Lucille’s eyes glistened with tears. "You promise?"
"I promise!"
She burst out crying. "But I lied to you. We lied to you. We’re not good people."
Byron imdiately pulled away from her, his mind in a frenzy. What could they have lied about that made Lucille think they were bad people? Were they the ones who had shot Keza? Or maybe they were not the ones who did it, but perhaps they knew where she was? Or maybe they had saved him but left her to die because there was nothing to gain from saving her? There was only one way to find out.
"What do you an?" he asked.
It was as if this question was a dagger stabbed through her heart. She cried. No. Not cried. She wailed.
"I should have been truthful with you from the beginning. I should have... I was... I was afraid you would hate us. That you would leave us if you knew so I... "
Byron cut her off.
"If I knew what?"
He was starting to get irritated.
"Please promise you won’t abandon us if I tell you."
"Just tell , dammit!" he snapped.
This made things even worse. Lucille recoiled away from him. She continued wailing, pulling at her silver hair, slapping herself. It was like she had gone mad. What atrocity could she have committed that had her behaving like this? This is not the nymph Byron t yesterday. Not even the nymph he had just had sex with a few hours ago. Heck, not even the one who was bathing him a few minutes ago. She had completely changed. He was starting to get scared of what she was about to reveal.
When the dryads realized what was going on, they stopped playing around and assud a cold deanor. Or rather, a worried one.
What had they done that made them look this guilty? No. What had Lucille made them do? After all, she called the shots. Whatever they did, they did so on her orders.
Byron attempted to ask them but they kept quiet. Lucille wailed for like a minute, then she hugged Byron and clung to him like a madwoman, or rather, like a toddler that’s afraid its mother would leave it.
Byron let her do as she pleased. However, when she kept telling him to promise he won’t abandon them again and again, he wriggled out of her grip and grabbed her by the jaw and scread at her.
"Tell what you did. Tell right now or I swear to God I will abandon you this instant. I can look for information sowhere else. I’m pretty certain any of these dryads will be happy to tell if I promise to take her with ."
Lucille didn’t take this threat idly. She could see that Byron ant what he was saying. And she knew any of her dryads would be happy to tell him.
She pulled away from him, wiped her tears away with the back of her hands and stopped wailing. She was trying to regain so dignity. After a while, she composed herself. She t Byron’s gaze with the level of determination only a pure nymph could have and said, "The succubus is alive."
Byron didn’t know whether to rage or celebrate. He chose celebration. Yes. Lucille had lied to him, made him think otherwise. He ought to scream at her in fury. Even a slap across her cheek would be justified. She deserved a couple across every cheek for having subjected him to such a cruel thing. But the joy the knowledge of Keza being alive filled his heart with was greater than the rage he felt about being lied to.
Now the question was, "Where’s she?"
Had they tied her up sowhere in the forest? Like, had they imprisoned her in a tree sowhere? He had seen how they commanded trees to bend to their will, twisting them in shapes both known and unknown to man.
An image of an injured Keza, trapped inside twisted branches of a huge tree filled his mind.
"Where’s she?" he snapped at Lucille once again.
Lucille shrunk from him, visibly frightened. "At the castle. She’s at the castle."
Now Byron was confused. "The castle?"
"Yes. The Amazons built a castle right outside the forest. Every now and then they send out expeditions to look for you."
This birthed more questions than it answered.
"The Amazons have been looking for ?"
Lucille lowered her head, ashad.
"Then... Then why..." He was lost for words.
Lucille hastened to explain.
"They ca here looking for you minutes after you fell. We had already taken you, and we were in the process of looking for the succubus. They reached her before we did and took her with them. We hid you."
"Why?"
Every ti she tried to explain, Byron got more and more confused. How could the Amazons have reached the forest minutes after he and Keza fell into it? This didn’t make any sense.
"At first we were afraid they ant ill for you. Then we realized they cared about the succubus, and they were genuinely worried about her. And you. They were looking for you like one would do a loved one. I sent one of my dryads to spy on them. She ca back and said they were your friends, that they ant no ill for you. The one nad Alcippe was..."
"Alcippe?" interrupted Byron, unable to believe his ears. Now it was starting to make sense. Alcippe and the other Amazons from Penthesilea’s city might have been journeying to Hypolyta’s city to demand Byron back and that’s why they were near the forest when he and Keza fell.
Another thought struck him. Could they have been the ones who shot Keza? He asked Lucille. She confird it.
"That’s what I was about to say. The one nad Alcippe was the one who shot the succubus. She kept apologizing, saying she only ant to shoot the wings."
"Wasn’t it the wings she shot?" Byron tried to rember what went on that day.
He rembered Keza’s wing flapping awkwardly as the arrow lodged into its mbrane, her sharp, pained voice as she hissed at him to pull it out and his failed attempt to do so. If the arrow had been only through the soft mbrane of her wing, it would have been easy for him to pull or push it out. The way it was difficult for him to pull out could only an one thing. The arrow must have gone through the wing, then into her body.
The thought alone made him feel pain in his side as if he was the one it had struck.
Now it made sense why Alcippe had been apologizing to Keza. She only ant to hit the wings. She ant to bring her down, not to kill or wound her seriously. They had beef, but not to the extent where they would wish death upon each other.
"Is she okay?"
Keza could heal faster than a human being, almost instantly if the arrow was removed. She would only need to transform into her human form. But Byron didn’t know what would happen if the arrow had gone through her heart or so other vital organ where pulling it out could an death.
"Yeah! She’s okay. In fact, only a few minutes after Alcippe pulled the arrow out of her armpit she was flying over the forest looking for you. The dryads had to remain in their tree forms to hide you and and avoid detection."
"Why didn’t you let her find ? You knew she was a friend."
This question threatened to make Lucille wail again, but this ti she stayed strong. "I’m so sorry. We... I believed we could heal you better than them. I was afraid you would die if they took you."
This was perhaps true, but Byron wasn’t satisfied. "You could have still healed . All you had to do was inform them that I was alive. You could have worked together."
"I don’t think Lalisha would have sacrificed herself if she knew the Amazons would take you as soon as you recovered."
This, also, was perhaps true.
But still, Lucille had lied to him. She had tried to convince him that the Amazons wanted him dead. She had hid from him the fact that they had instead built a castle a few miles away from here so they could look for him. He didn’t know if he could forgive her that easily.
"When did they stop looking for ?"
"That’s the thing. They never stopped. I thought they would think the monsters in the lake ate you, or the flying ones. I thought they would give up and leave this area and never return."
"You never planned to ever tell them?"
"Why would I?"
Byron didn’t even know whether to laugh or rage.
He got out of the hot springs and started walking back to where his clothes were.
"Where are you going?" ca Lucille’s voice.
"Off this island and away from you."
Author’s Note: Hello, old and new readers. I’m so sorry for my inconsistent updates, especially to Chris_Reyes_3054. You asked personally about when I would be updating and I gave you a day, only to break this promise. I made plans and sothing ca up. I’m truly sorry. This June is gonna be different. You will see. I hope y’all are doing great. Thank you!
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