The King’s bodyguards brought the King home a few days later. He was dead. Some cried when they saw him, and some just looked at him. Jada knew that his wish was to die in a battle. She didn’t say anything, and no one came to her, when the funeral should be planned.
Her men came back over a few days. Slowly they began to train again, and it was a day during the training, one of the king’s bodyguards went outside to them.
“Jada,” he said. “Charles wants you inside the castle. Now,” he said and sounded really nervous.
Jada looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
“If he wants to talk to me, he can come outside to me,” she said, and turned her back to the bodyguard and made her men keep running.
“He said it was really important, and that you have to come,” the bodyguard said. She sighed and looked at Daran.

“Daran, you take over here. I’ll be back soon,” she said and followed the bodyguard inside the castle to a little meeting room. In the room sat dukes and counts, and, of course the king’s advisor, Charles. The bodyguard closed the door behind her, and Charles looked up, when he heard the door closed.

“Finally you could be here. Take a seat, Jada,” he said and looked in some papers. Jada sat on a chair and looked at Charles.
“What do you want? I’m a bit busy, so hurry up,” she said.

Charles ignored what she said, and looked at the other men. She was the only woman in the room. It was all significant men, who always had been a great help to the king.

“The reason why we’re here today is because our beloved king is dead, and his son is gone,” Charles said, and all the men gasped. Jada wasn’t surprised. She had only heard bad things about The Heir to the throne.

“We need to send someone out to search for the Heir,” Charles continued after everyone stopped talking.

“But who’s going to do that?” a duke asked.

“Actually we have the right person in this room,” Charles said, and looked at Jada.
“What? No!” she said. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said and crossed her arms.
“Jada, my friend,” he said. “You have a choice. You can do what I say, or you can leave”.
“Who gave you the right to decide things like that?” she asked and looked at him with a look, which could kill a horse if that was possible.

“I was the King’s advisor, before he died. Before you came, we decided that I was the best choice,” he said with a smile. Jada knew that Charles hated her. He had always been against the King’s choice, to take her in the army and in his champers. Now he had the power to kick her out, but he also knew he would get in trouble with a lot of the men, if he dismissed her.
She knew she didn’t have a choice.
“Okay, fine. But I’m not going alone. And Daran Reiner is going to train my men when I’m gone. ‘’Deal?” she said with a cold voice.
“You’re not going alone,” Charles said and gave a wink to a corner. From the shadows in the corner, came a man. Everyone looked surprised at him, even the guards. Had he been there all the time?
The man was wearing a hood, so they couldn’t see his face. The rest of his clothes were normally, like a peasant would wear.

“This man is going to help you. Together, you two are going to find the Prince, and you’re not coming back without him,” Charles said. “You can go now, Jada. You were busy, right?” he said and started a conversation with one of the dukes.

She left the room in anger. How could he do that?!

She went outside, where Daran trained the men. She didn’t stop to train them, but went to her house, which was close to the castle, between two blacksmiths. It was of grey stones and only in one plan.
She was only a tax collector, so she only had two choices. Leave the castle, all what she had fought for, or do what Charles said. She hated him.

She closed the door after herself, and went to the living room, where she sat in an old, green armchair. She laid her arms around her knees, and laid her head on the knees. Why should she always fight for what she wanted to do? Was it because she was a woman? Or was it because Charles always did what he could to make everything hard for her? Was it because the King had always listened to her, when she was around, instead of Charles? She didn’t know.

She didn’t want to go. She felt safe where she was.

When she sat in the chair, she looked out through the window, and looked at the landscape outside and emptied her thoughts.

She heard a knock on the door, but didn’t move. If someone wanted to talk to her, they could come back later, or just walk in. The door opened, and she just looked out the window.
“Jada?” said the person. She could hear it was Daran, but she didn’t look at him. He walked to the living room, where he saw her in the green armchair. He walked to her, and squatted in front of her.
“Hey…” he said with a worried voice. She only looked at him, without saying anything.
“What did he say?” he asked.
“I have to go out and search for the prince…” she said with a low voice.
“Why?” he asked. And then she started to tell him all what Charles had said. She told him what she had to do, and when he said he would go with them, she said no. He had to take care of the rest of the group. She told him that she didn’t wanted to go, but she wouldn’t leave her life at the castle.

“Seems like you don’t have a choice,” he said and looked at her. He knew Charles didn’t like her, but he didn’t understand why they didn’t send a guard. The Prince couldn’t be that far away, and a guard would be a better choice. They needed Jada at the castle. She was the tax collector, and the people in the castle couldn’t live without all the money they got from the taxes.
“He wants us to do your job?” Daran asked. Jada nodded.

“If I didn’t say I wanted you to do it, he would find someone else, and none of you would have a job before I’m back,” she said. Daran didn’t say more, he just laid his arms around her.

“I don’t want to go,” she said again and laid her arms around him. She laid her head on his shoulder.
“Hey, I know you will find him fast. You have been almost everywhere in this kingdom. You have a map. Follow that and your instincts. We’ll be waiting for you,” he said with a smile to cheer her up.
“Thank you,” she said with a little smile on her lips.

