Throne of Blood

NEW ALLIANCES

I opened my eyes just to be blinded by the intense light that hit my eyes. The doors adjacent to the bed were wide open allowing sunlight to filter in. Placing a hand over my eyes to ward of the light, I pushed myself into sitting position. As the silk sheets slid down my body I realized I was naked. Just as I grabbed the sheets and was using them to cover my naked self, I was met by the a little too cheery voice of none other than Lord Frankie.

"Finally, you are awake. How do you feel?"
"Other than some degree of burning sensation in my leg, I feel fine."
I looked around the room to check if Lord Frankie was the only person there other than me who might have feasted on my nudity. He was, thankfully. Fitted in a red neck to feet long robe, he was fussing around the room moving things by an inch or two to attain some sort of perfect placement, which I really did not see the perfection of. Tuning out his banter regarding the lack of commitment to work of the servants and maids, I stood up from the bed firmly holding the sheets around me.
"No, no, no, no. You cannot do that, Eleanor."
With confusion evident on my face, I stared at Lord Frankie. Taking hint from my facial expressions he explained his former statement.
"You are not to move an inch from the bed till your leg is completely healed, express orders of the prince. He also said for you to stay in his chambers. You charmed his highness really well."
He wiggled his eyebrows at me as a grin enlightened his face. His words brought back the memories of last night in vivid detail. His touch, his kisses and his gaze, everything came fleeting back to my mind as the prince was mentioned, and a blush crept on my face despite my attempts to stop it. I do not know what was wrong with me, why was I willing to give myself to the prince last night when previously I always planned to chop of his manhood and hand it to him on a platter if he ever tried to touch me and also that stupid dream about Vincent. Shaking my head in disapproval at my own behavior, I shunned away the thoughts of last night.
"Where is the prince anyway?"
"He is out of the capital for resolving some political issues."
I was about to demand Lord Frankie to further explain the political issues when I was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. Right before the door opened and in came sheep head, it was announced Lord Adrian Vergara was here. Lord Frankie immediately bowed in front of sheep head before stepping back in one corner of the room.
Sheep head flashed me a friendly smile.
"How do you feel, Lady Eleanor?"
"Pretty much fine, your Excellency."
"Well I just came to apologize to you in person. Knowing the Prince, the decor and layout of his chambers and his infamous reputation in bed or I should say a lot around the bed," he pointed to walls around nonchalantly, a mischievous smile playing on his lips, "I should have chosen a dress made of less flammable material and rather more easier to get out of."
I was red as a tomato at this point, blushing fiercely at his words. He laughed at my discomfort; he was clearly enjoying it far too much.
"Fetch Lady Eleanor some clothes, and get soup made for her, Frankie."
Still looking at me, sheep head ordered Lord Frankie who was quick to comply and left the room the very moment. All traces of laughter and jolliness vanished from sheep heads face the moment the doors clicked shut after Lord Frankie's lanky frame. With seriousness shading his eyes and dominance oozing from his muscular frame, he looked every bit the part, lord Adrian Vergara; the prime minister of world's largest and wealthiest empire history had ever seen. The sudden change in his demeanor made me uneasy to the core.
"Lady Black, you no longer can stay at this castle or this city. It is not in the least bit safe for you."
My eyes widened at how he addressed me. Did he really call me Lady Black or I am just being paranoid. How did he find out my family name I never told it to anyone at this castle?
"Yes, Lady Eleanor Black; daughter of Edmund Black the master of the army of Incas empire, I know who you are."
Guess my face gave away all my thoughts. In the present moment worry clouded my senses such that the notion of keeping my face bland was too farfetched.
All I could do was stare at him and stutter my thoughts out, which were composed of only one word.
"H-how?"
"I am a man of power in this empire and even outside, if I wish to know something as minimal as your identity, then I will know it without much effort."
Oh how arrogant he was, but, I could not say anything because he was right and also for currently I was at his mercy.
"Lady Black, we do not have much time. We will need to get you out of this palace no later than tomorrow. Tomorrow morning you will be taken to the royal gardens for some fresh air. From there you will join the party going out of the castle with Princess Emily, and leave the castle. I will be waiting for you outside the castle."
He cannot order me around like that; I will stay as long as I want.
"Look mister, I do not care how important you are or who you are. I am not going with you and becoming your mistress."
By the end of my charade I was fuming with anger, and that bastard had the nerve to laugh like I said the best existent joke.
"What is so funny, your Excellency."
If he had noticed the sarcasm, he chose to ignore it, and address me quite civilly.
"Ms. Eleanor Black, I have no desire to use you in any way for my pleasure."
"Then why are you smuggling me out of this place?"
"I do not have time to give you a detailed answer for Frankie would be coming any moment now, and he or anyone else can not know about this plan, but to gain your trust I will give you some information. I am sending you away for the sake of the betterment of our only prince."
His words were not making any sense to me.
"Can you please elaborate how my going away helps his majesty?"
"As we all know, Ms. Black, our current king, Cedric Kozlovsky, is a power crazed, sadistic, violence loving, and ruthless person. He has no regard for his people. Commoners of Incas Empire are not any more important to him than dirt under the soles of his shoes, or maybe even less. Under his rule there is no hope for betterment of the people, which is a certified fact. Our prince, however, is an entirely opposite person; compassionate, loving, caring, non-tyrannical and considerate about the people making up this empire. The only hope for our empire to truly flourish is for the prince to sit on the throne in time, but that is not as simple as just being born in a royal family. Getting the throne is a game, Ms. Black, which starts when you are born and ends with your last breath. The one who plays it with most deviousness is the one who mostly wins. Our king is power crazy, and he believes he is invincible. He kills anyone who is even the slightest threat to his rule, does not matters if it's a peasant or a prince, whoever is a threat they will lose their head regardless.
The thing now is that the prince unlike our king is very just, and he works and in future will work even more vigorously to uproot all sorts of injustice and unfairness from this empire. Most people love the idea of this happening, but not all people. Many of the lords, wealthy people and powerful men are corrupt and doing all sorts of wrongs and they hold too much power right now. They do not wish to lose their heads and power, so, they will do everything to stop the prince from rising to power as a king, so they are riling the current king against the prince. People are trying to prove that the prince has committed treason, if they succeed the prince will die and the empire will fall into a state of utmost unrest.
You must be thinking why I told you all this. Well my lady you fit in all this a bit too well for the plotters against the prince. I am very certain I am not the only one who knows who you truly are, and you have been seen by all in the castle with the prince. All that is needed to be done is killing, kidnapping or raping you. Just hurt you, and all hell breaks loose. The rumor is your father will do anything and everything for you, so if he is told with proof and witnesses that you were with the prince before being hurt the master of the glorious army of Incas empire will set all his man power to rip the prince apart limb by limb, and I do not wish for that to happen, so you need to be protected, and this castle is the last place suitable for that task; there are too many plotters existing here."
Taking a deep breath he looked at me and all I could do was stare at him; dumbfounded at the complexity of the situation he just tried to explain to me.
Raising an eyebrow, he asked me if I would abide by his plan. Saying no was not an option, my leaving was going to save countless lives, Adrian was right. Most of all what mattered to me was it would save the prince, I did not know why I cared about him, but I did.