Spirit of the Forest
Chapter 21

Cyri eyes widened in horror as he took in the scene before him. Dominque held Romelia close to her, a knife to her back and an arm around her throat. He knew that in less than a second, if Dominque wanted to, she could easily have Romelia dead and on the ground. She still looked the same as when she had stabbed him, who would have succeeded in killing him if it hadn’t been for Romelia.

Romelia herself look like she was about ready to break down with fright. She was near tears, in fact there were tears at the edges of her eyes. Cyri could see Romelia trembling from where he stood and how scared she was from her eyes. Despite all of this, he could see how happy she was to see him.

I’m too late, he thought with a sickening feeling. Dominque got to Romelia before I could.

His promise to Ordello repeated itself again, as it had done since the king had passed on. He wanted to protect Romelia, not just because of his promise, but because he didn’t want Dominque to win.

This caused more valor to build up in him, as well as confidence.

“About time you showed up,” Dominque said softly. “I was starting to worry that you had run away.”

“Let her go Dominque!” Cyri snapped with his newfound confidence. “She has nothing to do with this!”

Dominque chuckled. “You brought her into this, traitor. All I’m doing is repaying the favor.”

“Damn it Dominque! Let Romelia go! She’s innocent!”

“Oh, no, no,no,” she cooed. “You have to pay for what you did. I’ll stab her like you did to us. I’ll stab her in the back, just how a traitor like you should be punished.” Her last words came out in a growl. Romelia whimpered slightly as Dominque pushed the knife into her back even more. Cyri even saw some blood drip to the ground.

“Stop! Don’t hurt her!” He accidentally let his worry show through his shouting.

Dominque stopped pushing the knife in when he spoke. Her eyebrow raised in surprise. “Don’t what? Don’t… hurt her?” She lowered her head, covering her eyes. “Oh. I get it. I was going to kill her… But now…” Dominque lifted her head, grinning maliciously. “I have a new idea.”

Cyri’s blood ran cold. He knew of the things she was capable of and there were things that he dare not think of that he had seen her do. “What are you planning?”

“If you come back with me, I’ll let little Romelia here go. You’ll work for me again, we can even go on missions again. I might even let you sleep in my room again.” Cyri felt sick to his stomach as she said this. “But if you don’t, I’ll make sure you never see Romelia alive again.” She tightened the knife again to prove her point. Some more drops of blood fell to the ground, a bit bigger than the last time.

Cyri’s mind raced with ideas on what he could do to get both him and Romelia out of this, alive. He only came up with one. It was risky, he might be killed in the process, but it was the only idea he had. Before he could try anything, a voice spoke.

“Don’t do it.” Romelia’s voice came out small and weak, but she sounded firm. Her voice didn’t waver, despite having a knife in her back. Her voice did break as she continued though. “Don’t w-worry about m-me, C-Cyri.”

“Oh?” Dominque looked at Romelia with new-found interest other than bait. “You want to die then? You would die for your friend?”

Cyri could tell that she was struggling to stay calm as her trembling increased. “C-Cyri has a-always been my f-friend.”

Dominque grinned mischievously. “Do you like stories?”

He knew what she was going to say as soon as she spoke. Dread filled his entire being when he imagined Romelia’s reacting. He wanted to be the one to tell her, tell her his side of the story, not Dominque’s. Curling his fists, Cyri shouted a warning. “Dominque!”

“I think you’ll like this one,” she purred in Romelia’s ear. “See a time, not-so-long-ago, there was a boy- an assassin, who worked for me. This boy was incredably talented, so talented in fact, that he was the second command. He received lots of money and gifts for each assassination he performed, each one better than the last.

“One day, he got an important job. If he did this one flawless, he would be set for life. He got there and seemingly did it without a bump. But, later that same week, a person had come to me, with that person’s head. Not the boy’s. It was the one he was supposed to kill.”

A tone of mocking came into her voice as she continued. “I was shocked to say the least that he had not killed him, but instead saved him. I felt betrayed by the boy who had not only been my second in command, but by the boy who had stolen something very precious of mine: My heart.”

“Can you guess who he is?” Dominque asked. Romelia looked at Cyri with a shocked expression. “That’s right. It was Cyri-”

His mind raced as Romelia’s expression turned into horror. Quickly, he started talking to her. “Romelia! Don’t believe anything Dominque says! That isn’t who I am anymore! I changed a long time ago! I figured out what I was supposed to do with my life a while back. You helped me to realize that I made the right choice, Romelia. I promised Ordello that I would protect you and I intend to keep it.” Romelia smiled at Cyri in a friendly way. That’s when Romelia jammed her heel into Dominque’s foot.

Dominque cried out in pain, letting her arms drop to grab her foot. As soon as she let go, Romelia ran towards Cyri.

“No!” he said as she did. “Get into the house!” Romelia looked confused for a moment before nodding. As she ran towards the ladder, Dominque recovered.

“Why you-” Dominque held up a knife, snarling. “You’re dead!”

“No!” Just as she started throwing the knife, Cyri shoved her arm. He also elbowed her hard in the gut, knocking the wind out of her. He saw the knife fly, but not towards Romelia, towards the tree. The knife lodged itself in the middle of the trunk. Almost immediately, there was a change in Romelia. She stumbled to a stop, her eyes widening. There was a quiet dripping sound as she placed her hands to her stomach. Slowly, she turned back to Cyri. His eyes widened his horror when he saw the red staining her pure white tunic, dripping to the ground.

“C-Cyri,” she whimpered in pain, “H-help me.” Her eyelids fluttered shut as she fell backwards.

“Romelia!!”Cyri shouted. He didn’t know how she had gotten hurt, all he knew was that she would more than likely die if he didn’t help her.

As he moved to help her, something hard hit the back of his head. He cried out as he, too, fell. White hot pain raced through his skull as he started to pass out.

N-No! Cyri weakly thought as he vaguely saw Dominque run for Romelia’s fallen form. He tried to get up, however, his body was too heavy. He reached out weakly as Dominque threw Romelia over her shoulder. “R-Romelia…!” he whispered. With one last thought, Cyri’s hand fell to the ground.

He fell unconscious when his head hit the ground.