Demetrius' voice shredded through the heavy blanket of silence that had fallen over the room since Knut's message had ended. "Mother?" He called to Titania. Titania remained as she was as if she hadn't or couldn't hear him. She was on her knees, her hands pounding and clawing against the marble floor. "Mother, we have to release her now," Demetrius said and my heart did a flip as it leaped into my throat. Home. I could very well be sleeping in my own bed within hours.
As if she could sense my swelling hope, Titania was quick to squash it down again. "We do not have to do any such thing." Titania snarled, slowly lifting her face. Her eyes were still wide with fright, but anger, hatred, was quickly flooding in to take its place as she dragged herself to her feet. Her eyes, full of pouring rain and flashes of lightning, snapped to me. "I do not believe your husband's lies. Everything is affected by the tides. That was nothing more than a bluff."
"Does The Hollow wither during the Solstice?" I asked, taking a jab at her flawed logic.
Titania's feathers ruffled. Lightning split the skies, lighting the room in flashes of bright white."If that thing were truly a god it wouldn't let a savage command it!" She bore her teeth and her eyes bulged as she continued to try to convince the others and herself that they had not already lost. "That creature cannot be on par with The Hollow. The Hollow is our creator, our world. Nothing is its equal. Bran is nothing more than a demon Mab pulled from The Void."
Was she that deep into her denial that she could actually look at Bran and not realize what he was? I had never before seen just how much she had changed since Oberon's death. Her fear, her anxiety and honestly her prejudices had stolen something from her. She was once proud and powerful and wise, a woman I myself had respected somewhat. I saw only a raving lunatic in front of me now.
"You remember what it felt like when Bran flew over us at The Upheaval. You know what you're saying isn't true. You've felt its power. It's why you went through all this trouble of taking Matilda, to begin with." Lysander said, stepping in between the two warring queens as if I needed protection from her. As if I asked for it.
"I do not doubt it is powerful, Lysander, I doubt that its a god. There can be only one god, as far as I see it, and if it is not a god then it is bound by the same rules as we are. It was Midsummer, what we felt at The Upheaval was its power at its peak. It will be affected by the sea's low tide just as well. Knut is merely trying to intimidate us to get us to give in to his demands. If we give her back now he will kill us."
"And if you're wrong?" Demetrius asked, sighing softly. He was looking at me pityingly as he spoke and I wondered what kind of expression I was making to cause it. "If we don't give her back and what he said turns out to be true then we'll all die anyway."
"Yes, we could die, that is a possibility, but if we give in, it is a certainty no matter what."
"So we should just wait and see?" Lysander huffed in annoyance.
My insides dropped so suddenly I nearly pitched forward onto my face. My legs wobbled and I instinctively reached out and grabbed his tunic where it slung across his back. He cut his eyes towards me at the swift tug. They were questioning and more than a little hopeful. I quickly let him go and clung to the wall behind me instead.
The Solstice was still almost four months away and even knowing that I would be going home then didn't help the fact that I would be spending all that time waiting. An hour more was too long to stay in this place. I wanted to go home. Now. This very second.
"So long as we have her, he cannot kill us. The minute we let her go, we are done. It doesn't matter what he said, that will be the end result of any show of mercy. Remember, he made no promise to spare us even if we gave her back this very day."
She wasn't wrong about that. He hadn't promised anything. But Titania was wrong to think she had any say in the matter at all. They were going to die. The only question left was when.
Titania approached me, she and Lysander returning glares at each other until she turned hers towards me at last. "Nothing has changed. You will continue serving us as our slave and complete every task you are given. Do not let your husband's lies get to your head or you will be spending the rest of your time here on the pavilion. Understand?"
"I understand," I answered calmly, all the while thinking of all the ways I wanted to see her and her brats die.
I did just as she asked. I returned to my chores happily for the work helped to fill the time between now and the solstice. Time does fly when your scrubbing chamber pots. When I was done with one task, even if it were time to break for a meal, I would go to our nearest overseer and ask for something new to do. Anything to keep my mind off of the months that still lay between me and seeing Knut and the boys again.
