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Adrenaline is pounding in my ears. The anticipation and eagerness to finish our nearly impossible mission soon runs through every fiber of my being, but I keep them at bay. They can't get the better of me. Not now. Xaden needs me more than ever.
The wind whips at my face, but I hold on tight to Cradth as we sneak up on Basgiath, Sgaeyl and Xaden on top of her. I keep my eyes on them.
As we get closer, hidden by the shadows of dawn, Xaden seems to writhe and struggle more and more to hold on to his dragon and not fall.
-He is sensing the lightning bearer more intensely as we get closer- my powerful dragon explains to calm my curiosity and anguish when I look once more into Xay's eyes, but he doesn't look at me. My anguish doesn't calm down. My stomach twists. My fists clench too. If he feels that level of pain just from their connection then she…
I won't think about it. Not if I want to be useful to him. He needs me.
And she is strong. I know it.
Mounted on his imposing blue dragon, Xay's face is turned towards me, but his gaze is lost and burying itself in unknown and sinister depths. I see it in his face, his furrowed brow, his tense and clenched jaw, his cramped muscles. His labored breathing.
He is suffering.
In body. And also in soul.
Because she is suffering. Now. At this very moment.
For five days now.
The anger, the helplessness, the urgency and… the pain. Everything on top of him.
Everything inside him. It fills him, it floods him, but it doesn't reach to overflow.
He has to resist.
He knows it.
He will.
For her.
And I am here for him. For them.
To be his support, his compass and his rein. The calm in the storm. His shield, his strength and his foot on the ground. Everything he needs. For my friend. My soul brother. My king.
- resist, brother! I shout through the wind hoping that the words will be at least a small balm for his pain.
A slight nod from his head confirms that he is listening to me despite everything that overwhelms him at this moment.
Even knowing everything we risk, the great risk of dying in the attempt, and the entire revolution with him.
Here we are.
And we keep moving forward. Getting closer to our only goal.
Saving her.
Because it's the only thing that matters now.
And not because the consequences for Xay and all the people who depend on him would be hellish if he loses her. Because that's how it will be anyway. He won't make it without her. We all see it. We all know it.
No.
This is infinitely simpler.
He loves her.
And he deserves to be happy.
And I need him to be happy. For my brother to achieve the peace that was so cruelly taken from us.
All of us who really know him need him to have his happiness. He deserves it. He's earned it with blood, sweat, and tears. Because he's put himself completely on hold, sacrificing himself body and soul for everyone else, for his Marked and his people, for justice and truth. For the entire continent. He's more than paid for his ticket to happiness. And she is it. She has won him over, with her innocence, her purity and her unwavering loyalty. With her stubbornness and her undeniable intelligence and her unquestionable ability to penetrate layer by layer the heart of our heir apparent until she reaches his frozen soul. To give him her own warmth. With her love.
- Prepare to descend, my warrior. Tairn awaits us ahead. We're almost there - Cradth warns me. I reposition myself to descend quickly and run to Sgaeyl's side where Xay is clumsily descending. She is in a kind of trance. Her body is here, but her mind... and her soul, are with her, wherever she is.
- Xay. Xay. Look at me. - I give my friend a small slap, so that he reacts while his legs falter and I hold his arm until he stands on his own feet again. - Xay, come back to me.
A painful moan comes out of his mouth and then a sharp intake of breath makes him regain consciousness and look at me again with his eyes full of fury. Sweat from the endured pain runs down his temple.
We are close. Tairn will tell us where she is. She... they are torturing her, Garrick.
I look at the terror of the Black Dragon behind him and his appearance mirrors that of Xay. Anger and pain. Helplessness and anxiety. Determination.
Tairn and Xay flinch. Xay closes his eyes and clenches his fists for a moment - we must hurry.
-Xay, breathe.
She needs you in all five senses. Raise your shields. That's an order.
He tries hard, but doesn't do it. He shakes his head. -There's no time to lose, he swallows loudly, and I can't leave her alone.
