Branded pt. 2

The deep throbbing in my back is partly muted by the fresher pain on the side of my cheek, but both are calmer than they were. Replacing the agony is a feeling of overwhelming cold. Ice searing into my skin. And the unharmed side of my face, something soft is touching it. Puzzlement is the first feeling to creep back into my muddled sense.

My salt encrusted eyes crack open and slowly move around the room, regaining my bearings. A white cloth covers the damaged cheek, it is from that the feeling of icy cold comes.

“Good morning, Stellan.” A woman’s voice, low, sweet, and too familiar. And coming from behind me.

“My Lady,” I respond, mildly surprised at the dry feeling in my mouth, and how choked my own voice sounds. “Where am I?”

Melody moves slowly round the bed into my view. The sun glances through a window somewhere on the other side of the room, playing over her slim form, clad all in dark blue, black belt tied around her middle. No less beautiful here than she was in her dungeon. “In one of my spare rooms, Stellan. It isn’t my best one, and I did have bars installed on the window, but still, it is nicer than your prior accommodations.”

I move my hand to the side of my face, touching it gingerly. There is no fear, no terror, not even rage at what she has done to me. Only shock. This mark on my face… is it real? My attention moves back to her. “You didn’t tie me down.”

Her delicate shoulders lift in a careless shrug. “I did not believe it was necessary.” She levels a mocking smile at my stunned expression. “Even as you are now, I know that you still wish to see your beloved idol. Ava will be quite pleased, I am sure, to discover her favorite field laborer is still alive.”

I look away. Now the pain penetrates. Ava. If she sees me like this… First there would be the horror, and then would come what was even worse. Pity.

“Lady Melody,” I begin slowly, thinking over each word before it leaves my lips. “I must ask that you do not send me back to her.”

The blue silk rustles against the wood floor as she moves towards the dark oak door at the far end of the room. She pauses as my words hit home, glancing back at me with a thoughtful air in her cool green eyes. Then a smile touches her mouth, and that taunting edge returns to her face. “No one denies me what I want, Stellan, without some punishment. Be it the kingdom, as it if with Ava, or information, as it is with you. You will meet her, and soon. And so both shall be punished.”

A shudder runs through my body, the hair on my skin rises beneath the clean white sheet that covers me. “How soon?”

She doesn’t respond. My gaze lifts from the floor and fastens on her slim form, standing halfway in the shadows on the other side of the room. Anger awakens in me. “Answer me, Melody!”

“Raising of the voice,” She notes gently. “My punishment shall be complete, it seems.” Her hand touches the knob, but she hesitates before leaving the room. “Two days, Stellan. I tell you because I can, not because you have ordered me. You will be released in two days and dropped off at Ava’s doorstep.”

I push myself into a sitting position, shrugging off the sheet. Underneath it, I am dressed in clean clothes, back bandaged against the infection I had threatened her with. My teeth grit against the pain that I know will come, but when it does, it is not overwhelming. I can still think through the agony. “You found her?”

Her dark head shakes. “No, not yet. She is well hidden. We do, however, have contact with a man on the inside. He claims to have information on her that could be helpful to us, but as of yet has not revealed anything. We will simply turn him over to you. You are well known enough that he will not doubt your affiliation with Lady Ava. ”

“But you believe him? Do you trust him to place me in her hands, and not just cut my throat?” I ask, pressing my hands into the thick mattress beneath me. Another rush of pain darkens the room. I ride it out, tossed on its waves like a scrap of paper in a storm.

Her hand falls to her side. She watches me, green eyes narrowing on mine. “Believe him… Not entirely. Somethings he hints about do not add up, including a few comments on her bloodline. Trust him? No, not a bit. But while you are an important piece of my personal plan to get revenge, you are expendable to the kingdom.”

“Very well then,” I murmur slowly to myself, forgetting her presence for a moment, “At least I still have a slight chance of escape.”

A low laugh ripples through the room. “Don’t count on it, Stellan.”

I look up again, shreds of hate igniting at the sound of mirth. “I’m not counting on it, my Lady. But I will continue to try. You have burnt my face, carved your mark into my skin. You never touched my spirit. I remain unbroken.”

Her dark smile levels at me, a glitter of laughter slinking through her emerald gaze. “Your spirit was indeed out of my reach. Only one person, I fear, will ever have it in their power to wound your being.”

Fear wraps its icy fingers around me. It wipes what little color there is left in my face, turning my cheeks a blank white.

Her mocking smile grows, taking on a ominously sweet edge. “Yes, you know who I mean. Our mutual friend in childhood. Beloved little Ava, the darling of her guardians heart, and, I hear, of yours.”

Slowly awareness starts to creep over me. I become vividly conscious of our current situation. She is only feet away. Unarmed, no guards, and I am not tied down. Yes, I am weak, but there is strength enough in my aching hands to close around around her windpipe and keep the life-giving air from reaching her lungs.

But I can't. Even with all that Melody has done, I cannot raise my hand against her.

She steps nearer, moving gracefully across the golden maple boards that make the floor. “I also hear, though it has not yet been confirmed, as of yet it is simply a rumor, that in your absence an engagement has been formed.”

I clutch the sheet in my hands, squeezing it instead of her beautiful throat. “Lady Melody,” I say, bowing my head slightly in mocking respect, “That engagement, if the rumors be true, is one I encouraged her to enter into.”

She laughs again. “Yes, that always did seem to be your style. Selfless, is that how you wanted to appear? And what, pray, is the name that she would be exchanging for her own?”

“You figure that out on your own, Melody,” I answer shortly, purposely dropping the title that belonged to her from birth.

Her mouth twists. “Very well, I shall do so. But not now. There is plenty of time for thought later.”