The worst part of the day for me was nighttime when I had to sleep. Most of the time, sleep only came after a long arduous struggle between my fatigue and my thoughts and Neasa's screaming. It didn't help that Cerise stopped returning to our chamber at night, leaving me with little to distract or calm me. I resorted to exercising. In the cramped space I couldn't do the extensive play-fighting I was used to, but I could do basic strength and endurance training. Squatting, crunches, push-ups, running in place, I did it all. I even used our small shelf to pull myself up off the floor until I could rest my chin on it, all the while praying it didn't break under my weight. If I had to wait for the solstice for my revenge, I'd use my time between now and then to get stronger so that when the time came, I could tear Titania's head from her shoulders myself.
It felt good to be moving, not just to fill time or to keep my captors happy, but because it was something I wanted to do. Though I was tired from my work already, I would drive myself to keep going through the force of my own will and I would get stronger and I would get wiser. After such a long time of feeling stagnant, frozen by grief and fear, I was finally moving forward.
Two weeks after Knut's message, my day began as usual, with me washing stains out of the faeries' bed linens, however halfway through, I saw one of the overseers making a beeline towards me. "You," he said, snapping his fingers to get my attention. As if I weren't already staring at his shiny golden helmet. "We're short a girl for collection duty. Go join them straight away."
"What happened to the usual girl?" I asked, calmly wringing the water from the robe I was working on.
"Didn't get out from under the bath fountain quick enough." He chuckled with far too much glee. "Boiled like a crab in a stew pot. The same will happen to you if you don't get going." He yanked me up by my arm and shoved me away from my tub, sending me roughly on my way. However, I couldn't help but notice the little look of surprise in his eyes when he held my arm and felt the tight muscle beneath his grip. I took great pleasure from that look.
I joined up with the collection group at the start of the hall on which most of the royal chambers were located. There were five of them other than me and all of them were women, all of them pretty and young. I still had yet to meet a slave that looked older than thirty. It made me wonder what happened to the ones that got too old and why they insisted on keeping children and youths in the first place. I didn't like the implications. In the group, there were three brunets, a girl with tightly coiled black hair and ebony skin, and a redhead covered in freckles. I, being the only blond and far superior in the looks department, already stuck out from the rest of them, but my shorn locks didn't help. While their hair hung naturally well past their lower backs and they styled it in braids and buns and bows, mine was only now long enough to lay against my forehead and curl at the nape of my neck. I hadn't really missed my long hair, but now I swallowed a sob of grief for it.
Since nearly all of the slaves were still standoffish with me, the women and I worked silently, moving quickly from room to room stripping off bedding and collecting discarded garments. The faeries just left things lying everywhere. My five-year-olds were never such slobs. We had servants, certainly, but they also knew better. The Seelie could use a spanking or at the very least a timeout. Picking up the laundry from Titania, Aurora and Lysander's rooms was uneventful. Titania was sunbathing in one of the gardens, Aurora was checking on her daughter and Lysander was very rarely in his room at all, for which I was grateful. When we came to Demetrius' chamber, however, it was quite different. His door was shut while the others had been left open so we'd know they were unoccupied.
"Shit, he's still got her gasping and moaning in there." I heard the dark-skinned girl spit under her breath after pressing her ear to the door. I nearly cackled. I bit my tongue to keep it in, but a little slipped out. It was just so unexpected and loud in the cavernous hallway. The others all turned to gawk at me, some with surprise, others irritation or confusion as to why I was snickering to myself.
"Should we come back?" Asked the freckle-faced one, still eyeing me like a shepherd that had spotted a wolf stalking his sheep.
"We've done all the others already, just knock on the door and tell him to hurry it up," I said, earning more gawks from them. One of the brunettes nodded as if to agree with me, then changed to shaking it once she realized no one else did.
"Then would you do the honors, Your Highness?" The dark-skinned one asked, jabbing her chin towards the door. "She is your friend after all."
"It's Empress, thank you very much," I replied, grinning like the cat that ate the canary. "Out of my way, peasants." I shooed them away in a teasing, playful manner, that I hope came across that way but probably didn't. None of them laughed. They parted like the red sea, giving me a wide passageway directly to the door.
