War for Uyrilia

Chapter 4

“My three sons will go with you to this new camp as my influence.” Erna said as Jaxton explained his plan of creating camps for the upcoming battles. Liliana and Robert looked at each other and gave little smirks knowing they would not be separated now. After nearly a month of them sneaking off in the middle of the night to spend time together and pulling each other into the dark nooks and crannies of the castle to steal a kiss they would not have to be separated and not be allowed to see each other.

“Of course.” Jaxton answered. “We will be leaving in the morning for a site in Atren where we will be able to make our moves quickly.” She just nodded, dismissing them and court for the day. Robert and Ryan quickly left the room and met up with the others outside. “You two Alright with going with us?” They both nodded. “Alright, we’ll all meet out front at first light. It’s going to take a while to get where we need to be.” The brothers nodded before the adults left.

Ryan grinned. “At least we get away from here.” Robert nodded and agreed before his brother started talking about what he was not going to miss while Robert and Liliana shared a look. Not long from now they would be far from courts, living in the wilderness even if it was not officially together they were still close enough.

The next morning came fast. Ryan caught Robert looking over his horse at Liliana as she checked the straps on her own horse. “Hey.” Ryan said making Robert glance behind him at Ryan before his blue eyes fell on the young woman again. “You like her or something?”

“What?” Robert asked over his shoulder as he went back to tending to his horse.

“You know you can’t. If mother finds out that you have some kind of feelings for her she’ll pull you away so fast and have you married to the ugliest thing on the face of Uyrilia before you can say gross.” Robert chuckled and shook his head. “I’m serious. What’s going on?”

“Nothing. You’re imagining things. Besides mother already has our wives picked out for us remember. I wouldn’t dare tread on that land.” He said as he pulled himself up onto his horse and started walking over to the group watching Liliana pull herself up onto her own saddle, waving off the numerous men who stood by wanting to help her to the amusement of Jace and Alexander and the annoyance of Liliana. Maximus and Jaxton smirked watching Liliana getting more and more frustrated at the men hovering close by.

“Can we go now?” She asked as she walked her horse passed her father. The group set out with Jaxton and the adults in the lead letting the younger group talk and laugh along the way. Jace glanced at his silent sister walking behind the group with Robert to her left also silent. The two seemed out of it, Jace was worried about his sister and wondered if something had happened. He never had a chance to talk with her until they stopped to camp for the night

“Lily?” He asked as he walked over to help her set up her little tent. “You okay? You’ve been pretty quiet all day.”

“I’m fine.” She said flatly making him stop and look at her.

“What happened?” She shook her head. “Come on, you’re my sister, I know there’s something going on.”

“It’s nothing.” She glanced at him and knew he was not going to let it go. “I just don’t like having Marc in the same camp or in the same country as me.” She glared over to where Marc was setting up his tent. Thanks to Robert who had said he and his brothers would set their tents on the opposite side of camp to her, he was now as far away as he could be.

“I know what you mean.” Jace agreed. “The way he acts around you and everything…and after the trip to save dad, I don’t want him on the same planet as you.”

Liliana smirked at him. “Don’t start going all overprotective brother on me, and don’t you dare tell Alexander any of this. You know as well as I do he will ignore everyone and do whatever he can to be overprotective and it’s only going to cause more problems.” Jace gave a nod glancing back over where Marc was looking at Liliana with a sick grin before Robert hit the back of his head making the younger brother’s eyes snap to glare at Robert. Jace saw Liliana give a smirk as she continued setting up her tent making Jace shake his head.

