Chapter 5

Major Courtin and I had been talking for several hours when Colter and a soldier I'd never seen before came with supper. Colter looked first at me, then at the major before putting the food in front of me. Porridge. Again. I let out a heavy sigh and glared at the food with disgust.

"Is everything going well, Sir?" Colter sounded even more serious than usual.

Courtin had stood up the moment the two men walked into the room and nodded as he arranged his papers.

"Miss Iunius has been a very helpful Lieutenant, but I insist that we get some proper chairs in here."

The expression on Colter's face was so flabbergasted that I barely could contain my laughter. Didier was the higher ranking officer, and Colter had to quietly obey his orders, even though it was his prison. And before Colter could even protest, Didier continued.

"And Lieutenant, I really must object against this inhuman treatment of Miss Iunius. Enemy or not, spending all your days on a dirty, cold floor is not acceptable. Something has to be done about this."

When Courtin finished speaking, Colter was beet red in the face, and he was trembling with anger. I stared at him in fascination. This was the first time I'd seen him upset and what I saw on his face made me suspect that you probably would do best in avoiding a fight with Colter. Courtin, on the other hand, looked at him calmly with the same polite expression he always seemed to have.

"Inhuman treatment! Apologise, Sir, but I think you must have misunderstood what we are doing here. This is a prisoner, not a bloody guest. Do you have any idea what she's done, what she's capable of? "Colter didn't shout, but he wasn't far from it.

"I know very well who Miss Iunius is, Lieutenant Dale. I have spent a large part of my life researching her."

Both Colter and I stared surprised at Courtin. Had he researched me? Had I somehow gone and become a research object? I felt oddly proud of myself.

"Iunius wasn't put in this cell as a prisoner, but to be kept safe from anyone who wanted to harm her, and from herself. Surely, you have to agree that one hundred and thirty years is a long time and Iunius is hardly the monster she once was, "Courtin's voice was harsh and determined.

There was a tense silence in the cell, and I looked at the two men with an amused grin. I enjoyed the show in front of me. Didier stood quietly with his arms crossed over his chest while Colter was clearly pissed. I saw that he was trying to stay calm, but he could barely cope, and he was shaking with anger.

Next to him stood the new soldier, the one that would take over after Javed. His serious face showed no emotion what so ever. He was a perfect example of a professional soldier, but young, not many years over the age of twenty. He was from Lo or Tolli, two kingdoms occupied by the Fae, north of Tempest. I saw that on the stunning, swirl tattoo on the right half of the beardless face. The Highlanders were a fierce kind, and this was the first time I saw one in the Empire's army.

The young man had the typical characteristics of a Highlander, the light skin, with freckles on his nose. He had intense green eyes that reminded of moss and thick braided red-blond hair, but both sides of his head were shaved and tattooed.

While I was examining the young soldier, Colter managed to calm himself. And he looked pretty annoyed when he noticed my interest in the soldier, who was almost half his age. It made me want to cheer with joy.

"We can continue this later Major. But now, I need to talk to the General."

"Iunius," Courtin interrupted. "She wants to be called Iunius."

Colter clenched his jaw and frustration shone from his eyes. Didier finally realised that he had probably gone too far and very quickly he said goodbye and left the cell. I grinned, couldn't help it. As soon as the older man had left us, Colter changed, he became calmer and more his usual self.

"Iunius?" Colter's light eyebrows were raised in surprise.

He had never called me that, always General.

"That's my name," I replied and said nothing more.

Colter looked at me intently, nodded to himself, and then turned to the young soldier who hadn't moved since he entered the cell.

"This is Private Rian Agnew. He will share shifts with Ansel in the coming weeks."

I smiled at the Highlander, my most charming smile, but apart from a glance, he ignored me. I used to be able to make everyone fall for that smile, but that was before I ended up in this cell. When I thought about it, I realised that I hadn't seen myself in a mirror since I took Eliam's soul. Well, I suspected that it was probably a good thing. I used to be very careful about my appearance, and now, after one hundred and thirty years in this cell, I couldn't be anything but horrendously ugly.

The soldier in front of me resembled a statue. You could barely see that he was breathing. The man fascinated me. Well, it was no wonder. I always had a thing for Highlanders.

"I'm going to leave for a while," Colter suddenly said, and my smile disappeared at once.

I looked at him, and I knew that my feelings were too obvious on my face.

"But you just came back."

I heard how disappointed I sounded, but I couldn't help it. I didn't want him to leave again. I needed him with me.

Colter was definitely surprised. He cleared his throat uncomfortably and glanced at Rian, but if the younger soldier noticed anything, he didn't show it.

"Do you remember our conversation yesterday?"

I understood that Colter didn't want Rian to know that he was giving me information, so I just nodded.

"It's become serious. Lieutenant Poraz is in command until I return."

I wanted to know more, but I knew he wouldn't say anything while Rian was there. Colter wanted to say something more, his mouth opened, but as if he regretted it, he closed his mouth and turned around to leave.

"Be careful," I blurted out.

Colter turned around, for the first time, his eyes were filled with something that resembled affection.