As I got nearer to the door, the sounds of what was going on behind it grew louder. My face lit up, growing hot and red and I very much wanted to die. A swift stab to the heart would certainly put an end to the gruesome images that were flashing through my brain. It sounded like he was killing her...or she was killing him...I was hoping for the latter. I glanced over my shoulder at the others, regretting having said a word. I should have just buried that joke and stayed quiet. Now I was in the most awkward position of my life.
The others waved me on, telling me to hurry up. I waited a moment until the sounds from beyond the door were mostly heavy breathing, then I knocked. It echoed more softly than I intended and my voice was even worse. "Excuse us, we're here to collect your linens." I squeaked like a real mouse. Again I wanted to fling myself from the palace.
Demetrius groaned softly and I could hear him move. His bedding rustled. "Come on in." He said finally and I hesitantly opened the door to the wonderful view of Demetrius' naked arse staring me right in the face.
I stood just inside of the room, frozen in horror for a moment, unable to look away. Demetrius stood by the open side of his chamber, stretching in the rays of sunlight pouring in without a care in this world. The other slaves went around me, going straight to their task with bored, placid looks on their faces. I didn't know they could ignore that. They were probably used to it.
"Matilda," The dark skinned girl pushed my shoulder gently trying to wake me from my stupor. And as if thinking that "this could not get any worse" had posed some sort of challenge to the universe, Demetrius turned around.
"What are you doing here?" Demetrius asked. His hands were on his hips, drawing even more attention to where I most certainly did not want to look. I looked anyway. When Knut teased me for not liking handsome men, he'd only pointed out the truth.
"Why the hell doesn't anyone know how to wear clothes in this place?" I snarled, wrenching myself away from the spot where I'd rooted myself. I shot straight to work, snatching discarded clothes from the floor, the chairs, the bloody chandelier.
"I'm more comfortable this way. Aren't you?" Demetrius said, playful tones in his voice. He swaggered over to a chair and sat in it, thankfully crossing his legs. "I've never understood how the goblins and humans could stand wearing so much clothing."
"We don't live in a hellhole." I kept my face bowed, hoping against hope that no one noticed that my face had turned scarlet.
As I reached for a gray dress crumpled on the floor, a French-accented voice whispered to me. "You can hand that to me."
I looked up into Cerise's face. Her curls, mussed and tangled, framed her face like a mane and spilled over one shoulder. She was sitting up in the bed with a sheet wrapped securely around her body to hide her naked skin. Her face was red too though I wasn't sure if it was due to the afterglow or mortification.
"Sorry for interrupting." I murmured, handing her the dress.
She gave me a little smirk. "Oh, no, thank you." Slipping from the bed, she dressed, quickly slipping the barely-there gown into place. "If it were up to that one," she nodded towards Demetrius where he lounged in his chair, eating a faerie fruit. "I would never leave this room." At that Demetrius only laughed and took a dreadfully long time uncrossing and crossing his legs.
"What are you getting dressed for?"Demetrius pouted, staring intently at Cerise as she sauntered towards him with a noticeable heat in his gaze. "You know I'll just rip it right back off of you."
Cerise's smile was coy, flirtatious, her heavy-lidded eyes seductively dark. When she got close, she stood between his legs, her small hands on his broad, muscled chest. "Firstly, I desperately need a bath. Secondly, I do have duties to attend to." She leaned in and purred in his ear. "You shouldn't be so selfish, My King."
"A king's allowed to be selfish. Today, I'm your only responsibility." Demetrius pulled her down into his lap by her hips. He kissed her lips and nibbled at her throat, making her giggle in that overly cute way that made my eyebrows rise towards my hairline.
In an effort to keep my breakfast down in my guts where it belonged, I focused on the task at hand, returning to retrieving clothes and helping the others strip the bed of the soiled sheets, which I did only using my thumbs and index fingers. I would boil my hands later. For safety. Once we'd gathered everything up, we all made a break for the door, walking as quickly as humanly possible.
"Stay a moment, won't you, Matilda?"
I nearly screamed out loud at Demetrius' call. Resigning myself to my fate, I slowly turned to face them. Demetrius had dressed while we'd been busy stripping the bed. Thank The Hollow for small mercies. "I'm not interested in a group session, but thank you for considering me."