“If you need anything or want to talk you know I’m here and you know I’ll always listen.” He offered and watched her nod and thank him with a smile before climbing into the tent.

~~~~~

After another two weeks of traveling they finally reached the point Jaxton had decided would be the best place to build their refugee and command camp. They pitched tents and slowly word spread to their supporters and the people wanting protection and wanting to help fight started filing in. They were then broken up into more camps to spread out across the land. Liliana and Jace could not believe how many people were filing in to help them in a fight to save not only them but also the world even at the cost of their own lives. Jaxton sighed as he looked over the map seeing how many camps they had spread around each with a royal line leading it to make it fair amongst those kings and queens who stood by them.

Liliana and Jace made trips to surrounding areas while on their way to a town to the east they came across bandits. Sighing, the two stood up for their things and went back at bandits who had no idea who they were trying to steal from. The twins fought, twisting and turning before they heard what sounded like thunder and a flash of lightning before everything went black.

Liliana and Jace sat up holding their heads. Looking around they found they were in a dark cell. “Why are we locked up?” Jace asked.

“Do I look like I know?” She asked as they both stood and started walking around the cell.

“Looks like you two finally woke up.” They heard a deep voice. Looking at the cell door, they found Kalman standing on the other side of the bars with an evil smile. “In two weeks you’ll be presented to mother as the most glorious gift a son can give. She will finally have your power.”

“And ‘mother’ will give you a cookie?” Liliana teased making Jace chuckle. “Do this for a cookie, do that for a cookie. I’m surprised you’re not fat.”

“Mother will praise me as her prized son.” He said as he glared at her.

Liliana waved him off. “Yes, she’ll give you a cookie praising you, ‘what a good boy you are.” She smirked at him. “She going to rub your belly too?” Kalman glare intensified.

“Let’s see how many jokes you make when you are withering in pain.”

“Well we’ll see when your mother gets here because I guarantee you’ll just tickle.” Kalman tightened his fists before storming off with the twins laughing hysterically. “We need to figure out how to get out of here.”

“Well the others must know we’re missing by now.” Jace sighed as he plopped down against the wall. They heard footsteps from the hall again. “Come back for another thrashing, Kalman?” He asked before looking over to find a girl holding a tray with two plates and two cup. “Oh…” He said as he could seem to find the words to talk as he looked at her.

Liliana rolled her eyes as she walked to the door. “I’ve brought you food and water.” She said softly as she slid the tray under the bars.

“Thank you.” Liliana said, “I was thinking we weren’t going to get food because of how mad he was.”

“It’s true he said not to give you any food but…” She looked away. “I know who you are. Many in the castle do. We want to help you.”

“Where exactly are we?”

“In the dungeon of Praphia.” She answered. “Zinnia is on her way here to see how her son is doing at building their empire and when she arrives he is planning on giving you to him. We were taken over but we never lost our hope that you two would one day save us.” Liliana looked at the young woman. Her blue eyes sparkled as she looked at them with hope and faith. Her ash blond hair was a tangled mess and she was in rags but Liliana imagined she was a beautiful woman. She looked at her brother who was still staring and rolled her eyes, judging by her brother’s reaction, he thought she was beautiful as well.

“What is your name?” She asked the woman.

She smiled. “I am Rebecca Bickenden.” She answered. “I was a servant girl for the duchess before she was killed when the city was overrun. We were all put into service for Kalman from then on.”

“Why haven’t you tried to escape before?” Jace finally spoke.

Rebecca looked at him a minute. “We were afraid that if we were caught we would be killed. He had done it before. Our only hope was to wait for you to take back over like the rumors said you would.”

“Rebecca!” Kalman screamed down the hall.

Rebecca flinched. “I have to go. I will come back as soon as I am able.”

“Wait.” Jace told her making her look at him. “Bring us paper and ink. We need to get a letter out to our father so he knows where we are.” She nodded and was gone. “It’s a long shot but if we can get word to them about where we are they might be able to get here in time to get us out.” He watched Liliana hold up her hand, staring at it. “It doesn’t work.” He pointed to pieces of paper lining the cell. “We’re blocked.”

