The Ruined Kingdom

I looked up at the sound of the door being opened. I was shocked. I had been in here for two weeks and the door had never once been opened. They would slid food and water in through a slot at the bottom of the door twice a day. I had almost given up hope of being let out. I hate having nothing to do so while I was stuck in here I had found a sharp rock and worked on making a hole in the wall someone had started bigger. It was now about a foot deep and wide enough for me to crawl through.
The person who walked through the door was Solomon. I had hid the knife he gave me in my boot where no one could see it. He walked in and helped me up off my spot on the floor.
“Your father has requested you be brought up to speak with him. You are to go to your chambers and make yourself presentable then be escorted to his throne room.” I wondered why Solomon was acting so formal then I saw the retinue of guards behind him and understood. I was no longer the little princess he could be friendly with. I was a prisoner of the king.
I followed him out of the cell and was surrounded by the guards. They walked me to my chambers and then waited outside the door. There were no maids in the room and it looked exactly as it had two weeks ago. I went into my bathroom and drew some water into the tub. I took off the clothes I had been wearing which were now disgusting and slipped into the water. I washed all the dirt off then used lavender oils on my hair to make it smell good. I got out of the tub and dried off with a soft towel.
I walked out into my room and over to my closet. I found a deep red dress that I liked and pulled it on. It had long tight sleeves and was tight around my chest then went loose down to floor length. I pulled on comfortable leather boots that came up to my knees. I took off my necklace and wrapped it around the hilt of the knife then slid it into my right boot. I brushed my hair and left it down then went out of the room and was once again surrounded by guards.
They brought me to my father’s throne then stood by the doors. My father was already here sitting on his throne. He had on little armor and the royal sword of Westpanthia was at his waist.
“Clarissa,” he said drawling out my name, “I hope you appreciate my mercy of bringing out of the dungeons.” I wanted to tell him I would rather spend the rest of my life down there but I held my tongue. “But mercy is not the only reason I brought you hear. Today we are marching on Gorisa and you will be marching with us.” My heart sank. I feared this was why he had called for me. I hoped with all my heart that Samantha had gotten away to warn Gorisa.
“Seeing as I have no choice in practically anything that has happened to me lately I guess I will be marching with you. With or without my consent.”
His face was slightly angered but he now knew I would not put up a fight. “It seems sometime in the dungeon has mellowed you Clarissa.” He smiled. “Go and get ready. We leave in an hour.”

I looked up from my horse when the alarm horn sounded. We had been marching for four days and had now reached the border between Gorisa and Westpanthia. At first I couldn’t figure out why the alarm had been sounded then I saw them. Spread out along the border was an army at least the size of ours or bigger.
A rider tore towards us. He stopped before my father who was next to me and bowed.
“My Lord,” he panted, “They knew we were coming somehow and hired an army of mercenaries. My Lord they have the Lacthians here to fight for them and they out number us.” My father’s gaze instantly shot to me but he knew there was no way I could have told them. I was just mentally thanking Samantha. She had gotten there in time.
“Give the order to attack. We will take Gorisa one way or another.” My eyes went wide. I had thought my father would have let it rest but now he was throwing our army into a battle we were almost sure to lose.
And Tony! He was going to have to fight! What if he got hurt? What had I done? The army started moving and my father rode off with a retinue of guards to lead the fight. I was left with a few guards surrounding me.
The two armies moved towards each other and collided with a deafening noise. After about 15 minutes into the fight it was clear that we were losing. After about 30 minutes we were in full retreat. In the confusion of running soldiers I slipped past my guard and raced my horse towards what was left of the battle. The black dress I was wearing flapped in the wind.
I screamed Tony’s name and looked for him. The small groups of soldiers still fighting looked up at me in surprise as I flew by. Suddenly I saw him on the ground on his knees. I jumped off my horse and ran towards him.
“Tony!” I cried. I went to the ground by him and held him as he fell down onto my lap. He had a huge gash across his stomach that was streaming blood. I knew there was no chance left for him. “Tony,” I sobbed tears pouring down my checks. He tried to say something but couldn’t then his body went lax and I knew he was dead.
It felt like my heart had broken in two. If I hadn’t asked him to come with me he would still be alive. I sat there mumbling no to myself tears streaming silently down my face.
Suddenly a hand grabbed me and pulled me onto a horse. I thought they were from my father’s army and fought them screaming. But when I realized we were riding to the Lacthian line I stopped fighting. It seemed like I had gone numb from pain. I didn’t care what happened to me anymore. This whole war was my fault. If I hadn’t sent Samantha to warn them this army wouldn’t be here and Tony wouldn’t be dead. I leaned back against the rider.
