This book is dedicated to
@peculiar2005
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...53...
GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH🤗
She awoke rather tired with some sort of subtle headache, the type that one was actually only aware of if they were silent or bored. Despite the fact that she had been sleeping, she felt as if she had not rested, her bones tired, fatigue that came from oversleeping. There were rise petals in the round bed when she sat upright. She took a petal and put it to her nose. It smelt nice and soothing. She concluded to have Hyeera make her some fragrant oil with the petals like always. The emperor must have done this once again to aid her sleep.
She knew that she sometimes had difficulty in sleeping, unconsciously. She would just turn and turn on the bed without actually waking up -according to Hyeera- and the smell of roses always helped to remedy that. It was always the emperor's idea to bring in rose petals when she was like that. She wondered where he always got that much from. She dropped the petal and swung one leg out of bed at the moment that it dawned on her that she could not feel the weight of her hair. She reached up to touch her head and felt that familiar knot. It was only the emperor who tied her hair like that. As usual she could not remember him doing so.
She swung her second leg and made to stand when that sharp pain that sometimes came with kind of headache that she had overcame her. She slowly sat back down and waited for the pain to pass away, only it didn't. The pain chose to intensify and along with it came vivid images of fire, like the kind she had once seen in her dream, a fire that she had been running from, chased by the beast. But suddenly, she remembered something else. She wasn't being chased by him as she thought, she was running to him. She wanted him to save her from someone, from Trevor. She remembered Trevor was her lover, the one she just began to actually picture his visage.
But why? Why had she wanted to be saved, running to the beast with such kind of fear? Why also was she remembering that now? She shook her head gently in an attempt to get rid of the images running through her head. Something peculiar caught her attention and she dwelt on it. It was her and the beast, in a pub, him taking her against her will and she struggling with him. She remembered being kind of high on something, alcohol, sedatives, for she was such a sloth at that moment. Was it then? Had he taken her then?
Her eyes went to the window and she registered the time as morning, a rather dull morning it was. Wait what?! Morning?! It could not be. She had gone to the abandoned maze just after lunch. Ah yes, the abandoned maze! She had nearly forgotten all about it. She remembered the letter and the map that she had found tucked into her horse's saddle the morning before when she had gone to inspect Red Rose. She had read it without letting her aides see it. And when the hour that the sender of the letter had asked to meet came by, she had suggested a walk in the gardens close by and disappeared on them. She remembered stealthily stealing away in the direction the letter had indicated and coming upon the structure. She remembered going in, seeing candles, awaiting the sender of the letter. She remembered being caught in a fire, trying to escape. And then, then... her brain was blank from that moment upwards.
She remembered nothing else. Wait, what had happened? Mayhap she had fainted from all the smoke or something, right? She could not answer that. Anyways, who had rescued her from the maze? Was it the emperor or her aides? Had they found her and brought her here, to the bedroom? How had they found her anyways? Had the burning maze attracted their attention? Had the emperor thought it was yet again another of her ploys for escape? She really hoped not. The bedroom door opened then and someone came in. She assumed it was the emperor because of the lack of a knock, but it was only Hyeera.
'My Lady,' the lady said with a gasp at coming in and meeting her eyes. She instantly lowered her head in a small apologetic now of respect. 'Please forgive me My Lady. I did not realize that you were awake.'
'Oh do come in Hyeera,' she told the lady, 'and stop making everything a hassle.' The lady came in and shut the bedroom door behind her.
'My Lady-' she began.
'I feel conked,' she groused to her with a small sniff.
'I shall go and get you some of my wonder tea. It will help give you renewed vigour.'
'I bet it will. Please quickly serve me some of it.'
'I will be right back,' the maid informed her and left the bedroom. She in turn went to wash her teeth in preparation for the wonder tea. She returned a while later with three maids and what must be breakfast. She came in after a knock and directed the maids on how to set it all after they paid obeisance to her.
After the maids had left, she went to the shelf at the other end of the bedroom and opened a box there. She took out a smaller box and brought it to the breakfast table. She set up a large cup and a spoon and then opened the box with her. She poured liquid after liquids from eight different bottles that were kept in the box. Then, she opened a really small ceramic container and added a spoonful of something red into the tea. Then, she stirred the whole mixture and simply topped it up with warm water.
'Your tea My Lady,' she Sid handing it to her lady who was now sitting at the opposite side of the breakfast table and watching her.
'Thank you,' the lady said and received the cup. She took a spoof the warm liquid and sighed in pleasure. She instantly felt energized.
'This is wonderful for restoring lost vim. How on earth do you make it so?' she asked her.
