Alexandria: The Lost Princess

Chapter 10 - Part 2

Marcus lifts me up, his arm digging into my gut. My feet dangle uselessly, and I'm carried into the manor. Entering into a side room off the main hall, filled with old rickety benches, must have once been used as a great hall. A thick layer of dust covers the room, and Kalen drags a bench parallel to the another. The screech almost defining in the bare room.

Everyone shuffles in, mud clumping on the floor in their wake and Cecile waves her hands in front of Kalen's face. "What is going on?"

He sits down, gesturing towards the bench before him, ignoring his sister. Marcus releases me, and I shove away from him, looking towards the door. Howard kicks out his foot blocking the exit, in disinterest. Defeated, I follow Kalen's pointed finger and sit on the bench. Gabriel straddles the seat, rubbing my damp arm in comforting support.

"She is marrying me for protection from them," Kalen stares at Cecile, and she seems to nod in understanding.

"How is this any different then what you are doing to me," I argue.

Kalen's face contorts into disgust. "I don't plan on using you!" Racking his face in frustration, he huffs out and grits his teeth to control himself. "Look, if you marry me, then I become your guardian. The King can't force you to marry anyone so long as I'm alive, and I don't plan on dying."

Kalen wants to be my guardian? I would belong to him instead of Octavius or the King then. Isn't he just doing precisely what the King wants? Marrying the princess will confirm a new successor. "Protect me from being forced into marriage? I'll already be married!"

A smirk slips across Kalen's features and the man I have come to know returns. "To a mercenary, who wants nothing to do with royalty and Thaddeus is aware of that."

Desperation has me wailing, "But then why are you taking me to the castle? Just leave me here!"

He tilts his head to the side and sighs. "You're going back to the castle, and you will be crowned princess, but you are going to have a choice in who you marry." His firmness has me nearly in tears.

What happened to the man who wanted to take me away from all this? The certainty in his voice brings nothing but a large thickness to my throat. My heart clenches painfully. He won't be convinced otherwise.

Uncertain of what I even really heard that night, I whisper, "Why?"

"I promised I would keep you safe. This is the only way," he pleads.

I shake my head, it's not true, and he knows it too. "As soon as I'm handed over to the King you won't be keeping me safe," I admit the fact out loud.

"Wilfrid is going to remain with you." I blink, uncertain if I had heard him correctly and a soft smile slips to his features. He seems so caring.

"Really?" Wilfrid cries out in a gasp.

"Shut it," Kalen snaps glaring at Wilfrid before turning back to me and returning to that soft smile. His arm reaches out and gently rubs my knee. I blink a few times, my vision twisting in memory. Tristan's face flashes before me, rubbing my knee as we wait to hear a blessing from Octavius. "Chloe," Kalen's voice pulls me from my hallucination. Kalen searches my eyes for a moment, trying to decide if I've returned to reality or not. "I'm not bailing on you. Just trust me, ok?"

Even if this is honestly for my protection, it feels wrong. My stomach twists uncomfortably. "Can't we just lie?" My whimper is barely above a whisper as if Tristan might hear of my betrayal from where ever he is.

His thumb strokes my knee continuously only letting me feel his sympathy. This is a transaction and nothing more to him, but pity is still hanging in the room from all directions. "I need to show the King this document," Kalen remains unfazed by my deepening sorrow.

I gulp. "What document?"

"This one," Arthur steps forward and flips a paper in front of me. The thick paper dangling before me: Contract of Marriage. With a shiver, I pale from sickness. I can't do this. My hazy stare shifts to Kalen looking for his surrender.

"Sign it," he urges, "Trust me."

"You drugged me," I whine in rebellion.

I can't marry anyone but Tristan. I love him, but I've lost him, and now I'm alone.

"No more drugs," Kalen whispers. My face heating up as nausea twists my throat tight. "Just sign," Kalen whispers a pleading order. I stare at him, and a tear drops down, landing on the stone floor between us.

Arthur flips out a quill with a flick of his wrist presenting it to me. "Fine." My trembling hand takes it. He shuffles through a pouch and pulls out a bottle of ink. Kalen takes the contract and places it on his knee, and Arthur pops the top of the bottle. My shaking hand misses the bottles entrance completely. My eyes so blurred from the tears freely running down my face. Gabriel gently takes my hand, his palm moulding with my burning flesh. Slowly, he guides me, dipping the quill into the ink. He lets go of my hand and rubs my back supportively. "Where?" I whisper.

Kalen moves a finger across the page, and my stomach twists in a knot like someone is ringing me out from the inside. Kalen stops right in a blank space on the page. "Here."

The quill trembles and I slide it across the page carefully remembering how Octavius had taught me how to sign my given name when I was so young. I never understood why I needed to learn. I doubt Octavius had intended for me to learn just to sign myself over to a stranger like property. My surname was only recently known to me, scrolls rigidly and uncertain. As soon as my hand stops I pull away and stare at my full name etched onto the paper.

Chloe Tucket

In quick movements, Arthur tugs the paper and twirls it up stepping away. I stop breathing entirely and topple over, off the bench. My hands shooting out to catch my fall towards the stones. Kalen knees down leaning into my fall, wrapping his arms around me. My body trembles against his and tears pour down my face.

Silence hangs in the room, my throat tightens painfully, it feels like something is lodged inside it. Cecile's cry pierces the silence, and Kalen hisses to our observers. "Out!" Everyone scurries out of the room.

Gasping for air, I cough painfully between weeps. Kalen's hand lifts up wrapping his hand into my wet hair and presses my face into his chest. The chainmail scratching my cheeks, his warmth comforts my frozen skin. The small rhythm of his calm breath pulls me into a weaker state, and I scream. Loud, painful screams rip through me, releasing the sharp pain in my throat.

~So who is freaking out that she is now married to Kalen? What about Tristan? What is going to happen there? ~