Lucia's Reign

Chapter 11

~Desiderio~

Seeing Sera like that tore me up inside. I hated to see her in pain. What I hated just as much was seeing Astrid in pain. I can only image what kind of pain she's in right now.

I told her to be careful. I told her to not go after Lucia. But she did it anyway. Now she's somewhere with Lucia. I needed a plan to get her back, and I knew Sera was already working on one.

I came to Neela's door and knocked for her. She answers the door. Her hair is pushed to one side, and tangled in knots. She looks as if she just woke up. That she wasn't all there. Her eyelids hung about halfway down her eyes, and she looked to be ready to fall asleep any moment.

She yawns as says, "Did you need something Des?"

She rubs her eyes, and begins to stretch out.

"Yes. Sera's awake. She wants to talk to you badly. You might want to fix your hair before you go," I say.

She gives a squeal of embarrassment and slams the door shut in my face. I leave her room and continue to go to my room. I get the feeling that I'm being followed. So turning around I look to see if anyone is behind me. No one's there. I shrug it off and continue on. Then as I get to the door I get the feeling again. I twist before opening the door and no one's there. This time I make sure that no one was there.

I cautiously twist the door handle and open my room. As I do I hear metal on metal. Someone was pulling a dagger out from its sheath. Fast swimming comes my way. I block the attacker just before their dagger rips into my skin. It's a girl. Either not very strong, or just good at hiding her muscles. She gives enough strength behind her arm that holds the dagger. But not enough on her other side. I use that to my advantage.

I swing my tail to hit her in the side that doesn't hold the dagger. She stumbles, and I dodge the dagger. I grab her wrist that holds the dagger and twist it behind her back. I use my other hand to remove the dagger from her grasp. Instead of grabbing the dagger, it sinks to the floor. I pull her close to my body to whisper into her ear. "Don't ever do something like that again," I say.

I hear her gulp as she begins to shake a little.

"Who are you working for?" I question her. She shakes her head violently. I tighten the grip on her. "I won't ask again." Again she shakes her head. "You work for Lucia don't you?" There was no response. "You do. She ordered you to kill me. If you were going to kill me, you would have to try much harder than that."

Just then a guard came swimming around the corner. "What is going on here?" He questions.

"This maid was trying to attack me. She managed to get close enough where I could get her weapon away from her," I say.

"Don't worry your highness. We'll take care of her." The guard grabs her arm.

"I fear she may be working alongside Lucia Volnero."

"We'll keep a good eye on her then."

"Thank you."

The guard swims off with the girl. I'm left with a dagger on the floor. I pick it up and go into my room. I still don't feel safe, but I feel better about it. Opening a drawer, and putting the dagger in it I lock the drawer so I can get it later to show Sera.

There's no telling how many spies can be hidden in the palaces. Finding them all would take so much time. So the only thing to do is to protect Sera. Knowing she can hold her own, I still want the satisfaction of her being safe. As her older brother, and High Commander it's my unspoken job to do that.

Sighing I lay down on my bed and look at the ceiling. There was so much going on around me that I hadn't stopped to think about one thing that has been nagging at my mind. Although I have only known Astrid for a short time, she seemed to be the only one who got me. I knew I wanted her to be a part of my life forever, but I didn't know how to ask her.

Sighing I roll over to one side. Maybe if I slept on the question I would finally have my answer.