“Looks like our princess is awake.”
“Look here, fellas. Our little princess thinks she can put up a fight.”
“Oh, from what I’ve heard, Shaston men don’t care much for women.”
I remember my hands being tied. Being struck. Rain falling down on me. The way I prayed to the Goddess to save me, only to realize she wasn’t there. She didn’t save me. Ereon did. Ereon and ...
Members of thePrelgrab my ankles, taking me away from my thoughts. I can’t breathe. I can’t move. My heart beats so fast. My chest hurts and I clutch at the shell still there, wanting to remember something that was once happy.
“If you like your hands, I would suggest you take them off my princess.”Ereon’s voice.He was there, fighting, as he is now. Fighting … for me.
The memories replay in my mind as my worries take over. The men spread my legs, holding my wrists above my head. I hear Rhenor’s voice bellowing from the throng of men, “She is the Princess of Antalis! Do not touch her!” That’s all I hear from him before his voice goes quiet. The men holding my wrists push harder against me.
“This is a better place for your hands. Don’t use them to hide from me, I promise I want to see all of you.”Another voice ... another man.
“Hold her down! She is but one girl!” the King’s commands. I hear Ereon still fighting against the men holding him. My eyes lose focus, the edge of my vision becoming black. I thrash against the men holding me. I don’t know what’s happening, but I won’t be weak. Not again. Never again. Despite all my strength, they have me secured.
King Atlas walks up to me holding an iron rod in his hand, flaming red as if just removed from the fire. He smiles down at me, his dark hair disheveled from the tangle with Ereon. He raises his hand and slaps me across the face and I sense the bitter taste of iron in my mouth.
“So much trouble ...” He lets the hot metal roll in his fingers. “You had better be worth it, daughter of prophecy.”
My feet are pulled apart and the melting flesh on the inside of my thigh is felt before I can register the thought. No, I smell it first and then I feel it. It smells like leather as it’s tanned over a flame. I scream so loud I know the ancestors must hear me. The pain takes over everything inside of me and I want to die. Because at least then I wouldn’t feel this pain.
King Atlas pulls the iron away before throwing it to the floor. “Now you belong to Shaston. You, daughter of prophecy, belong to me.” He walks away, his men along with him.
I look around, hoping to find Ereon, Rhenor, Siphonie ... or my ambassador. Surely he wouldn’t have agreed to this. Where is he? The servants flock me then and adrenaline leaves me. I fall into the darkness that calls me.
“A læ t neni pe, o a læ pengæ pe wæ lomo popo ra læ,” the woman screams before she slices her own throat. I’ve seen this scene so many times. It starts with a war of fire and water before it ends in death. The woman forever sacrificing herself. I stay in this limbo, watching the dream unfold. The images don’t even surprise me anymore.
“It’s time, Daughter.” A woman appears before me.
She catches my attention. I jerk up, or I think I do. The floating and falling feeling keeps me confused. This voice I’ve heard before ... before I found my body.
“Carnaxa ...”
I stand up as best as I can, this voice, I know. It’s my mother’s.
“Carnaxa!” she screams and I turn in the darkness, trying to find her. Trying to save her if I can. I spin and spin, nothing but darkness and stars around me.
“It’s your time. You need to remember. And I need your help.” My mother emerges from the darkness. Her long hair flowing around her.
“Remember what?” I ask, still unsure if this is real or not.
“Everything ... you need to remember everything.”
I reach out to touch her, to let my fingers graze across her silk-like skin once more. It’s been so long since I saw her. I held her as she breathed her last before death took her. I watched my father become the shell of the man he was and I remember ... Thylas ... he was there. He took me from her bed, screaming. He held me.
“Yes, he did. But it’s more than that.” She smiles down at me, caressing my face. “I didn’t know he would have a hand in this, I’m sorry. I should have known — even then.”
“Thylas?” I ask, confused by what she’s telling me.
“No, Khaysus. He figured out what I did. Combine the mountain and the valley.” Her body begins to vanish slowly.
“Ata, I don’t know what you are talking about.”
She smiles at me, reaching to touch my cheek. “Combine the mountain and the valley.”
seventeen
