"that sounds great." Excited that I get to explore this beautiful place. We unpack the tents and set them up, with our bedrolls inside.
We get out a few pans, and Aiden says "I will go gather up some wood for a fire My Lords so I can make us some supper" They nod their heads at him, and he was off on Shade, The gray spotted guardian. I start to walk around the meadow looking around When I notice a cave entrance on the far left side of the meadow. That must be the one that Saber was telling me about.
I tell Enre "There is the cave, do you want to go check it out?"
"That's a good idea," he says. Saber told me that we would be safe here, so I really don't expect any trouble. I am just glad that Enre is coming with me. It makes me feel even more safe when he is with me. We walk to the opening of the cave and go inside. There is a soft glow coming from some of the rocks which are lighting our way. little vines growing this way and that. It is not a very deep cave but what we find at the end is mesmerizing. There is a clear pool of water with steam rising from it. this must be a hot spring. I walk closer to it and peer down into the water. you can see every rock on the bottom and what looks like little gemstones. there is a small opening in the ceiling of the cave just above the pool of water letting light in. it is reflecting on the surface of the water lighting up the rest of the cave. I bet a hot bath would feel wonderful right now.
I ask Enre "Would it be safe for me to wash off here?" he bent down and put his hand in the water slowly. I guess he was making sure it was safe for me to get in.
He looks at me, saying "it is safe my dear, if you want to get in, I will go get you some clothes."
I smile at him and say "are you sure, I can go get them “It’s alright my love, you relax, and I will take care of it" he kisses me on the cheek and heads out of the cave. I start taking my clothes of peeking around to make sure no one was coming. standing in the cave completely naked, I can feel the steam from the water on my body. not wanting to wait any longer, I step into the pool. lowering myself down slowly until my head is just above the water. The water feels like bath water. I can feel the tension leaving every aching muscle. I rest my head on the edge of the pool letting the warm water saturate my body. I dunk my head under the water getting my hair wet to try and clean some of the dust out of it from riding the horses. when I try to come back up, I feel a hand grab my hair tightly pulling my head up out of the water. What is going on? I blink a couple of times to focus and what I see makes me want to scream. Abby is there with a wicked grin staring at me. She forces my head back under water. she is trying to drown me. I fight to get back to the surface for air, but she is not letting me up. so the only thing I know to do is pull her in. I jerk real hard backward making her tumble into the water. both of us struggle against each other. her hands are at my throat and mine on hers. I will not let her kill me like she did with Jeremy. I wrap my legs around her body, locking them so she cannot escape. I am about to lose consciousness; I have to think of something. I start to heat my body up, faster, I have to do this faster. I concentrate has hard as I can. Soon the water is boiling, but I don't stop. I cannot allow her to hurt anyone else. I push all that I have left in me outwards, and the pool exploded into a rolling steam, the water gone. only Abby and I remain in the bottom of what was the pool. her lifeless body lying there against the stones. I killed her, I killed Abby. I start to cry.
Soon I hear Enre running into the cave followed by Thegan and Aiden. "Terra, Terra" I hear Enre yelling for me.
I yell back "I'm down here." Wait a minute, I am naked. "WAIT! I NEED CLOTHES" I yell back, not wanting the others to see me sprawled out in my birthday suit.
"Wait here" I hear enre tell the others. Looking up I see Enre at the edge of the pool looking down at me, then his eyes move over to Abby. His face went angry, and he jumped down in the pool. Coming over to me he bends down looking me over and asks "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I am fine, just a few scratches." He gets up and goes over to where Abby's body is laying, and he checks for a pulse. There was none. I know this because I had already checked.
"You did well my love, let's get you out of the Hole, shall we," he says. He takes his cloak off and puts it around me so the other cannot see and then he yells to Thegan "Brother can you get a rope and throw down?"
I hear Thegan tell Aiden to fetch a rope, and he yells back to Enre "It will be just a min, is it clear to come closer?" Enre looks at me, and I nod to him.
"Yes," he says. Thegan peers over the edge of the pool taking in the site below him
"The assassin?" Thegan asks.
"Yes, she took care of her" Enre says in a sad voice. he wraps his arms around me holding me close. I had stopped crying by then, not because I was better, but more like there is one less monster in the world, I mean really. how could someone pretend to be your best friend for that long and then try to kill you? I kept telling myself 'it had to be done.' Aiden has returned, and the guys throw a rope down to us. "wrap up good my dear" I do as Enre says and he scoops me up and throws me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I giggle at the thought. Enre pulls us up the rope getting us to the top pretty easily. he sets me down and makes sure I am covered before he moves out from in front of me.
"What do we do about her, My Lord?" Aiden asks. Pointing down to the lifeless body lying in the hole.
Enre looks at me, and I say "I would like to bury her If that is ok" I mean she was my friend whether she thought so or not and it is the right thing to do.
"Very well Sister, we will take care of it, go get dressed and eat," Thegan says.
"Thank you," I say in a small voice. They nod their heads and Enre leads me out of the cave. "How did you know I was in trouble," I ask Enre.
"Saber was throwing a fit nodding his head towards the cave" I need to go thank him, but it looks like he has come to me. As soon as we step in the meadow, he comes running over to me.
I put my hands on the sides of his face and kiss him on the nose saying "Thank you, Saber." He whinnied, and I heard him say in my mind 'do not feel sad for her, she would have killed you.' I know he is saying that for my piece of mind but I still killed someone, it is hard to not be sad about it. After Saber walked off we head to our tent so I can put some clothes on.