Daran left her an hour or two later. He had made food for her, and they had eaten together.
“The funeral is tomorrow. You are all exempted from training,” she said with food in her mouth. Her personality was more like a man than a woman. She talked with food in her mouth, she swore, burped no matter when and where. When she drank, she drank like a man, and didn’t stop before she fell asleep. She didn’t say no to a fight and she never wore dresses or anything like that. She wore clothes which showed her curves, like tight pants and tight shirts.

“We are here today to say goodbye to our beloved king, who died in the war, like a real hero would do. We will send him on his last journey, and hope for the best,” Charles said with a solemn voice. The King lay in a long boat with his best clothes, weapons, gold and other things he had liked.

All the soldiers made a dunk on their newly polished amour.
Jada stood between her men. The wind played with her read hair and made whirl around her head.

Some strong men pushed the boat out in the water and the stream took the boat and led it down the river.
Everyone was quiet and they all prayed for the King to have a good journey and hoped he would get to the last world unharmed.

They stood in silence in minutes. No one dared to do anything, because they were afraid of the dead Kings anger.

“Now, just so everyone knows it, I’m going to take the kings place, until we get the prince back again. If someone disagrees, they can come to me,” Charles said after a while and then he left the group of people.

“Now that the King is dead, no one cares about you. They can dismiss you, and you can do anything. The King only cared about you, because you slept with him,” the voices said to Jada. She linked her hands and didn’t say anything. She couldn’t do anything, and she would look ridiculous, if she yelled at them. Daran looked at her.
“Are you okay?” he asked and she nodded.
“They are just saying things she said, and followed her men, when they walked to the tavern to drink funeral feast. Before she walked in the tavern, a guard came to her.
“Charles wants to see you. Now,” he said and looked at her. She sighed and told Aro and Daran she would be back soon, and then she followed the guard to the same little meeting room, where she were the last time Charles wanted to talk to her.
“What do you want?” she asked hostile. He just smiled at her.
“I just want to talk to you. How are you?” he asked with a smile on his face.
“I don’t want to talk to you. Again, what do you want?” she asked and crossed her arms.

“You know what Jada? If you married me, back when I asked you, you wouldn’t have to go out and search for the prince,” he said and didn’t answer her question.
“So, you punish me, because I didn’t want to marry you?”

“I’m not punishing you. I’ll give you a choice. Marry me, and then you can stay here, or you can go out and search for the prince, and if you’re back without him, you will lose everything,” he said.

“Go to hell!” she hissed and walk to the door.

“You’re going in the morning!” he yelled before she left the room.

Charles was right. When Jada woke up the next day, the mysterious man already sat in her kitchen. She was shocked.
“What are you..? How..?” she asked and couldn’t complete the sentences before he talked to her.
“One in your group opened the door. He wouldn’t wake you up,” he said with an indifferent voice and looked at the newspaper in his hands.

“You aren’t even safe in your own house,” the voices began, but she didn’t listen. She just stared at the stranger who sat in her chair and read the newspaper like nothing had happened.
“Are you going in… that?” he asked and alluded to the shirt she was wearing. She mumbled a “no” and walked back to her room, where she took pants and another shirt on. Quickly she brushed her red hair, and then she walked back to the living room. She was still tired and mumbled something about getting her key back from Daran.

“He didn’t wake you up, to hear if it was okay that he let a complete stranger into your house,” the voices sad, and she mumbled something about he just cared about her.
They voices had been talking nonstop the whole night. And just before she fell asleep, she felt to the black hole, again. It was like that almost every night. She only slept just before dawn, and it was not that much. In the last few days she had started to hear Sidnis voice every time she came up from the black hole. Sometimes she thought it was one more voice in her head, but when she was completely awake, there was only the two she always heard back. She packed a back with a map, a knife, some food from the kitchen and a blanket. She then hung the backpack on her shoulder and looked at the stranger in her kitchen.

“Are you ready?” she asked the stranger. He nodded and laid the newspaper at the table.

She walked out the door, and locked it when the stranger went outside.
“I have to give Daran some instructions before I go. Just wait here,” she said and walked to the house, where they all slept. She didn’t knock the door, just went inside the little house. They were all awake.

“Where’s Daran?” she asked after looking around without seeing him.
“He went outside a little while ago,” Aro said and looked at her. She sighed.
“He has the commando, and you just have to do like always. If I’m not home before it’s time to collect taxes, just do it. You have all tried it before. But I hope I’m home before that,” she said. There were still two weeks before they had to collect taxes, and she didn’t think finding the prince would take that long. He couldn’t be that far away.
“I’ll tell him. Take care of yourself,” Aro said and hugged her. She smiled and said goodbye to them. Then she went outside again and walked to the stranger who was waiting for her.

He didn’t say anything, but just started to walk away from the castle. She went after him and looked around.

“Who are you?” she asked him.
“Does it matter?” he asked and looked at her with his beautiful blue eyes. She mumbled a “no” and just kept looking forward.

Who was he? Even Charles didn’t look like he knew who the stranger was. Maybe he was a scout? He really looked like he knew where they were going, and he didn’t look at a map.

