173 Chapter 173 : Back to Meria

Everyone at the table turned to look at the nosferatu prince with different expressions. Finwe scoffed and shook his head, “what are you going on about Aiden, this is a serious discussion and you’re bringing in-”

Aiden rolled out a peice of paper and slammed it on the table in front of Gareth. The prince took the paper in his hand and read through it, as he scrolled through every word his facial expression showed more and more shocked. “He’s not joking..” Gareth mattered in shock, “this is a royal decree dispatching one hundred men to Gavaria, it’s signed and everything, it even have the Cenia royal seal.”

Finwe walked over to Gareth and grabbed the paper, “let me see that.” He read through it and shot his eyes to Aiden. “But how, aren’t you just a rogue.”

“I have been alive much longer than you have Finwe,” Aiden responded curtly, “I know how to get things done, why do you think Cenia has not been forthcoming about their political situation. It’s because a rogue took over.” Aiden turned to Gareth, “do want my help or not? You know meeting my sister is my goal and I’m trying to insure that happens”

The table went quite for a second, before Gareth responded, “well we do need the numbers, we can discuss the details later I suppose, because I’m curious as well about how you overthrew the Cenian empire.”

“I have nothing to hide,” Aiden responded, “my aim now is to meet my sister and that’s it.”

*

Renly landed on a rock and transformed into his human form. He had been flying for a few hours towards their hideout and had exhausted himself out, he pulled out his water canteen and took a sip. After that night he had experienced a nightmare, Renly knew that sticking around wouldn’t be the best plan, it was too risky.

He leaved his head back and drew in some air as he tried to relax, but suddenly he heard a rustling in the nearby bushes.

.....

“Hello!” Renly sat up straight and inspected the area around him. He really didn’t like feeling this way, and it didn’t help that it was almost night time. “Who’s out there?!”

“Renly..”

The man jolted upright and scanned the area around him. “Who said that?!”

There was more rustling in the bushes and Renly’s skin started crawling, more rustling came and this time the man got to his feet, he needed to get out of that place as quickly as he could, he had a very bad feeling about this. He quickly began to morph into a bird again, it would be much faster if he flew away.

The black raven flattered it’s wings and lifted itself off the rock but suddenly a hand grabbed it and held it in place. Renly turned back into his human form and held the hand that was now holding his neck, looking at the face of the person closely, Renly’s breathing became heavy and ragged.

“Where are you off to so quickly little bird?” Renly’s captor muttered. “Didn’t I warn you not to do anything that would put Melissa and the child she carries in any danger?”

“Please, I promise I won’t breathe a word of her and the baby,” Renly pleaded, “please just let me go.”

“You think you’re afraid now?” The man rasped, “wait until I’m done with you.”

*

A few meters away, Theodora heard the loud scream of a man. She turned towards the screaming and narrowed her eyes in confusion. Who in their right mind would be in these parts of the woods alone? Had they been injured or attacked.

Theodora leapt from the ground and jumped from one brunch to another towards where the scream had come from. She had been out in the forest on Aiden’s ordered to scout the place around and find whoever it was who had been lurking and following them around. Maybe whoever was screaming out there was the perpetrator in question.

The nosferatu woman’s keen sense of hearing picked up faint whimpering coming from her right. She turned and landed in a small clearing, she could hear the whimpering of a man but she couldn’t seem to detect where exactly it was coming from. She walked around the clearing until she reached a certain shrub where the sound was most audible.

She dug her hands into shrubs and gasped when she saw a man with raven black hair shaking like a leaf.

“Please, I’m sorry, I won’t do anything to hurt Melissa I swear it, please just let me go.”

“Hurt Melissa?” Theodora inspected the man and noticed that his right hand had been calcified. “Who did this to you?”

“Please don’t kill me,” the man whimpered .

“I’m not going to kill you,” Theodora assured the man who was clearly terrified. He said something about not hurting Melissa, wasn’t Melissa that elven prince’s girlfriend or something? This was strange, clearly whoever had done this to this man was trying to protect Melissa but why? And who was he?

Theodora turned to the man, looks like she didn’t have a choice, she had to take this man back to Aiden for further investigation. The information he had may prove useful.

*

Melissa had become restless, the whole night she had just been tossing and turning in bed unable to sleep. How could she not have noticed that she was pregnant? And she was very sure it was Gareth’s and not Elric’s yet here she was living with him as his wife. Gods what would he do to her if he found out she was carrying another man’s child? And didn’t Carol say that he would be returning today? Oh gods!

