A War of Silver and Gold Read online

  If he was the one poisoning the waters with Greenrock, he knew the extent that she was capable of reaching to achieve her goals.

  "What makes you think that I would give it you?" He smiled then and for a moment Cassia debated what would have brought her more pleasure, killing him or saving the town.

  Her eyes narrowed. "I'll kill you and I know how vain elves are, you love your life more than you love the one who made you poison the fountain."

  He chuckled as she hissed at him again and pressed the dagger firmer against his skin. "Oh, but I have my own reasons too."

  "You have no reasons, Theoston. You came in my City exhausted and pained from War decades ago and I took you in. I gave you a purpose and a life. You owe me everything you have and yet you betrayed me."

  He flinched for a moment, trying to make her let go of his hair, but he stopped and smirked devilishly, sharp, white teeth flashing before her. "You think yourself above us, Lady Cassia."

  "I doubt there is a Lord or Lady more close to his people than I am. I never thought myself above you. We are all equals in my City and my Towns."

  "Lord Nadaon betrayed our King."

  "Nadaon is harmless and the King is a fool."

  He smirked; his traitorous eyes glanced around the study, settling on Ael. "You nurture a traitor among us and Nadaon is rather open-minded on the Adanei relations."

  She knew he was trying to manipulate her into another conversation, trying to get her far away from her main purpose. She fisted her hand in his hair and hissed at his face. "Where. Is. The cure?"

  He tugged himself away from her grasp.

  She let him go.

  He combed his fingers through his hair, pushing them back away from his face. He turned his head to the side and looked at her.

  The imminent need to kill him came back at her, but she needed the cure, not for her, but for her people.

  She took a step away, but keeping a safe distance, as he fumbled with the papers before him, throwing notes onto the desk. He held up a piece of yellowing paper to her without looking at her.

  "There,” he said as she grabbed the paper from him and read it quickly, skimming through the words. "That's the antidote."

  She narrowed her eyes at him, something was not right. "It's not Greenrock."

  "Why would it ever be? The Greenrock was there because of the Lam. The poison is called Firewinnow it's not Feremony, it's from the Citadel."

  Her eyes widened.

  The King had no motive to target her city and her towns.

  It didn't make sense. Nothing made sense.

  She closed her eyes and pursed her lips. Everything was wrong, out of place and out of time.

  She gritted her teeth and slammed her fist onto the desk, anger running hot throughout her.

  She grabbed her sword’s handle, the graceful blade sliced through the flesh of the elf, piercing the many layers of skin, grazing against bone, cracking tendons.

  The head, harmoniously fell onto the floor, to the side with a dim thud and blood sprang from the dead body of the physician like a fountain; a red, macabre fountain.

  It was something she should have done many years ago, when he had come, crawling to her castle asking for help.

  It was scary. It should have been; the bleeding head with the pained expression on its dead features. She stared at it with that twisted smile plastered onto her face. Death didn’t shock her, she and Death had reached a mutual agreement, she tricked him and he chased after her with an insatiable desire for her blood.

  "You killed him." Ael's voice travelled to her ears rich in the essence of disgust and pain.

  She grabbed the dead elf's tunic and cleared her sword from the blood. "I did."

  Cassia turned around, a deadly shadow evident in her glance. Ael flinched from the way she glanced at him and took a step backwards. "Was it that necessary to kill him?"

  Her brows knitted as she surveyed him. His back hunched forward, his eyes bore into hers for a moment before looking away with his lips barely hanging open. "If you want to take revenge and overthrow your father from his throne you have to be ruthless with your subjects."

  His face went blank. "I never said I wanted revenge."

  A muscle in her neck twisted. She chewed on her bottom lip like a maniac bringing blood on her tongue. "Everyone wants revenge, no matter how small or insignificant they are."

  He grounded his jaw, his brow furrowed; an expression of disgust took over his face as he looked at the limping corpse on the chair and the blood and the head on the floor. "Let's get out of here."

  She took a glance about the room and nodded as she walked past him and out of the room.

  She only pitied the servant that would have to clean up the mess she made.

  The corridors were somehow darker than she remembered them; it was an old castle, after all, maybe the oldest of all that existed in her territory.

  She had killed worse in the past, but it never affected her, she never puked after a battle, she never had those nightmares were her victims looked at her and pleaded with blank eyes and white dead skin.

  Maybe she had been blessed enough for this, but she couldn't bring herself to think some strange and unknown deity out here, had built her as a creature to spread death wherever she went.

  She peeked beside her. Ael had been frowning since the moment they stepped out of the physician's study.

  She didn't blame him. She knew that he had never met someone so avid on killing, lest that someone being a female. The muscles on his arms flexed as he fidgeted with the handle of his sword. She ignored the irritating silence and walked inside the throne room.

  Nadaon curled over the arm of his throne; he leant onto himself, a pained expression spreading over his face. He held his forehead in his palm, the crown looked so heavy on his young head that made Cassia think twice before stepping closer at him, her eyes not believing that he was the elf that had come to her council and stood before her with pride.

  He was ill, his skin had lost its rosy glow and his eyes were dull and scary.

