Part 10
The Barbarian
She danced and sang ahead of us,
sometimes in sing-song Elven, then switching to Barrabbas with the accent of a
Diplomat. I'd picked the way least known to my kind but instead of mapping out
the paths, I watched my guide, who appeared utterly caught up in her own
aimless meanderings, darting here and there to snatch a flower, cradling it to
her face before spinning then flinging it out, past the edge of the stone walkway
to plummet to the ground, far below.
I had no doubt from the behavior
of the so-called gardener, that my identity of general was well-known. They had
me in their city, at their mercy, so why continue the charade? Every time she
called me Viceroy, I flinched, but each time she came close to tumbling over
the edge, I had to clench my hands into fists to keep from reaching out for her
hand.
The gardener's glower cut into my
back, clearly conveying his near outrage at my presence. I certainly wasn't
defenseless, even without a sword at my side, but the feeling that I walked
into a certain trap left my skin tight and my heart thumping rapidly.
It was her, the young ambassador
I'd known so long before, known and foolishly thought I'd loved. The years
hadn't been kind to either one of us. I'd expected to feel satisfied to see her
in this state, that her betrayal of me, of us would have led to madness, but I
felt nothing but sorrow and a ridiculous responsibility.
She'd needed my protection. I
should have kept her safe, whether she'd wanted me to or not. I shouldn't have
listened to her words, her eyes, her voice when she'd told me that she'd found
an Elven lord who would suit her far more than a Barbarian.
None of that mattered. Time,
almost a hundred years had passed while I destroyed her kind, brought them to
the end of my sword at the Emperor's bidding. There I stood, in the luminously
lit darkness, high above the earth on a stone bridge for the emperor. If my
guide fell over the side from her madness, that left one fewer Elves for me to
destroy, for the Emperor's army to decimate.
My duty, my responsibility would
never be sworn again to an Elven Lady who pranced with unearthly grace in bare
feet over the stones.
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