We made it through the frontlines and towards the middle of the camp. We stopped and he pulled me off the horse and into a large tent. He threw me down onto the floor and started washing sweat of his face with water from a metal basin. He looked about 21 years old and had the outfit of an officer. He had brown hair and piercing blue eyes.
“What is your name?” he asked me. I didn’t answer him I just sat there on the floor. “What? Can’t you speak?” I still didn’t speak. “Answer me!” When I still didn’t answer he stepped towards me and hit me across the face. It reopened the cut on my check and I felt blood running down the side of my face. He raised his hand to hit me again but suddenly someone grabbed his hand and pulled him off balance. He fell to the floor and where he had stood there was a young man.
He looked about 16 and was very handsome. He had black hair that was long and soft green eyes. The only thing that made his face less handsome was the fact that he looked furious.
The man on the floor jumped up as if to attack him. But when the man saw his face he fell to his knees before him. “Seton! Forgive me. I did not know it was you.”
“Stop your groveling Captain Baker,” he said harshly, “If I ever see you strike a woman like that again you will find yourself shoveling dung for the rest of your life.” The Captain bowed his head in silent submission. The young man who was apparently Seton walked over to me and gently helped me to my feet. He took my hand and led me out of the tent. We went a little further into the camp until we reached an even larger tent. Seton led me inside and had me sit down on a soft pile of furs that were apparently a bed.
He spoke to me as he crossed the tent. “So you must be someone of some importance, otherwise you would not have been with the army. So who are you?” I still did not speak. Though I tried to prevent my father from making this war I was still the daughter of the king of the enemy. He came back over with a flagon of water and a wet cloth. He handed me the water which I drank eagerly. I was very thirsty.
He smiled when I finally put the water down. When he did it made his eyes light up. “Not very talkative are you? I see why the captain was angry though it does not justify his actions.” He brought the cloth up to wipe the blood off my face. I let him do it but when the cloth touched the cut it burned with whatever was on it. I gasped in a breath and he gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry but I have to make sure it’s clean. If you want you can squeeze my hand,” he said offering it to me.
I held on to it as tight as I could the entire time trying not to make another noise. When he was finally done he leaned over and blew a cold breath on it. This took away the leftover sting and I let go of his hand. He stretched it to get the blood flowing again. Apparently I had squeezed a little harder than I meant to. “You’ve got quite the grip there,” he said smiling again. I gave a tiny smile in return. “I’ve got to go and see to some matters but I will be back later. You can stay here and rest but I fear the camp is not a very safe place for a woman alone.” With this he left the tent.
Once he was gone I felt very alone. Almost my entire life I had been surrounded by people but recently I was being left by myself all the time. I was a little tired so I lay down. Suddenly I realized that I had Tony’s blood all over the front of my dress. I hadn’t noticed it before because of the black material but now I just wanted the dress off of me. I quickly tore it off and was happy to find that the blood hadn’t reached the thin white dress I had on underneath. I threw the dress so it landed a few feet away.
Suddenly I shivered a little. This dress was much thinner than my other dress. There was a chill in the air since the sun was beginning to set. Fall was coming and the nights were slightly chilly. I lifted up some of the furs and crawled underneath them. It was warm and soft. I closed my eyes and started to drift off to sleep.
When I was asleep I dreamed of seeing Tony again. It wasn’t exactly him but his ghost. He was leading a whole army of ghosts. They were all men who had died in the battle today. I heard their whispers saying that they were dead because of me. Suddenly the surrounded me and picked me up. They brought me to a puddle of blood and threw me into it but when I hit the surface I just kept sinking. I tried to swim to the surface but I couldn’t figure out which way was up. I was drowning in a sea of blood.
Suddenly I woke up screaming. Seton was sitting right there next to me looking worried. “What’s wrong?” he asked. But I couldn’t speak. I started sobbing and curled up with my arms around my legs. Then Seton’s arms were around me. I turned and buried my face in his chest. He murmured in my ear telling me everything would be okay. I nodded against his chest though I wasn’t sure why. It felt like nothing would be alright ever again.
Slowly Seton laid back onto the furs. He held my head to his chest and my sobs dissolved into shuddering breaths. He softly smoothed down my hair. He started humming some song. I closed my eyes again feeling exhausted.
“Go to sleep,” he whispered then kept on humming. I fell asleep again and dreamed no more.