When we go into the tent, Enre unties the cloak and starts checking my body for injuries. There are only a couple of scratches on my legs. He moves up to my neck and lightly touches the skin there. "This is going to bruise," he says leaning in close he kisses my neck gently. "I am sorry I was not there," he says in a shaky voice.
I put my arms around his neck and tell him "You came for me as soon as you knew something was wrong, thank you" then I kiss him on the cheek. We stay in that embrace for a few more minutes then I say "I think I need to get dressed now" with a bit of humor in my voice. He chuckles and lets me go. Stepping outside of the tent.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Enre
I could not protect her. I was not there. This is the second time someone has tried to kill her in such a short period. Was I wrong to bring her with me? I stand there at the opening to the tent thinking about all that has happened. Just how did Abby find us. She must have been Tracking the horses trail. I wish all of this were over, that way she would no longer be in danger. I look to the sky, praying to the heavens that I am strong enough to keep her safe.
Looking out over the meadow I see Thegan and Aiden coming out of the mouth of the cave. Making their way over to me I notice that Thegan is carrying something in his hand. "what do you have their Brother?" I ask him when gets close.
"I found it on the woman we just buried, I thought that Terra should have it." He hands a little leather pouch to me. I unwrap the cord and find a note, a picture, and a small metal flower. The picture was worn, but you could still see the image of Abby with her arms around Terra. Both of them with huge smiles on their faces. They looked really happy. Both of them in caps and gowns. This must be on the day they graduated. I take the note out and read it. This is unexpected, maybe this will make Terra feel better. The little metal flower is a charm that goes on a bracelet, I saw Terra wearing a similar one the day I met her.
I put the items back into the bag, and I tell Terra "is coming in."
The only thing she said was "ok."
Stepping inside I notice her sitting in the corner of the tent with her arms wrapped around her knees. I hate that I cannot make this better for her, but what I can do is give her the pouch that was intended for her. I Walk over to her and sit down beside her putting my arm around her shoulder. "I believe this was meant for you My love" holding out the small pouch to her.
She looks at it and says "for me?" I nod my head, and she takes the bag and opens it. She looks at the picture for a few minutes "Where did you get this?" She asks me.
"it was found on Abby's body; I am sure it was meant for you." She picks up the charm and flips it over and over in her palm.
"she bought us both charms when we graduated, Mine was a leaf and hers was this flower," she says in a small voice, tears running down her face.
I take my finger and wipe them away and say to her "read the note, My love."
"Would you?" she asks me. She is so sad, I hate seeing her like this, but she needs to hear what is written here.
"Of course My Dear." I unfold the note and start to read it to her.
Terra, I am sorry for having to do this.
You truly are my friend, And I love you like a sister.
By now you know that I am from Aelmere. Molven has my family as prisoners
And if I don't do as I have been instructed my family will be killed. I knew from the beginning that if I died, it would be you that would be the one to kill me, and I would not have it any other way. You are strong my friend, and I am proud of you. I am sorry it had to be this way. Please forgive me. And please tell my family if they are still alive, that I love them, and I did everything I could. One more thing, Ivar has died in prison, and Molven is now the head of the clan. I hope this helps. I wish you all the best is restoring Aelmere. I will be watching from the stars
With love, Your friend.
Abby.
After I read her the letter, she softly cries, leaning against my chest. I pull her in close and tell her "Everything is going to be alright My love."
"I know it will be," she says.
We sit like this for quite a while, her in my arms. Thegan came to the opening of the tent saying "Supper is ready when you are."
I look down at her seeing she has stopped crying; I ask her "are you hungry My dear?"
"Yes I am starving" she replies. I get up, helping her up as well. She has that familiar smile back on her face. I guess that note helped her relieve her worries some. I am glad. Exiting the tent, I noticed that it was almost dark. There were fireflies flitting around the meadow. The flowers still had a beautiful glow lighting up the meadow. "Wow it's beautiful," she says, her eyes filled with the reflection of the glowing flowers and fireflies. "yes indeed" slipped from my lips. I could look into her emerald eyes the rest of my life drowning in them as though they were bottomless pools, infinite in depth.
"come on," she says pulling my hand towards the others. "alright My beautiful wife, I am coming," I say with a light chuckle. I would let her pull me anywhere. I will follow her to the ends of this realm and the next If that is what she wished.
We both sit down on the ground beside the fire and Aiden hands us both a bowl of what looks like stew. "Mmmm this smells delicious Aiden," she says.
"Thank you, My Lady, I hope it tastes as good as it smells," Aiden says, causing us all to laugh. We eat the stew, and I have to say that it was very good. Aiden collects the bowls and takes them to the waterfall to clean them out.
Thegan looks over at us and says "we should make it to the palace tomorrow if we do not run into more trouble." I hope we don't have any more trouble. Poor Terra has had enough these past couple of weeks.
"With Ivar dead, will it make it easier to finish what we came here to do?" Terra asks. Just one less person to deal with.
"yes sister but only a little, we still have to save the tree to break the curse, it would not have lifted with his death and also deal with Molven," Thegan says to her. She looks down at her hands.
I squeeze her hand and tell her "when we get all of that taken care of we are going to have a huge celebration, isn't that right Brother?" I say to him in an attempt to cheer her up some. "Yes indeed brother, a celebration like Aelmere has never seen. There will be food and dancing, fireworks and games. You will enjoy it, immensely sister. We all will". Thegan says in an uplifting voice. He caught on to what I was trying to do. "And you my Dear sister will be the center of attention" he smiles real big at her, and she blushed, causing little flowers to pop up everywhere around us. she giggled looking at them.