  "Nadaon,” he raised his head and managed a faint, painful smile. She stood before him, her hand outstretched towards him, showing him the note. His eyes curious looked at it but his hand didn't move to grasp it from her. "You must be more careful about who you deem your ally and who your foe."

  He tilted his head as he panted, the illness was taking its toll on him, and she could feel it now, more evident than before. "What do you mean, my Lady?"

  "The physician was the King's spy." Nadaon quirked an eyebrow. "As for the creature in your basement; it was from Feremony and had a message for me."

  Nadaon stood and descended from his throne. He looked down at her for a moment, his eyes seemed unable to focus, a white gleam took over them.

  He fell on the floor.

  Cassia yelped and knelt beside him, holding him halfway.

  Nadaon's eyes were pressed close as she looked at him. Ael had run to her side on his knees holding the elf. She screamed then at the top of her lungs, "Guards,"

  They rushed in, the cluttering of armour and spears filled the empty room.

  She rose from the ground and turned to look at the elves. She passed one of them the note without looking at him as her eyes were fixed on Nadaon's withering form on the ground. "Get him to Mistress Healer and tell her that I order her to register him the contents of this paper."

  + + +

  Cassia couldn't sleep without putting up a fight with her bed sheets.

  She was restless, not because she had nightmares, but because she couldn't sleep.

  She tossed and turned, but nothing got to her, but an enormous headache.

  A knock came from the door.

  Her heart was about to burst from the panting and her lungs hurt in more than one ways, but she ignored them and stepped away from the bed, the sheets dangling from the bed to the floor.

  She made her way towards the door and opened it.

  Ael stood a few ste
ps back from the threshold of her bedroom, his forehead creased, his jaw clenched, a muscle twitched on his left arm, his head bowed low.

  "You don't happen to have Flamebolts here, do you?"

  She looked heavenward and chuckled. She was thankful for a moment that it had been him. She didn't need to draw a dagger and threaten someone in the middle of the night.

  "Flamebolts is somehow flowing like water in this town no matter how hard the King tried to ban it during the War."

  She moved to the side and motioned him with her head to step in. She closed the door behind him slowly, took a glance at his clothed back.

  She fought a smile from creeping up her face and went to the desk on the left side on her bed. She filled two glasses with the illegal liquor and went back to him.

  He sat on one of the chairs beside the fire, his torso leaning onto his knees. She passed him the glass and sighed.

  She sat in the chair opposite his, folding a leg beneath her.

  The blaze crackled slowly in the hearth, little orange flames, bursting here and there. Nothing moved in the room, the windows were closed, her bed was in the same pathetic state as before and the lycan across her was soundless.

  Silence was the food of her brain no matter how much she tried to deny it. Her thoughts were better organised this way. There was order and she loved order, in chaos, she felt lost. Even in battle, her armies were tightly organised, no chaos bursting or havoc interrupting.

  Her eyes trailing to the elf perched on the armchair.

  His one hand was on the arm of the chair holding the glass firmly in his hand. The other splayed over his lap unmoving. His eyes seemed too far occupied with the bear pelt on the floor between their chairs.

  "Penny for your thoughts?" She asked as she sipped from her glass slowly, looking at the glass, trying to keep her eyes away from him.

  His eyes flickered from the pelt to hers and back again, he seemed hesitant as he rubbed his neck and sighed. "What did it tell you? The Lam."

  She crooked an eyebrow in surprise and shook her head. She had her doubts about him. She did, but the Lam made everything look a lot easier. He worships you. He needs you. A shiver ran through her spine and his eyes trained on hers.

  "It told me things about you." She pushed back a lock of her brown hair and dipped again into her glass for a sip.

  "What things?" His voice seemed almost alerted, but she ignored the essence of fear as he smiled faintly.

  She pulled down her throat all the contents of the glass and bitterly chuckled, shaking her head. She knew she was going to tell him.

  Maybe it was the liquor that began running hot and delicious inside her veins; maybe it was her buzzing, failing consciousness, her weak restraint and her foolish mind, but she told him without an inch of embarrassment or shame.

  "It told me that you liked me, that you needed me and..." She paused for a moment, her breathing hitched, her breasts becoming heavy on her chest as she could feel them hardening against the soft silk of her nightgown. She swallowed the lump that had gathered on her throat, desire running thick inside her, as thick as the liquor she consumed with so much ferocity and need. "It told me that you wanted me."

  He smiled. "It did, didn't it?" She nodded. "It must be true then."

  "You tell me what's true, Ael."

  He shifted in his chair and turned to her. "What if it's true?"

  She shook her head. "I don't know."

  With a mighty groan, he stood from his chair.

  He placed his glass on the small table beside it.

  He took stealthy steps towards her. Ael was a male that never really knew what he was doing; he functioned with what his instincts advised him. She couldn't blame him on that. She couldn't. She wasn't the right elf to judge him; she never acted upon her feelings. She always did what was deemed more logical in society's eyes.

  He stood before her.

