Blood King

Chapter Forty Nine

They were close, so close now.

Close to home.

Xavier took in a deep breath, allowing the smell of the trees and earth around him to fill his senses. How he missed this smell, the smell of home. Even with the cold and dampness of winter it did little to fault his current mood.

"You seem pleased my Lord." William stated.

"How could I not be? After another month we're finally close to home, it feels as though it has been years! Years my good man!"

William laughed. "Well it has been, but it's good to see you in such high spirits."

"This is nothing my friend, just wait until we've returned home."

Strikerius glanced back at the King, wariness in his eyes. Could I have imagined it? Was something he still thought of even after the war had finally come to and end. It still replayed in his mind, of the young king being stabbed, and yet... he did not die. So, Strikerius watched him, throughout the whole month as they were preparing to return home. He could not watch him all the time of course, but when he had, he saw nothing out of the ordinary from what he could recall of the king. Even his treatment of prisoners was kind. Perhaps I was mistaken.

"Something wrong Commander?" one of the Elven soldiers asked.

"Oh, no it's nothing." The elven man said as he continued his march with the others.

Xavier glanced at Strikerius's back before closing his eyes and inhaling another breath. "Truly... I feel as though we are finally going back to where we belong." He smiled and laughed faintly to himself. Celina, I cannot wait to see you.

"What is so funny mi'lord?" he stopped laughing to look back on his hoarse, the young girl Ada, sitting along the back of his stead. He was not about to leave her with the male prisoners, didn't have the heart to. Even more so knowing what many of those who lived possibly had done to girls and women such as her within the Tower. So, he brought the girl with him, with plans of sending someone whom he trusted to take the girl back to her family, with a sizable amount of gold as well.

"It's not what was funny, it was more of a laugh of relief."

She looked at him puzzled. "Relief mi'lord?"

"Yes, for I will now be able to return home and see my family again. My sister, for I had not seen in since partaking in this war. She would probably be about your age now."

"If she looks at all like you, then she must be very pretty."

Xavier smiled, the girl seemed to have come to terms with the events of the Tower, a good sign to see. Though he could tell that within those blue eyes of her's, that the shadows of the event still lingered, and perhaps, would never truly leave.

"You will see for yourself, and, hopefully soon, we will be able to get you back to your family as well. They must be worried greatly as to where you are."

Ada however said nothing no the matter, leaving Xavier to think that the poor girl might have been forced to work at the Tower to avoid a possible detestable home life.

Such a horrible thing.

Which led him to ask. "Did your parents not treat you well?"

"They died, a while ago before I went looking for work. It's just my brother and me mi'lord. We have no one else."

"Older or younger?"

"Older, he's near to your age. He told me I didn't have to work, that he would do everything himself, but that wasn't right. I wanted to help, any way I could. He works as a stable hand, though in his last letter I heard he now assists the Crown Prince with certain duties."