I cried out the battle scream as the remaining few hundred men raced to their doom. I fell off of my horse as the sky seemed to darken with deathly grey storm clouds. Lightening threading with hidden flashes.
There were cries and screams of pain as men were shot to their death, stabbed and trampled by horses and the occasional oxen that the enemy brought.
Commander Seung leapt out off of his horse and defended me as I gasped for air, the clashes of swords ringing heavily through my head. "No…you'll die," I mumbled feebly.
Seung ignored this and was stabbed deftly by his opponent. He let out a tangled yowl of disbelief and his killer walked over to me. I leant heavily against the mound of dirt behind me. All we'd wanted was to make a treaty, to create a peaceful negotiation between two civilisations. But these people had been expecting us and attacked us as soon as we arrived.
"King Ryuu, I will be escorting you to our leader, where you will be apprehended personally." The man's voice was gravelly and hoarse, he was panting slightly. Like he'd been fighting for quite a while to get to me. Killing all my men to take me to his leader who will undoubtedly kill me themselves.
"Go to hell!" I spat, blood dribbling down my chin. After taking an arrow to my shoulder and falling off my horse, I guessed that I had pierced a lung with a broken rib from the fall.
The man sighed and knocked me unconscious with a jab of his elbow.
I opened my eyes and found that my wrists were tied quite tightly behind my back and I was occupying a chair at the moment. I looked around and saw that I was in a dark room, aside from one window that allowed a column of pure white light to cascade down to the concrete floor.
"You are awake." A feminine voice said. Her accent was strong, and I noted immediately that Inglesh wasn't her first language either.
"Who are you?" I asked, speaking back in her language. Based on her accent. She sucked in a breath and responded in the same language.
"I am slightly surprised that you know my tongue." Her voice was sweeter, less forced. She sounded more ladylike.
I chuckled and lowered my gaze to the ground. "It seems you are here to kill me, are you not?"
"I suppose lying is a sin to God." She replied simply. I looked up and sucked in a shocked breath of my own. There was a pair of starlight eyes watching me. Glistening blue.
"I suppose it is," I murmured. I watched the dust motes swirl in the pillar of light. Their dance was unpredictable and subtly beautiful. "If you are here to end my life, would you at least make it quick?"
There was a short bark of laughter before a shadowed figure emerged from the darkness. Her figure was curved in all the right places, and as she came into the light. Her skin was pale and perfect. Once she fully emerged I knew exactly who she was. The white dress parted perfectly up her thigh as she knelt down in front of me.
"I plan to give you an honourable death, Your Majesty." She said, smiling angelically. I shook my head and stared at her full mouth.
"Do you know anything of my culture?" I asked, not trying to be polite. If I wanted a noble death, this wouldn't be the way I would die.
She shook her head in amusement and sent me a glance, her eyes flashing as she did so. "I know enough to try and make this as memorable and honourable as possible." I laughed and felt an ache in my chest. Clearly, I'd forgotten about my broken rib and punctured lung.
Blood dribbled down the corner of my mouth. I coughed violently and the girl's face wiped away any traces of humour.
"That is another reason I am forced to kill you," She nodded at my chest, and the blood spatters sank into my changed white shirt. "You are already dying."
I sighed and thought of my little boy, only thirteen and the letter he last sent me was as if he was sixteen. Poor Hiro only had Jae as a friend. I smiled softly to myself, a smile that she didn't seem to see. At least Hiro would be leaving once he turned nineteen. Even royalty had to see the world, and the Council voted just before I left.
Hiro would see the world, whether I was there to send him off or not.
"Get it over with." I spat, hopefully, the message was already sent. That Jiang knows of what had occurred here fourteen days ago. She'd better know, otherwise everything I've done since then would've been for nothing.
The girl laughed so hard her shoulders shook. She bent over slightly as she stood up again, taller than me as I bent over, waiting for the gunshot or whatever she would kill me with.
"Oh my, no wonder he acts that way!" She covered her mouth and looked away. Not saying any more than that.
I frowned. "Who? Whom are you talking about?" I scowled in concentration as I tried to think about who she could be referring to. Then it hit me.
"Hiro…" I muttered. "What—How—?"
The girl grinned and pulled out a jewel-decorated knife. The metal glinted in the small amount of light in the empty room. "You really think I wouldn't find out about your son and his power?"
I hissed in fury. "What are you going to do to him?" I asked. My hands twisted against the rope's tight grip. "If you touch him—"
"What will you do? Even if I don't stab you, you'll be dead before I get to him!" Her face is innocently ignorant. She stared at me as if I should understand what she was saying. I frowned.
"You are too young to know." I felt tears brim my eyes. "Hirokazu is only human, and he deserves that chance before reality hits him square in his heart as he realises he is alone with that power, that he will probably never control it." I take a deep breath.
"Prince Hirokazu Yamashita of the Empire Baî will never be controlled, and he will most certainly never bow down to the flames of the Northern lanterns—of your accused 'squad'—He is too wild, too free—" I met her gaze, fury burned away everything else that remained.
"He is the South's King—He is Moon Mountain's Dragon."
She hissed at my words. She knew what I spoke of. She knew and yet she still thrust that knife into my heart. I stared blankly ahead of me. The warmth of my veins and chest was disappearing.
"All the more reason to annihilate him." She spat in my ear. Her words giving more reason to say what I said next.
"Hiro is the Southern blizzard that will relight your lanterns and build on the ashes of your childish decision to strike against him."
And then she pulled that knife out and my head slumped, welcoming the darkness that swallowed me whole, succumbing me into blissful blackness.
Make me proud…my son…