The Ivory Knight

Chapter 17

Adeleina heard it before she saw it. The moment Alecsander said the words, there came a strangled gasp. Then came the horrible, haunting sound she, for the life of her, would never forget. It was the sound of wet steel against flesh.

Then the screams.

And then, there were the laughs. But they weren't laughs of merriment or amusement, however much Adeleina wished the sight in front of her was some horrible, gruesome, terrible jest. They were the laughs of madmen.

As all seven hells burst in the that hall, there was nothing she could do but stare. Why was there the glint of steel in her father's neck? Why wasn't he moving? Why wasn't anyone doing anything about it?

"Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?" the guard holding the handle of the wicked knife sneered, jerking the blade out of the raw holes he'd left in Adeleina's father.

Adeleina did not cry. She did not scream. She did not hear Damien shouting in her ear, nor did she hear the eruption of the ringing clangs of sword against sword. She did not feel someone tugging at her arm, begging her to leave.

She did nothing but stare. She could do nothing but stare.

Then her feet weren't on the floor anymore, and someone was pulling at her arm. There were so many swords. So much shouting. So much blood.

"Adeleina," someone was screaming. "Adeleina!"

Who's shouting? Who's shouting? She wanted to ask, but really, she didn't care. All that mattered was that her father was dead on his own throne, his dark blood running like a river down the sides of his neck.

That was when she began screaming.

She screamed until her lungs gave way, then she screamed again, and again, and again. A hand fastened itself around her mouth and another hand grabbed at her wrist. She kicked and fought and screamed, not caring whether is was friend or foe grasping her. Nothing mattered except that she had to reach her father.

"Let go!" Adeleina screeched, clawing at the arm that was dragging her through doors.

"Hush, hush, please, Adeleina, we have to go," someone was saying in her ear, their voice cracked with fear. Clangs and animalistic screams echoed off the halls, but Adeleina did not hear them. She only knew how to do one thing, and that was to scream.

She didn't know how it was that she ended up laying on a prickly dirt floor. Her throat was raw, as if a beast had clawed at it until it had been reduced to shreds.

A cruel, twisting pain wrenched at her heart. It came upon her suddenly, as if a smoldering iron fist had suddenly stricken out and squeezed her chest. Adeleina heaved a ragged gasp, not bothering to fight back the stream of tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. She did not get up. She did not move to wipe away the drops as they fell. She did not make a sound. She only shook, and sobbed, and endured the pressing against her chest. She screwed her eyes shut and screamed with all her might-- but there was nothing left to scream, and only wretched air came out of her lungs.

♕♔♚

She must have surrendered to the heavy cloud of sleep again, because when she opened her eyes, they were sore. Her cheeks were sticky with dried tears.

Her chest still thrummed with pain.

Adeleina could feel her face twisting and her eyes squeezing shut, but it seemed that she'd run outof tears. How that was possible, she did not know. She had never in her life felt something this monstrous inside her. It ate at her with relish, devouring her from the inside out until, surely, she would be nothing but a hollow shell. She jerked with dry, trembling sobs, and did not immediately notice that someone was cautiously shaking her shoulder.