'It's recipe is a secret of magic, most especially to you. It is what keeps me in business. If I tell it to you, there is a ninety nine percent chance that you will chase me away after exploiting me the moment you can really make it for you will have no other use of me,' she joked. Her lady laughed heartily at her words.
'Keep your secret then,' she urged her as she took another sip of the tea. 'But, there really is magic in this thing. I feel better already.'
'It never fails to awaken your body from inner slumber right?' she asked with a smile while dishing good out for her lady who hadn't yet taken notice unless she would have ordered her to stop on the excuse of her going overboard with serving her. Her lady didn't really liked to be served in the most extreme of ways. But, Hyeera liked to serve her still.
'Hmm,' she said after bringing her cup from her mouth with a nod. 'Who rescued me from the fire?' she asked as Hyeera placed cutlery in her palm. She stared from the silverware to Hyeera and then the already dished food and back to Hyeera with an I can always do it myself look on her face. She looked resigned. Hyeera smiled prettily at her.
'It was my master who did so my lady,' she answered, topping her cup which was almost empty with a new mixture of tea. Her mistress helped herself to the food.
'I see.'
'I shall have maids prepare you a bath. Shall I leave the temperature as always or do you desire a change my lady?' she inquired.
'As always,' she said.
The bath was ready by the time she was done with her food courtesy of the maids who had been going in and out of the bedroom for the past thirty something minutes. Hyeera dismissed the maids from the bathroom and asked them to clear away the breakfast table. She helped herself into the bath and sighed as the water received her. It was until she was done weltering in the now tepid bath that she began to wonder where the emperor had gone. She claimed out of the bath and toweled her body, then stepped into the dressing room where Hyeera helped her into her clothes. She did her hair for her and made to do her makeup when she stopped her. She actually wanted to remain bare for that day. They were all done when she finally asked Hyeera about the emperor's whereabouts.
'He is in the court room my lady,' was her answer. 'He had just left the bedroom when you awakened. He left for the court room a while ago after having breakfast downstairs.'
'What is he doing there so early? It is just around the breakfast hour, right?' she inquired.
'It is not yet the breakfast hour, but it will soon be after a very little while,' she said after a short glance at the hour glass.
'Ahh, I see! But still, isn't it rather too early to be in the court room?'
'He is there to issue punishments that cannot be delayed. It is the punishment for those who tried to murder you my lady.'
'Murder me? How? Why?' she asked her with an amazed look on her beautiful face.
'It is the Princess Zoë -I heard my master say- that cut into the saddles of your fine horse.'
'She did that? Princess Zoë? But why? Why would she do that? I know she never liked me, but trying to kill me, that is too extreme isn't it?'
'Yes My Lady, it is. I myself could not believe that she could be so evil, scheming to murder.'
'She will be eliminated from the empress contest and sent away, right Hyeera?' she wanted to know.
'Yes-'
'Good riddance to bad rubbish,' her mistress interrupted.
'-kind of,' she finished.
'What do you mean by that?' she asked puzzled.
'Well, he would kind of send her away in the sense that the punishment for attempted murder is death itself, by burning.'
'Wait what? By burning?'
'Yes My Lady. She shall be burned to death alongside anyone who had a hand in this.'
'No he would not do that, or would he?' she asked though she knew the answer to that.
'Well, he would.' Her lady jumped to her feet.
'Where is the court room? Take me there! I cannot allow him to do such despite that!' she told her.
'But My Lady it is-'
'I do not want to hear nothing Hyeera!' she snapped. 'Please just take me to the damn court room,' she ended on a pleading note.
'Alright My Lady. I shall get your aides for you and have your horse's ready,' she assured her.
'Thank you Hyeera.' And then the lady was gone. A knock at her door told her that her aides had come. She knew it was them because she heard Vura's voice. She invited them in.
'My Lady,' Vura squealed on seeing her while Cora only offered a bow in acknowledgement of her. 'You are alright right?'
'Yes I am.'
'Hyeera says you want to go to the court room. Let's go!'
'Is she really fit go go there? I doubt that she is completely recovered from the happenings of the day before,' Cora said to her sister.
'I am fine Cora. Wait, where is Xiera? I do not see her.'
'She is the emperor's temporary escort until Cora rest and recovers from her lack of strength. It was the emperor's command,' Vura prattled.
'Oh I see.'
'The horses are ready my lady,' Hyeera said from the bedroom door which hadn't been shut.
'Let us go my lady,' Vura said. Cora led the way, all the way to the court room while Vura pulled up behind her lady. She noticed that they were watching her more than usual like the times she used to attempt escape. She did not blame them. It was her fault that they did not trust her. She disappeared on them yesterday and nearly died in a fire outbreak. Of course they would watch her closely to prevent such a thing from ever happening again.
