章 180: Duel
Devrim woke with a start as Cafer spoke loudly in the room outside the cramped wardrobe. "Time to get up, Your Highness," he boomed. "The king will be expecting to see you."
Alaron groaned as the fog of sleep had not yet left him. "He can wait. I am not ready to get up."
The prince rolled over and groaned again as the rocky bed was unforgiving. Cafer sighed. Humans needed far more sleep than most magical creatures, and the teenagers of the species seemed to need extra rest.
"Fine," the gnome conceded. "I will be back to get you in a little while. But you will not waste the whole day by sleeping."
Alaron waved his hand dismissively and completely ignored the slamming chamber door. He did not hear the subtle creak of the wardrobe hinge or the nearly silent footsteps across the floor to his bed. It was only when a hand came across the prince's mouth that he was alerted to another's presence.
"Sh," Devrim called as he restrained the boy. "I just want to talk."
Alaron relaxed, and the grey-eyed man risked it all by releasing the prince. "Fath—Emperor Devrim?"
An awkward silence ensued as each man processed what he was seeing. Rising to his feet, the prince rubbed his eyes. Was this a dream? He could not fathom how the Emperor had made it past the gnomes to get here. It did not seem possible.
For his part, Devrim's eyes were wide with concern. He had not gotten a good look at the prince when he spotted him the evening before. 'I thought Polymedes said he looked healthy,' the Emperor thought. 'Did the faun lie?' The prince's blue eyes were sunken deep into their sockets with dark circles surrounding them. Alaron's face was gaunt. The luster of his skin, once a sun-kissed brown, was now the same grey color as the light of the cavern. The boy was a ghost of his former self.
"Alaron?" Devrim couldn't help but ask. "What happened to you?"
The prince furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?" The Emperor guessed the boy had not looked in a mirror recently. The difference was striking. "What are you doing here?" Alaron asked in a hushed tone.
Devrim allowed a ghost of a smile. 'He did not immediately call for help. That has got to mean something.' "I want you to come home," he said gently. "We miss you."
Alaron was taken aback. He had expected hostility and anger from his father-figure. Instead, the soft words were needles in the boy's heart. The prince wavered. "I-I can't."
"Come home," the Emperor extended his hand. "Your mother is worried about you."
The blue-eyed boy stiffened. "How is my older sister? I hurt her."
"Aurora is stronger than you think." Devrim could see the struggle on the prince's face. "We can put all that behind us. Come home."
Tears came to the Alaron's eyes. He considered the offer. "How? How can we possibly put all this behind us?"
Devrim placed his hand on Alaron's shoulder. The prince nearly crumpled in his grasp. The Emperor spoke slowly, "Together we will return to Valiant. We will have a party to welcome you home and put to rest the rebellion in your name. You can give up using magic, and we will find a way to move forward as a family."
The look on Alaron's face suddenly changed. He moved away from Devrim as if he had been struck. "You want me to give up using magic?"
The man was caught off guard. "Using magic is killling you, don't you see?"
A cloud passed over the prince's countenance. "Yes, I see what is happening here. You want to control me. You are scared of my power."
"What? No!" Devrim flatly refused him. That thought was the farthest from his mind.
"You want to control me." Alaron repeated. "No, she wants to control me. My lying, manipulative sister…you almost had me." The prince gave a wry chuckle.
The Emperor's shoulders dropped. "What has happened to your mind, son?"
"I am not your son," the boy hissed. "Now get out of here, or I will call the gnomes to remove you."
Devrim dug his heels into the dirt floor. "I am not leaving without you," he insisted.
Alaron drew his sword and aimed it at the Emperor. "Leave." When Devrim refused to move, the boy waved his hand and chanted. The door barred itself shut and glowed momentarily. "Fine. If you are so keen on staying, fight me."
The Emperor could not believe his ears, "Excuse me?"
"Fight me!" Alaron repeated more forcefully. "If I win, you will leave, take Aurora and abandon the throne. It will save a lot of bloodshed."
"This is madness! I will not risk the fate of the world on a duel." Devrim held up his hands.
"Fight me," the prince repeated. "Or I will call the guards." He took a swipe at the grey-eyed man, who pulled his own sword to block the blow. The singing steel sent both men's hearts racing.
"If I win, will you come home quietly?" Devrim asked. He was grasping for any hope.
"It does not matter; you will not win." The prince disengaged and took his stance.
The Emperor sighed. He saw no recourse. Taking his own stance, Devrim waited for the boy to charge. As promised, Alaron surged forward in a triple set of slicing blows. 'For someone who looks so sickly, he still has a great amount of strength," Devrim thought.
The prince saw the surprise in the other's face. "You can surrender now," he offered with a smirk.
