I Promised Someone Special I Wouldn't Die

"What did you say, My Queen?" Fealar asks, his gaze focusing on me as I let Elin, who was done drinking, burb.

"I said the Iron Cave," I repeat myself. I pull Elin closer to my chest and rub up and down her back. She nuzzles her head closer against my collarbone and yawns.

"What is that? I never heard of it," Siraye announces.

"That's because no one should know about it. It's a forgotten, bad place," I explain. "A cave deep inside the mountain passes. A cave in the deep down dark. A cave where they locked something Evil in, centuries ago. After that, they buried the place, so the thing they locked inside would never escape and see the light of day again."

"Do you think that the thing they put in the Iron Cave is this Hanera creature?" Siraye asks carefully.

I nod. "It is a possibility."

The conference door swings open with a loud bang. I look up startled, and Elin lets out a startled cry.

"I'm back, my darling little Nuggets!"

I stare with a wide open mouth and eyes at the young man in the doorway. Tears stream down my face as I quickly rise from my seat.

"You're alive," I whisper. "You are really alive," I sob. I take in the young man in the doorway. His dark skin is bruised and cut. His nose is broken, and his eye is blackened. And he limps with his right leg. But he is alive.

Kayol chuckles lowly and nods.

"How did you survive that thing?" I ask. Even more tears stream down my face. Kayol limps his way further into the room and plops down in an empty chair. Siraye hands him a pint of beer, which he gladly accepts. He finishes it with a few gulps and sighs, slumping further down in the chair.

"I promised someone special I wouldn't die," he smirks, and continues, "and apparently, my ability to control metal also works on that things, and well... Let's just say that it is a lot less intimidating without front limbs," he grins. I roll my eyes.

"What did you do with the manticore's body?" Fealar asks. He takes a sip from his second glass of wine.

"I burned it."

"We could've studied it!" Fealar insists.

"Yeah, well. We could've. But I wanted to get home."

"What are you saying?" I ask, while gently rocking Elin back to sleep.

"I'm saying that the gate watchers didn't want to open the gates until the manticore completely turned into ash." He sends an annoyed glance in the direction of Fealar and grabs an orange from the fruit bowl on the table. "I was tired and wanted to go home. Also, Nives needs me. So, I did what they wanted and set the bloody thing ablaze."

Fealar grumbles, but besides that let it be. It's not like we can do something about it now. The manticore is gone. I understand what Fealar is saying, but I much rather have a research team study the corps outside the city walls. I don't want it inside. I don't want to expose younglings to it. That will only result in fright – not only from the younglings. Fright results in chaos. And a kingdom in chaos is something I really don't want to have on my plate, right now.

"Where is Claris?" Kayol asks between hungry bites.

"She's asleep."

"I can get her," Siraye offers.

"No," I shake my head. "She needs her rest. Let her be. Kayol will be here when she wakes. She can see him then." Siraye nods.

Silence falls over the room if you ignore the hungry gulping of Kayol as he starts on his second orange. "I can get you a plate of the leftover from dinner?" Siraye offers him, also realizing how ravenous he must be. I mean, he is devouring oranges. The one fruit he hates the most besides bananas.

"That would be lovely. Thank you, Siraye," he manages to mumble between bites.

"I'll get you two plates," she chuckles and leaves the room.

"How's Therion?" Kayol asks as he lets his gaze land on me. He wipes away a stream of juice from his bloodied chin. A sharp pang shoot through my heart. Flashes of red dance in front of my eyes.

I suck in a shaky breath and shake my head. "Not good. But the Healers are with him." I chuckle dryly. "At least I don't feel the pain of him dying, anymore. That's a good sign, right?!" I shake my head. A single tear rolls down my face. I look down at Elin sleeping soundly in my arms. She looks so much like her Dad if you think away her green eyes. She's almost a spitting image of him.

"I told you, you're Daddy is a reckless idiot. And look where we are now," I mumble softly. More tears find their way down my face.

"He will be okay, Neav," Kayol tries to reassure me. I look him straight in the eye.

"How can you be sure?" I sob.

A playful smile appears on his roughed-up face. He should really see a healer to check him out. "Because it's Therion we're talking about here. That man has a hundred lives." I nod slightly remembering all the times he did something reckless and almost killed himself in the process. "Plus," he continues, waving his index finger, "the man is way too stubborn for his own good. If The Mother welcomes him at her side in the Heavens, he will recline the offer and jump right back to you. "Where ever you are, he goes."

"He did vow that to me on our wedding day, and again with his Coronation."

"Exactly."

"Oh, not to spoil the mood again," Kayol starts, pulling the third orange his way. "I went back to that place to collect all the bodies. They're in the infirmary where their loved ones can say goodbye to them." Even though Kayol speaks softly, I can see the anger soaring through him. He is trembling, his thumb is sinking deeply into the orange, spilling juice all over himself and the table.

He lost eight of his best men and women today. His friends. How he is holding himself may show that he is composed – maybe because that would ruin his image of a ruthless, smirking asshole who shares a bed with any person he lays his eyes on, but I know him too well and too long to fall for that act.

He is just as broken and shaken-up as me.