Elio gets to his feet, shaking still with the occasional, wracking sob. The worst of the spell has finally washed over us. The Mourning of Rahasia is over, and the city is shrouded by an uncomfortable, disconcerting silence.
"Wait!" I pick up the boy guard's scimitar at my belt and hold it to Elio's throat. He looks at me bleakly. "We aren't finished yet."
When Elio looks at me, I falter. His eyes are... dare I say it?
They're his own. The eyes of the laughing prince I knew, the one who saved us from Alef's brutish clutches because he cared.
The eyes of the prince who fell in love with a bastard son.
The eyes of my friend.
Has his father's tragedy taken the brunt of Cato's cruelty out of him?
"My father is dead, Ode." He steps directly into the blade's edge. I watch as it bites into his flesh, healing as soon as the skin breaks. "I'm too tired to fight anymore."
I refuse to step to the side. "Are you insane? You lured me here. You kidnapped my friends. You tortured my father. Am I supposed to just forgive you?" I get into his face, staring up into his barren eyes. "How am I supposed to think this isn't all some trick, and that you'll slit my throat and run back to Cato as soon as you can?"
He takes the blade and pulls it into his own chest. Stunned, I watch as he remains standing even though it's buried to the hilt in his heart. Even Arno looks sick. "You don't know what I go through every morning. That god might have chosen me, but I didn't choose him." His voice is strangled, almost ill-sounding. His eyes are wild, swollen with sorrow. "You don't know what he does to me. Ryu and I are prisoners, Ode. I should have listened to you, but I thought you had the evil god. It turns out, we had the wrong gods all along." He smiles at me, the action almost paining him. "It's up to you to save us."
"Why should I save you?" I whisper, seeing the beaten body of my friends, of my father. "Why should I care?"
"Now that my father's dead, I'm your Emperor." His voice gets deeper, more authoritative. A man who's owned the world since birth. "I gave you an order."
"Wrong answer." I laugh. "Emperor or no, I'm loyal to no man."
"Then save Ryu if not me. Kill me and burn my body to ash, but make sure Ryu's okay. Give him someone worthy of him, someone who shines even brighter than the sun." Elio looks to Ryu, the shell that once was. He's back on his feet again, those same, magical wires tugging at his skin, a human marionette. "I love him more than I love myself anyways. More than I love this Empire. Everything that I've done to hurt you was because I thought Cato would leave me alone if I obeyed him. I'm sorry, Ode. It was either you or Ryu. And Ryu will always be first, even before me." Elio's lower lip trembles, more golden tears dripping down his face. The fallen hero, a war saga turned into a tragedy. How quaint. "But Cato is never going to leave me alone, no matter if I follow his every order to perfection. Nothing will satisfy my god, not even betraying my friends. Please, Ode," Elio's tears come faster now, "I've failed. I can't save him."
When Elio looks at Ryu, he looks like he's looking upon the face of paradise. His heart is pure. Not even Cato could ruin that.
And let's face it. If the choice was between saving me or Ryu, I'd save Ryu too.
Mainly because I never need saving.
"Fine." I pull back, re-sheathing the weapon. "I'll find a way to save you two."
Elio bites his lip. The prince looking terrified, it's not an emotion that suits his usually heroic face. "And Ode, be quick about it. I have a feeling that Cato's going to try something, something big, once I'm crowned the new Emperor." He rubs at his tattoos, scratching so hard I think he'll scrape the ink right out of his skin. "When I pray, he won't speak to me as openly. He's gone silent as of late. I don't think I'm his Chosen One anymore, or if I am, then it's something I don't want to be Chosen for."
I nod. "Let the others go, and I'll find a way to save you."
Elio turns to the guards who filter through the door. General Ibrahim is among them, his mouth dropping into a surprised o when he sees his son, Arno. "Take them back to their homes, and give them a bag of gold each for the misunderstanding."
General Ibrahim bows, still staring at his son. "Right away, milord."
I see it then, the loyalty causing conflict in the eyes of my friends and family, the pain as they're torn away from me. Leaving me behind in a palace that almost ensures my death.
I glare at Arno, Ratu, and my father. "Don't be stupid. If you don't leave while you have the chance, I'll kill you all myself."
When they consider my eyes, they don't protest.
They probably know I mean it.
When it's just Elio, Ryu, and me, Elio gets back into his lordly mode. He stands and poses a bit, his tattoos dimming as he turns his face to bask in the sun.
"You will stay as an honored guest. I'll call for a truce in the Divine War until the coronation." Elio turns to me, his face impassive, but his eyes are pleading. "Advisor Ryu, please ensure she dresses in attire befitting a court lady."
Right as Ratu is about to shuffle out, she pauses, listening in on our conversation, and turns around with a sly grin. She lowers her lashes and curtsies, the picture of a timid mouse.
But Ratu's anything but timid. What is she planning?
"Milord," she avoids Elio's gaze, demure as can be, "if Lady Ode's to be an essential member of the court, she needs her lady's maid to help her with the more feminine sensibilities, does she not?"
Lady's maid, my ass. I narrow my eyes at Ratu, but she returns my gaze with an airy curiosity, unflinching. Her hijab is pristinely positioned to lend her the utmost credibility as a neat little orderly of my father's house, and nothing more. Impressive, Queen of Thieves. Always finding a way to get your hands close to the king's coffers. Disobeying my orders to flee. You're almost as unmanageable as me.
"I'll allow it. Go attend to Lady Ode's guest chambers then, maid." Elio hardly glances at her as Ratu's lips tilt into a cocky smile. Invisible, just how she wants to be. "Advisor Ryu, try to change Lady Ode from this," here, he points to my blood-caked, sweaty visage, "into a convincing courtier."
Ryu bows, extending his neck so that his dark curls bob against his amber skin. "Right away, my prince. I'm sorry. Emperor." He turns then to me with a sterile sort of expression. "Come along, dear." His eyes glance at the dried blood on my palms, congealed in my nails. "First step is the bathhouse."
When I follow him, I feel like a fox pup thinking it can defeat both the mighty sun and the beautiful moon. What fox can defeat the heavens?
But then again, what fox can control the dead?
***
Hey there Champions,
Side note, the lyrics to the song above open perfectly to this chapter. (You can even kind of see Elio in the drawing's fiery eyes.)
"He says save me, save me...
She says maybe, maybe...
She starts to turn away as he says hate me, break me, let me feel as hurt as you.
Push me, crush me, but promise me you'll never let us go."
Eerily similar, huh?
Anyways, what do you guys think of Elio? Is it too late for him and Ryu?
Best,
Sophia