The Exiled King

Chapter 7 - Escape from Throeyns Castle

Jason had taken a sword meant for her. Lirya had been the one who should have died, not Jason.

He's not breathing! She thought, Oh, Ziocrat have mercy!

Lirya directed her eyes at his face, unable to look at the wound. His eyes were open and unseeing and she reached over and gently shut them. Tears dripped from her eyes, but she knew not why. Jason had only been an acquaintance - nothing more. Yet, he had sparked such a change in her life that she could not forget.

Leus knelt by her side, his face filled with regret and his eyes shadowed. Lord Rowan stood motionless with a blank face and made no attempt to follow up on the murder. The room was frozen in a state of silence.

Suddenly overwhelmed by nausea, Lirya slumped against the wall with her eyes closed, desperately trying to keep her previous meal from resurfacing.

What felt like a few moments, and an eternity passed.

<--<< >>-->

"Lirya... look!" Leus whispered, tapping her shoulder gently. He noted that her complexion looked better and that she breathed easier.

Witnessing a death like that, especially when taking into account that he died in her place, would be hard for anyone, Leus thought, then his attention was captured by a pale, flickering glow.

He turned and found that small wisps of light fluttered around Jason's body.

What in the name of the gods is this? Sorcery?

Leus watched in fascination, and fear, as the wisps flew about and gradually the wound on Jason's body began to close.

That was when he reached over to alert Lirya, for he knew that out of all of them, she was the one agonising most over Jason's death.

"It's magic of some sort... look, Lirya, they are healing the wound on his body," Leus said quietly.

Two pairs of incredulous eyes watched as the wisps patched the entire wound with new flesh and muscle and skin. Gradually the wisps drifted upwards, healing the other bruises and cuts before heading to Jason's forehead where they coalesced into one form - a gleaming golden circlet embedded with precious gems. The light faded as the wisps diffused into the circlet.

For a moment, nothing happened, then Jason's body shuddered and his eyes opened slowly.

<--<< >>-->

Jason took in the startled faces of Lirya and Leus as he sat up and found his body free of the pain that had plagued him this entire time. He flexed his fingers and moved his legs and found everything working as it should.

I... died?

A thought struck him, What was that... creature that... saved... me?

Actually, what will happen now? Lirya means nothing to the lord now, but she is my friend - yet I am a squire in the service of the lord. Lirya needs to escape this castle, else she will most certainly die. Lord Rowan is very ruthless.

"What in the Abyss?!" That exclamation was wrung out of one of Lord Rowan's guards as he beheld Jason, living and breathing, when he should have been cold and lifeless.

Lord Rowan whirled around and his eyes alighted upon the circlet on Jason's forehead. His eyes bulged as though he could not believe his eyes and he muttered strangely under his breath, "Golden... that can't be! It has always been a Bladesworn! And why now, of all times?"