Behind The Wooden Door (14 page)

“What do I do, Tristan?” I asked aloud, but my words were lost in the wind. I fell to my knees and let the tears flow freely. “I can’t do this without you.”

“Lanie?”

I didn’t look up at Cormac even when he sat down beside me. “I thought you may want this,” he said and laid a sword down in front of me.

I didn’t have to ask where he’d gotten it. Tristan was unarmed the night he went behind the door of the execution chamber. I ran my finger over the black sheath of the blade.

“He’s gone.” It was Tommy who had spoken.

I stared up into the sky and let the rain wash the blood from my face. Of course Rueben had left. Tristan’s men wouldn’t have let him survive once they found out that it was he who condemned their leader to death. The true soldiers would have died for him as he had died for me.

I picked Tristan’s sword up from the ground and walked to where Tommy stood. It wasn’t mine to keep, and I knew it. Tristan would have wanted his brother to fight to the death with it.

I held the sword out to Tommy. “What do we do, Commander?”

He took Tristan’s sword from my hand and ripped it from its sheath. “We take Norric.”

The rain was cold on my skin, but it didn’t slow me down. It didn’t slow any of us down. Hidden in the belt of my dress was the dagger of a dead man. In my right hand, I held the sword Tommy had wielded in the many battles before. He’d devised our attack plan, assembled the soldiers, and led us through the woods to the enemy’s castle. Tristan would be proud.

Tommy had come here to make a difference, to make something of himself, and to make Tristan believe in him. And now he was the commander of his brother’s army.

The trees around us groaned in the wind. They seemed as nervous and exhilarated as I felt as I stood amongst the other soldiers. Tommy turned around and faced us as a whole.

“I feel like I should give some lame speech like Tristan would have, but I’m not my brother. You all know what is expected of you, and you all know how grateful I am to be fighting with you. How grateful I’ve always been. But it’s come to my attention, that one of our soldiers never said the creed.”

Tommy stopped in front of me. “Repeat after me. I am a soldier.”

I swallowed and nodded to him. “I am a soldier.”

“I will never falter; I will never fail.” He placed his right fist over his heart.

“I will never falter; I will never fail.”

“Welcome to our army,” he said with a smile. “Let’s make history!”

We followed Tommy out of the forest and to the beige walls of Artair’s castle. This was it. This was our moment to shine. To be the heroes.

Tommy held the sword in his hand high, and all the men around followed his movement, and we marched. I didn’t hide behind Cormac or Tommy this time. No, I was between them marching with my soldiers into battle. An act of courage my father never had taken.

The guards at the entrance saw us. They knew there was no peace. Tommy sliced them down effortlessly and we invaded the castle. The main room was like Rattonim’s. The throne room. The party room.

And Norric was celebrating.

CHAPTER 20

The people of Norric stared at us with fearful eyes. No one was prepared for our attack. Their soldiers were here. Most of them were drunk, their reflexes slow. This would be too easy. Artair stood from his throne and stared at us in disbelief.

“Hello, cousin,” I said and walked through the throng of people. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the wedding’s been cancelled.”

A guard stepped between Artair and me. A brave gesture but a foolish one. I rammed my sword into the man’s chest without hesitation and he fell. Artair took a step back from me. It was obvious he was confused, but he should have known a takeover when he saw one. He was the one who started this whole bloody affair.

Our soldiers blocked off all the exits. There was no way anyone could leave for help. The soldiers had their swords attached to their uniforms, but even sober, they’d be no match for my army.

Artair regained his composure as a prince. Surely he knew this was the end. He unsheathed his sword, and all the drunken soldiers in blue did the same.

“It doesn’t have to end like this, Lanie,” he said and stepped toward me.

I stepped over the dead man who separated me from my cousin. “Yes it does.”

Neither of us could rule our kingdoms while the other was still alive. We’d always live in fear of an attack. Artair didn’t care about peace. About my people. Or about Tristan. It was his selfishness that had brought Tristan to me. It was his selfishness that would lead to his own death. Or mine.

I struck out at him with my sword. He dodged the blade and the fight was on. This would be the final fight.

All the sounds dulled. Everything sounded as if it was a hundred miles away and not just behind me. The women’s screams. The clashing sound of metal on metal.

The sword felt heavy in my hands as in banged roughly against my cousin’s, but I couldn’t stop. I had to keep fighting. He fought well, but I had to fight better.

I tried to avoid his blade as he swung out at me, but it caught my right arm. It stung intensely as the blood rushed out. I dropped my sword. He kicked out at my legs and knocked me roughly to the ground. My only hope was the dagger in my belt.

Artair stood over me with sword in hand. His eyes had the same look of pity they’d had my last night with Tristan. He was the one who needed the pity. For his life was dangling right in front of me ready to be snatched away. I pulled the dagger out from my belt and lunged forward so quickly that Artair didn’t have time to react.

He pushed me back away from him again, but it was too late. The small blade of the dagger was already jammed into his chest. He stumbled backward, his eyes full of shock and pain. He could do no more harm to any of us.

I picked my sword up from the ground and looked at the fighting men. All this death because of one man’s greed. This was still a battle, and when the men in blue realized that Artair was dead, they’d fight even harder.

My arm throbbed as I grasped the hilt of the sword tighter and joined my men on the bloody ballroom floor. I would fight by their side until the finish. As it should be.

I fought in a trancelike state of mind. My sword sliced through my enemies and sank into their skin like a rock in water. They were nothing but bodies to me. I knew how Tristan had done it now. He didn’t think about the men as people with lives and families.

