My 8 E-books written over the years by Alina Udrea - HTML preview

Chapter 6

Lizzy and Manda were riding side by side in deep silence. Lizzy was

clearly worried for Mark and Manda didn't want to disturb her thoughts. They had been riding all night and now they were pretty tired but Lizzy wasn't ready take a break yet. Manda was trying to keep up with her but her heavy breathing betrayed how tired she really was. Finally,

Lizzy couldn’t pretend she didn’t notice how tired Manda was and decided to allow both themselves and their horses the well- deserved rest.

They tied the horses and stopped by a wide river for rest. The

cool water refreshed them and the shade of the trees was more than welcome. They ate and then they both fell asleep. When Manda woke up, she saw Lizzy frowning at a piece of paper and turning it on all sides as if trying to find something which wasn't there. So she decided to just ask her what the problem was.

376

- Well, Lizzy answered trying to keep calm, it seems there was a bridge a few meters down the river. I searched for it while you were asleep and it seems it's gone. It probably collapsed and was taken away by the river.

- So how are we going to cross over, Lizzy? Now Manda was scared as she couldn’t swim and the river was flowing rapidly. She didn't want to drown.

- Well, I guess I will have to make my own bridge.- What do you mean? Asked Manda even more afraid as she had no idea what Lizzy was talking about.

- I will freeze the river for a narrow portion but it will have to do. So we will cross to the other side this way…

- Wow, what if it melts while we cross and we drown? Manda was shaking all over at the nasty thoughts in the back of her mind. She hated water. Or maybe it wasn't hate but fear.- We won't be dancing our way to the other side, right? We will cross as fast as possible. We have to. There is no other way. You will have to trust me on this.

- I trust you Lizzy, magic is what I don’t trust. But I heard stories that you are good at it. I hope the stories were true…- We will find out soon, won't we? And Lizzy giggled. She wasn't upset that Manda doubted her powers, instead she was glad that people talked about her, and as for Manda, she will see for herself how great her powers were.

- Ok, I will untie the horses and will saddle mine and take yours by the bridle too till we get to the other bank while you focus on keeping the river frozen.

- Sounds like a plan!

Manda took the horses and Lizzy focused on the running river.She

started mumbling unknown incantations and magic spells and to Manda's amazement, the river started to freeze slowly in front of

377

them .It was like a bridge of ice was stopping the water from flowing. It was magic!!

- Go Manda! I won't be able to keep the river frozen too long. Take the horses and go! I will cross when you are safe on the other side.- Ok, and she started to cross over the frozen river even though she couldn’t stop thinking that she was afraid of water. Manda could feel the ice beneath her creaking from time to time, but this didn’t stop her, quite the contrary, it only made her advance even faster. She got safely to the other shore together with their horses. She felt she could kiss the ground beneath her feet but instead she yelled for Lizzy to start crossing too.

- Great Manda, Lizzy said proud of the girl, now I will cross. And Lizzy began to step over the ice then she made a run for it. She ran as fast as she could.

She had to reach the other side before all the ice melted and the

river would start flowing again. She couldn’t maintain her focus anymore and now she would just have to be fast. Or at least faster than the thawing ice. She could feel the ice bridge starting to become unstable. So she ran even faster. When she was almost on the other bank of the river, she heard a man screaming behind her. She turned her head and saw a man in the frozen water up to his waist. He was struggling to get back on the bit of frozen bridge in front of him but he was clearly not doing well. Lizzy stopped in her tracks and focused harder once more. The water around the man started to freeze once again until he was able to get up on it.

Then he began to run towards her as fast as he could. But it was

too much for Lizzy. Sweat was dropping on her face and she felt she would faint if he wouldn’t be on the other bank sooner. Then everything went black. Before she fell on the ice the last thing she heard was Manda's panicked voice calling her name.- Help her!! Manda was yelling to the man.

