“Come on … Ambassador.” I don’t give him a chance to say no this time as I pull him through the crowd.
I push the door open to his room — or what they call one anyway — it’s almost smaller than my dungeon cell was. It has nothing but a bed, not even big enough for two people. After I bandaged his knuckles earlier, I had to ask around as I tried to find his room so I could retrieve hisceremonial clothing.
“I know what’s going to happen,” he says from where he sits staring out the small window, if one wants to call it that. “I’m a Shastonian by blood. I know whatNle Shomis.”
His words catch me off guard. I didn’t expect him to be from here and end up Ambassador to Antalis. What a tale that must be. It’s not the point right now, though.
“Watching a new couple consummate their marriage is a strange ritual —” I begin before he cuts me off.
“Stop. You know, just as I do — that while yes, I don’t care to see that either — that’s not what allNle Shomis. My mother bore the mark of what comes after.”
I nod my head in agreement. “Regardless of your history, you needed to get out of there. King Atlas ... he would love to have a reason to punish you.”
“Is that why Ereon looks the way he does right now? The same reason you look the way you do? King Atlas?” He turns around to face me and I suddenly feel smaller than I already am compared to him. I know what I told him earlier, but Ereon’s story ... that’s not mine to tell.
“King Atlas loves pain — in all forms — he always has.” I bite my bottom lip, not wanting to say anymore. “Ereon will survive, he always does and the Princess will, too. I know the bond between them. Ereon won’t let him harm her, not if he can prevent it.”
He stands, keeping his head lowered while squeezing the bridge of his nose. “The bond.” He laughs as if he’s entering a state of shock. “Thesyamdamnsholbond.” The Shamilish words are sloppy as they come from his mouth.
He tears the leather band from his hair; his inky strands cascade down his shoulders. “The twin drop ... that’s what you are talking about. The twin drop ‘blessed by the Goddess’ speech — that’s what you are going to give me? I know who you are and I know what you mean to Ereon. Don’t pretend you are okay with this, with them … He told me while Carnaxa was asleep that he felt the way he does for only one other person aside from her, and it is you. Don’t sit here and make excuses for him, when it’s hurting you just as much as it is me.”
I nibble on my bottom lip. I always knew that one day I would have to tell someone. Why shouldn’t it be someone like Thylas? I take a deep breath and walk towards him again.
“Sit down.” I motion to the bed, the only place to sit. He acts as if he’s going to ignore me and I make my voice louder. “I said sit down. I have something I want to tell you, but I don’t want you telling anyone yet. Not even Ereon.”
He looks back at me and then makes his way to the bed. I sit beside him, grabbing his hand. I don’t know why I do, perhaps I need to feel grounded. I need to feel connected to someone right now.
“He felt that way ... because I made it so.”
sixteen
Carnaxa
“Have fun with that, did you Ereon?” The King startles me as he appears beside the bed.
Ereon pulls me closer to him, shielding me as best as he can from his father. I hide my face in the bend of his arm. I’m still catching my breath, unsure of everything that just happened. One moment I was scared, but Ereon’s voice ... it soothed me.
“It’s time forplal ryow,” his father announces, and I hear someone stoking the fire behind me, the wood ablaze and whistling through theexcitement.
Ereon shuffles from above me, and I feel the coldness from his missing body. He stands in front of his father.
“No,” he says simply. “She’s my wife and I refuse. I own her — I say what happens to her. Not you, nor any man here.” It’s then I notice what I felt under my fingertips, I felt the ridges — the marks that still bleed. Left by a whip, and I know I’ve seen similar wounds before. Once before.
“Remove her!” My father’s voice orders in my mind. I remember fighting against the guard who was trying to remove me from my balcony ... the sounds of my father’s whip as it came down across a taut and wide back.
Ereon’s father pats his cheek. “Cute that you would try to save her. Doesn’t matter.” The King lowers his voice as he threatens, “You will not embarrass me and make it appear as if my only heir is weak. You will perform theplal ryow, or I swear byRa Syam, I will do it for you.”
Ereon looks at me as if making a decision and then he acts. His right fist comes up, quick as a flash of lighting, and connects with the left side of his father’s face. The King falls to the floor, but Ereon doesn’t relent. He keeps hitting his father and the crowd surrounding us stops to stare. The people talk amongst themselves at the display of the Prince attacking their king.ShacheAtaiun comes rushing through the crowd to pull Ereon off his father as he continues to assault him. It takes three morePrelsoldiers to remove him from his father. They hold Ereon with his arms behind his back, but he spits at his father, anyway.
“Don’t fucking touch her!” Ereon yells. “ I will say when she is to receive theplal ryow.”
King Atlas stands, wiping away blood that drains from his nose. He grabs the whip fromShacheAtaiun and slashes it across Ereon’s front. “That was a mistake, boy.” He runs his hand across his chin. “You think she is any better than the whore you’ve loved all these years? The one who made a deal with me before she ever stepped foot in your room.” He back hands Ereon, before turning to the rest of the crowd and exclaims, “My son is intoxicated with the feeling of being inside a woman of innocence. Theplal ryowwill continue.”
Two guards dressed in black start towards me, and I scream. Ereon fights against the men holding him, but it’s no use. The men grab me and I squirm to get away from them. I bite, I hit, and I scratch as much as I can.
“Oh, I do love it when they squirm.”
My breath quickens at the fleeting memory, only to be riddled with more.
