The Dragon King’s Substitute Bride
Chapter 71

HERA

"Do not even think about it your highness."

I seize my attempts to come down from the enormous black animal and glower down at the Chief Ryder by my side.

"Do not even think about what? You aren't even looking at me, how do you know what I am trying to do or not?"

"I do not need to look..." And then he turns and looks up at me. "...I just know."

This horse is easily almost twice the size of those in Averia, and sitting on it alone, feeling it muscles ripple and bunch beneath me each time it lifts and stamps its hooves, is quite frightening.

But it is nothing compared to the absolute terror I feel for him.

The vision had not been clear or precise enough, so even though I know he is danger, I have no idea exactly what the threat is.

And worrying about that is almost enough to make me forget about my fear of horses.

"Leo, I need to go to him."

"No, you want to go to him."

I throw my hands in the air and let them drop to my side in exasperation.

"There is no difference!"

Leo's eyes narrow.

"There is. I understand that you are worried about him and heaven knows why he allowed you to convince him to bring you into a situation that could turn deadly at the drop of a hat, but if you are in danger he will not be able to concentrate and quite frankly, neither will I."

"But..."

"But nothing Hera. The best thing you can do for him and for me is to keep that pretty behind of yours on that horse...your grace" Even his rants are delivered in the most level of tones.

I scoff and turn away from him in a huff, conveniently ignoring the part where he asked me to sit still and where he called me pretty.

I look straight ahead to where the king stands, surrounded by his men, his side tilted towards to me,

Although I can see them clearly, they are a little too far away for me to hear exactly what is going on.

But I do not even need to hear to know, even from this distance, that it does not bode well.

Does not bode well at all.

The person standing across from him, the one to whom he speaks to is a big dragonkin man who although he appears to have been somewhat soften by age, is nearly as tall as Midas and almost twice as wide.

He has some men standing behind him as well and they all have weapons of some sort clutched in their grasps; maces and clubs even quite a number of axes and swords.

The dragonkin's face is half hidden by a bushy white beard but even from my position, perched on the king's horse and quite a few paces away, I can tell from his gestures and the way he struggles to keep still that he is angry. Immensely so.

Yet, there is an undercurrent of sadness to his anger, a sadness so thick I can almost see it.

He is grieving.

I do not know how I know this.

Or how I had known Midas had been thinking about killing some people.

I just do.

Being able to know things like that, bits and pieces of information that I should not, in all likelihood be able to know... it frightens me.

What is happening to me?

I focus my attention back to the group of men straight ahead.

"What exactly is going on?"

Leo turns to stare at me, his eyebrows riding so high up his fore head that they nearly disappear into his hair line.

"You mean you do not know?"

"No?"

"And yet you followed him here, why?"

I may have told Midas all about my dreams and premonitions and maybe I am even starting to learn how not to fight them, but I am not ready or even confident enough to tell anyone else just yet. Especially when I myself do not even understand how or why it is happening.

So I look away and avoid the chief Ryder's probing gaze. "Are you going to tell me Leo or shall I replace out myself?"

"If you come down from that horse your grace, I have the permission of the king to toss you over my shoulders and fly you back to the castle in my dragon form."

"You wouldn't dare."

His eyes narrow and I know he would.

"Fine. But as your queen, I demand that you tell me what is going on."

He stares at me in silence for a moment and then a smirk replaces its way to his lips.

But rather than toss out the sarcastic comment I can practically see dancing around in his head, he bows slightly.

"As you wish your grace. We are in the clan of Adarin.

They and their neighbors, the clan of Rardath, have always been involved in a sort of cold feud that precedes even the oldest amongst them but recently things have... gotten out of hand." "How so?"

"In the recent months there have been obvious, deliberate acts of provocations, disturbances amongst them and each clan believes the other to be responsible.

"I sense from your tone that things are no longer as simple as that."

"Both clans deny crossing the borders between them and maintain they have no hand in any of the issues plaguing the other. The problem is there are no other settlements for miles on either side of them." "Do you think they are telling the truth?"

Leo turns towards the scene up ahead. "I do. As does the king."

I frown. "So if neither one of them is responsible, then who..."

But even as I ask the question, I realize that the answer is already buried somewhere in my sub consciousness, hovering in the grey, just out of reach.

Goosebumps break out on my arm and I wince as that painfully familiar pressure in my head begins again.

But Leo, whose attention is still fixed straight ahead, does not notice my discomfort.

Midas says something to the older man who then proceeds to shake his head vehemently, becoming even more agitated than he was before.

"That is Adarin, the chief of his clan. His son accidently lost two of his fingers to a trap set by Rardath as a result of the skirmish between the two neighbors." His son...son....son...

The pressure in my head is a living thing, filling every crevice of my mind, bending my will to it.

I grip the hump of the saddle in an effort to steady myself, holding it until my fingers cramp on the hard material.

The world appears to have narrowed and my heart slams itself against my ribs, over and over again, until my chest starts to hurt.

I can still hear Leo, can tell that he still speaks but his voice seems to be fading in and out and I have to strain to make out the words.

"The son remained ill ever since, bedridden, which is strange in itself as dragonkin do not succumb to their injuries so easily. He was kept in that hut over there."

My eyes, painful and heavy, follow the tip of his finger to a small structure that sits a little off the left of Midas and the others.

The moment my eyes fall on the hut, I recognize it and everything changes.

"Where is the son now?"

Leo hesitates, like he wishes to spare me the details.

I do not tell him that he need not have bothered, I already know too much.

The chief Ryder sighs.

"This morning, we received word that the lad in question is now..."

"Dead."

Leo's head snaps towards me. "How did you..."

The words fade from his lips, lost in the wind as he notices the discomfort etched on my face, the way my hands clutch desperately at my chest. "Your highness, what is it...are you unwell?"

But I almost do not hear him.

All my attention is fixed straight ahead, on the scene unfolding before me.

Two images, interposed upon each other. One a vision, one happening in reality.

I see Midas say something to the chief Adarin and the man goes quiet, appears to calm down.

Another dragonkin man, the one dressed like a Ryder of rank steps forward and says something to the king, pointing towards the hut.

I blink once...twice but the picture remains the same.

The hut, the one in my vision is soaked in a sort of black haze, similar to yet not quite like the one I had seen in my dreams; the dark cloud that had wrapped itself around Midas. If he goes in there....

Trap...trap...trap!!!

A voice, loud and screaming, throws the word around in my head, repeating it over and over again.

I realize that the voice is mine and it is so loud and deafening that I am unaware that I in fact am not saying it out loud.

As I watch, the Midas in my vision and the one in reality move as one towards the hut.

"No..."

I want to shout, to stop him but he is too far away and for some reason my throat has clamped up, fear reducing my voice to a single gut wrenching whisper.

Two more steps and he will be there.

Two more steps and it will be too late.

"Your highness, what are you doing?"

"I have to go to him, I have to stop him."

"You can't..."

But my fear is propelling my forward and I swing my leg around the opposite side of the horse and away from Leo.

Then with my hands behind me, I push off the animal.

But the horse is too high up and I have dismounted awkwardly, my urgency making me careless.

By the time I notice it, I am already airborne and I would not doubt have twisted my ankle or even worse had Leo not moved around the horse in a blur of speed. Catching me before I can fall awkwardly to the ground.

He holds me against his chest, one hand under my knees, the other firmly around my back.

"Hera for crying out loud..."

He is angry, worried that I could have hurt myself.

But the pain of a broken ankle is nothing compared to the anguish I feel as I watch Midas lift his feet to step over the threshold of that hut, heading straight into the arms of darkness.