An Invitation To Love

Ninth chapter

Riot had started in the streets of the beautiful city. Flames, stones, and broken glass became features of these narrow streets. Residents closed the doors of their homes and prepared their weapons. Everyone saw it as the end of the empire. In the palace, the bunkers received the maximum number of arrivals, which were by the way mostly nobels, who put their jewelry and expensive clothes above people's lives.

The guards began to close the doors of the bunkers. Once the doors were closed, they would not open again. Asena was pushing the servants and maids she found in her path away, so that they could reach the bunkers before the guards would close it. "My lady, quickly, they are closing the doors."
"No Asena stop we won't arrive in time."
The crowding of people increased at the tightly locked door, and the innocent people were suffering.

Lily and Asena stopped walking and Lily started looking around.
Women were crying holding their children who didn't know what was happening but still feeling the danger. Their bodies shivered in the cold.
She quickly took off her coat and gave it to a bunch of kids.
"That will keep you warm" she said softly.

Standing there and waiting all Lily could think about was the dizzy feeling and Ciel. Did he know? Would he appear out of nowhere and save her or had he died as well? Black eyes send her questioning looks.
"What is wrong my queen."
"They are not going to open the doors again we should take the people somewhere safe."

Asena looked at Lily with teary eyes "where is the escape?"

"To the woods, if the traitors are from the castle, that means they probably know about the bunkers and will most probably attack it first, but they will not search in the woods."

Even though she was terrified Lily was a queen and she was going to behave like one.

_______
"Damn it, who wrote such a ridiculous letter "
"It is not ridiculous. If you read the first letters of every line it says 'they went against the emperor."
"That is impossible, the era of rebellions is over. No one dares to rebel against emperor Ciel. He will eliminate them all. They are not that stupid."

Two soldiers were talking to each other after receiving the letter they got from the homing pigeon when a calm voice reached their ears.
"What is wrong, which letter?"
__________

Ciel was fed up with the big celebration. Everyone was drinking and having fun.
Normally he liked celebrating his victories too, but he was missing Lily so bad, she was the only person he wanted right now.

Her nightdress which he took with him to the war, was the only way he could endure the weeks without her. Her scent kept him alive and motivated him to come back home into her arms.
She was very mad at him before he went to war. That hurt his heart, but he knew she was right. He was going to make it up to her.
Ciel just wished she would stay by his side forever. He couldn't imagine a life without his sweet little wife.

He sighed and left the bunch of soldiers who were singing and dancing simply celebrating their victory and went to his tent. They were supposed to depart to the southern kingdom the next day.
He walked towards the tent his long legs made it easy for him to reach it quickly and found two soldiers were standing in the tent whispering about a letter.
"What is wrong, which letter?" Ciel entered the tent.
____________
The king left his army there and departed with a small group of strong solders as soon as he had read the letter. He only took his trustworthy generals. He couldn't trust anybody under these circumstances.

Lily was the only one on his mind. Ciel was worried. She didn't know how to fight. He should had taught her.
Normally the trip lasted three days, but he was going to make it in one.
It was sunset and then sunrise, the way felt long and the time very short.
The exhaustion took over him and he felt his skin burning, likely because of the injury and the long war.

By the time of the next sunset, they were near the gate of the capital city. Ciel came down from the horse when he found Caelum and Kian with other reliable soldiers.

"The rebellion was very precise, and we are outnumbered as well. They are not bandits, they are masked and armed with perfect weapons, the financier is probably very strong, an enemy that is close to us in strength" Caelum stated what he knew.
"Most importantly, they knew about his majesty's absence, and they carried out the attack" he added.
"Only the ministers and clergymen knew about my absence from the capital, since I held a meeting and issued the decision to appoint Lily to power" Ciel mumbled thinking.
"Whoever started and funded the rebellion is one of my twenty-three ministers, because only someone strong and rich, a person who has authority, such as a minister can do that" his voice came out hoarse.