She looked at the heaven. The sun wasn’t high on the blue sky yet, and some clouds flew around the big, yellow sun. The sun was the reason of every life on the planet. It came up and gave the people hope every morning.

“My name is Michael. I’m nothing special, but I owe the King my life, and that’s why I’m doing this,” he finally said, but didn’t look at her. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again.

“I’m…” she said, but he got her in the rush.
“I know who you are. You were the King’s lover and his tax collector. I have seen you before, at my parents’ farm, once in the month to collect the taxes. Charles told me,” he said with a hint of a smile on his lips.

“Then you must know why I’m with you, right?” she asked. He nodded.
“I’m still the tax collector,” she said. “Charles can’t find someone my men would follow through fire and water, like they would for me.”
“I wouldn’t doubt that. You are unique. I have heard the stories about you,” he said. Jada didn’t say anything. What should she say? He apparently knew everything about her, but how? Charles couldn’t know everything. She never told him anything. It must have been the King who had told Charles who she was. Daran or Aro wouldn’t do it, she knew that.

They walked in silence. She looked around and noticed that she hadn’t been there before. But she didn’t say anything. He looked like he knew where they were going, and she didn’t know where to search for the Prince, so she just followed Michael.

The trees had green leaves and it all smelled so good. The smell filled her nose and a smile came up on her face.
As they walked, the sun went higher and higher on the sky, and then it disappeared in the horizon. They didn’t come to a town that day, and when the sunset coloured the heaven orange and gold, they stopped.
Michael looked around and looked like he was thinking. Jada didn’t say anything to him.
She took the back of her backpack because the leather straps were hurting her shoulders.
Michael went into the thicket, and Jada just followed. Hopefully he had an idea of what he was doing.
Finally he stopped. They where in an open space with trees around them, except for where they came from.
“How did you find this?” she asked and looked at him, but he just smiled and walked around. She looked at him as he walked.
“You have been here before,” she then said.
“You are also clever. Not that I doubted that,” he said with a laugh.
As he walked around, he collected firewood and she just stood and looked at him.

When he got enough firewood, he sat down in the middle of the open space and started to make a bonfire. She still didn’t do anything.
He lit the firewood with a tinderbox and soon the orange flames surrounded the firewood. Slowly Jada walked to the middle, and sat down in front of the bonfire.

As they sat around the bonfire, they were both quiet. They didn’t know what to say.
Jada just looked at the bonfire, and sometimes she quickly looked at Michael. His blond hair looked like gold in the last light from the descending sun. His blue eyes looked like the sky on a cloudless day in the spring.

“Do you know where to look after the prince?” she asked after being quiet long enough.
“I have a clue. Some have seen the prince a few day trips away from here. I don’t know what he’s doing there, but we may found out, when we see him,” Michael answered.
“But what if he’s not there, when we arrive?” she asked.
“Then we’ll find him. I’ve been told, that he has a habit of being drunk, and then it’s easy enough to keep him where he is,” he said with a smile. She nodded and looked at the orange flames again.

Michael stood up and went to a tree, where he sat down. He took the hood on again and said good night. Then he closed his eyes, and really looked like he was sleeping.
From her backpack, she found a blanket and laid it around herself. The bonfire warmed her, although it wasn’t cold. It was still summer, almost June, so she couldn’t complain about that. She took an apple from the backpack and ate it, while she sat in her own thoughts.

“What are you doing? You are on a trip, with someone you don’t know. You don’t know where you are going. What if it’s a trap? Charles just wanted you out from the castle. You know that,” the voices began, and she sighed. She would get a really long night.

She lay at the ground, with the backpack as a pillow. She wasn’t a sleep, but she wasn’t able to open her eyes and get up from the black hole.
She was blind, but she could hear. She heard some children laugh, some women talk about the weather and then she started to walk. She walked slowly, because she couldn’t see.
Then she heard a scream. She stopped and tried to hear where it came from. The scream went louder and louder until she finally could hear who it was.
“Sidni!” she yelled and tried again to her where it came from. But it didn’t come from one direction. It came from everywhere. Sidni’s scream was now the only thing she could hear. She started to run, but she didn’t come closer or farther the scream.
“SIDNI!” she yelled again, but this time higher.
“Jada!” Sidni screamed, and then everything was quiet. Sidni didn’t scream anymore.

“Sidni!” Jada screamed, but this time awake. She opened her eyes and found out she was sitting instead of laying on the ground. She sweated, and her heart was beating fast.
“Nightmare?” Michael asked, and she looked quickly at him. She didn’t answer him, but lay down again and looked at the embers, where the bonfire was.
Almost every night was like that, and in the daytimes the voices talked to her. Although she tried to make them shut up, but stopped after Michael had looked at her, like she was insane. She wouldn’t tell him about the black hole or her sister, or anything. They mostly walked in silence. Once they made it to a tavern, but the other days they slept at the ground.

On the fifth day, they arrived to the town, where the prince maybe were. Jada really hoped he was there, because she was tired of walking, and she just wanted to get home.
They walked to the tavern, but stopped in the doorway.
In the tavern a man stood at a table, he was dancing and yelling.
Jada looked at the drunken man, and she had no doubt about whom that man was.