I look away from her. My eyes go towards the window, body turning until I have a good view of it. Golden fields under the summer sun glance in through the iron grate. Bars on the window, just like she said.

“Why are you here, Lady?” I ask bitterly.

She sighs. “Stellan…” Her voice is wistful, an echo of yesterday. Of the girl I used to know.

I twist back around. “Canary?”

A different smile curls her mouth. Sweet, but not with that nasty edge. Sadness lays its hand on her soul and wipes away the evil influences that have pressed their mark into her spirit over the years.

She gestures towards the bed. “May I?”

Her face fades, another swimming out of my memories to cover it. A young child. A girl with black hair and glowing green eyes. And her smile… it isn’t bitter, sad, or mocking. It is laughing. The joy of youth. Melody. The girl we would refer to as “the Canary.”

I force a light grin and pat the sheet next to me. “Of course.”

She has not grown since the day Ava and her said goodbye. Ava has, if only a few inches. But while Ava’s body is hard, stripped of fat by the hard life she has been forced to live since the break, Melody has remained soft. The skin on her palms is still white and completely unmarked.

The eyes she turns to me as she settles down into the mattress are melancholy. “You've been sick, Stellan. You called it right. Infection. For two days we battled for your life. Now the fever has broken; you are on the road to recovery.”

“Why are you here, Lady?” I ask again, but softer this time.

She shrugs and brushes aside the question with an impatient gesture. “Despite all you have done, Stellan, I cannot sit back and watch you die without lifting a hand in your defense. To protect my throne, I will do much. I can hurt you, and will. But kill, I cannot. Not you.”

She turns her gaze fully on me. “And neither can you. Otherwise I would already be dead.”

I don't answer her. There is no need. My silence is answer enough.

“Do you,” She looks down again, lacing her finger together on her lap, “Wish that Ava, or I, had simply chosen to fade into the background?”

A jab of pain pulses through the side of my face, and I feel the heat from the still angry burn. But when I answer, I mean it. “I wish you had, Melody. Never Ava. I made a choice between the two of you when things came to a head. I picked the one I thought I could follow, the one that would do her best.”

She places her hand on top of mine. “You don’t think I would?”

Step with care. The inner warning comes in time to stop the harsh words from leaving my lips. I pull them back and search for a different approach.

“It isn’t that you wouldn’t do your best,” I say carefully. “I do not believe that your best would be enough, Melody.”

Reaching up, she gently touches the angry burn on the side of my face. A touch of the cruelty reawakens in her pale face; her finger trails across the fresh wound. “I am the true heir, Stellan. Go back to your lady Ava. Enjoy her company for what little time you have left. She will desert you without a thought in the end, and walk away in the arms of rival.”

I don’t flinch, not even when her nail slices the swelling welts on my ruined face. Instead, I smile. “I have no rival, Canary. I am not a contestant. Now, please. Go.”

She rises to her feet as gracefully as she sat down. And it is her again. Melody, supposed heir to the throne. “Very well, I shall. Sleep well, Stellan.”

“I won’t,” I reply, keeping the same pleasant expression.

She stands still by the bed for a moment, staring at me. Slowly, she bends her head in a silent goodbye. She moves to the door, pauses, looking back. Her gaze drifts over my ruined face.

I smile gently at her, ignoring the the pain that lances at the movement.

Turning, she yanks the door open and slips through. It slams shut behind her. Even so, I catch sight of the expression on her face. I see her pain.

Something wet drips onto my neck. I touch my cheek gently, fingering the burning welts before lowering my hand and glancing at it. The liquid is clear. Her perfectly cleaned nail burst one of the many blisters.

I bite back a sigh and lift the white cloth off the bed, dumping the ice on the floor. Pressed to the branded, it quickly becomes soaked, drinking in the pus.

My fingers trace out the conformation of the burn under the rag, ignoring the pain caused by my touch. It is roughly shaped in a oval with a space in the middle. Too swollen to make out many details, but I can feel the open jaws of one of the dragons beneath my touch.

A single tear slides across the open wound, searing into it. I wipe it away. No use in falling apart. Ava will do enough crying for both of us when I finally do make it back to camp. Ava…

Sympathy knocks at the door of my mind. A shred of pity that is centered, not on me, or Ava, but on Melody. On poor little Canary. The girl that was selfish at times, but still a friend. And a good friend at that.

Ava is in doubt to her future, but so is Melody. People are fickle creatures. Today, Melody is their ruler, though she be not crowned. Tomorrow, it could very well be Ava. And both of their claims are so convoluted and twisted… who knows which the rightful queen truly is.

Out in the woods, always on the run, Ava is a young woman that has had all the normal joys of her age taken from her. Even the pleasure of marrying who she will. She sacrificed it willingly. And yet she is almost never unhappy. But Melody?

I throw my mind back over the last two week. Pain blurs many of the memories, but I can still see her face here and there. Always a smile, but never happy. Bitter, angry, wistful… she revealed all of those emotions, and more, in her beautiful speaking eyes.

Weariness touches my body. It seeps into my veins, stealing away what little strength I have. I sigh and fall back against the bed. My back hits it first; shards of pain slice up into me, but I push it aside. My back will hurt for a long time and the scars I will always carry. As with the scar on my face.

I roll over, hiding my face in the thick cushion of the pillow. “Don’t think about it, Stellan,” I order myself, voice muffled. “Time will bring it all to your doorstep soon enough, and you can’t keep it away. Just forget for the time being.”

But I can’t. Even when my eyes finally shut, I still can feel it. A deep throbbing on the side of my face. And Melody’s mark burning, not only into my cheek, but also into the very core of my being. A part of me.