The Dragon Prince's Bride
Chapter 214. Neriah’s letter

Chapter 214: 214. Neriah’s letter

Loud boisterous laughter filled the dark room where the man sat holding the letter that one of his minions had brought him. He knew it, he had known from the beginning that things would go his way.

With his legs crossed high upon the table before him, Lyle tore at a piece of finely grilled meat, chewing and laughing all at once. "How can she be so predictable?" Lyle asked with a loud laugh. "How come she acts just as I was certain she would?" He laughed harder as he read the letter again and again.

"Thaddeus, did I not tell you? Did I not say she would turn to me in the end?" Lyle asked with a mouth shining and covered in grilled meat oil.

"Indeed," said the man named Thaddeus who had delivered the letter received from the butcher. "Your predictions are unbelievably accurate, Your highness."

"Of course they are. I knew those barbarians would not show her any mercy once they lost their prince, especially with all the evidence pointing to her for his death and also the orcs attack. And indeed, according to her letter, they showed her no mercy." He dumped what was left of the meat he was eating on the plate near his legs and picked up a mug of beer.

"I thought they would show her some mercy since she was carrying his child." Thaddeus spoke and his words only made Lyle laugh even more before sipping from his mug.

"After finding out she has had a lover all this while, do you think they would believe the child belonged to their prince? What proof do they have that the child is no bastard?" He asked as though every word he spoke brought him tremendous joy.

"True, you have wisely spoken, your highness."

"According to her letter, she has been confined to her room all this while. But it was actually a facade to make Avelah think they were still treating her right. She says the room was actually her prison. Where they treated her with disdain, reducing her food rations every day, beating her up and treating her wounds at the same time... only to be subjected to more torture"

"The tragonians are truly barbarians." said Thaddeus.

"That they are. I almost feel sorry for my poor Neriah, she had to go through all this. She even lost her child." He clicked his tongue and drank his beer.

"She lost the child!" Thaddeus gasped.

"Aye, she says during one of the times when she was being beaten, an accident had occurred which led to her bleeding. Apparently, they just stood by and watched her bleed until she lost the child."

"How horrible."

"It truly is. I am certain they did that because they believed she was carrying a bastard in her womb. They could care less of the life or death of such a child. I wonder what they would do if they ever realized that the child was actually of dragon blood."

To Lyle her plight was intriguing. To hear about her predicament gave him some form of joy because he knew her facing such torment could only mean that the Tragonian royal family were also in pain.

That fact alone was a source of pleasure that could never be measured.

"She calls them beasts, haha. She says she can never understand how she had fallen for one of their kind. She claims to have been bewitched. Oh, this foolish woman." He laughed again.

"How then was she able to get out of the palace and send this letter to you?" Thaddeus wondered.

"According to her, after learning that Avelah would be going to war with Trago, in order to come save her, they were going to secretly transport her to an unknown place, she says they call it ’A place the sun never shines.’ She was terrified of being sent to such a place, so she planned her escape and as they were transporting her, she executed her plan."

"Intriguing."

"Indeed, she has always been one to make plans on how to escape the fate laid out for her. But unfortunately her plans always backfired. Just as it is going to backfire once again. Because she believes I will take her in, which I will. Only that as soon as I get to lay with her and fulfill my lust, then I will send her to her dead husband."

Lyle’s eyes played on the words written at the end of the letter and a scoff left his lips as he read it in his head, ’Please my love, you are the only one who can save me. It took me this long to realize what you mean to me. Come find me, my love. Come to my rescue as you always have... Your beloved... Neriah.’

"Oh, Neriah. Poor foolish Neriah. You have no idea the kind of trap you are walking into."

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NERIAH’S LETTER.

My beloved Lyle,

I hope you have been of good health since the last time I saw you, I haven’t.

I know you must be utterly shocked to hear from me after how I foolishly treated you the last time we had the privilege to talk, I hope you do not still hold it against me. And if you still do, please let your merciful heart open onto me for I have been paying dearly for ever pushing you aside for the barbarian I once called husband.

Life has been beyond hell for me. Life without you has been one problem to another. I should have realized sooner that I am nothing without you by my side, but I was too immature and foolish to see this.

I want you to know that you were right. After the death of Barak, everyone changed. Even his little brothers now treat me with disdain, they send servants to torment me endlessly, never caring for my condition. They have kept me confined to my room for months all the while pretending to the outside world to treat me kind, when in truth, I have faced the most horrible things inside that room. The beat and torture me without end and when they see I can take no more, they heal my wounds only to begin torture again. My food rations became smaller and smaller until I was receiving just a morsel of bread as food for the whole day.

Oh, Lyle, you know not the tribulations I have been subjected to. Those people are terrible I tell you, they are beasts who just look like you and I. They are the most evil creatures the gods created. They beat me so hard that I began to bleed, and when I reached for them to help me so as not to lose my child, they turned their faces from me and just stood by while I bled out till I lost the child in my womb.

Oh my love, I foolish I was to ever turn away from you, I was truly bewitched. That man must have used some terrible and wicked sorcery on me. How else could I have chosen him over you? They planned to send me away to some place after my people sent message that they were coming to rescue me, to take me back home or fight for me if need be.

A place where the sun never shines, is what they called the place. I could not think of ever surving in such a place so I thought of escaping them. I know it is shameless of me but I also decided to come to you because I love you and only you can save me.

I’ve escaped their clutches for now, I escaped when they were secretly transporting me to that evil place. I cannot come directly to you because I fear they might be following me now and I do not wish to risk your life.

So please my love, meet me at Bampo. They say there is a famous statue of a serpent there in Bampo, I will wait for you there every evening till you come.

’Please my love, you are the only one who can save me. It took me this long to realize what you mean to me. Come find me, my love. Come to my rescue as you always have...

Your beloved

Neriah.