Chapter 46 part 2

All the way to Sekania, Kalena was furious at herself thinking how much time she had lost.

When she was about to leave the Forbidden Zone, Gyeul attacked her again and made her unconscious for a few hours. She awoke in the morning the next day. She lost the whole night.

The girl looked with fear at every man passing by. She tried to comfort herself, with a thought that she was getting further away from the palace and Samin, but it couldn't stop her fear. Finally, she managed to cross the border, with almost a day delay.

For safety, she decided not to sleep in any village. She did not know how far the power of the new king could reach, but she was sure that Samin was looking for her and knew where she went. She didn't want to admit to herself that she was afraid. Not of fighting but of loneliness that began to surround her from all sides.

Kalena thought that once she knew where Galaspiael was being held, she would slip away early in the morning, not at night, as she had told Rikken before. She lay in a makeshift hut, not even able to squint, though the night was extremely warm. She felt a terrible emptiness in her heart thinking about her home. Kalena didn't even want to imagine what would happen there.

She left everything there. Almost every happy moment in her life was associated with either Yagn-Sho or that house. She was extremely grateful to Galaspiael that he decided to give it to her.

Suddenly a terrible thought appeared in the back of her mind. What will happen if she fails? Where will she go? In Kagolania, Kalena was considered insane, who raised her hand to the new king and destroyed the funeral ceremony. She had nothing to look for there, and the rest of the world was terribly foreign.

She didn't want to go back to Yagn-Sho without Galaspiael. She would never forgive herself for this failure.

The more she thought about it, the more the dream did not want to come, and her thoughts became more obtrusive. It was just the beginning, and she had had enough. She desperately needed someone who would ignite her slowly dying enthusiasm. She was alone, with her fear and doubts, and there was no indication that this was about to change.

*

"How does it feel?" Mei asked, washing Zarkin's eyes with a decoction of intensely fragrant herbs.

"No change," he said grimly.

"Don't worry, my lord, give this mixture more time."

"Stop! Don't call me that!" He wanted to grab her hand but missed. "Now I should call you my lady."

"I want to show you respect in this way."

"Very undeserved respect. This title makes a distance. I have a name just like you. I just feel bad when you call me that."

"So I'll stop," she promised, "but I want you to know that you deserve it, even now."

"You don't understand."

"I know, archery requires perfect eyesight, and you are not sure if you will get it back at all. You've lost a lot and you feel bad about yourself."

Zarkin didn't have to answer, she knew him well.

"I have plenty of time to think about my life now," he confessed, "because when you are gone, it is completely quiet here. I'm terrified to see what kind of person I have become. I don't know how to feel about myself. I never wanted to be this way."

"What do you mean by that?" Mei asked.

"I never wanted to be so hopeless. My life was shallow. If I were to die, I wouldn't even have people who would wear mourning costumes for more than two days. I am not a lord, I am a lost kid who has grown into a completely worthless man. I don't understand your love for me."

"I love you all, not just your eyes." Mei took his hand. "When we first met, I didn't know anything about your talent. You didn't have a bow with you when you defeated the Conspiracy spies, and I already felt that I wanted to be with you. I managed to love you much earlier than I would like and I love you much longer than I thought I was capable of. I really don't have a clue why this is so, but I'm sure it doesn't matter if you ever see it again or not."

She watched carefully as Zarkin walked around the room, ready at all times to help him if he stumbled. She smiled seeing how well he managed to found the way. Slowly, he found the door and turned the handle.

"I remembered the whole room," he said after a moment of silence. "If everything stays in place, I should be fine. Have you received another message? What's going on at Yagn-Sho now?"

"Yagn-Sho is safe. The capital and the palace is worse. The captain of the Ruby Guard, the one protecting the queen, had been interrogated about the disappearance of Kalena."

"Did the queen have any guard?"

"The queen has manors and servants, but each of them is trained in the battle to defend her if needed."

"And who is this captain?"

"Her name is Nailan."

"I knew her. Was she attacked?"

"Yes. They wanted her to reveal where Kalena was hidden, but she stubbornly remained silent. Officially, the Golden Guard cannot kill anyone without an explicit order, especially since Nailan is a maid of Her Majesty. So they released her and later caught and beat up, pretending to be someone else. Was she someone close to you?" She asked seeing his reaction.

"Yes. For some time. We broke up before I went to war."

"I'm sorry. She behaved heroically, she did not reveal any of our secrets."

"I would like to go there. When we are sitting here the most important things happen in the capital. But now I would be completely useless."

"We can go if you feel up to it. You will be able to do something. Maybe in Yagn-Sho, we will find a way to help you?"

*

Galaspiael got awoke by an extremely painful kick in the ribs.

"Stand up, Your Highness!" Washar leaned over him. "We need to talk. I had serious problems because of your little friend."

He would not have felt such terror even if he had been tortured again. He rose to a sitting position and saw am-shen swords, broken in half, lying on the ground.

Am-shen that once belonged to Kalena.

"His Majesty Samin asked me to show you this. Those were nice." Washar grabbed the hilt of one of the broken swords. "She must have been nice too?"

"She knew nothing!" Galaspiael croaked. "I swear it! She knew nothing about the dynamite."

"Oh yes!" A mocking smile appeared on Washar's face. "She certainly knew nothing, and that's why two hundred sticks of dynamite and some failed samples were found in her house!"

"It was my workplace! I couldn't do it in the palace, she just lent me a place. She didn't know what was going on there!"

"I will whip for these lies! Do you think I'm stupid? I know who she was to you! I know what you did together!"

Then Galaspiael cried for the first time. Earlier, no matter what they did to him or how painful it was, he didn't shed a single tear. He couldn't stop his despair now.

"Kagolania is the country of idiots since one girl has caused so much confusion. The slave girl…" he frowned significantly "I feel sick when I think about touching something like this. After all, did anyone call you an aristocrat? You were drawn to vermin because you are a worm yourself, I understand that."

Galaspiael did not answer. He was kneeling curled up, covering his face with his hands.

"Get ready for the trip. We are going to Madegald soon. I already have a special place for you in my mine. Not at work, of course, you are still a king, as you said earlier. There will be a place, very cramped, very dark. You will sit there until you die. And I will make sure you die very, very long. Really long. You would go crazy with despair, and I will come every day to see how you become less and less human. Nobody will find you. You will never see a face other than mine."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Galaspiael took a decorative red stone from one handle. He forcibly pulled it out of his hand.

"Please ..." he groaned as his fingers were forced open. "Please don't take this from me…"

"Nobody left me a souvenir from my home," Washar replied, tossing the stone outside. "Cry as much as you want, your tears are a joy for me. There is some justice in the world at last."

He left and quickly headed to his quarters. Najana was waiting there. She came to say goodbye because she also planned to return home earlier.

"I wish he had written more about this girl. More information."

"You can tell him that his royal guards were wiped out," she murmured, reading a long letter from Samin. As always, you're lucky. But I have no idea how she managed to recognize the double."

"She must have known the original very well. Often see up close, touch. Even be closer than his wife."

"I'm afraid she could raise doubts among people." Najana clenched her teeth and hit the table several times with nervousness. "I should get it out of your mind before!" This plan was too risky from the beginning!

"You have nothing to fear. It was only one girl who is probably dead now, and if she miraculously survived, she would soon die. When I leave, nobody will find me."

"But she could..."

"Why would anyone in Kagolania believe her?" Washar smiled at her and shook his head. "They've already got their king and given him a great funeral. It makes no sense to keep thinking about this matter. Imagine discovering the great war hero is actually a slave, with a sign of shame burned on his face. It is much more convenient for everyone to accept what happened and to not search for answers."