378

The man ran as fast as his little legs allowed him. When he was next

to Lizzy, the ice was almost gone again and he could see her sliding towards the raging waters of the river. There was a battle inside him as he stood there looking at her for what seemed an eternity for both him and Manda who hadn't taken her eyes off him this whole time. Then, to Manda's relief, she saw the man picking Lizzy up in his arms and with a jump he was safe next to her on the bank of the river which was flowing again menacingly.

- Thank you for saving my friend, Manda slowly uttered not knowing what to think of the mysterious man who had come out of nowhere.- Truth is she saved my life first, she finally heard him speak. I just returned the favor. But to Manda's bewilderment, he didn’t seem too happy about it. It was as if something more was going on. As if he was almost sorry for having saved Lizzy. Or was it just her imagination running wild?

- Who are you? They were both startled by Lizzy's voice as she was slowly coming back to her senses. And what were you doing just a few paces behind us? Were you following us? Who sent you?

Both women saw the color from the man's face slowly fading away

until he was as pale as the earth beneath their feet.- Answer me! Lizzy kept pressing him for an answer as the fact that the color disappeared from his cheeks wasn't working in his favor. She realized he was clearly hiding something.

- Uh, he said after a long pause, I'm a hired assassin. I am here to kill you.

- Pardon me? Lizzy asked puzzled while looking at the strange looking man. Then why didn’t you let me drown?

- I couldn’t. You saved my life. So my life is yours to command. I was supposed to kill you and frame it all on the enemy soldiers. Then I saw that the bridge over the river was no more. And then you made a bridge of ice over the water. I had to take a quick decision. If I hadn't followed you, I may have never found you again and my mission would have been doomed. And my reputation and probably my life. So I

379

decided to take my chances and run after you but then the stupid ice bridge began to melt under my feet and…well, you know the rest.- Sorry to interrupt your nice story but WHO are you? Asked Manda obviously pissed at him.

- Dorian, he said in the simplest possible way. Hired assassin, as I already told you.

- Who is your employer? Answer me!! Lizzy yelled at him, her hands shaking as she felt a rush of magic energy going through them, ready to burst in any second if his answers weren’t true.- It's your step sister, Milly! But I guess she will have to find someone else now. As I said, I owe you my life. And I will die protecting yours if need be. You could have left me there to drown but you risked your own life to save mine. My life is your now!- I don't need it! Lizzy said upset by all the information. You are free. You can do whatever you want. I don't care!- Ok, then what I want is to accompany you and your skinny friend and protect you on the battlefield. I may be an assassin, but I am an honorable one! I live by certain codes of honor!- Can you believe that, Lizzy? An honorable assassin! Geez! Manda said and started laughing at him to steam out all the negative vibes. So when you kill someone for money, do you do it with honor? What’s honorable in that?

- It's what I do. I don’t know anything else. This is how I make my living and what I’ve been trained for all my life. It's who I am and I can't change it, but this doesn’t mean I lack honor…. And as I said it already, I owe you..

- Just stop it, ok? Lizzy spat at him. You can come if you want, I don't care. But there are two conditions: first of all, when we get to the palace, you will testify against Milly so my father will finally see what snake he has raised and second, you take care of yourself on the battlefield. I will protect Manda and myself of course while trying to find my future husband so I won't be needing any burden, got it?

380

- No worries, lady! I can take care of myself! As for the other thing, I will do it if it is what you want! The king might sentence me to death afterwards though, but …

- No, he won't! If anyone should be sentenced, then it is his evil offspring, Milly! She hired you! And Lizzy was now trembling with all these emotions while thinking that Milly was a dangerous person and something had to be done about it.

- I'll do it, Dorian said one more time.

- Then what are you waiting for? Spring? Let's go! The three of them left together towards the battlefield in the north, in search of King Harold's army, or more precisely, in search of Mark. Lizzy wanted to make sure he was ok, Manda wanted to make sure Lizzy was ok and Dorian wanted to make sure everyone was ok, in spite of his original orders of killing both Lizzy and Manda!