The sun was high on the sky and gave warm to everything underneath it. A little group with ten or twelve men walked along the road. They were wearing their amour, because they couldn’t have in their bags. It was warm and everyone hoped for a break to relax and get some food. They had walked since the morning, and the warm made them tired.

“Commandant Jada?” one said and looked forward, where she walked.
“Yes, Romeo?” she asked, and looked over her shoulder to look at him.

“We need a break. We are all hungry…” he said and looked at the ground. Jada knew that, Romeo was brave, when he asked about that. They knew, that she maybe would laugh at them, because she was strict, but fair.
She looked at them. They looked tired, and she knew they were hungry.
“Okay. Fifteen minutes… we have to get to the nearest town, if you don’t want to sleep under the stars,” she said and everyone smiled thankfully to her. Normally she wouldn’t let them stop just like that, but she knew they needed it, and the trip home was still long.

Everyone sat in the side of the road and took food from their bags. The keeper of the tavern had given them the food, before they left.

Aro and Daran sat beside Jada.
”It was really nice of you,” Aro said with a smile.
“I know. But I knew you guys needed it, and there’s a long walk before we’re home,” she said with a smile.

The voices in her head hadn’t been so loud, when they walked, and she thought it was because, she had to concentrate about finding the right road.

“I knew you could be kind, when you want to,” Daran said with a teasing smile. She hit him, not hard, with a smile on her face and lay down in the grass with closed eyes.

Actually everyone was thankfully about having Jada as commandant. In the beginning they didn’t like the fact that she was a woman, because women stayed home and cooked food for the men. After a few days, they started to learn everything about her, and they learned that she was really funny and smiling, when she wanted to. Even though she trained them hard, she also knew when to relax. They loved their commandant, and she was also a really beautiful woman.
Her long, red hair was always flat on her back, the beautiful green eyes which could kill a man, if she was really mad, her body’s sexy curves and the mouth, which could make everyone kiss her feet if she wanted to. They all feared her anger, and that’s why they also did what she told them to, the first time she said it. 
Almost every man in the division had been in love with her, but she didn’t want any of them. No one knew why, and they knew she didn’t have a boyfriend or was married, but they had not enough courage to ask her about her private life.

“In a few hours we arrive to a little town. You have all been there before, so we can hope, that there’s room for us at the inn,” Jada said, and looked shortly at her tired men. After their break earlier, they had walked without any breaks. They all knew where they were, and they knew that there was an inn, where they could get a warm bath and a bed. That thought made them walk, even though the sky went darker, and they didn’t stop to see the sunset. They wanted to get to the inn, before the sky went black.

When they finally arrived, the sky was almost black, and a few stars blinked down at them.

Tired, they all walked to the inn and greeted at the owner. He knew them, so he quickly found a few rooms for them, and asked some of the waitressesto warm some water to baths for them.

It only took a few hours, before they all had gotten a bath and some food, and now they all were ready to go to sleep.
“We’ll go in the morning, so sleep now. You have a long day tomorrow,” Jada said to the men, and looked at a map to find the shortest way home.

They all said goodnight and went to their room, except for Jada. She stayed up. The voices in her head screamed to her, so she wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. Instead she studied the map on the table. It was a map of the whole kingdom. It could show them how to come home fast. Every one of them wanted to come back to their families.
According to the map, they weren’t that far away from home. If they were lucky, they could be home in few days.
She lit a candlelight, when it turned dark in the inn. The keeper had allowed her to sit there, even though he had closed the inn for the night.

The candlelight made a calm, yellow light on the old map. Every thing, which was not in its beam, was laid in shadow.

Jada was tired, but the voices wouldn’t shut up, and she didn’t want to scream at them. That would be too weird, she thought.

After a while, listening to the voices, she blew the candle out. Slowly she got up from the chair. Her muscles were stiff of sitting on that chair so long, so it was slowly she walked to the stairs. She had a headache and she was tired of the voices. But they have been in her head as long as she remembered, so what should she do? Talk to someone, who knew something about it, like Daran said? She shook her head. She didn’t think anybody would understand it, and she wouldn’t look like a complete idiot.

She walked up the stairs, and went to the room, the keeper had showed her.

It was a tiny room, with only a bed, a table and a chair.

“When you come home, everyone will go home to their families, and you will be all alone again,” one of the voices said.

“You killed your own sister. If you had walked faster, she would be alive now, but instead you fell. You can’t do anything right,” the other voice said.
“It wasn’t my fault,” she mumbled.
“Yes it was. Everything is your fault,” they said, and she thought she heard them laugh at her.   

  She walked to the bed, sat at the bedside. She was too tired to take off all of her clothes, so she only took her boots of.

She rolled herself into the blanket and fell asleep, almost immediately.

But she wasn’t allowed to sleep. When the voices finally stopped talking, and she thought she finally could sleep, she fell in the black hole, where she could hear her family’s voices, and couldn’t feel anything but guilt, and she couldn’t wake up.