Devrim did not respond. Instead he stepped into Alaron and knocked him off balance. If not for the stone bed to break his fall, the prince would already be sprawled out on the ground. Regaining his footing, the boy swiped at the man's legs, causing Devrim to leap backwards.
The ensuing battle ranged the entire length of the room. Each swipe and stab disturbed the neat order of the room. The gnome's treasure went spilling all over the floor, and Devrim could not help but smirk. 'Cafer is going to be furious when he sees this mess.'
Alaron swung, and his sword bit deep into the wood of a beautiful armoire. The boy cursed as he quickly removed the blade. His eyes were bloodshot with anger. A backhanded cut nearly sliced Devrim in half, but the man was able to avoid the sword's razor tip.
The Emperor gave a mighty overhand cut, which was only blocked at the last second. Two more quick strikes by Devrim, and Alaron cried out in pain. His left arm had a trickle of blood. His sleeve was torn. "That could be much worse," the grey-eyed man said seriously. "I do not want to do this."
"Stop toying with me!" Alaron commanded. "You are treating me like a child."
Devrim pressed his lips together and swallowed his crushing reply. He hefted his sword and swung underhand and overhand strokes in seamless succession. It was only then that Alaron realized how much his father-figure had been holding back all these years. Not even Devrim knew the full extent of his own skill. The beauty of the mighty warrior-Emperor was on display, and the prince was the unfortunate recipient. Alaron was slowly giving ground. He made three, then four steps backward as any advantage the young man had melted away.
The wall was suddenly at Alaron's back. He had no idea how it had occurred. The boy fought for his life, digging for his last bit of strength. A lucky blow glanced across Devrim's brow, sending a sting of blood down into the man's eye. The Emperor faltered momentarily, giving the prince enough courage to swing high. Devrim ducked, and the force of the swing sent Alaron flying. "Never make a move like that without knowing it will land," the grey-eyed man instructed. Even though his life was on the line, he could not help but improve the boy's form. "And do not fight with your anger, it makes you sloppy."
Alaron's fury raged. "Do not tell me what to do!" Instead of heeding the warning, the boy became even more wild. His form, usually so tight, transformed into a beast without fear. Devrim fended him off, afraid of how this would end. At last, the Emperor managed to hit the boy's hand with the broad side of his blade, and the prince's sword went clattering along the ground uselessly. The Emperor aimed his sword at Alaron, victorious. Both of them heaved, taking in lungfuls of air.
Devrim wiped the blood from his brow with the back of his hand. Head wounds had the nasty habit of looking worse than they were. Still, the amount of red liquid that came off on his sleeve was unnerving. The man was so concerned by the injury, that he almost missed the look of desperation in Alaron's eyes. "Do not do it," Devrim warned.
The prince ignored him, lunging for his weapon while chanting something in the ancient tongue. Devrim moved his sword to block him, but felt the sudden push of Alaron's spell knock him to the ground. In a flash, the prince was on him with a sword to Devrim's neck.
"See? Magic has its uses. Do you still want me to give it up?" The piercing blue eyes looking down at the Emperor were frightening. The boy looked like a crazed wolf.
"Even more than I already did," Devrim answered.
"That is too bad. I won, so you have to leave unsatisfied," there was the slightest tinge of sadness in Alaron's voice. Suddenly the boy crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
"No, you cheated, so you forfeit the match. It was a ridiculous match to begin with," Gandr gave the Emperor a lopsided smile as he helped him stand. Neither of the men had seen the halfling arrive, but the grey-eyed man was most grateful.
"Has it been a day already?" Devrim asked. He was confused how Gandr was no longer in the stocks.
The halfling shook his head. "No, but I could sense you were in trouble, so I took some drastic measures. I have been searching everywhere for you. We need to get out of here."
Taking out ropes from his bag, Devrim secured Alaron's hands together. "That will hopefully keep him from trying any magic when he awakens. Can you get us out?"
"It will likely use up the rest of my magic store for now, but I think I can get us outside." Gandr steeled himself. "Are we taking the prince? He did not seem inclined to come."
"Yes, we are saving that boy whether he likes it or not." Devrim asserted.
There was a knock at the door. Now that the prince was unconscious, the spell on the door had vanished, but the bar was still across the latch. "Let me in," Cafer said. The gnome did not wait for a response. He did not like using his magic, but he could feel something was off. Coming up through the floor, he was just in time to see Devrim and Gandr, who had the prince draped across his shoulder, disappear into the rockface.
"Intruders!" he yelled. Unlocking the door, Cafer ran into the hallway. "Guards! The prince has been abducted. Hurry!"
The chase was on.
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