They dismounted their horses when they arrived at the court room and walked into it, just in time for her to hear something that left her totally flabbergasted and flummoxed. She stilled after each of the words had left his mouth, destabilizing her and everything that she had ever known, leaving her in torpor. Was he serious or had he been joking around? She was not sure what to believe. But she doubted that he would lie in his own court. But an iota of doubt still remained until his eyes met hers where she was standing at the entrance of the court room. And in that instant, she immediately knew that it was all true, every single thing that he had said to her. She tried to inhale and exhale lest she die from being unable to breathe.
'Mine?' he said rising to his feet and descending the seven stairs that led to his throne. She didn't think she was able to move until Vura took her hands and led her towards him, her body obeying the pull at her hands and achieving locomotion.
'Hmm?' she answered when she was afore him, about halfway into the court room. He studied her.
'Are you feeling better?' he asked her as he covered the ret of the space between them and reached out to strike her hair like one would a pet that one hadn't seen for long.
'Yes, I am fine. But are you really going to put them to death? To have the burned to death?'
'Yes Mine, I am. I am going to have the both of them slowly burnt into ashes. Princess Zoë for cutting your horse's saddle and Princess Hera-Mera for luring you ago the abandoned maze and setting fire to it while you were still in it. All of these are undoubtedly attempted murder,' he delivered the information to her.
'Please,' she begged. 'Please retract that command. Do anything else to them except end their lives.'
'No Mine, no. Do not try to convince me. They deserve deaths worse than this, but I chose to follow the law,' he instantly to her.
'But, but I cannot allow you to do that. I cannot let you then be a murderer on my account can I?'
'Yes you can Mine, yes you can. It could have been you who had burned to death yesterday, do you agree?' he informed her in a hard and unforgiving voice.
'But still,' she continued to press him in a soft voice and pleading eyes, a combination that captured his soul easily. 'Please spare them.'
'But you are mine. No one dares to touch much less harm what belongs to me.'
'And now they know Beast. Please, spare them from death. You could put them in a dungeon, or torture them or have them branded or something, just anything except for death.'
'How can I? What if I let them go and they try to harm you again?'
'We will deal with that when such a time comes, that is if it does.'
'Mine,' he protested and she knew that she had successfully convinced him to spare them.
'Please, please, please,' she still pressed. Though she knew that she had won him over, she did so lest he changed his mind.
'Have then put in the dungeons till I decide what type of soup to cook with their meat,' he looked up and addressed to royal guards.
'Thank you for your abundance mercy My Sovereign Liege,' Zoë began to thank him.
'It is not to me you own your life,' he told her. 'It is to the lady that you owe your meagre lives!' The royal guards led them away to imprison them.
'You can't do this! You can't do this to me! I am innocent!' Hera-Mera screamed as they dragged her away to the dungeons.
'Thank you,' she told him. Then, she embraced him publicly and tested her head in his broad chest. The gesture surprised him a bit, but not so much that he could not react. He drew her closer to him, his hands snaking around her waist.
'Mine,' he whispered into her oxblood hair, 'I am glad that you are well.' She looked up at him. He leaned in as if to kiss her but didn't do so. They only simply gazed at each other until something else crossed her mind.
'That reminds me, wife?' she asked in a whisper that only he could hear. He smiled at her.
'Yes Mine, you are.' And then, finally, he took her lips in his and lipped her, taking her unawares with the oh not so chaste kiss. Desire -sweet and warm- instantly reared its wonderful neck and began to fab the embers of passion into full flames. Every other person apart from both was forgotten until he drew back slowly. She stared up at him with fluttering lashes. 'Who let you out of bed? Who let you come here? You are not supposed to be here. You should be resting.' He leaned in for another kiss and drew back. Then he kissed her again. She giggled at the gesture.
'I am fine, really. Besides, I wanted to come and stop you from burning anyone to death. Hyeera told me, but do not blame her,' she requested.
'I will see about that later. For now, your lips keep distracting me.' If it were to have been some other time, she might have thought that he was joking. But now, she knew that he was actually serious and not flirting.
'Is it really?' he nodded. Then, he lifted her into his arms princess style. She was surprised once more.
'Now, off to bed you go.'
'Why are you carrying me?' she asked him. 'I can walk!' she protested with a laugh as he took her out of the court room, leaving every soul there with enough fodder for gossip.
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...OmaPhinaPhire🔥
GLOSSARY
* THE BREAKFAST HOUR: The hour between 8:00am and 8:59am.