"I love you."
"I know."
"It doesn't change anything does it?"
"No, it doesn't."
Ilene was entwined in the arms of the man she desperately loved, unable to say what she desperately wanted to.
She wanted to tell him that she was going to stay. She wanted to open her mouth and say that she was gong to ignore the world and stay here, forever, in his arms.
But she couldn't. She was the rightful heir to her kingdom. She was the only one who could challenge Jamison, and love could not stop her from doing her duty. She couldn't allow it. But it killed her that she could not even tell him why she had to leave.
His name was Caleb.
He was beautiful. They had met when Ilene was coming south for the first time, when she was eleven. She wanted to study at the university, a few miles from the capitol. She had run away from home to get a proper education. Caleb was a traveling warrior whose hands could play an instrument and use a sword with equal skill.
When Ilene had left the Keeper, she had found him again. He had only become more beautiful and charming to her eyes in the years that had passed.
And he had not forgotten her.
The dream was filled with light and love. It was a sad moment, her goodbye, but it was a treasured memory all the same. They were staying at an inn for the night, having been forced to stop early because the sky threatened rain.
The dream shifted.
"In there!"
The voice was that a soldier. Ilene and Caleb leaped for their swords as the door to their room was slammed open.
Caleb killed the first soldier through the door, striking like a snake. The man was dead before he hit the floor.
Ilene got the next guard, slamming her sword through his heart.
"Go out the window!" Caleb said calmly, catching a glimpse of the soldiers beyond the door. They filled the hallway.
"No, they're here for me!" Ilene replied. "This is my fight. Go."
"Like hell I'm leaving you here alone," Caleb growled, punctuating the point with a stab at the next soldier through the door.
"Caleb, I'm not kidding," Ilene said. Her heart was thudding violently in her chest, pumping ice cold fear throughout her body. They would kill him. Jamison would kill him, and it would be her fault.
"Damn it, go!" She yelled.
"No," Caleb replied, anger in his dark brown eyes.
"Caleb, you don't know what you're getting into," Ilene said. "Please go," she was begging now. Her heart was shattering as she spoke, knowing it was useless. He would stay, and he would die.
"I stay here as long as you do," he said.
Ilene glanced over at the window, and swore. She had good eyesight, and she could see a group of soldiers standing below, their armor shining in the light from the common room below.
They were trapped.
Ilene's mind raced as more soldiers broke into the room, destroying the frame.
How many soldiers had Jamison sent after her? From what she could judge, over forty, considering the bodies on the floor and the men in the hallway and outside.
They didn't have a prayer.
Ilene stepped from front of Caleb.
"Enough," she said, sheathing her sword. The word had the command of a queen in it, the strength of one who is born to rule.
The soldiers in front stopped attacking, though they did not lower their swords.
Ilene glanced back at Caleb, her eyes brimming with tears. She was choosing him over her kingdom now. Her heart could not take the strain of loosing him. She was seventeen! How could she be expected to make the right choice now?
"Let him go, and I won't kill every one of you," she said. Her voice was soft, but it carried across the soldiers.
A man wearing a bold red stripe on the arm of his armor stepped through the mass of soldiers to speak with her.
"You aren't really in a position to make any demands," he observed dryly.
Ilene rose her eyebrow. Though she didn't know it, her face was a perfect mimic of her father's. The commander in front of her had served under him, and recognized the look with a pang of shock. He paled.
Ilene saw this without knowing the reason for his nervousness.
"Ilene, what's going on?" Calem asked.
Ilene looked between him and the commander one last time. There was confusion and fear in his eyes, though his face was a perfect blank.
Damn Jamison to the depths of hell. She thought passionately. She drew her dagger, and held it to her own throat.
"Don't!" Caleb yelled behind her, attempting to wrestle the weapon from her hand.
"Caleb, please do not make this harder for me," she begged. She was fighting tears, looking at him now. "Please understand that I can't just let them kill you. They won't hurt me. Their master would kill them for laying a hand on me before they got be to the capitol," she told him quietly.
Caleb released her. He was hurt, and his eyes were so scared, wild with fear and pain. He didn't know what do do.
"He needs me alive for a reason," she said softly, speaking to the soldiers now. "I wonder... What happens to all of you if you can only bring back a dead body?"
"You wouldn't," the commander said, in shock.
"Have you ever been in love?" Ilene asked. "If you have, you know that I'm not kidding."
A gleam of recognition shone in his eyes.
"leave the boy," he said.
Ilene chuckled.
"How stupid do you think I am?" she asked.
The commander opened and closed his mouth a few times before he got his voice to work again, rage robbing him of his inability to speak.
"I just told you Caleb is my weak spot," Ilene said. "Do you really think I'll just take your work you'll leave him safe?"
The commander growled a curse.
"Very well, you clever little witch," he said. He cut his hand with his sword. The blood immediately began to run down his arm.
"I swear by my blood that I will not-"
Ilene cleared her throat. The commander cursed again and shot her a look that meant death.
"I swear by my blood that neither I, nor my soldiers will bring your lover back with us to the capitol of Merridor," he said.
Ilene looked at him expectantly, her eyebrows still raised.
"Or will cause him harm in any way, or do anything to coerce him into following us aside from capturing you," he finished.
"Happy, highness?" he growled.
Ilene chucked again.
"Very."
The commander tied a handkerchief around his hand. As he did, Ilene disarmed herself.
"Do not follow me," she told Caleb quietly, keeping an eye on the soldiers.
"Go as far as you can away from here, and forget me. Caleb, you must forget I ever existed," she begged.
"Promise me that," Ilene asked desperately. "Promise me that you will remain safe."
Caleb looked deeply into her eyes.
"I will not follow you tonight," he said, his voice equally soft. "I don't know what these soldiers want with you or why, but I still love you, Ilene, and I will respect your wish," he said.
Ilene sighed in relief, tossing her last blade into the pile of her weapons that was growing on the floor in front of her.
"I will not follow you tonight, but I will not forget you, Ilene," he said. "I will find you, and I will kill anyone trying to hurt you. I will not rest until you are back where you belong," he kissed her, passionately.
The commander jerked Ilene away from him.
"I swear," he whispered as a soldier tied Ilene's arms behind her.
"I swear."
Ilene opened her eyes to the bright sunlight in the elvish city with Caleb's vows in her ears and heart.
He had sworn that he would find her.
She believed him, though if she was placed in the same position today as she had been in her dream, she knew which one she would choose.
She hated herself for it, but between then and now, she had become devoted to her duty.
She had sworn to herself that she would find a way to restore the throne of Merridor.
And she would.
Even if she had to loose Caleb to do it.
The thought caused her pain, pain she couldn't afford right now.
Ilene fought and won the struggle to put love out of her mind.
She would not revisit the past anymore.
It was time for the future.
It was time for action.
It was time for blood.
Ilene, heir to the throne of Merridor, stood up from her bed in the infirmary of the elves, her eyes blazing with green fire.
She would kill Jamison. With her bare hands if she had to.
Outside, the sun was rising again, into a clear blue sky.
A new day had begun.
MercurialInK Community Member 
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