The only thing she could do, was listening to all what they were saying. She listened to their voices, and felt like it all really was her fault. She felt, it was her fault, that her mom died and her father died. But most of all, she really felt it was her fault, that Sidni died. If she had not went with the soldier to the castle back then, she would have been home with Sidni, she would have gone with Sidni to the mountains, and she would be home with Sidni now. But instead of that, she left her sister when she needed a sister.

The sun shone through the window and warmed Jada’s face. The sunbeams annoyed her and woke her up.
She sat up in bed, and looked around in the little room. At first she thought she was back at the tavern, after the battle, but soon she knew where she was.
With a sigh she got up from the bed, and took her boots on. She straightened her clothes, so she looked okay. Then she walked downstairs.

Everyone else was up already, and she heard them talk before she saw them.

“Jada!” one said, when she came downstairs. She looked around, and saw her men around a big table.

The tabled was loaded with food.

“Jada, we saved some food for you,” Luke said, and made a space for her. Luke was the one, who had called her name.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” she asked and looked at them.

“Daran told us not to. He thought you should sleep,” Aro said, and ate some more food. She smiled thankfully to Daran. He was really sweet to her.
She got a plate from the table, and took some food.

“Who gave you all of this food?” she asked with wonder in her voice. She didn’t remember telling the keeper to give them all of this.
“Luke knew who the chef was,” Aro said with a smile and food in his mouth. She shook her head with a smile.
“You are immutable,” she said, and they laughed.

The atmosphere at the table was lofty, because all knew that they weren’t that far away from home. Some of them would leave the group before they were at the castle, because they lived in a town outside the castle.

Everyone was tired of walking, and it was not only Jada, who had lost someone under the battle. Some of the guys lost their brother, cousin, uncle or maybe their dad. It was hard, and they all wanted to go home. Jada understood that, and told them, they could come back when they were ready.

She got up from the bench and looked at the men.
“I just need you to know, that I’m really proud of you. All of you,” she said with a smile.

“You were all really brave. Thank you,” she continued.

She was really proud of them. They had trained in months before the battle. They had done what she asked for, without complaining. And they had fought without any fear.

She couldn’t say how proud she was. It couldn’t be said with words.

They raised their glasses with beer and said: “Jada!” in chorus. She tried to say it all was their profits, but they wouldn’t listen. They just laughed, and said they wouldn’t have done it without her.

Jada had a special bond to the guys in her division. They were all equal, and she didn’t do anything, without asking them. They were a family.

After the breakfast, they all packed their things so they were ready to go. The Innkeeper gave them some food, and they left the inn when the sun was high on the sky.

The sky was blue and there were a few clouds on the sky. There was no wind, and it was a warm day.

Jada took the map from her bag and looked at the road she had drawn. It was the fastest way home.
She started to walk, and she could hear that they all followed her.

The two voices in her head started to talk to her again, and told her how weak she was, and how everything was her fault. She took a deep breath. It would be a long trip, if they would yell like that all the time.

Daran walked to her, so he could walk beside her.
“Thank you for letting me sleep,” she said and looked at him. The sun made his dark hair shine, like it was full of diamonds.

“You needed it. The keeper told me, that you were awake most of the night,” he said with worry in his voice.
She nodded. She couldn’t hide anything from Daran, so she didn’t even try to deny it. He only did it because he was worried, and she liked that he cared so much about her.

Daran was the only one, who really knew who Jada was. She told him everything, and she didn’t have secrets, which he didn’t know anything about.

They walked in silence, but they didn’t have to talk.

When they arrived to the next town, they said goodbye to Charles, Romeo and Peter. They slept at the inn. The next day, they walked again, and came nearer and nearer to the castle.
When they arrived to a town at the second day, they could see one of the towers at the castle, if they looked to the west. They said goodbye to some more of the guys, including Aro. Jada gave him a hug before he left, and he promised that he would come back.
At the inn that night, there was only four of the group back, and Jada. She knew that they lived in the town by the castle.  

They sat in a corner, drank beer and talked. Jada didn’t care if they were drunk; they just had to be ready to go in the morning.

She never got drunk, because she has to be a good example for they guys in her division. She was proud of her guys that didn’t drink before the battle, like a lot of the others guys did. They haven’t been afraid.

She got up from the chair, and said goodbye to the men. She felt the beer in her veins and she just wanted to go to bed. It tinkled in her body in a good way, and for the first time in days, she didn’t hear the voices. It was a release finally to go to bed, without dealing with the voices.
When she found the room, she didn’t notice what was in the room, she just found the bed. Quickly she took her boots and her clothes off, and lay down in the bed. She took the blanket around herself, and fell in sleep, almost immediately. This time she didn’t fall into a black hole, she just slept.

“Promise me, you will come back soon,” she said, and hugged Daran.
“I promise you, I will be back soon,” he said with a smile, and laid his arms around her.

They had walked since noon that day. It was later that she had thought, but they had been tired, and they were close to the castle.

Now, when the stars blinked down at them, she felt like it was only those two in the world. She wouldn’t let him go, even though she knew he needed to. But she also knew that if she asked him to stay, he would do it.
After a while, they said goodbye and Jada looked after him, until she couldn’t see him anymore. Then she walked through the ports to the courtyard, where she had a little house.    

