Legacy

8. The Lily Flower

Lance's knuckles had turned white from how tight he was holding the reins. He wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, his mind wandering from thought to thought. His stomach was tied in knots. Raina's face kept flashing through his mind, and guilt had flooded his senses. He could still feel her soft skin on his torso, like ghosts haunting him. After she had helped him, he left her stranded. But she had left his people stranded. They were his priority. If he had just done what he was supposed to in the first place, this might never have happened. His father might die hating him. He was doing the right thing.

He grunted, pain shooting through his body. He let go of the reins, and his horse jolted as she raced over a tree root. Lance hit the ground hard, the breath escaping his lungs. He gasped in surprise, his back feeling the blunt pain of the fall. Lance rubbed his shoulder, grimacing in pain again. His horse continued galloping into the wilderness, either not knowing or caring that her passenger was being left in the dust.

"Hey! Come back!" Lance yelled after her, but she had soon disappeared from view, the sound of her hooves fading into silence. Lance pushed himself to his knees, clutching his side in pain. This was it. He was going to die here in the middle of the forest. He leaned against a tree, looking at the moonlight as if it was the last time he'd see it. Or was it that white light people see before they die? He grunted, blinking away the spots that formed in his vision. Nope, it was just the moon.

The smell of smoke filled his nostrils, causing him to erupt into a fit of coughing. His eyes caught sight of a dagger in a nearby tree, and Lance suddenly realized he had been at the place of the battle earlier that night. A chill ran through his body as he spotted a still figure sprawled on the ground. Lance was frozen, unable to move closer in fear of what he would see. His body shook as he crawled closer, and his face lost all of its color as he stared at the pale and familiar face. Lance released the breath he had been holding in, his heart sinking in his chest. Antonio was dead.

Lance felt hot suddenly, sweat beading on his temple. A wave of nausea ran through his body. Raina was travelling to meet Antonio at the peak of the mountain, but he was never going to show up. And she didn't even know.

Lance felt like Antonio himself was standing in front of him, cursing him from the spirit world. What had he been thinking? He had fought Ladon soldiers before, but his family had always been one step behind him in his fights. He couldn't take on hundreds and hundreds of men by himself. Especially not men who were capable of defeating a knight like Antonio. He had been rash before, but that might not work for him in this battle. He had to go back to Raina.

Lance reached towards Antonio's face and pushed down his eyelids, so it just looked like he was sleeping. If the color hadn't been drained from his face, Lance might have thought he was just taking a nap on the forest floor.

Lance pushed himself to his feet and scanned the area until his eyes landed on the dagger still buried in the tree. He knelt down and dug into the earth with his hands. Luckily for him, the rain had softened the earth considerably, and in no time, Lance had dug a hole big enough for Antonio's body to be put to rest. He wiped the dirt on his pants and carefully placed Antonio in the ground, whispered a prayer under his breath, and the covered him with earth's blanket. He took his own dagger and carved Antonio's name into the tree.

Feeling satisfied with himself, he stepped back to admire his work. It was missing something, but Lance wasn't quite sure what it was. He thought back to his mother's funeral. There were crowds of people dressed in black, a huge ceremony, and lots of delicacies, none of which Lance could provide for Antonio. It was all nothing that his mother or Antonio would ever want at their funerals. He placed his hand on his chin, and a smile quickly spread on his face. Flowers.