Gardener

Chapter 25

An End and A Beginning

We left the forest in what felt like just a few seconds and thundered across the Training Fields once familiar now completely foreign. The grassed once lush with life now darkened, brown near black from poison. The stable bursting with activity, lay destroyed a pile of ash, the horses long gone. The recruits and soldiers taken from this place, by necessity to survive or force, the silence was deafening without them. The stands I created were the only thing that remained of what once was... bringing to heart a sense of melancholy. If they lived I could not hear them, I could not see their vibrant spirits as we passed. I clenched my fists in Rosen's mane resting my cheek along her strong neck urging her forward. There was nothing for us here... not anymore.

  
Rosen changed back when we came to the vipers' wrath, gazing at the mass of thorny brambles that spanned the entirety of the Pleasure Garden, beneath them no doubt lay dead flowers. The world had never seemed so dark and gray as it did in that moment coming into a land renowned for its greenery now barren of it. "It hurts me..." Rosen murmured softly drawing my attention. Her eyes were full of sadness glowing slightly in the muted light from the sun, a day once bright was now made dull. "It hurts me to come to this place once full of activity, and people. Of green growing things and bright sunlight and see it destroyed. It hurts me... so I can only imagine how it must feel for you." She finished softly.

  
"Like my life has been taken from me all over again," I offered before proceeding forward, drawing my sword as we came to the double doors leading into the ballroom now wide open.

  
Rosen trailed behind ears flickering attentively, "Your brother has made it into the palace... soldiers battle in the halls. They're too loud for me to hear anything else."

  
I tipped my head in acknowledgement of her words, "I suppose the best place to go would be the throne room." Rosen moved first with me guiding her through the halls after all her hearing was better than mine, she'd sense an enemy long before I would. I glanced periodically behind us to ensure that we were safe on that front.

  
"Gods!" I spun around seeing Rosen duck a sword that had appeared out of thin air. I opened my pouched and tossed a handful of succubus petals slashing the air furiously as a man began to appear. He fell at our feet now completely visible blood spurting from his chest. "Of course you would be as good with a sword as you are with a whip and dagger... is there any weapon you can't use?" Rosen questioned drawing my attention from the fact that I'd just killed a man... it never got any easier.

  
I actually thought about her question as I wiped my sword free of blood on the dead man's tunic unwilling to look at his face for fear that I would find that I knew him. "I don't think I would do too well with an axe." I murmured softly.

  
Rosen chuckled helping me to my feet and wiping a spot of blood from my cheek, "I suppose it's a good thing you're not carrying an axe then."

  
"A good thing indeed," I offered back as we continued on our way. "We're nearly there..." I pointed down the corridor with the tip of my sword. "Just around that corner where the tapestry of the first Queen of Angileri has been defaced..." I gazed at the tatters of something that had survived generations, now destroyed in a moment of rage or disgust. Rosen placed her hand on my shoulder bringing me back to myself. "Lies the throne room..." I finished quietly not wishing to draw unnecessary attention.

                 
"What do you think we'll find there..." Rosen asked unwilling to move just yet.

              
I gazed down the hall sword pointed at the ground. "An end... whether if it's our own or his. We'll doubtfully find an end." I supplied solemnly. Rosen gazed at me for a brief moment before we moved as one jogging towards the throne room.