Page 120 of The Kingdom of Eternal Ice
“Yes,” I say quietly, my heart aching when I think of what she is going through.
“A pity they don’t have many flowers here.”
“They do have dried flowers though,” I say. “And, in the greenhouse they have some erica and other winter hardy plants.”
She nods. “I want to put something together,” she says. “For Alana.”
“Then do it,” I encourage her. I look at her for a while, noticing how sad her gaze gets. “You and Ita… you were beginning to become friends.”
“She was so nice,” Simin says quietly. “She and Alana were teaching me how to ride. This is not fair.”
I pull her into another hug. “Make sure to be there for Alana,” I sigh. “She will need a friend.”
She squeezes me gently. “I promise.”
It’s evening when the first warriors arrive in the royal pack. It means Alana, Tynan and the others are not so far off. By now, we have instructed the healers and the other pack members already, and the warriors who just arrived swiftly fill us in on the details.
Some of the details we already expected, but they added more information to it concerning the last werebear attack, and what the children told them. So, a witch is working with the werebears. Maybe the bears aren’t even aware of what’s going on. The more the little group tells us, the more mind blowing it is though. They tell us how the children, elderly and everyone else who couldn’t fight and were evacuated, had returned; how Alana and the guards weren’t with them, and that a huge brown bear with branches coming out of his head attacked them.
Tynan, Ita, and some of the warriors headed there to help them. And then-
“A dragon?” King Gillean scoffs.
“I saw him with my own eyes,” one of the female warriors tells him. “I was there when we fended off the bear creature. We almost lost.”
“That’s how strong the bear was?” Endellion asks, appalled.
“Yes, Princess Alana and the three guards fought it for hours, yet it wasn’t even tired.” She pauses, her gaze sad. “Gamma Ita fell when she protected them. Half of our men didn’t make it out alive,” she adds. “One hit and they were instantly killed.”
“And, at that time, the dragon appeared?” Caelan asks.
“Yes, he appeared at the last minute and protected the princess and Gamma Ita. Its screech hurt the creature’s ears, it seems, and the witch Tynan called for help, worked with that knowledge, finally chasing it away.”
“I wish we could talk to the dragon,” Flinn declares.
“Oh, we can,” the woman surprises us. “He is with Princess Alana and Tynan.”
“He is coming here!?” King Gillean exclaims.
“I apologize deeply, my king,” the woman bears her neck in fear. “Was this a mistake?”
“Not at all! This is the best possible thing you could have done,” he assures her. He ponders in silence for a while. “How is my daughter?” he asks finally.
“Her body gave up, eventually. She still hasn’t woken up. Due to her exhaustion, her injuries are slowly healing,” the woman answers hesitantly. “She... she is the only survivor of the original small group who faced the creature.”
I know this is not what the king wanted to know. We already know about her condition. Endellion jumps in, though, to ask what we all need to know. “Does she already know that Gamma Ita passed away?”
“Yes, she was there.”
King Gillean nods. “Go and get something to eat, warm up and get checked by the healers,” he says to the group, sending them into the castle. Once they are gone, sadness and guilt cloud his eyes. “Her first mission. I sent her on her first mission, and it ends like that.”
“You couldn’t have known that,” Endellion says.
“I should have kept her here.”
“No,” Endellion says. “She worked to be a warrior, sheisa warrior, and the fact that she came out of this alive, after hours of battling a creature way above her skills, shows that she was made for this. She lost her best friend, she learned more truths than she can probably grasp – the least we can do is be proud of her for how much she fought, and never gave up. She is not just our sister and your daughter. She is also a werewolf princess and a soldier.”
I look at him, amazed. His words make me fall in love with him all over again. I don’t know how he does this sometimes, just… hits the nail on its head.