A woman ran through all the dead and living people. She had taken her amour of, so she could run faster. Her whole body was screaming of pain, but she didn’t notice it. She had heard a scream. Everyone had screamed, but she knew this scream.
She stopped, when she saw a body on the ground. There were a lot of bodies next to her, but this body was familiar.

The girl wasn’t dead. The woman slapped her gently on the cheeks, but nothing happened. Her breast raised and lowered, so she was alive.
“Sidni!”
Once again she slapped the girl gently on the cheeks. And this time she opened her eyes weakly.
“Sidni! It’s me.. Jada..” The girl just looked back at the woman.
“Jada.. I’m so sorry..” she final said, and closed her eyes again.
With her last powers, Jada took Sidni in her arms, and started to walk. She had to stop a bit, because she had a headache and she couldn’t focus on anything. First, when she got everything under control, she started to walk again.
She lost her focus all the time, but she wouldn’t stop. She had to get to the church, where Sidni, her beloved sister, would be safe.

Everything was blurred, and it got harder and harder to breath. But she wouldn’t stop. She had to get to the church.

She heard someone call her name, but she wouldn’t stop. She just kept walking.
Suddenly everything just got smoggy. The church was not far away but she couldn’t walk anymore. Everything turned black, and she felt like she was in a black hole, and kept falling.

She heard voices she hadn’t heard in years. It was like she was back in time. Everything was just black, she couldn’t see.
She felt like she had to throw everything up, and she really thought she did it.

“I told you, she would wake up.”
“Yeah, you did, but it took a long time.”

“Shut up,” she mumbled. Usually the voices in her head didn’t shut up, when she told them to. But these two voices did, and that got her to open her eyes weakly.

In the start everything was foggy, and she couldn’t focus on anything. But after at while everything started to get their own shape back, and she saw to people standing besides her bed. She knew who that was.
“Aro and Daran,” she didn’t say it out loud, but they must’ve heard her, because they were smiling to her.

She closed her eyes again. She didn’t know where she was, but she felt like she was safe.

“Jada…” she unrecognized it as Aros voice. He sounded like he was worried, but she didn’t know why.
“I’m still here.. Just leave me alone. Please.” She didn’t look at them when she said it, but she heard that they left her.
Even though she felt safe, she also had a feeling, that something was wrong. Something was missing, but she couldn’t tell what it was.

She fell back in the black hole and heard voices again. But this time, she couldn’t recognize the voices.

Daran came back a few days later. He was worried about Jada. She’d wake up sometimes, but she wouldn’t eat, just sleep and be alone. It wasn’t the Jada he knew.

He gently knocked at her door. No one answered. He knocked again, but still no answer. He opened the door a bit, and saw that she still was in the bed. He came in, closed the door, and just looked at her.

“Jada?” he asked. His voice sounded worried.

“Sidni is dead. The priest told me yesterday.” She didn’t look at him, when she said it. She just looked at the wall.
He sat on the bedside.
“I know,” he said slowly.
Suddenly she sat up, and looked at him.
“Who gave her permission to go with us?! She should be in the mountains with all the other children and women!” Her eyes almost shot lightning at him, and he didn’t doubt, that she was mad.
“We didn’t se her, Jada, neither Marc nor I. If we saw her, we would have sent her with the women… You know that.” He tried to make her believe, what he said, but she was still mad.
“We didn’t know who came in. The King wanted everyone, who wished to help.”
She didn’t answer him, and she just lay back at the pillow.
“How are you?” he asked to switch the subject.

“I have two broken ribs, I cough my lungs up every five minute, and every time I try to sleep, I fall down in a big, black hole, which I can’t get up from. How do you think, I am?” she hissed, and she still didn’t look at him. She just hoped that, he would leave her alone, so she could be alone in her misery. She coughed, and Daran looked at her, but she didn’t care.
It’s was like she said “you don’t understand it. Go away.” But he did understand it.
He knew that Sidni was her only family, and he knew, that she worked hard, so Sidni didn’t need anything.
He knew Sidni. Every time they were in the town, she hugged them all, and wouldn’t let them be alone. Every time she wanted to hear stories from the castle, and wanted to hear what they did.
She must have been thirteen or something, when she died.
He left the room, but before he closed the door, he mumbled “I’m sorry.”
She didn’t answer.  He closed the door and walked away from the room.

A few days later, Jada finally came down. She’d found out, that she was in a tavern close to the valley, where the battle was.

Slowly, Jada walked down the stairs, but something made her stop when she came down. Everywhere, people laughed and talk to each other, like there never had been a war, like they haven’t lost friends and family.

She still had dressing on her chest, and her body still hurt. But she could walk, and she was tired of being in the bed all day.
“Jada! You are here,” she heard someone say, and looked in the direction, where she heard the voice came from. It was Aro, who sat with some friends at a table. She walked to them, and sat down on a free chair.
“We thought, we’d lost our commandant,” he said with a teasingly smile.

