Estevan
Despair coursed through my veins as I tried to clear the way, shouting was no use, my orders were nothing in the face of the hatred the nobles felt, the chaos of the situation as my chest pounded I saw only a glimpse as Alexia fell to the floor the furious roar of a dragon echoed far away and in just two seconds the glass of the great window shattered at once, the furious roar of the dragon and fathoms that licked half the hall bordering the nobles, making them run.
Without worrying about a thing, I threw myself on Alexia on the floor and my breathing failed, my heart threatened to stop as I gave her face a light tap asking her to wake up, everything else became distant, I couldn't hear anything or anyone.
But Alexia was still breathing, still alive.
I carefully lifted her off the ground and looked at the hall, at the nobles, at her dragon who was still raging outside.
"Why did you do that, ham?" I shouted angrily at them, feeling my blood boil. Mariah was the only one who had tried to save her. Now I was in the corner holding her arm with a strange strength, it seemed limp. "Why wasn't she born with status like you? Do you think you're worthy of the ground you're standing on? You filth!" Silence hung in the hall as I looked into each of their faces with a silent promise: "Hope she survives or you'll all be dead before the sun rises again!"
I walked outside and Mariah followed right behind me.
"What happened?" I asked.
"It was nothing," she said, "Alexia."
It was strange to see Mariah mention Alexia's real name.
"She's breathing" I said and she nodded "Go to the hospital wing"
Mariah didn't say anything, she was too quiet and seemed to be holding back because of the pain. I looked around the hall for a moment and spoke:
"Guards, close all the doors and don't let a single man out until further notice!" I spoke and waited until the doors were closed.
With my chest tight, running with Alexia through the corridors, Lorenzo appeared in the hallway, he looked astonished at the situation.
"Estevan, what's going on?"
"See Mariah, I think she's broken her arm," I said to him, who nodded and ran away.
After getting Alexia onto a bed, the doctor led me out.
"Let us take care of her!" He said.
I stood outside waiting impatiently, then approached the corridor window.
The night was serene and there wasn't a single star in the sky, it was cloudy and cold, indicating that the rain would soon come.
Lorenzo stopped beside me and handed me a cigar, I put it to my lips, my hands were still shaking.
"So?"
"Mariah is already inside, her arm has been bandaged, I came to see you"
"I'm fine, I don't know if she'll stay"
"You know she's strong"
Stronger than Lorenzo knew, but than the nobles knew, only I had seen her fight and taken part in her battles, but Alexia had undoubtedly been fighting since the day she was born, just because of her position.
I knew from her will to live that she wasn't going to leave me now. But the bruises on her body, seeing her unconscious on the floor, that had made my blood pressure rise and now my whole body was still shaking with nerves.
"The nobles"
"Your father released them"
I let out a sarcastic laugh, it was tiring fighting my own father.
"I thought he'd do that," I said, looking outside. Alexia's dragon was still outside, standing on the window ledge as if it could smell her and like a faithful dog on the alert.
"Sometimes I feel like giving it all up, Lorenzo," I said, bringing out my cigar again, my trembling hands no longer bothering me so much, "I'm fed up not with the world, but with my world. The people around me and my own parents, I feel like I'm a piece on a board, always at the mercy of my father's orders, my mother's reprimands, the nobles we have to listen to every day and put up with, I'm sick of feeling hypocritical and thinking I can't do anything, when my own wife is on the verge of death because I'm incapable of protecting her."
"Don't blame yourself Estevan, anyone can see that you would give your life for her, but things are beyond our power, even if you are a prince" He puffed on his cigar and blew the smoke upwards "I was looking after the exercise when Mariah was in the mess, now she's broken her arm. How do you think I feel? Even so, I can't be by her side twenty-four hours a day, I have my obligations and in the meantime, in the life we live with the women we have, we can't blame ourselves if something happens in our absence. I'd give my life for Mariah too, yet on these trips she's been through dangerous things and cruel people, I've acted as best I could, but I share the same feeling of helplessness when something happens"
"I'm afraid, Lorenzo... that Alexia will never wake up" I said in the form of an outburst, it was so stuck in my throat that the words seemed to come out scratching.
Footsteps in the hallway made me turn around, it was my mother, Lorenzo threw his cigar out of the window and bowing briefly to my mother, he went out into the hallway leaving the two of us alone.
"How is she?"
"Unconscious, bleeding, broken"
"She'll wake up again"
"Maybe not, I saw men falling on top of her, mother, if the chest box was compromised or if there was a blow to the head, I don't know what made her faint, but she's not well and may not wake up anymore" I threw the rest of the cigar out of the window "If she dies there will be a bloodbath in this castle!"
"Don't you think you're being too radical?"
I looked at my mother angrily.
"Listen to me Estevan, you have to be rational or you'll divide the kingdom or even turn it into ruins. I understand that you like Alexia, but I'm afraid of how far that feeling can take you because when it comes to her you seem to forget everything else, but everything else can lead to my death and your father's too or destroy what generations have lived and died to maintain, the ground you walk on, the clothes you wear, the power you have to change the lives of thousands of people" She said, as always my mother was intelligent, with an aristocratic spirit "I'm saying these things because I don't know what I'm talking about or do you think I've never wanted to hang those nobles with my bare hands? Don't you think I've ever had to swallow insults? If I could, I'd tell you to kill them all, none of them would do me any good, but that's not even your father's job, without the support of the nobles and their lands, who are we? What we have is a crown and we need to keep it on our heads"
"At what cost? At the cost of my soul?"
"If your soul is in the people you won't lose it, so let it be at any cost, because that's what will make the difference in the end, aren't you thinking of changing the world? Your father is in favor of peace, but you're like your grandfather and are always inciting war. It's been years since Olimper swam in ruins, so Estevan, don't destroy what we've built".