Balance and Wind

Chapter 7

Jaw still throbbing, along with numerous other injuries, Roman helped heaved another nobleman out of the Palace foyer. Of course, he had to be put on backyard duty on the night where they ambushed, and in the palace no less. He had no idea how Scrios soldiers even got this far into Iarmheid to being with.

Kalila was sitting on the ground, where she had healed Jysmn’s arm before she was carted off by her mother, Jed squatting beside her. He always kept at least a foot between them. He noticed he never touched her. Even though they were both pinning needlessly for one another.

The red head was wiping blood from her nose with a torn piece of Jed’s shirt. His dark eyes locked on her face as she spoke. Roman left the late Lords body to join them. At this point in, he didn’t care if he was intruding on a moment. He was ready to collapse beside them, sleep off his pain and everything that had happened today. Too much, is what happened.

“Let me heal you,” Kalila’s voice rasped at him, her hands out stretched to him. Her eyes were zeroed in on his swollen jaw and matching knuckles.

Roman shook his head, and not just because of Jed shaking his head.

“Kalila, you need to rest, you can’t heal anymore people tonight,” Jed told her, his hands flexing, not knowing whether to reach out to her or not. He never did, Roman realised. It had been roughly eight years, and Jed and Kalila hadn’t gone passed more than four total accidental kisses. Accidental for various reason.

“Kalila, please,” he urged her.

She still didn’t give in, instead trying to reach out for Roman’s hands, even to clutch his face. Roman spared the two a accessing gaze.

“Listen to Jed, Kalila,” he pitched in, offering his friend a soft smile. Kalila’s thin lashes were speckled with unshed tears, dried blood caked along her top lip. Her skin looked paler than it had before, along with the freckles that littered her entire body. Or so he and Jed wondered.

Not that Jed shared what he had and hadn’t seen.

“I want to know how Scrios soldiers managed to get this far into the city, and why,” Roman said, sighing, as he sprawled himself along the expensive grass. Everything at this palace cost something. Roman didn’t allow himself to think how expensive it was to take care of this grass, but he knew it was more than he and his family had.

“They snuck in with the fish transports, sailed a single ship into the hoard. How they got into the Palace, I have yet to find out,” Jed said, taking a seat alongside them. Roman didn’t doubt that his legs had started to ache from fretting over Kalila.

“They just walked up to the front door and walked right in,” Roman said, jaw clenching, burning in pain. Reminding him who he had met today.

Lady Jysmn Graceline. And if his Aunt’s visions held a shred of truth, then he would be seeing a lot more of her.

“Roman, Jed, Kalila, stand for attention,” Captain Ravish called, striding across the green grass, blood dried on his clothes, but no injuries. The three stood straight, frozen, ready for their orders. “Get into your uniforms, you two, we’re patrolling the rest of the City before they can get away with this. Be on your toes, we’re at war now.”

The burning intensity in Roman’s eyes was met with the Captains, who nodded to him. Dismissing them.

“I hope you’re prepared for the responsibility of being partaking in the arena, Roman, the position you’re going for isn’t going to be pretty,” the Captain said, watching Roman and his friends walk away. Back down the hill all the enemy soldiers had came from.

He spared his Captain a solid look, a silent promise, that he was ready for the position. Ready to prove himself to the kingdom in the arena.