“Of course you didn’t. I’m not weak,” she said with a little smile.
But she was weak. She had been in that room for days, even when she actually was able to come down. She wasn’t at her sister’s funeral, and she just slept, when her men needed her.
Jada was commandant in the Kings army. It took her years to get there.
When she was eleven years old, her dad died. Her mother was dead a few years before, so she had to take care of her four year old sister. She couldn’t do that. She wasn’t able to be a mother for at little girl, when she wasn’t even a teenager yet.
A few months later, a soldier came to their city, and Jada got his attention. She didn’t remember how, and when he left he took her with him to the castle. Before that, one of their mother’s old friends took Sidni home to her, and then Jada left. She couldn’t be that mother, which Sidni really needed.

At the castle, she started to help in the stables. The soldier, who took her to the castle, started to train her with a tree-sword. In the beginning, it was his meaning to train her for real. It was only because he was bored, and he thought it was funny to see how good she could be, but Jada was teachable, and soon, she became really good.
When she was sixteen, one of the commandants saw her train with the tree-sword and saw how good she was. He asked the king if he could have her in the army. He agreed, and she was really happy. It was the best time of her life, she thought.
With the army she often came back to the town, where she used to live, when they collected taxes, and every time she spent the day with Sidni. Even though she only was there in one day at the month, they got a really strong bond.

Later the commandant saw that she could lead, and everyone listened to her, because she could become mad easily, and no one wanted that.

When it was time for a new leader, the old commandant assumed that Jada could be a really good leader of the group.
When she became the new commandant, a lot of people didn’t approve it. Normally they didn’t take women in the army, and certainly not an eighteen-year old woman. But they couldn’t do anything. Soon they became really thankful for having Jada as commandant, because she knew how to train them and she was fair.

It was three years since, and the thought about leaving them helped her to get out of the bed. But the thought was still there, and it was like, the voices in her head screamed it all the time.
“Leave them!” the voices screamed.

Jada looked at the people around the table. She knew them all; they were from her division.

 “What about Cedric?” she asked.
“He’s dead. The incantation took the last breath from him. But he got a funeral, which only heroes get. And the sword is still in the ground. We can show you, if you want?” Caden said. She nodded.

The tears rolled down her cheeks. She looked at the sword, Cedric sat in the ground, and everything just came up in her mind; the war, her sisters dead, Cedrics dead. It was so hard to think at, and she couldn’t stop it. She still heard her sister’s “I’m sorry” on and on and on in her head, like it was on repeat.
“Everyone, who died, got a real funeral. They made this valley to at holy place, so everyone could be buried in inaugurated earth, also the enemies,” Caden said, and stood a few steps behind Jada. He knew she was crying, even though he didn’t look at her.

“How many days… was I asleep?” she asked, but didn’t look at him.
“Aro and Daran say three… but you were awake after that. You just didn’t come down,” he said, and took a step closer to her.
So, I was in bed in… seven days? She thought. And they did all this in those seven days. Why wasn’t I here? She asked herself.

Caden and Jada walked back to the tavern in silence. She had nothing to talk about and neither had he.
The sun was high on the sky, and the birds sang to each other. It was a lovely sound. The sky was blue, and a warm breeze came from the west. She walked in her own thoughts, and in a short moment, she was completely gone. Just in her own little world, with the voices in her head.

When they came back to the tavern, the rest of the group stood and waited for them.
“Why are you all standing here?” she asked them.
“Because we have to go back to the castle, we can’t be here forever,” one of them said.
“Okay. You know what? I tell you, what to do and when you have to do it. Remember that?” she asked with the old feeling of being a commandant again. None of them said more, and she walked in the tavern, without even one look at them.

She sat in a chair, near the fireplace. She wasn’t ready to go. Her body was still hurting and she wasn’t ready to go.

The fire warmed her, and she looked at the orange and yellow flames. She stared at the flames, and the only thing she heard was the voices in her head, telling her what to do. For the first time, she didn’t tell them to shut up, but she just listened to what they said. She was too tired to tell them to shut up.

“You are weak.”
“No one wants you, you could be dead, and no one would ever notice,” they said, and she didn’t care. Maybe they were right? But if I had listened to them all my life, I wouldn’t be where I am now, she thought.
“But then you would be home with Sidni,” one of the voices replied with a hissing voice. She didn’t say anything. People would think she was insane, if she talked to a person who wasn’t there, so she just let them talk, and tell her how weak she was.

“Romeo!” she said after a while.

“Yes, Jada?” he said, after he came to her near the fireplace.

“What about the king? Do we know what happened with him and his family?” she asked, and looked at him.
“No. We don’t know anything. The guards on the castle may know something. And we haven’t seen the prince. And he didn’t have a wife…” he said, and looked at her with a warily look. Everyone knew that the king didn’t have a wife, and Jada sometimes slept in his champers. She never commented on that, and no one asked.

“We’ll go home tomorrow,” she said, and waved him away with her hand.

She stared at the flames, and didn’t notice, that the stars blinked on the dark sky, and she didn’t notice, that everyone was gone to bed, before the keeper of the tavern came to her.
“I’m closing now,” he said, and began to extinguish the fire in the fireplace. She nodded, and went upstairs to her bed.