They were just bodies.

Surrender.

Loud clanging echoed throughout the room as the men in blue dropped their swords. They knew it was the end. We were the conquerors of this kingdom. Of this world. And no matter how valiantly these men fought, they had lost.

The hem of my dress drug through the pools of dark red on the tan stones. I stepped over the fallen soldiers and advanced toward Norric’s throne. Cormac and Tommy walked behind me side by side.

The throne was mine. Rattonim and Norric were at peace.

Or so I thought. Artair’s body had vanished from his place of death.

I turned quickly to the men behind me. “Where is he?” I demanded.

Cormac closed his eyes briefly and took a single step toward me. “I took care of him, Your Highness.”

I sighed in relief. If Artair had gotten away, none of this would have mattered. For it was he who had truly killed my love.

I ran my fingers over the arm of the throne in front of me. It was much larger than the one at Rattonim, but Norric was the bigger castle. It was original castle and kingdom that had spawned my home.

“Anyone who so wishes to remain in Norric is more than welcome to stay, but any act of treason against me or my men, and you will be put to death,” I addressed the room. “I’m sick of the bloodshed and death. I swore to myself I would be a better monarch than any before me, and I shall be. We have all lost friends, brothers, cousins…lovers.”

My voice threatened to break, but I continued on. “I cannot bring any of them back from the dead, but none of them died in vain. Not the men who came to fight for Rattonim nor the men of Norric.”

Hardly any of the men looked up at me. Their hearts had been broken multiple times, and they’d never gotten the chance to mourn.

“We can live in peace if you allow us to. Anyone who would like to leave, there’s the door. No one is stopping you
. For those who are staying,” I raised the sword in my left hand and put my right fist over my heart. “Never Falter. Never Fail.”

Every person in the room bowed down to me. Artair
finally got what he wanted. Rattonim and Norric had merged, but he would never see it. A small shadow fluttered past me and landed gracefully on the ground with the soldiers, but the black butterfly held no terror for me anymore.

And right then I knew things were going to be okay. No matter how many men I killed, it would never kill the pain of losing the only person who had made me feel whole. But he died to keep me alive. I had to live everyday with no regrets of what had happened over the course of this war. I owed him my life. And for him, I would live it.

CHAPTER 21

Tommy and Cormac stayed in Norric to help dispose of the dead men, but there was something I had to know. Someone I had to see. I walked alone through the woods unafraid of anything and anyone. The soft raindrops on my skin were the only thing that made me feel like I was still alive. I felt as if nothing could hurt me again.

The wooden carriage looked exactly the same as it did the day Tristan and I had come to see Cornelia. The day of the very first battle. I had been so desperate to know how it would end, and she’d known everything, just as it had been.

I knocked once and the door opened almost instantly. The strange lady didn’t seem as intimidating as she had the last time I had seen her. She smiled her toothless smile and bowed to me.

“I was wondering when I’d be seeing you again,” she said as she straightened up.

There was something odd about her. She was something more powerful than I had ever thought her to be before. She knew the answer to the one question I needed answered.

“What happens now?” I asked and stepped into her carriage.

She laughed and from under the makeshift cot in the corner, she pulled a large chest. “He asked me the same thing, my dear.”

“Who?” I questioned. I moved around the table to where she was crouched over the black chest.

She pulled from it a knife with a black hilt encrusted with garnets. Hawk’s knife. The knife he’d thrown at my captor the day in the forest. Next, a picture from the book that had been in Tristan’s tent. It was of Tommy and Cormac.

She then handed me one of the swords Tristan’s men fought with. Last, she pulled out a strip of black cloth. I took it from her hands and recognized it instantly. It was the same cloth I had wrapped Tristan’s shoulder with in the forest.

“How did you get all of this?” I asked her.

She smiled up at me. “That rude young man who came with you the last time you were here brought them to me. He asked if there was anything I could do for the two of you to be together after the war.”

He should have known that nothing could keep us together with his imminent death waiting on his return to my castle. Cornelia knew that too.

“So I told him to bring me something of the people whom he most truly cared about and he would be with them again,” she told me. I looked at the things Tristan had given her. There was nothing of mine there.

Cornelia must have read my thoughts because she picked up the sword. “This is the sword that you fought with when you followed that young man into the forest to save his brothers. When you fought with it, it became yours.”

She placed the blade on the table. “Life is nothing more than a cycle. When this cycle runs out, you will find each other again. In another life. Another time. And you will live out that cycle and so on.”

Her words sounded unbelievable, but they were the only hope I had of seeing Tristan again. He swore to me that we would be together. That this wasn’t the end. I didn’t care how long I had to wait for our next cycle. It didn’t matter. I believed Cornelia’s crazy words for she had already told me the truth once.

“Thank you, Madame Cornelia. For everyt
hing,” I said. I bowed to her. She deserved my respect much more than I ever deserved hers.

I left her carriage and breathed in the cold air around me. The rain had finally stopped and the first peek of sunlight shone through the canopy of trees overhead. The world was okay now. Tristan waited for me in another life, and I knew he would continue waiting for me.

I began to journey back to the beige castle, but I stopped, turned, and ran back to my home. Freedom flowed through my veins as I rushed back to my castle. To the black tents. To my garden.

I was greeted by the constant roar of the river. The water crashed around my feet as I crossed the clearing.

My castle stood ahead of me. My home. It felt different somehow. Like I was seeing Rattonim in a new light. It felt welcoming and free. I walked alone through the yellow, overgrown grass, and slowly ascended the steps of the balcony.