Dream Journal: The Chronicles. Vol. 1- Delilah's Story

Delilah's Story Part Twenty Seven (Ch 36)

CHAPTER THRITY SIX.

"Tell him I will accept!" Delilah informed Mercia when she had spoken again of Andreh's return.

Mercia herself had revieved the word, and with Lyvina assuring her Andreh was of great worth, his background clear and his family bloodline secure, she bowed her head in acceptance. But there was something off... though she knew not what it was. There were un answered questions. Too many for her liking.

"Delilah you have just gone through your change...What about Behnjamin?" Mercia asked as she sat at the council table, awaiting everyone's arrival with Lyvina.

Allya was the next to arrive, cutting off Mercia's comment with her own. "That male of yours if pretty rough and tumble...You should see him move during training!...He threw"

"He is not MINE male." Delilah replied, the words stinging at her lips.

She hadn't wanted to speak them. But to her, they were the truth.

"Of course!...I was just..." Allya added, bowing her head to take a seat at the table.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mercia asked again.

It seemed Andreh had had a change of thought. He had in fact been interested. But without the proper courtesies, had returned to his home in favor of a blessing from his father. Such were the rules and obligations of the first son, or so Delilah had been told that morning. Andreh would return, without his nursemaid this time, toting with him a heafty chest of fineries. Delilah had thought about, thought about Behnjamin, thought about those moments they had spent together locked away in her room. How she had thought for sure they had bonded. But sadly it had not been so, at least for him.

"He says he wants mine hand and mine heart!... That he will protect me till the day he dies!... What more could a female want in a mate?" Delilah replied, hoping her sister could feel the surrender amongst the sarcasm. "He is a male of great worth and great strength and I should ever be so lucky that he would chose such an unladylike soul as I." She added for pure theatrics.

"Delilah you don't have to do this!" Mercia told her, an uncertain look in her eyes.

"Is there another who would claim such on mine behalf?... Has he come forth to make claim on mine hand and heart?" She waited for an answer. Prayed that somehow he had changed his mind and come after her, seeking out advice from her sister and finding it was Delilah he was meant to be with, not the brethren, as only Mercia could absolve him of that pledge. The rest would come later.

"No."

The word pierced her heart, the jagged edges cutting in deep, tearing her apart inside. What was this that tormented her so? If she could not have him, then perhaps she could offer herself to another and lavish in the sundries as she tried to forget. Mating Andreh took her away from here. Away from that echo of what she and Behnjamin had had. It hurt so bad, but she had  to remain calm.

"Then why shouldn't I accept Andreh's offer?" Delilah asked. "Unless there is something you are not telling me?"

As more arrived, Yanna, Hallyn and Lunnah, even Malyk, Lyvina grew edgy.

"There is no reason why you should not!... I just thought perhaps you could..."

"There is no perhaps!... I need to be rid of this place...And Andreh has offered it!" Delilah replied, her eyes set on Malyk's, the shock of what he had heard, painted across his brow.

"Rid of this place?... Is it so hard to find solace within these walls now?" Merica asked. "Is there nothing you wish for?"

"I wish for Patience!...I wish for the truth!... I wish to be free of the rules and be free of the heartache." Delilah spat back, and for the first time, she shifted as easily as if she were putting on clothes.

The look on Malyk's eyes, not sure if it was pleasure or pain, scared her as she left, disappearing with a 'poof' to the rolling hills, just outside the Protectorate's walls. The cold air stung at her cheeks, covered in streaks from the tears that had fallen. She was a mess of emotions and fears, this place bringing her the only peace of sanity she could find, and yet it crawled with those who would destroy her. She couldn't see them just now, the light from the midday sun shining at her back, but she felt the presence as she had before, all around her, and yet nowhere at all.

He was masking her. Even here on this far side, he hid her presence from them. But why?

"I told you to go home..." The voice hissed at her.

"I have no home..." Delilah replied with a sob.

"Foolish child.... Let mine plan unfold and you shall have all that you seek!"

A blast of light had her hurling backwards, a buzz in her ears deafening her. It was so bright she could not see. What was happening? Where was Mydys?

"Delilah?" Mercia approached her, as she lay upon her bed.

"Where am I?... How did I?...Where did he go?" Delilah asked, startled and shaking from her experience.

"Then you've met him." Mercia replied with a sigh. "What has he told you?"

"Who?" Delilah inquired, her mind still a mess.

"The sea dweller!... Mydys!" Mercia went on. "He has reasons of his own to be here!...And you should not dabble with them... The land dwellers have stolen his young and he tends to get them back."

"You said there were none..."

"I said there were few!" Mercia replied, "And Mydys is of the few who stayed!... His family making up one of the thirteen."

"Then there are others?" Delilah asked, climbing down from her bed.

"A few!...  And I would prefer it if you stayed out of their business!... The ones who stayed behind...did so not because they chose too!...But because they had no choice!... Back on Imeria Mydys was a tyrant... uncontrollable but for his mate...But here he has proved himself useful and so I help in his plan for his children."

"Then you know of what has befallen the protectorate?"

"Not all of it...but some!"

"Then send me away from here... Let me accept the proposal from Andreh and have me off this island... Away and safe with mine mate whom you said yourself was strong and skilled...He will protect me."

"Is this truly what you wish?" Mercia asked her sister.

No! Delilah thought, hiding it from her sister, she still pained from the loss of the one she wanted. The one who would not have her, for her own good, he had said. "Yes!" She lied.

"Then so be it!... When his convoy arrives we shall greet him in the most splendid of fashion and we will see that friend of yours Cassya is put to work...You will need a mating dress worthy of your stature to greet your male..."

"Very well!" Delilah sighed, watching her sister leave her room.

If she could not have Behnjamin here, she would have Andreh and be gone from here. Gone from the lies and the constant reminder that still, she was different. Why couldn't she have been born someone else?

"He will be here tomorrow...Will you be ready?" Mercia asked, before closing the door.

"Yes!" Delilah replied again.

It was customy to send word of one's actions before one actually arrived, and so Andreh would arrive to recieve her reply, and leave with her under his cloak where she would be safe, and free.