Chapter V: Running Away

I could not get through to them. I stayed for dinner, which was nice. Queen Meryl had a lot of food prepared. I ate my fill and stored some extra in a small bag that I had found. After the dinner, I decided to retire. The room that they had given me was the size of my house. My entire house. It had a rich, red carpet, to cover the cold, white marble floors and a huge bed with a canopy over it. I could comfortably fit five people on that bed! Who could possibly need that much room? I asked myself. I waited a couple of hours. A dark-skinned, red-haired serving girl brought me some water and I bathed. I had to convince her to leave so that I could bathe. She wanted to help, apparently.

They had returned one of the swords to me and let me keep the dagger, of course. I strapped them on my side for easy access as I started to leave. It was a strange weight on my side. Or what was actually strange is how natural it felt. I have been wearing them for a month now, I thought. Lady Carmella made me. No matter how much I protested, she'd insist. Her words echoed through my head, And what will you do if someone attacks us? Kindly ask them to wait while you dig them out of your bag?

I stalked out of the castle slowly. Whenever I heard a sound I would stop, holding my breath until I was sure whoever or whatever was going by had passed. I somehow managed to not encounter anyone until I was out on the grounds. I was stopped briefly by the guards who checked my bags and let me go without any concern. Eventually I managed to make my way out of the city as well and I stopped a couple of miles out of the city gates. I did not want to stop in the city and stay at an inn. Partially because I did not have all that much money and more because it may get back to Queen Meryl where I was staying. How did she know about the daggers anyway? She must've been watching me. But how?

I started a small fire with some twigs I had found and curled around it. The night was cold, but most had been when I was traveling with Lady Carmella. Some nights she would not let us have a fire, saying it would attract too much attention. Eventually I drifted off to sleep, my last thoughts were on the kiss. And reluctance. Maybe I shouldn't leave. My dreams were me frantically running from two pairs of green eyes. Every time I turned, they were there waiting for me. The eyes were bigger than I was. I could crawl into the pupil of any of them.

Metal ringing against metal echoed out and I snapped awake. When my eyes focused in the soft light of the almost dead fire, I saw two figures with blades against one another. They were struggling for an advantage. It took me a moment to understand that one of them was Carmella. And that there were another couple more figures around the small camp that I had made. There was one that was huddled next to me and a few more out there. The man's blade shifted on hers and caught on it. There was a space carved into his steel and he twisted and the First Knight's sword broke in two, sending her off balance and sprawling. Without thinking, I grabbed my dagger and flung it. It struck the figure in the throat and after a few seconds, he collapsed down to the ground.

The other figures were running towards us, blades bared. The figure next to me stirred and a light spawned between two hands. With a thrust, the small ball flew forward and slammed into the chest of one of the dashing figures and he stood, stuck mid step. I could hear him struggling against it, even over the stomping footsteps of the others getting closer. One made it to Carmella and she danced and weaved between the attacker's slashes. In one swift motion, she grabbed his hand, twisted and took his blade from him. She spun on one foot and slashed at him. The blade hit her attacker in the throat and also snapped. She screamed in frustration "Absolute garbage!"

That man went down, crumpled near the body of his ally. I got up, pulling my sword out of the sheath as I did so and made my way to her side. I offered the sword, pushing it into her hand, "Here, use this."

She pushed it back into my hand and stepped back. Her voice was acid, "Use it yourself, blacksmith."

I did not have any time to protest as two men reached me, both blades slashing at me. Without thinking, I managed to bring up my blade and deflected both. Then they came at me again. One overextended himself and I managed to deflect his blade into the leg of his friend, who screamed out. With the brief opening I slammed down my sword into the arm of the one that had injured his ally and with less resistance than I would have ever suspected, it went through and the hand and half of his forearm spilled out onto the floor. I barely managed to suppress my vomit. The other one swung his blade at me and without thinking I parried the attack and slid my blade down into his shoulder. He collapsed in pain. Both of the men were sprawled on the ground, bleeding profusely. All from wounds that I had caused.

"Violence is a curse of its own." I had not realized I had spoken the words until Carmella came and clapped me on the shoulder and smiled down at the men.

"At least you clean up after yourself." She seemed to realize that there was a note of pleasure in her voice and added a stiff "Blacksmith."