The sun came up in east and coloured everything around it in golden colours. The sky was pink in the start, but as soon as the sun came up, everything was a beautiful golden colour. It was so beautiful.

“Why are you up this early?” someone said, and she knew who it was, so she didn’t turn around to look at him. She stood up against the wall, and looked at the sky.
“Why are you here?” she asked, and looked back at Daran. She saw, that he didn’t have a shirt on, only his pants and shoes. But she had seen this often. She lived between guys, so it didn’t bother her.

Daran sent her a wry smile, and went closer to her.

“I couldn’t sleep. They were too loud,” she said, and looked at the sky again. Daran was like a brother to her, and he knew when she said “they” she meant the voices in her head.

“You should really talk to someone about the voices…” he said, and putted his arms around her. She felt his warm body close to hers, and she laid her head on his shoulder.
“I don’t have time,” she said, and closed her eyes. He didn’t say anything, because he knew that words wouldn’t matter. If she didn’t want to, no one could make her do it. Not even him.

“I heard you walk down. I went to your room, and all your stuff was gone. I thought you were already gone,” he said and looked at her.
“I wouldn’t go without you. You know that…” she said. Daran meant something special to her. He was the brother she didn’t have, the one she always went to when she needed help or a good advice.

The rising sun played with her red hair, and made it golden. It had a lot of golden and red colours, and it was really beautiful. Her green eyes were still closed, and she felt like she was home again. She felt safe in Darans arms, like a little girl feel safe, when she’s home with her family. She thought about her mom, who died when she was eight or nine, and her dad who died a few years after the mom. And of course she thought about Sidni.

A cry rose up through her body, when she thought about Sidni, and the tears just started to trill down her cheeks, when she cried. She couldn’t stop it, and she cried in Darans arms. He held her tight, and didn’t say anything. He didn’t tell her, that everything would be alright, because he knew, it wouldn’t help.

He just hold her close to himself, so she wouldn’t doubt, that he was there, if she needed him. Her whole body shook and she couldn’t stop crying. Everything was suddenly hard, and she missed her sister more than everything else.

After a while, she stopped crying. There were no more tears in her eyes, so she couldn’t cry. Her chest was hurting of crying and her ribs hurt too. She took the bandages off before she went outside, so there was nothing to support the ribs.

“Thank you,” she said to Daran who send her a little smile to cheer her up. Maybe he didn’t know how she felt, he had never lost anyone, he only got his mother, who was with all the other women in the mountains, but when he saw Jada cry, he felt something inside. Like it was his loss and he felt sad. He didn’t know why, and he had never felt like that before.

“It’s okay,” he said, and dried a tear from her cheek away with his finger.

“We’ll go in a few hours, when everyone is ready, so pack your things,” she said with a little smile and went inside the tavern to get some breakfast.

So far the eye could see were men, boys and even some women, in long rows.

Most of the fertile valley was almost filled with soldiers in amours. Every time they moved, you could hear the amour tinkle.

They had waited for this in moths. All the women, except for those who was in the army, and children was escorted to a village near the mountains, were they were safe.
In the horizon, a dark shadow was coming closer. Later, they realised, that was their enemy, with thousands of men.

Now it was time for the final battle for the kingdom.
In moths the king had recruited every man who could hold a sword and everyone who would fight for him.

The king was arrived to the valley with hundreds of men, wizards, archers and warriors, who should help them to win.

They had been training in months, in all weather no matter what. The training had been hard, but everyone was keen to win this battle.
The sky was cloudless and blue, and a warm July-breeze flew over them. Most of the people said prayers in their minds. Some had even been drinking before the battle, so they wouldn’t be afraid of the death.

“Are you ready?!” it was the king, who sat on his white horse, and looked at his men. They were nothing compared to the enemy, but they had to win.

Most of the men mumbled a “yes” but soon it was a battle-scream, which everyone screamed on.

Behind all the men, the wizards stood. They were mumbling in languages no one had heard in ages,

Difficult words and sentences, which no one else would understand. Some incantations were so difficult, that they would forget them after they’d used them.

The enemy came closer, close enough so they could se a smile on their leader’s mouth. He said something to someone, and the battle began.
Brother and family fought side by side. It was obvious, that the enemy had most men, and a wizard called Cedric, saw that too.
He couldn’t see the king anywhere, and he took his decision. He knew this was his chance. His chance to show, that he was a great wizard.
He ran through all the people, took a sword from a dead man, and ran into a big group of fighting men.
They didn’t notice him, and he appeared for all the swords, which came against him. He stopped when he was in the middle of all the men. He started to mumble some old words, but soon he screamed them out loud.

Some of the enemy’s men saw him, and struck out at him, but in the moment they did that, Cedric hammered the sword in the ground, screamed the words a last time, and a big, blue flash enlightened the whole valley, and killed everyone who did not have a pure heart.
Cedric died too, but not because his heart wasn’t pure. It was. But that incantation he used, took the last breath from him. He knew that, but he couldn’t see a last option.

He died for the king he loved.