With a sigh, the two sat down to wait for Rebecca to arrive back. They waited for what seemed to be days before Rebecca arrived back with the paper and ink. She sat at the door as Liliana and Jace talked and wrote the letter. They asked her to sneak into the pigeon’s cage and send the letter for them to Oyaena where it would be delivered to their father. Soon after she left Kalman arrived with several guards.

“We are going to get some information out of you about the resistance while we wait.” He grinned as the guards grabbed Jace and pulled him out while others held Liliana back. She paced in the cell wondering if Jace was alright, wondering what they were doing to him. She jumped as the door opened and Jace was thrown into the cell. “Next.” Kalman laughed. “I’m going to enjoy this.” Liliana looked up with determined amber eyes as she was taken from the cell and cuffs with the same paper on them were immediately put on her.

“You’ll never get anything from me, you fat dog.” She said as they threw her forward before strapping her to an upright table. Kalman just laughed as he pulled an electrified rod from a side table and shut the door.

Jace was leaning against the cell wall when they dropped Liliana into the cell. He crawled over to her and rolled her over to see the cuts and bruises. He glanced at Kalman who was walking away laughing. Jace focused his attention back on his sister as she groaned. “Lily.” He said softly. “Lily, open your eyes.”

“Jace?” She asked as she looked up at him.

“Yeah. Guess we’re both a little worse for wear.” He smirked as he helped her sit up. “Easy, you have some nasty wounds. He took those comments out on you.” He mused as he tended to her open cuts. She let him tend to her silently, neither knowing what to do. They never thought the man would literally torture them, they thought they would just be handed over. The two tried to get what sleep they could before Kalman showed up again taking one of them and then the other, neither having the strength to fight back after the fourth time. The two crawled to the far back wall and held each other for comfort against what the future might hold, and the pain wrecking through their battered bodies.

Rebecca came as often as she could and snuck them food, blankets and ointments she could get her hands on. The two were oblivious to the world as the cell door opened and several people filed in. “Jeeze you two always know how to get into a mess.” They heard someone chuckle. “And you keep forgetting to invite me to the party.”

“It’s good to see you too, Alexander.” Jace mumbled as he looked at his friend with his one good eye. “Take Lily. She’s hurt bad. Doesn’t know how to not piss off the person torturing her.” He tried to laugh but it came out in coughs.

“Relax. We’ll take care of you.” Arthur said softly as he came to their other side of them. He shifted Jace into his arms as gently as he could as Alexander did the same with Liliana. No matter how gentle they were there was no way to keep away the pain making them groan and whimper. “How did you guys get the letter to us?”

“Rebecca.” Jace smirked. “She’s a servant here. She helped us stay Alive and get the letter out. We have to take her with us. We have to save the people in this castle.”

“We’re Already on it.” Arthur smirked. “Stop worrying about everyone else and worry about yourself for once.”

“He can’t.” Liliana spoke making everyone look at her. “He’s got a crush.” She smiled teasingly as Arthur and Alexander laughed seeing Jace turn away.

“Come let’s get going before we’re caught.” Arthur led the way out of the dungeon to the first room they found. He drew out a circle in a square with markings around it before chanting the spell and in a flash of light they were in the camp. People rushed around them as they were taken to their tents to be healed the two still bantering back and forth about Jace and his crush.

~~

Jace sat outside his tent with several bandages on him. Rebecca walked over and sat beside him with a soft smile. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah, much. Thank you for taking care of my wounds.” She just nodded. “Are you planning on staying here? You’re really skilled and we could use your skill in camp… I could use your skill.” He smirked making her giggle.

“I was thinking about it.” She nodded. “I do have family I could go live with.” She shrugged. “There’s nothing really here that makes me stay.”

“Well what if there was?” He asked making her look at him confused. “I’d like you to stay.”

“You would?”

Jace nodded. “When I first saw you in that cell I thought you were the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I wanted to talk to you, to get to know you.” He said softly as his deep brown eyes locked with her blue ones.

“You really think I’m beautiful?” Jace just nodded before he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss making her gasp and look at him as a blush crossed her face.

“The most beautiful.” He told her. “So, will you please stay with me?” She looked at him as a smile spread and she nodded as she leaned over giving him a deep kiss.

“Jace, you need you’re bandages changed.” She said softly making him chuckle as he pulled away and let her work.