“When we were little, back in the castle days.”

Savaş sat back on his throne-like seat, crossed his legs and put his head on his hand again. He was looking into my eyes but I could tell he was looking through me, like looking at something far away.

I waited silently, my breath normalized and my temper had been the tamest for hours. I had a kingdom I left behind but right now I didn’t know what was going on. Maybe I had already died and all this was a damn trick my mind’s been playing?

But I wanted to know, I wanted to listen to everything Savaş had to say with his dark stare. It had been years since I last saw him but his manner of speech, his emotionless gaze.. He hadn’t changed a bit from what I remember. Even if people said they couldn’t recognize him, I could. He was my little brother.

“Everyone was surprised when my blood was found to be red.. This all happened from before I can remember but I was being punished for it even after growing up. Our family fought tooth and nail to hide this fact from the kingdom and the world. As you know.”

“They were doing that for your sake, Savaş, people have been born with green blood for centuries. You existing before this curse and war yet to be solved, was a grave danger for your wellbeing. You could’ve been kidnapped, or murdered.”

Savaş rolled his eyes, kept talking as if he didn’t hear me.

“Mom, why can’t I go to the doctor? My leg hurts…”

Savaş was holding his bleeding leg in tears and looked into his mother's eyes. There was no one else in the room but his father Yilmaz, his mother Zeynep and his brother Baris, who was in the corner looking at him with fear.

Yılmaz took out another bandage and started wrapping it around Savaş's leg. He had fallen off his bicycle and rolled down the hill and caught his leg on one of the sharp stones. The cut was deep and it hurt a lot.

"Son, I would like to take you to the doctor more than anything, but your blood... It's red and no one can ever know about it."

Zeynep looked at her husband in alarm, she agreed with him, but at the same time she was horribly worried about her son.

"Yilmaz has lost a lot of blood, what if something bad happens?"

"Don't assume the worst, Zeynep."

Yilmaz had meetings to attend, a lot of thoughts swirling around in his head, and most importantly, his own son was bleeding right in front of him. But they didn't know this blood, their own blood was green. How could his son be born with red blood in a world where none had had it for centuries?

Baris spoke his mind in a whisper from behind, his voice trembling.

"Dad, mom. Maybe we can call our neighbor? He is a very good doctor and you love him very much, don't you? How can you love someone you don't trust?"

Yılmaz looked at his son’s deep wound as he wondered.

“I suppose we could do that.”

Zeynep left the door instantaneously and called to the first servant she saw. She was probably giving orders to call their distant neighbor doctor Haknan.

Yılmaz didn’t know if he could trust him completely, but he also knew his son couldn’t survive too long without treatment. He had already lost so much blood. He turned to Barış.

“How did you bring him without being seen by anyone?”

"There was no one on the mountain anyway, so as soon as I saw the blood, I wrapped his jacket around him, I picked him up and when his blood dripped on the ground, I covered it up with dirt."

"Well done son, I hadn’t realized you had grown so much, that's very clever of you."

"Is he going to be okay, Dad?"

Yilmaz did not answer, Baris looked at his brother in fear. Savaş was looking helplessly at himself. This was the last time he cried, no one knew it would be the last time he would cry.

When Hakan the physician arrived, there was silence in the room. Hakan didn't ask anything, he treated the red blood with great calmness as if it was something he saw every day.

No one spoke, Yilmaz was thinking of the answers he could give to the slightest question. He also had to make sure that everything that happened in this room stayed in this room.

Savaş fell asleep from exhaustion, he was in a lot of pain. Tears had left red marks on his face, he looked battered.

"Is he alright?"

"Yes, sir, but he may sleep for a long time from exhaustion. I’m prescribing these painkillers. Just boil them in water and have him take them."

When the doctor packed his bag and stood up to leave, Yilmaz cut him off.

“Was there a problem, sir?”

"Hakan, you realize there is something we need to talk about, right?"

He asked.

Yilmaz sat on one of the two chairs around the small brown table, Savaş was asleep on the large bed and Zeynep had already gone out to avoid any gossip in the palace. Baris was sitting in a corner of the room with his feet up, watching his father.

“Barış, my son, you go out for a while.”

He didn’t say a word and did as he was told. He dragged his feet and slowly left the room.

“What happened in this room today, stays-“

Hakan spoke with great calmness before letting the sentence end. He was a doctor they knew and trusted but he always had a hesitant air about him.

"Now I understand why the little boy had always stayed out of sight, I thought he was quite timid."

"Hakan, this is a secret we keep. I think you can understand why."

"Of course I do, sir."

"Can I trust you?"

"I have two options, I can either say yes or at best I will be exiled, but there are worse possibilities than that."

After a laugh that filled the room, he spoke in a reassuring tone.

"You can trust me, but only if I take a small tube of the child's blood every month."

Yilmaz stood up angrily. Hakan continued to sit at the table with the same composure.

"Are you threatening the king?"

"They will wonder why I suddenly disappeared. After all, I am the best physician in the country."

Yilmaz scoffed angrily and agreed, knowing that he had no other choice. He also knew that it would not be good to lose the doctor who made the best medicine for the soldiers wounded at war.

"Alright, you can leave Hakan."

Savaş stopped narrating, slowly lifting his gaze from the floor, he looked into my eyes for a moment and smiled.

The Angel's Blood

You may also like these