The First Queen (Currently Being Updated)

Chapter 28

The showdown has arrived! 

I'm sorry for not updating any sooner, but know that I might update another time this week. Thank you all for the votes and comments, you are all amazing! It may be a little shorter than the other chapters, but I promise you'll love it! Now, enjoy Chapter 28!

It is common for siblings to fight. For sisters to annoy their brothers and vice versa. To playfully wrestle. It was common. It was normal. Well, that type of fighting is normal when the children belong to a normal family.

Mine is far from normal. Royal families, the children grow from friends to enemies, speaking from personal experience, of course. Brothers turn on brothers to fight for the throne, and sisters back stab the other to get the better suitor. Darien is fighting me for a throne that does not belong to him. His deprivation of a true homeland and the sins of our mother have resulted to what I face now. What makes me wonder is that he could have gotten rid of me all together while I was still a princess, while I was still the spare and not the heir. Then again, he did push me away, but that was not enough.

Oh, of course, my feelings were hurt and I pondered and pondered why he was turning his back on me. I still loved him back then. But love has a knack for fading away, for dissipating. The man I look at now, with his sword drawn back, his eyes on fire with rage and anger, was once an innocent child. We all come into this world innocent, unknowing of anything good or bad. We start out so powerless that we must rely on the help and knowledge of parents, whether we like it or not.

My body is in pain. I'm losing blood from not one but from two different areas. Either I let Darien win and I die, or I give whatever I have left of my strength to end this. Was there a chance that McCormick could find two corpses in here by the time it is all over? Possibly. Lifting my sword, I charged at Darien. He swung his sword as I came running at him, but I ducked, the blade missing my nose by a hair. I turned around swiftly, and I was pleased with what I saw. My blade was able to get Darien in his right leg, and he was bend over examining the wound.

"You bitch," Darien hissed out as he looked up from his leg.

"Oh, it's just a little cut," not really, "besides," I said as I went at him again – if the enemy has his or her guard down and you have the time to get the upper hand, execute your offensive, "that's only a bit of what I really have in store." Instead of giving me the pleasure of wounding him again, Darien, met my sword with his.

I don't know how long we stared at each other through the crossed swords, our eyes burning into the other's soul. My lips were in thin line and I forced my sword against his, trying to get the upper hand, but he pushed back with just enough force that both our strength was being wasted by the second. All that we could hear was the thunder roar and the lightning strike in harmony. When I said that this weather was a bad omen, I was not joking. That's another thing about me, I don't joke. I don't fool around. I love the truth. And the truth may hurt and times, but it's better than living or thinking a fantasy. When I was younger, the truth always bothered me. I couldn't handle the truth because I did not know at the time how to control my emotions. Showing my anger was fine, but in moderation. Showing my fear was and is unacceptable. Showing my sadness is only fine in times of mourning, like when my father died. That was the first time and the only time I have cried so far as the Queen of Alendar. But do I let the tears fall when I am alone in my chambers? Of course, I'm human.

"Tell me something, Darien," I said, filling the void and loud enough for him to hear over the storm outside, "what do you know about death?"

He laughed darkly at my question, his blue eyes sparkling with an evil glint. "Death," he whispered, as if afraid someone other than us might hear, "is what comes to us all. We have the power to inflict it upon one another but we do not have knowledge of knowing when someone is taken by death. Rest assured, I know for certain that death is coming to claim another, and it just so happens that I'm looking right at her."

Before I knew it, I was on my back. I hissed in pain and I blinked rapidly, black dots beginning to cloud my vision. Darien had kicked my sword out to the side and far from my reach. He stood over me, his sword gripped in his right hand. Was he smiling or was he smirking . . . why was there something warm and wet seeping from my lower back . . . ?

"Are you okay, Eleanor, you look a little pale," he asked sarcastically as he scrapped the tip of his sword against the wooden floor I laid against. Suddenly my ears were sensitive, so I cringed at the sound, and I heard that bastard chuckle darkly above me. Oh, I knew he was enjoying this. I'm no fool. The memory of our last childhood fight came flooding back to me. Him standing over me like this. The only difference was back then he had his hand wrapped around my neck, and he would not let go. That was the first time I blacked out. Before the darkness took over I felt my neck being released from his death grip and I was being lifted off from the ground as muffled murmurs surrounded me.

"As my first act as king of Alendar," Darien said, "I will give you one last wish, Eleanor Alagor. Do you have any last words before you pass on into the next world?"

The black dots had multiplied, continuing to blur my vision. My breathing was heavy and unsteady. The pain was gone but I could feel my strength fading by the second.

And I was not going to waste another second.

"Actually, I do," I said, my lips forming up in a smile. Darien's eyes flashed with confusion as I rolled quickly to my right, taking my sword back in my hand. Once I was on by back again, I caught Darien by surprise and kicked with my leg at his, causing him to fall forward. On his journey down, my sword pierced through him. I looked up at him, my face holding a grim expression. He gasped at the pain that flooded through his body. Darien looked down at where my sword was still in his stomach and then back up to my eyes.

Darien slumped down, close enough so that I could lift my head a bit and whisper in his ear. "If I must pass on to the next world tonight then I am dragging you along with me."

My strength had drained that I used what was left to roll Darien off of me so that he laid next me on my right. My sword was still joined to him and I could hear him breathe unsteadily. I looked at him for a bit. His wide eyes were to the ceiling, and his hands were over where my sword pierced through. Aside from his breathing I could hear people – men – arguing outside the door. Who were – oh right, McCormick and Francis.

"McCormick."

It came out as a quiet, low whisper. My voice was hoarse and my eyes wanted so bad to close. My body was telling me many things, but the one that stood out among them was one thing. I was dying, slowly dying. McCormick didn't hear me, so I had to use whatever I had left in me to shout.

"McCormick!"

As his name left my lips, my eyes began to slowly close. My five senses had given up on me, except for one; hearing. I heard the door to the state room open, McCormick cursing at the sight before him. Another – Francis – walked in, judging by how McCormick stopped to access the situation as other footsteps could be heard. I heard Francis breathe out my name after letting out an unholy word.

"Your majesty . . . I'll take Darien . . . make sure the queen gets off this boat alive . . . she cannot die," was all I could pick up from McCormick.

Soon, my hearing gave way. I was just a body. I couldn't feel, see, taste, smell, or hear. I was just existing now. When I was first stabbed in the back, I didn't know if I was going to die or not. Back then, I had more strength. I wasn't fighting with two open wounds.

Now, something rare was coming about me.

I was scared.

I was scared of dying. And I hated it. I hated being scared of death after coming face to face with it only a short time ago.

Why am I scared?

I'm scared because I know death will not be so merciful this time around.