“No.” She growled. “Youdon’t get to call me that.” The black of her hair kicked up in the wind of the shadows, looking as if it had become one with the mass of darkness. She strode toward him with an unnatural grace, like she was walking on air.
Ilias expelled a burst of energy, but it did nothing to slow her down or stop her. She got closer. He panicked, fingers curling around the hilt of his sword.
“Perhaps you hadn’t heard—I had a teacher before. An egotistical male who believed he had power over me… he was a Captain once, too.”
The panic that had bloomed in his chest withered, decaying into shameful realization. And then regret. “Ailikaya, I am sincerely sorry. I-I didn’t know.” But he did. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, the stories began to align with the reality before him.
The story of a young princess, betrothed to the previous Captain of the Silver Guard. She was eighteen. The engagement only lasted a few months. And then he was imprisoned, his face mutilated beyond recognition.
“He hurt you didn’t he?”
The darkness vanished. Immediately. So quickly that the morning sun was suddenly blinding him, his eyes squinted as he watched her crumble to the ground.
They sat there in silence as she regained her strength. And when she lifted herself off of the ground just enough to sit, she sighed. “Definehurt.”
Ilias was no wordsmith. But he knew that hurt came in many different forms, each form handled and dealt with according to how deep and precise the wound was made. Ailikaya’s hurt was…
“The kind of hurt that makes you want to do great and terrible things to anyone who makes you feel unsafe.” He spoke gently, carefully. And by the face she made when his words began to register with her, he felt that he had been correct.
The darkness inside of her was not as uncontrollable as her parents believed. It was her rage. Her hurt.
Without her knowing how to cope with what had happened to her, her rage would only fester and grow into something so grandiose it could be…
Catastrophic.
“I can help you, Kaya.”
“Stop—don’tcall me that.” She sighed, fingers weaving through her hair, her eyes drifting closed.
“Then what would you have me call you?” He asked.
She looked at him finally, the blue of her eyes suddenly such a heartbreaking color. “You call me by my name, Captain.” She sighed. “Nothing more, nothing less.”
?????????
The rest of the way to G’Illach was spent without a single exchange of words.
After such a revelation, there was not much that could be said to lessen theoverwhelming intensity that’d formed between them. It loomed over them, thick as the rain clouds that had gathered in the sky, spilling its dreariness onto them to fitfully set the mood.
They passed through a forest, and Kaya noted the tiny people that scurried off into tree trunks, their wide eyes sparkling and observing her just as closely as she did them. They played no tricks, just simply watched as she and Ilias rode through their maple-swathed wood.
Ilias noticed Kaya perk up once they crossed into G’Illach, her eyes widening just slightly underneath the rain-soaked hood of her cloak.
The gates were as ostentatious and marvelous as always, golden and arched and gleaming, even in the rain. The streets were much like those in Holiadon, laid with chiseled squares of quarts. Temples and homes were built into the sides of the mountain, all of them a bright white, a stark contrast to the darkened summer sky.
Lightning cracked through the horizon, fracturing it into multiple sections, causing the bright village to glow. The thunder was loud. Ominous. And Kaya’s goats tried to tug free from their leads, scrambling in opposite directions of each other.
“It’s not much further.” Ilias assured her. She looked at him, blushing just slightly. But not at the fact that he looked… wonderful drenched in rain, but at the unmistakable guilt and embarrassment from what transpired only a few hours before. She felt utterly humiliated and too vulnerable for her liking. She shouldn’t have said anything when he’d asked. She should have told him no, that she hadn’t been hurt.
In fact, she probably should have thrown that book at his head a little harder.
The rain began to ease, suddenly. And through the mist of clouds that blanketed the mountain-side village, Kaya could see the camp begin to emerge. As they rode closer, she started to see the tents and the small fires where people either cooked or sat eating their meals. The smell of cooked meat and eggs filtered through the air around them and Kaya’s stomach growled. But as they drew nearer to the camp, all sense of hunger seemingly vanished the moment she saw a goat being dragged to slaughter.
She frowned, eyes immediately darting to Ilias who was already staring right back at her.
“Don’t look.” He commanded. “Just keep looking at me.” It didn’t matter what she was looking at. It didn’t matter at all because she could hear everything. And once the noises started, she slapped her hands over her ears.
She expected him to make some sort of jest, or at least chuckle and shake his head as he had to all the other naive things she had done on their trip. And while it was expected, she was thankful that he didn’t. He just kept looking at her.