I looked at the other figure which was making its way over to the man who was still stuck mid-step. I caught up in a couple of strides and it was as I had suspected. It was Morgana. I mean Queen Meryl. I still was not used to this. She smiled at me, a little bit of dirt spread across her cheek, then turned her attention to her captive. So did I. In the moonlight I could see that his eyes were bulging out of his skull and he was trying to look everywhere but at us. I could also see that he was still struggling against whatever force held him. There was nothing there, as near as I could tell, but one of his feet was hanging a hand off of the ground.

"L-let me go!" He managed to stammer in a high and strained voice.

"Why did you attack us? I was quite enjoying the night before you came."

"We d-didn't mean anyth-thing by it. It was just you w-were there, th-that's all." The man looked to her beseechingly. "P-please. I w-won't do anything."

Meryl examined him for a few moments. He was dirty, underfed, and terrified out of his mind. She sighed, sadly and suddenly he fell to the ground, his blade landing next to him. He started crying. She spoke with all the authority she could muster with dirt on her face and sadness in her voice. "Leave here. And don't come back. Don't hurt anyone. Get a proper job."

The man nodded, sobbing. She turned away and started walking. I began to follow her, when I heard some scrambling behind us. I heard the words "Die, witch!" screamed and I closed the distance between the queen and I and pushed her forward. She stumbled a couple of steps but managed to keep herself upright. There was a sharp pain as something pierced my side and I collapsed to the ground. Queen Meryl whipped around and her eyes met mine and then went to the man's. Her eyes seemed to glow in the night. Her hands did a complex dance that I would have never been able to follow, even in broad daylight and when I was not wincing in pain with every breath. A small bead of flame formed in between her hands and she threw it forward. It made connection with the man and then he was completely engulfed in flame. After another moment, there was nothing left but ash. The fire died down and wind blew away the remains.

"Johann! Are you okay?" She leaned over me and started pulling up my shirt. I grabbed her hand and stopped her, pulling myself up to my feet. I put my hand to my side and lifted it. I smelled the blood and my fingers glistened in the moonlight. I grimaced and wiped it off of my clothes. She looked at the sword and then at the cut in my shirt. It looked like it had gone deeper than I had figured. It had gone through one end and come out the other side. She touched it and winced, glancing up at me to check my reaction. Carmella had come over and was looking at the wound and then at the ground where the man had been. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"My queen, really. If you're going to spare someone, at least take their weapon away." She looked at me and her lips twitched at the ghost of a smile. "And you, blacksmith. You have a sword. Use it and maybe you won't get stabbed next time. Let's go home."

"We can't. I'm exhausted." She said simply. "Johann's hurt. What are we going to do, Carmella?"

I looked at Carmella and Meryl and stood up a little bit straighter. "I'm fine. You all should go back to the castle."

The women met eyes for a moment and laughed. Carmella closed the distance in one long stride and started pulling up my shirt. "Whoa! What're you doing!? Stop!"

She paid me no mind and just pushed my hands out of the way. She managed to get the shirt off despite my protests and resistance. I actually think my resistance helped her somehow. She looked at the wound for a moment and shook her head, tsking.

"It's not that bad. Don't think any arteries or vitals hit." She was actually kind of tender when doing the examination. "I know some first aid. We'll get him right as rain and we can leave in the morning."

She prepared a few things out of a pack that she had brought with her. With a couple of stitches and some wrapping, she closed the wound. Meryl hovered around and looked really nervous until Carmella turned to her and softly said, "Ryllie, calm down. We'll have Em look at it when we get back. She's been itching to meet him properly anyway. For right now, go find some firewood. He's lost some blood and I don't want him keeping me up with his teeth chattering and shivering all night."

Meryl, the Queen of Bayfield nodded solemnly and walked over to a collection of trees not far away. "You realize you just told a queen to get firewood, right?"

"Oh," a smile spread across Carmella's face. It was the widest I had ever seen on her. "You should see the things I can tell her to do."

I choked on my own spit and looked away from her face, feeling my own heat up. Her grin, somehow, grew even larger for a moment. When she sobered, she reached up and gripped my chin. Her fingers were softer than I thought they would be, handling the sword all day. She looked me directly in the eyes and would not let me try to move away. "I want to thank you."

"F-for what?"

"You saved her. You didn't think about yourself or your own well-being. You threw yourself on a sword for her. Literally."

"O-oh. Well, it isn't a big deal." I said, shrugging. I tried to look away but she still held my chin and waited until I met her eyes again before speaking.

"It is a big deal." Her face looked like it was carved from stone. "Now I want you to promise me something."

"What's that?"