The injury on his chest was not a coincidence, somebody planed all of this. They thought the king was dead and started the rebellion in the city.
"Where is Lily?"
"She is safe in the bunkers."
And that was when they heard one of the guards coming near them shouting "the bunkers, they attacked the bunkers."
________

Davian stared at the sleeping beauty in front of him, she looked fabulous.
Something was wrong with this situation, and he had to ask Ciel about it.
He had prisoners from the castle, and he was going question them.
His solders said the castle was weirdly empty. The nobles ran away, and the king killed himself leaving his daughter with the consequences. Kair didn't care about whatever they would do to his daughter.
Considering that he gave his child to Ciel, who had the worst reputation, Kair didn't care about his children.
What did he do to Allora, this angelic creature that was crying in her sleep before him.
"Your majesty, king Ciel is on his horse. I don't know where they are going and his wound didn't heal yet" Rhys stormed into the tent. Allora opened her eyes in an instant shouting.
Davian glanced at Rhys, his blue eyes sending terrifying looks at him.
"Get out, he's not going to die because of a stab" Davian's voice sent shivers down Rhys's spin.
"I'm sorry for interrupting your majesty" he bowed quickly before going out.
Davian looked at Allora with soft eyes "it's alright, you can go back to sleep" he came near her wanting to touch her shoulders. Allora shook her head furiously and slipped backwards. "Don't touch me."
"I'm not going to hurt you" he said gently.
"Why am I here?" Allora whispered, her whole-body trembling.
She wasn't able to control her shaking body.
"You lost consciousness" Davian wanted to hold her, hug her, tell her that everything was going to be alright but the moment he approached her, she began shouting "what are you going to do to me?"
"Nothing, I just want to ..." he massaged his temple while frowning his brows in frustration "you won't understand" he continued "but I will surely not hurt you, alright?"
"Will you let me go?" the thought of Davian keeping her hostage made her panic "I willingly gave you the kingdom, you cannot keep me here" she was about to cry.
"Allora you will not be safe outside on your own."
"You're not really in the place to decide if I can survive alone or not" the princess was about to lose her nerves.
"Please Allora, I beg you, can you just listen to me?" Davian begged, and she looked at him her lips trembling.
"Will you let me hug you?" a lot of time passed until she nodded. He quickly took off his metal armor and walked to her.
Davian put his right knee on the bed, Allora flinched. He looked at her in a concerned manner and she smiled, meaning she was alright. He leaned in and finally hugged her.
Her body stopped shaking and she put her head on his shoulder.
"You are not going to hurt me?" she asked calmly to which he responded gently "No, I will never."
His hug was warm, caring, and safe, something Allora didn't feel for ages. She buried her face in his chest and clenched onto his chemise.
Davian went through her hair and caressed her back. Allora smelled delicious and sweet.

That night they stayed together hugging each other, for the first time both of them felt safe.
Davian didn't take long to fall asleep, but Allora stayed awake. It's not like she magically could get rid of her insomnia. But that didn't prevent her from feeling better.
She spent the time looking at Davian, his brown-blond hair, straight brows that were followed by hooded eyes and a straight nose. That he was a handsome man was not discussable.
________________

Ciel was relieved to find out that Lily was not in the bunkers.
"The most important thing right now is to find the queen, search for her" Ciel was going to find her no matter what.
"Your majesty, I have something to say" Caelum sounded unsure.
"Caelum, I don't want to hear anything if it doesn't have something to do with the queen's where-being" Ciel was out of his mind, Caelum knew that.
"Rawon has disappeared."
"Don't talk to me in riddles."
"I think he is the reason for the queen's disappearance."
"Caelum, did you notice that the city is empty, and we did not meet anyone of the ordinary folk on the road or in the hideouts? This means one thing, which is that the queen saved my people and is now waiting for us to find them. Therefore, I advise you to find her and stop thinking since it is not something you can do in situations like this."
If that wasn't the longest, he talked.
"Yes, your majesty."
Ciel was anxious and distressed, if he didn't find her in the next few hours before sunrise, he was going to burn this kingdom and all his ministers.
__________
In the northern kingdom

After winning the war Davian was now responsible for the country. He had to renew the whole system and put someone confidential on the throne. That would take a lot of time, but he had to do that in less than four days since the nobles and minister in his kingdom were inspired by the southern kingdoms act, his assassin reported to him.
Being a king was not easy, he would gladly give that position back. It was not easy to satisfy every party.
Davian was now sitting in Kair's ruling-office and noticed how selfish this man was.
He took inhuman amounts of money from poor people and gave it to the rich, so that they would close their mouths and follow him.
He massaged his temple "How can we fix all that?"
"Your majesty, I'm afraid it will take a really long time. These are the complaints from the people" Ezar pointed to the mountain of papers on the table.
"This man never did anything for his people, the starvation reports were still in the envelops, was he even ruling?" Ezar was going insane after the war. They had to rebuild the destroyed country, that they didn't even destroy. It seemed like they actually saved the people here and not conquer them.