  His hands gripping the armchair as he fell on his knees slowly, with the same grace he walked. He glanced about the room for a moment, searching to find suitable words to speak, before his eyes came to rest upon one blue and one green.

  His blue glance reminded her of her father's, but there was something wholly Ael's in there. Every piece of his previous status as a Lord's heir seemed to have vanished in tidal waves after what had happened to him.

  He stretched one hand and grasped her glass from her palm.

  He placed it on the floor beside the chair and turned to her again.

  His eyes boring into hers.

  He was not there to mock her or play games with her. She didn't know why she didn’t push him aside already. She didn't know. With all the honesty that had been beaten to her. She didn't know.

  He pulled her hand over his chest, over his heart and never let her eyes stray from his.

  The warmth of his skin intimidated her, but for a moment she felt alive, her heart beat in sync with his. Maybe it was the liquor that had driven her crazy and had clouded her judgement. She wanted to shake that thought out of her mind and believe that every move he made towards her was clear and chaste.

  She closed her eyes, shaking her head.

  The world had not been clear and chaste for as long as she remembered it. It had never shown me that face.

  She only knew the harsh way of life. She cleared her throat as she tried to pull her hand away, but he didn't let her go, his grasp was firm and unyielding. She winced and pulled faster and with more force until he let go. She wasn't disgusted, but she couldn't let someone else wrap himself around her pride and shatter it.

  "I like you,” he began as he placed one hand on her knee and searched her glance. "I need you. I want you."

  She shivered again, desire coursing through her in such a sweet way that she considered giving in, that she considered stopping fighting him.

  The sanest part of her, though, overpowered her desires. She managed to stand away from him.

  She needed to get away, away, before she had the chance to fall into his opened arms just to live a night full of bliss.

  She was a soldier, hardened from the life she lived and sharpened, as sharp as her sword.

  "You don't know what you are saying. You are out of your mind." She tried to look cold and unfeeling, but at the end, her voice broke.

  "You said so, Sia."

  She turned and glanced at him, her eyes widening as he stood from the floor and placed his hands on either of her shoulders. The warmth of his skin against hers still fascinated her with the same strange way. "You don't know what you are asking of me." She shook her head and inhaled a long breath, calming her rapid heart. "I am a soldier and I have forgotten what it means to be a woman,” she shook her head again. "Female. I have forgotten and I have used each elvish part of me to suppress my human nature."

  "It doesn't matter, not to me." His voice was barely audible, as if his words were only for her, no other female in the world, no other being to hear.

  "It matters a lot. I wouldn't submit and I would never let anyone overpower me."

  He smiled faintly as if showing her that giving in to him was not as bad as it looked, as she thought it would be. "I never asked for you to submit." He chuckled then and tightened slightly his grasp on her arms. "By Nature, you are the most beautiful she-elf I know."

  She tugged violently from his arms and he let her go.

  She had never been called beautiful. She had ever simply been agreeable to the eye, never beautiful.

  His words...

  They must have been wonderfully coated lies, then. She regretted the fact that she didn’t have her dagger around her waist. She should have killed him from the beginning, and none of these things would have happened.

  "You embraced me today in the fountain."

  She wanted to snarl at him and threw him out of her room and never let him in again.

  She couldn't though, not when he looked at her like she was the only female in the world for him, even though she was not his mate. She took a step backwards, awa
y from him, her bare feet making contact with the cold stones of the floor. She winced at the stinging feeling.

  His eyes flickered to her feet for a moment before they returned back to hers, amusement shining inside them. "You are barefooted again, I see."

  He smiled, the sweetest most genuine smile she had ever witnessed someone giving her. She wanted to throw caution to the wind and wrap herself around him for a moment of pleasure and oblivion. She couldn't though; she had so many things to guard and protect around her. She couldn't give in to temptation as if she was nothing but an elfling in her teenage years.

  "Cassia, are you alright?"

  She shook her head. Of course, she wasn't alright. Nothing was right. "Return back to your chamber."

  "I thought everything was-"

  "Well, you thought wrong."

  He seemed scared only for a moment before he straightened his back and walked before her.

  He leant in and pressed a lingering kiss on her right cheek. His lips hot and sweet against her tender skin.

  It burned after he pulled back away. It burned as she saw him moving away from her and closer to the door. It burned again after he had deserted the room and closed the door behind him.

  It burned when she returned to her empty bed and closed her eyes. And it burned again as she dreamed of him at the hands of the King, as the Shadow Breakers drank on his life source and left him limp at her feet, and she couldn't do anything, not even touch him.

  She only stared at him, unable to do anything else but watch as he tried to call out to her.

  14

  She slept little the night before. Shadows of a past she long wanted to forget haunted her.

  It was the same rutting dream again. Cassia saw Ael hanging from the tree in front of the palace in the Citadel and she saw her grandfather laughing and mocking him in every way his sick mind conjured. She hadn’t rushed to the toilet to empty her stomach, but she had remained silent, looking in the empty vastness of her chamber, taking deep breaths and stabilizing her anxiety.

  She shook her head and walked into Nadaon’s room. It hurt her somehow to know a thin thread of fabric held him to life the day before.