My heart was pounding fast in my chest, and I felt weak in the knees. I wanted him, and if the cursed chains hadn't held me, I wouldn't have been able to control myself. But now I was stuck, and Colter didn't come to me.

We just gazed at each other for a while, but when Colter left, it left me almost so weak that I had a hard time standing on my feet. I had been attracted to both men and women before, but never like this. Never this intense.

This time I didn't cry. I lay down on the hard floor, closed my eyes and fell right asleep. That night I dreamed of Colter, of a life outside prison. The details of the dream disappeared from my memory as soon as I woke up. But the feeling of happiness remained. It was amazing. I hadn't felt anything like it in a very long time. There I was in my chains, sitting awake on the cold floor, and I decided that I would leave this cell. I would not end my life as the monster Cadhla, chained like a pitiful animal. I would feel the happiness I've been searching for all my life, if only for a little while. Perhaps Colter wouldn't be in my life when I came out, but I would do anything to find someone who made me feel loved for the first time in my life. That decision was the most important one I ever made, and it made the following month easier to persevere. That and the pleasant Major Didier Courtin. It turned out that Courtin was the friendliest person I ever had the pleasure of getting to know.

Every day the major came to me to talk. At first, we only spoke about the Fae, but eventually, we started talking about other things. With a shy smile, Courtin admitted to me that he only agreed to this job because he could meet me. Courtin may have been a soldier by profession, but he saw himself primarily as a researcher. And I was his speciality. Courtin had been researching me for many years, and I was amazed at how much he knew about me. Everything I'd done as Cadhla he knew about, but I asked him not to talk about it. I didn't want to think about those deeds.

It wasn't any surprise that Courtin knew very little about White, but more about Iunius and that impressed me. It had been so many years ago, and apart from my father and the incident with the three rapists, back then I hadn't made a lot of a fuss. My father, on the other hand, was written about in the historical records and everyone who knew something about magic knew about the Red Circle and its last Grand Master. Courtin knew that I had inherited the entire Red Circle's collective power when my father died, and there was no one else left who could handle it. His interest in my father pleased me. Father had meant so much to me, and his memory was very dear to me. Hence, it made me happy to hear that people still remembered Valerius Atticus Laelius after so many years.

Courtin asked me about my life with the Blue Dragons, but I was pretty secretive about that. I never told him about Dara' dor, that he had chosen me as his female instead of my half-sister Isa'riok. Nor did I say anything about the isolation I experienced and the daughter I left behind. It was my shame to carry, and no one else could learn about Ilia' dor.

I'd spent so many years convincing myself that the only right thing to was to forget both her and Marius. But a few times a decade, something always happened that made me think of them.

The only thing Courtin learned about my life with my mother's clan was how the dragons lived, and that seemed enough. He was captivated and eagerly wrote down everything I told him. Dragons were, after all, his great passion in life.

After a week, Courtin began to talk about himself. Until then, I knew nothing about the major. And when he started telling me about his life, it was me who sat like a small child and listened intently. Courtin's life had been very different from my own, but it just made me even more intrigued. Didier Courtin was born in Thael, the green area south of Colter's Telor. His parents were nobles, so in addition to the rank of major, Courtin could call himself the Count of Artoin, but which he never actually did. By the time he was fifteen, his parents had died when a devastating fire almost destroyed their entire castle. His uncle on his father side had taken on the role of steward of the county. Courtin never wished to inherit either the title or the land. So when Courtin five years later, received the message that his uncle had died, he let his younger brother inherit Artoin. The major was then in Lorean and the King's army, and he had no interest in going back home.

Courtin told me that his interest in dragons had aroused when his mother showed him a necklace that had been in the family for hundreds of years. He showed it to me the next day, and it was a stunningly beautiful necklace. The chain was of thin silver and the jewellery, a medallion as big as a coin, had a beautiful dragon engraved on it. I understood why the young Didier had become enchanted with it. The dragon was incredibly detailed. I had never seen anything like it, and it was as if the artist had seen a dragon with his own eyes.

I smiled when I gave it back to him.

"The dragon looks like my mother, but a lot friendlier," I said, and Courtin laughed with a pleased look on his face.

Courtin also told me about his late wife and daughter who had died in childbirth twenty years earlier. It was that horrible incident that made him leave Lorea and began researching me.

I listened to everything he was willing to tell me, and towards the third week, we made a delightful discovery. We were both equally fond of card games. Bearach and I spent a hundred years trying to be better than the other, at all the card games known through the ages. I hadn't played anything since then, so from then on, every time Courtin came to me, we played while we talked about everything we could think of.

Courtin said that the other soldiers, especially Lieutenant Poraz, began to suspect that we were sleeping with each other. We both had a good laugh at that because there was no attraction between us at all. Sure, Courtin was undoubtedly a handsome man, but I couldn't think of him with any thoughts other than friendly. He reminded me too much of my father. Courtin himself said that I resembled his older sister, who had died in the same fire as his parents. We just let the soldiers continue their gossip like old ladies, and continued to talk about everything between heaven and earth. All while we played cards, and for the first time in years, I was really enjoying myself.