Born In The Palace

Chapter 15: The Hearing

Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump. 

My heartbeat pounded in my ears. My mouth felt dry. My eyes refused to open as my eyelids felt too heavy to lift. I could hear voices around me. 

"Cassia." Someone shook me gently. "Open your eyes, darling. Cassia, can you hear me?"

I dipped my chin to nod, but the movement was much too small to be noticed.

"Cassia."

There was a soft pillow under my head. Where was I? I had to open my eyes.

It took great effort to get my eyelids to lift, but slowly, I came to see my surroundings, though my vision was blurry and disoriented.

"She's waking up, Alexios! Cassia, darling, look at me." My gaze fell upon my mother. She smiled and took my hand. "How are you feeling?"

"Terrible," I croaked.

"Drink some water." Father approached the other side of the bed I was on and brought a glass of water to my lips. Slowly sitting up, I drank every drop to soothe my dry mouth and throat. 

"What happened?" I asked. "Where are we?"

Mother looked around the chambers we were in. "In the Underworld, it seems. I still don't know how we got here. One moment I was dancing with your father in a dream, and the next I heard an angry roar of a dragon, waking me and everyone else in that strange ballroom. We found you lying on the ground in the hall, beside a whining black dragon. You looked so pale."

"I think I was bitten by a venomous snake," I said, checking on my leg, which was throbbing in pain. The area of the bite was now wrapped in a bandage.

"We took care of it for now," father told me. I could see worry in his eyes as he regarded my bandaged leg. "It wasn't a deep bite, but it left a strange black circle around it. We found healers amongst the people here, but they all said that they'd never seen anything like your bite before."

"It's a mess out there!" Aunt Athena announced as she walked into the room, the yelling outside muffled once she shut the door. "People are panicking and causing chaos in the palace. Our speeches didn't do much to calm them, but Lily is still trying to get them to listen." Her eyes softened when she saw me. "Cassia, you're awake! Are you feeling all right? Do you feel any dizziness?" She cupped my face in her hands, moving it from side to side to examine me.

I groaned. "Now I do." 

"Sorry." She let go of my face, then enveloped me in a gentle embrace. "We need to get you out of here and let Hecate see your leg. I didn't like the look of that bite. The venom seems to be laced with sorcery."

We suddenly heard thunder outside, the booming sound making my already painful headache feel even worse. I groaned once more and clutched my head. "What was that?"

Father and Aunt Athena left to investigate. Before the door was fully shut, I heard a very familiar voice call out Hades's name. 

I grimaced when another boom of thunder attacked my eardrums. "It's Zeus, isn't it?"

"It seems so." Mother frowned, smoothing a hand over my head. "Darling, are you all right?"

"Not at all," I said weakly, shutting my eyes. "I can't...handle this... Too much...pain."

"Hades!" Zeus's yelling was the last thing I heard before I lost consciousness.

~~~

I opened my eyes, coughing. I blinked and there were suddenly people standing before me. Four pairs of eyes stared back at me with relief. 

Hecate smiled when I met her gaze. "You should be feeling better now. I removed the serpent's curse from you. Is the pain completely gone?"