avery slowly placed his hand over mine that I noticed that both of my hands holding Solaire were shaking badly. He looked at me questioningly asking a silent query of whether he could take a better look at her and I nodded my head grimly and carefully placed her unconscious body on his outstretched arms.

The atmosphere seemed to grow colder as extreme silence engulfed all of us. Avery checked her condition and lifted his hand and felt for the temperature on her neck. But when his skin came into contact with hers he immediately pulled away his hand and screamed out loud breaking the deafening silence of the area.

"What's wrong, Ave?" Evanity asked looking anxiously at him. She rested her hand on his shoulder and stared at him.

"When I touched her," Avery began a little breathlessly. "Her body temperature began to shot up suddenly. It was like her body was burning - like she was on fire."

The three of us exchanged confused looks, each of us uncertain about what truly happened to my sister. I was beginning to think of a way to make my sister wake up when Tarah spoke up.

"After I saved Sol from being almost killed by a Cabrian during the battle awhile ago, I did notice that wound in her arm. But it was nothing like that. Her face had turned ashen and she seemed to have lost her energy and strength but she still went on to search for Haiden in the training area."