"Don't run away again. She was really worried for you. And it almost got all of us killed."

I clenched my jaw and pulled my chin from her fingers and looked away from her. "You have the wrong guy."

Meryl dumped the firewood behind me and I jumped, and turned around to face her, wincing. She met my eyes and said, "No, we don't."

I fingered the fresh stitches and shook my head. "I'm not some child of prophecy."

"You weren't. Neither was I. Until we fulfilled a prophecy." The queen said, while calmly putting wood on the small fire pit I had created. She pointed a finger and a spark jumped from it to the wood. She then stepped over to me and past Carmella. She lifted the arm on my uninjured side and curled into it. "Prophecy is convoluted. I fulfilled one prophecy when I was three and another when I was eight. I never meant to. Until then I was an ordinary girl."

Carmella snorted at that. Meryl looked at her, raising a brow. Carmella grinned and shook her head. "An ordinary girl, she says. When she was four, she set the curtains on fire with magic."

I glanced down at Meryl to confirm the story. She was pouting, which confirmed that it was for me. The pout never left as she responded. "Says the woman who stole her father's sword at 5 and practiced on all of the houseplants. We had to replace 7 priceless vases."

First Knight Carmella was blushing. She was actually blushing. My mouth hung open. I was shocked. I spent a month with the woman and I had seen her smile maybe four times. I never thought she would blush. She glared at me and looked away. The queen put out her hands and motioned for Carmella. Queen Meryl, who was capable of burning a man to ash in an instant, was making grabby hands. And Lady Carmella came and snuggled into her arms. My arm was still around the queen. It rested on the knight as well. They were warm. Their presence was calming. But I did feel like I was intruding a little bit. They would be better off if I was not around. Even as that thought echoed through my head, Carmella rested an arm over my leg and the queen nuzzled into my side. I frowned and shifted away some. Both women simultaneously made whining noises and I shifted back.

"You have to have made some mistake." I whispered as quietly as I could have. Queen Meryl reached up and patted my cheek.

"No," she said out loud. First Knight Lady Carmella looked up and then just snuggled deeper into her lover's breast. She must have felt my jaw tighten when she did. "Johann, I didn't make a mistake because it wasn't about prophecy. It was about choice."

"But why me?" I almost whined. "I'm not special. I'm just a blacksmith. Lady Carmella knows this. Why don't you?"

"Just a blacksmith," Carmella said, her voice partially muffled by the fact that her face was still nuzzled in her queen's chest. "Just a knight. Just a queen. Is anyone really just one thing? You're a blacksmith that saved my life. Twice now. That saved a queen's life. And made sure an old woman could eat and helped your friends back at your village when you could. You don't take credit for anything and you take responsibility for everything else."

"H-how do you know I do any of that?"

"We watched you for a time before we made our decision," the queen responded evenly.

"That's kind of creepy, honestly." I replied.

"That's what I said," Carmella agreed. "But Meryl thought it was the only way."

"So, you chose me because you thought I was nice." I said. It was honestly so mundane. I was disappointed.

"That was a factor." Meryl said. "The other was that you were willing to do the work. You're a good blacksmith. I knew you'd be able to make a good blade. You're also cute."

I frowned at that last statement and shook my head. "Sure, whatever you say."

"Shh. You are." Meryl insisted.

"So, what happens if I refuse?"

"Don't." Carmella put in. She rose from her queen's chest to look directly at me.

"Why would you refuse? Look at us!" Meryl put in with a laugh. She gestured to Carmella with her sharp green eyes, golden hair, pouty lips. Her body was mostly covered by a cloak. She was tall. Taller than me by about half a head. My gaze went to the noblewoman. She was about as tall as me with dark hair and vibrant green eyes. Her figure was not concealed by a cloak. She was bustier than Carmella. I was pretty sure she was curvier in general, but I had never really seen Carmella without her armor. I shook my head.

"Honestly, that's kind of the problem." I muttered.

"Mm?" Meryl asked, wordlessly.

"You could do better." I put in. "Someone smarter, stronger, better."

"Nah," Carmella responded. "You're just needlessly hard on yourself. Honestly, that's your most unattractive quality."

Meryl nodded her head and pushed me over. I winced at the pain in my side, but it was brief and she pulled Carmella close and wrapped my arms around both of them. We were all asleep moments afterwards. Somehow, my dream of the eyes following me continued, bubbling up from my subconscious. This time, I stopped running. They didn't consume me. They just kept batting me around a little bit, like I was a cat toy.