Maximus was beyond furious at the pile of dead body. He should have known better that the stupid boy don't let things go easily. But why this much? Wasn't it just his cook that was killed?.
All day maximus had been trying to clear the situation in his castle, the queen, his wives where all frightened, oblivious of everything. The parents of the deceased maids stormed into the castle to demand an explanation from the king but they where all held back by the guards.
"Let us see the king",they ordered, full with anger and sadness from the loss of their love ones
"We demand that he comes to tell us who killed the maids?".
"Is the castle not safe anymore?".
The guards were having much difficulty in holding down the people, so they formed a two man barrier.
Maximus felt like caous had descended on him and he stood helpless in the middle of it.
He walked up and down his room thinking of his next plan, he needed a good strategy to punish the king of dradevows.
A knock on his door distracted him and he quickly calmed down not wanting anyone to see him like this.
"You may enter",he said.
A guard walked in and knelt before him, bowing his head low against the ground.
"My king, the king of dradevows have a message for you",he said.
Maximus wondered what Aiden had sent to him.
"Speak",
"He's asking for war",the guard spilled out the information that was written on the white parchment paper in his hand.
Maximus gave a low chuckle, if it was war he wants, it was war he was going to get.
"When is the date?"
"Next full moon",.
"Gather my horse and carriage ready, we are going to slough".
"Yes milord".
The guard left immediately.
"I will make sure this is the last war, you ever get to see last Aiden", maximus muttered lowly.
***
Back at the dradevows castle, Aiden held unconscious lillia in his arms.
He was beyond worried as he walked with huge steps towards her room.
Her breath where a little unsteady and her body was cold and beyond pale.
Aiden hadn't expected her to faint at the sight of blood but he couldn't blame her. She had never experienced such a thing in her life.
He carried her to her room and placed her softly on her bed, gathering many pillows close to her, to comfort her.
The healer was called and she immediately started checking lillia, her breath hitched.
She was beyond scared, this was the queen of dradevows, any wrong move could lead to her demise and the king hovering over her added to her fears .
She was done checking on her and she turned to look at the king who seemed to be surrounded by dark frightened clouds, his aura suffocated her and his green eyes where like touch that could see through anything.
"Nothing seems to be wrong with her milord. She might have fainted due to shock, so I would suggest you get a warm water and towel to cool down her body",
Aiden heard everything that she said but he didn't reply, his eyes where on the fragile human on the bed.
"Get a maid to bring those",he ordered.
The healer was a little confused but she quickly ran out calling out any maid she saw.
Aiden walked towards the bed, looked down at the beautiful pale girl, the image of a knife in her head frightened him, and he knew if it wasn't for Josey, lillia would be dead.
He gritted his teeth, smashing his teeth together, his gaze intense.
The door creaked open but he didn't turn to see who it was and the person just stood behind him.
"Have delivered it and maximus is already preparing for battle",peter said.
When he didn't get a reply he sighed and left. Again the door creaked open this time Aiden looked at the person, it was a maid, holding a bowl of water and towel in her hand.
"Give me that",Aiden ordered, the maid was a little surprised but she hided her expression and just handed over the bowl of water and towel. She bowed and left.
Aiden sat at the side of the big bed, he proceeded to dipping the towel into the water and squeezing the wet dripping towel hard. He placed it at her forehead cooly then repeating the act for a couple of times.
By the time he was done, he had already wet all of lillia exposed part with the towel, her temperature seemed to be returning to normal.
Seeing this he calmed down and left the room to the Field. Meanwhile lillia immediately began to stirr in her sleep.
"Ai...den... help".
Her head throbbed badly, her body felt sore . She opened her eyes to see where she was but she couldn't see anything. Everywhere was so dark, the only source of light was above her.
She so badly wanted to ignore the pain on her head but she couldn't, it hurt so bad. Her feet were red as if they had walked through red sand before she got here but how did she get here?
Suddenly something moved in the darkness, like a Shadow.
Lillia immediately became alert, and her heart rate increased.
"Whose there?",she asked loudly, looking round her.
"Me",a deep thick voice answered her, the voice was as deep as any voice she had ever heard and a massive wave of fear freezed her up or was she actually freezed because she couldn't move and the voice was behind her. The person took a step forward closer to her, taking huge steps till he was barely away from her.
Lillia could hardly breathe, her heart beated so fast that she could actually hear the beat. She could feel the hot air coming from the person's nose.
"Lillia.....nice to meet you"
Her eyes shot open, and she looked around, she was in her room, and she could see Josie sitting close to her looking at her with a worried expression. What happened to her?.
"How did I got here?",she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"Aiden brought you here,you fainted lillia",Josie replied softly, placing her palm over lillia's hoping to comfort her.
"Can I ask you for something?", lillia asked, her blue eyes stared at Josie's softly.
"Anything dear",Josie replied happy to be of help. She had been so scared since the time lillia fainted. She actually begged Aiden to please allow her stay beside lillia so that if she wakes up she could be with someone.
"Can you take me out of the castle?".
Josie felt air leave her body, her mouth fell open.
Leave the castle with the queen when there was a war about to happen? Aiden would kill her.
"Please Josie", lillia seemed to have saw her fear.
"Just me and you"
"Yes, I just want to breath the air that isn't from this castle",.
Josie understood her, she couldn't actually blame lillia for wanting to leave to take an air. It had barely been three days since her wedding to aiden and so many things had happened. She deserved the break if possible.
And by the way she had given lillia her word.
"Okay but we come back immediately",
Lillia beamed with joy and hurried to get dressed while Josie waited for her. The other was already in a good dress, a cream colour gown with silver necklace over her neck.
Soon both ladies were out of the castle, heading towards the main Market in a carriage.
" I must say milady, I have nevered been in any commoner main Market", Josie revealed, she was smiling happily with the thought of it.
Lillia gave her a big smile,
"Don't worry you would now",.
The carriage arrived at the market and lillia had asked the rider to drop them, so that they could walk.
Josie was thrilled, she barely could contain her excitement.
She came down of the carriage looking round.
"This isn't bad",she said.
Taking a step down suddenly, her feet and dressed went into green stinky dump.
"Ehhhh, what is this?", Josie literally screamed, gritting her teeth. She got quite a few passby surprised at her scream.
Lillia looked at the dump and began to laugh.
"That cow poop",.
Josie grimaced as she lifted up the rem of her beautiful gown that was covered in the dump.
"I think the cows sends their greetings", lillia laughed some more.
Josie gave her a hard stare, how dare her laugh in this terrible situation?.
"Just tell me where to get this cleaned",Josie asked, taking her leg away from the poop.
"At the village toilet",
They walked into the market, a lot of people looked at them, wondering who they where, some actually found the brown haired familiar but couldn't remember where they had saw her.
Soon they got at the toilet and Josie quickly entered.
The toilet wasn't even that sanitary but she ignored it and on the tap, placing the affected dress at the rushing water, including her legs.
By the time she was done, she looked at herself in the small mirror inside the toilet, giving a sigh and walked out.
Only to walk into an empty space.
Lillia was no where to be found...