“Your highness..”

Melissa threw her blanket off her face and looked at carol.

“Oh you’re already awake-” Carol narrowed her eyes and inched closer to Melissa, “your highness you look terrible, are you okay? Did you sleep at all?”

“I may have had some trouble sleeping,” Melissa responded in a low tone, “but I’m fine don’t worry about me.”

Carol placed her hand on Melissa’s forehead to feel her temperature, “well your temperature is okay.” She stood up and walked to the closet where she pulled out some towels, “let’s get you washed up so you can rest a bit more before the king gets here your highness, he shouldn’t find you looking like this.”

Melissa nodded and slipped off the bed hesitantly, she wasn’t willing to see Elric before, but now she REALLY wasn’t looking forward to seeing him. She walked slowly towards the lavender infused bath and submerged into the water, it had started becoming cold so the warm water helped to relieve her nerves.

“Your highness you look worried,” Carol spoke as the placed the towels by the bath, “is anything wrong? Should I get the physician?”

“No!” Melissa blurted out, she then sunk deeper into the tub and sighed. If Carol called for a physician he would definitely know that she was pregnant, and he would obviously tell the news to Elric, she couldn’t risk it. Gods if only she could contact Gareth and let him know, but how when she wasn’t even allowed to leave her own room.

“Carol..”

The maid looked up at the woman curiosly, “yes your highness? Do you want me to help you wash?”

“No I’m alright,” Melissa responded, “it’s just that... there’s something that’s been bothering me.”

“What is it?”

“First you have to promise me you won’t tell a soul Carol,” Melissa declared, “not a single soul, not even the king.”

Carol looked thoughtful for a minute but then nodded in agreement, “alright my lady,” she responded, “I promise not to tell a soul.”

The redhead swished around in the water nervously before looking up at Carol, “I think I may be pregnant.” Her voice was so low that even Melissa herself could barely hear it. She looked up at Carol and was shocked to see her smiling.

“I already knew you were with child your highness,” Carol responded.

Melissa’s eyes widened in shock, “you did?!”

“Yes, I did,” Carol responded with a warm smile, “but I respect that you’re not quite ready to tell your husband about it yet, and that’s fine. The first time is always a bit scary and we don’t know how our husbands will react. But don’t worry, you’ll be surprised at how happy he will be when you tell him.”

“Okay..” Melissa was screaming in her head, gods this was such a mess, of course Carol would think this is Elric’s baby, the only comfort of the situation was that the maid was okay with not telling the king about it just yet. That would buy her time to find a way to contact Gareth. She needed to leave this palace before Elric could notice anything.

*

In a carriage in the outskirts of the capital Clovis’ smile widened as he peeked outside and saw the familiar buildings coming into view. He didn’t even know he was capable of feeling excited but here he was, excited to see Julia’s beautiful petit face.

“Well you look happy,” Jeffrey commented curtly.

“It’s not my fault you chose to die alone Jeffrey,” Clovis responded, “maybe if you’re weren’t such a thorn in people’s sides someone would have actually liked you.”

“Love is just a bunch of nonsense,” Jeffrey responded, “it wastes your time and energy and to top it all off you behave like a total irrational idiot and think it’s okay, why? Because you’re in love. I’ll pass thank you very much.”

“And this is exactly why you’ll live the rest of your life angry, bitter and without a woman,” Clovis spoke, “you see the bad in literally everything.” The prince then turned to Elric and smiled at him, “Elric here knows what I’m talking about, right brother?”

historical

The silver haired king who had been lost in a reverie turned to his older brothers and batted his lashes in confusion, “what? Did you say something?”

“Dont you miss your wife?” Clovis asked, “and aren’t you excited to see her?”

“I suppose,” Elric muttered. Honestly he didn’t know if he was ready to face Melissa again, they had had a big fight and he had locked her up in their chambers in a jealousy rage. But could anyone blame him, his feelings when he was with Melissa were very confusing, sometimes he loved her to death and other times it was pure possessiveness, he really didn’t know what was going on with them and it made his head hurt.

“You see, he looks incredibly tired and drained,” Jeffrey commented, “why? Because of a woman. I love my peaceful life, so by all means let me die alone.”