Without waiting, Xaden launches himself running from the valley towards Basgiath which is only a few hundred meters away, drawing his two swords behind his back.
Xay, wait for me.
A deep roar agitates Tairn's scales.
Tairn says they have her under the dungeons, in the third door down the stairs outside the walls - Cradth informs me.
I speed up my run and try to catch up with Xaden, but he is faster. And he knows it. Despite being overwhelmed and possessed by the fury that consumes him, he leaves a trail of shadows behind him so that he can continue on his way.
We descend the rocky slope until we reach the base of the wall and the hidden stairs that lead down to the torture chambers begin.
Only the footsteps of Xaden's run can be heard in the distance. Silence reigns in this school. All the leadership has already left a while ago to try to cover up the gifts we left for them at each outpost.
They will be entertained for a while.
I take my swords, one in each hand, and go down them, following the shadows that guide me.
Suddenly, the shadows throb as if they were a cramp.
I advance faster.
I turn at the next landing of the stairs. We are already in the depths. A faint mage light illuminates the next steps.
No.
The corpses.
Heavily armed infantrymen, already disarmed, and limp, fallen left and right on the steps, bleeding from every hole as if the shock wave of an explosion had reached them.
Others with their intestines out, split in the abdomen half by half by the furious sword of Xaden, who advances among them without mercy like the God of death.
The blood and human remains were scattered in his path, making my advance impossible.
I take a few bodies and pile them to one side as I make my way through them. I step over others until I reach a hallway.
A large iron door is open and dark at the end of the hallway.
The thick drops of fresh blood on the floor show me the direction to follow. It's there.
-Run! Cradth tells me urgently.
My heart jumps. I feel that we are very close.
I run to the door with my swords ready to strike, I walk through the door and look around the room. Xaden isn't here, but the traces of his passage through the room are there. I'm in a small room, where there's a table in the center and daggers decorated with intricate and unique runes on them. Violet's daggers.
The room has another 6 or 7 more corpses fallen in different positions, each one more bloody and brutal than the last.
There is another door at the back. Also open.
I steel myself, but a tsunami of shadows hits me and they pass at an indescribable speed, dodging me but breaking everything else in their path.
Xaden has lost control.
Terror invades me.
He can't be dead, no!
Neither of us can be!
I didn't get there in time.
My steps advance in slow motion, for the first time afraid of what I will find in the next room.
My swords still ready to avenge me.
To avenge my king.
I cross the threshold and what I see leaves me perplexed.
Another body lying on the floor, a woman with a deep cut on her neck and lifeless.
My gaze advances to the center of the room. It is a torture chamber.
Xaden is alive.
But relief does not come at all.
He is kneeling holding a bundle...
Is she... dead?
No. She is not.
She can't be.
No…he’s holding a body covered entirely in torn rags, bruises, and horrible exposed wounds, bloodied from top to bottom, trembling and small. Dirty and limp. Unrecognizable if it weren’t for the protective, trembling embrace that claims him, envelops him, and protects him as her own. And whose face, hidden beneath layers of dirt and blood, curled up close to his heart and under his tear-stained chin, turns with effort to look at me with those tormented hazel and blue eyes filled with tears that look at me with infinite relief, while the shadows of Xay delicately hold his back and presses it against his chest gently as if he fears breaking it even more than it evidently already is.
-Fuck-, I sigh- You ran off and didn't even deign to leave me one? It took me forever to clear the barricade of corpses from the stairs.
Hello, Garrick.
I'm amazed at how unrecognizable she is, even more amazed at how strong she is for having resisted this long in this place and survived. It's truly incredible. And only Xay could come across perhaps the only woman who matches him in strength, determination and... stubbornness. They are made for each other. And now they are together. Again. And I'm glad.
-You've looked better, Violet, but I'm glad you're alive.
-Me too.
And there it is. The sparkle in her eyes that has my friend so enthralled. That dragon fire for which he would kill without thinking. For which he killed without thinking. And won.
We did it.
Now we just have to get out of here.