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

Chapter 9

Dorian left the palace with a new mission: to track and bring Milly

back to the king's court. It was such a funny twist of events as he was supposed to track his former employer, princess Milly, the one who had initially hired him. Now, instead of hunting Lizzy, he was hunting her. It was fair as the other assassins from his guild had been hired before by the royal family, but never to murder someone of their own, as Lizzy was king Harold’s daughter just as much as Milly was, whether she liked it or not.

Dorian followed her horse’s tracks towards the outskirts of the

city and into the Forest of the Doomed. It was a cursed place, one avoided even by the common thugs. Bad things were said to take place there. But Dorian was certain that Milly had gone there which meant that she was desperate if she was willing to take such a chance.

So he had to follow her, no matter how much he disliked the

idea. Because the alternative was even worse: going back empty handed before the king would mean his demise and he wasn't ready to die yet. He was still young, had a long life of assassinations before him, people to kill. Yeah, maybe it wasn't the best career in the world, but it was what he was good at.

The forest was quiet. Maybe too quiet. Not a leaf seemed

to move and no animals could be heard. Nothing. Only silence. Nothing stirred from its place. But Dorian felt strange, as if he was being watched. He looked everywhere, but again there was nothing. He decided to tie his horse to the nearest tree and go on foot the rest of the way as his horse was making too much noise and in that silence, his noise was deafening. His hooves touching the ground were like

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thunder. So he decided it was best that way although if something were to attack his horse, then he would have to make the whole journey back to king's palace on foot. And to drag Milly after him, too. But it was a risk he had to take. He couldn’t afford to make such a clatter because it was as if he was banging drums along the way so everybody knew where he was.

Better to jeopardize the horse than himself. He saw the panic in

his horse’s eyes the moment the beast realized that its master was going to leave it there in the eerie silence. But it was the only way if he was going to survive this. Maybe Milly had already died here somewhere in some distant corner of the spooky forest.

Anyway, he had to find her. He had to give something palpable to

the King, either bring Milly back, or her body. He was hoping he wouldn’t have to drag her body, though. Then he heard a faint noise, a muffled sound. Now he was sure that someone or something was watching him. He felt for his blade, ready to strike. He focused his eyes and searched everywhere around him, but he still couldn’t discover the source of the noise. He was getting jumpy when half a dozen undead soldiers emerged from behind the trees and bushes and attacked him. At least now he knew where the noise had come from and knew what to expect which was way better than the wait for something to suddenly attack. At least now he finally saw his enemies. He drew his sword with a swift move and in a leap he cut off the head of the first undead. It fell with a loud thud, sticking to the soft ground. The remaining five undead all attacked at once, plunging at him. Their rotten flesh was hanging from their bones and dried red dark blood was covering almost their entire bodies. Despite that, they moved pretty good for corpses. They were wielding their weapons with the same agility as when they were alive.

But Dorian was alive and intended to stay that way. So he

started giving blows right and left, cutting the undead into bits and pieces until he was sure they were dead for good this time. But one of

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them had managed to bite his left arm before he could kill it. He didn’t think much of it at the time but now that he was safe from any imminent danger, he felt a sting where the bite was. He examined the wound and saw that it was festering. It looked as though it was decaying. As the hours went by, the decaying flesh on his arm was getting larger and larger until it covered his arm up to his elbow. He realized he had to cut his arm from a little above the rotten flesh if he didn’t want to turn into an undead, a zombie. Good thing the undead hadn't bitten his right arm, if he was to find anything good in such a thing. He made a small camp fire, while all the time praying no one would see the smoke, and then he put his sword in the flames to disinfect it. Then, when he considered it was hot enough, he cut off his own arm so the disease wouldn’t spread.

This way, with the burning sword he also cauterized the wound

so he wouldn’t bleed out. Then he swooned and fell in a deep sleep. Later when Dorian woke up, the fire had burnt out but fortunately for him, he was still alive. He had no idea for how long he had been unconscious but it was dark now. By the position of the stars, he figured it was well past midnight. He took his sword and got up, ready to continue his quest, to fulfill his task. But after what he had been through, he doubted that he would find Milly alive. These creatures didn’t give a damn if she was royalty or not. If they found her, she was as good as dead. Or worse…

He treaded carefully as he didn’t want another encounter with

those creatures. He had already lost half of his left arm. So if he could just find Milly and return to the palace before anything else happened would be great. If Milly was still in the Forest of the Doomed, then she was probably hiding somewhere. So he should look for caves or other spots where she could have hidden. After what seemed an eternity, he saw the entrance to a small cave. He headed its way in a jiffy wondering if he would be so lucky as to find Milly there. He entered carefully and in a nook of the cave he found her all right.

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Or something like that. He found someone who resembled Milly just that now she looked different. When he got close enough, he realized what was wrong with her: she was one of the undead now. She was hideous. She saw him and she turned her head. Her eyes were bulged out of their cavities and she just stared at him. Cold shivers ran down his spine. She was never beautiful but at least she was normal but now she was….something else. Maybe this was her punishment even before King Harold could punish her. Anyway, he knew he had to bring her back and let the king decide what to do with her. But how? Because as she was, she surely wouldn’t come willingly.

So Dorian approached her carefully, not knowing what to expect

from her. And he had already lost his left arm, he didn’t want to risk losing other limbs. Which meant he should be careful and not give her the chance to wound him and turn him into an undead too. He would have to tie her and drag her back to his horse, if it was still there, if through a miracle his horse had survived.

- Hi, Milly, Dorian said in a husky voice, I am here to bring you back to king's court. Do you understand me? But there was no response. She just continued to stare at him as if she had lost her mind.- I am going to come to you, ok? Dorian said again trying to smile not to scare her but he only managed a gruesome grin. Then he saw her eyes focus on him and not stare through him. He saw anger and confusion in those eyes and he stopped for a moment to consider the situation. But then he continued to advance towards her. She got up and attacked him in a frenzy.

Dorian ducked just in time or she would have slashed his other

arm. Then he hit her hard in her back and she kneeled due to the blow. He then quickly took his rope from around his own waist and tied her hands. He had that rope with him in case he needed it but he hadn't thought he would use it to tie down princess Milly with it. Then he tied her legs till she couldn’t move freely at all. And then when he was about to put a gag in her mouth, she spoke asking him to help her. For a brief moment, she was herself again. But when he looked at her and

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wanted to answer her, he saw that same stare and knew she wasn't there anymore. So he gagged her and tied her and put her on his shoulders. She was heavy but he had no choice. It took him hours till he got back to where he had left his horse. To his utmost surprise, the poor thing was still there grazing peacefully around the tree it was tied to. He could almost cry with joy because he couldn’t have carried her all the way to King Harold’s court. But now he was saved.