"No," Demetrius laughed, "It's nothing like that." Just like that his laughter died in mid-throat. "I've been wanting to talk to you about Knut and his threats."
"What about them?" They weren't threats at all.
"This may be pointless to ask, but...do you believe them?"
"There's not a shred of doubt in my mind," I answered truthfully. "Come the Winter Solstice, I will be relaxing warm in my bed. I can hardly wait."
"And do you believe that Bran is a god? My mother seems convinced that he's something like the creatures we fought at The Upheaval."
"I don't have to believe anything and neither do you. You know he is more than that." I said. "Your mother's lost her good mind. It's honestly sad to see."
Demetrius nodded thoughtfully. "It is." He said. He smiled, but his good mood had vanished from his eyes. They were cloudy now, dark, like a building storm. "But you must understand why. There is only so much loss...so much grief that a mind can take. I'm sure you understand that." He considered me a moment, letting his gaze bounce from my head to my feet. "You're looking much better these days. You look like the life's come back to you."
"Knowing that I will soon be able to hold my sons again has helped," I said. I could feel my expression softening, but I didn't care if he saw that weakness. "With that to look forward to, I no longer feel so stuck. I'm moving again."
"It's so strange...to hear you, the villain, talk so warmly of your children." Demetrius got a faraway look in his eyes like he was dreaming with his eyes still open. "I can't remember the last time my mother spoke of Lysander and I that way. Nor do I recall when...or why she stopped."
Cerise swatted him in the chest, "Get on with it and ask her." She urged him.
The slap to his chest broke him free fo his thoughts. He squirmed in his seat and cleared his throat. "Cerise has been telling me that you've taken an interest in my niece, Neasa." He began. "I've also spoken with Aurora and she told me that you suggested a treatment for her wings. She seems interested in trying it and would like to have you work as Neasa's second caregiver. What do you think?"
I gave Cerise a questioning look. She merely grinned. "You would want me, a woman whose husband has promised to kill you in a few months, to look after your sister's child?"
"You've still got my mother's leash around your throat until the solstice. Neasa would be perfectly safe for the time being."
"I thought it would do you good to care for a child again. I know how badly you miss your own and you do want to help her. You must admit." Cerise said, trying to convince me. "Not to mention, you wouldn't have to scrub everyone's chamber pot anymore. There would be better food, more time to rest. It's a good deal. Will you at least think about it?"
I pondered the suggestion a moment then gave my answer. "Let me sleep on it."
My singular candle was melted low by the time I was able to even start my usual exercises. I had nearly pulled myself up on the shelf for the sixty-eighth time when Cerise slipped into the room.
"What are you doing?" She asked, watching me complete the pull-up.
I let go of the shelf and let myself fall. I landed lightly on my toes, remembering my footwork from those many days and nights I'd spent sparring, readying myself for true queenhood. I turned to her, rolling my shoulders to loosen up my back. "I missed my training." I shrugged. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be rolling about with the king?"
"I snuck out while he was sleeping." She sighed, falling back heavily onto her blanket.
"Do you think he knows?" I sat down beside her, wiping sweat from my skin with the skirt of my dress.
She'd already closed her eyes to go to sleep, but her brows knit together. "Knows what?" She asked.
"That you're faking at least eighty percent of it."
Her eyes opened and her lips pulled away from her teeth. She laughed. "It's closer to ninety actually and no he hasn't a damn clue." She held up her hand, pointing up only her pinky. "I've got him wrapped around my little finger, don't I? Demetrius isn't so bad. He's funny and sweet but unfortunately, he's terribly stupid."
"I'd been wondering where you were running off to at night. Did you really do all that just to get him to offer me a better job?"
"No, I did it for me too." Her smile melted away and her hand fell back down to her side. "It's what I've always done, Matilda. I learned early that the only way to have a life worth living was to make the royal family like me. It's a lesson that many of us have learned. So long as you are in their good graces, your belly won't be empty and the pain's not so bad. When a prince...or the Summer King asks you to join him in bed, you go without question whether you really want to or not." She rubbed the scar at her throat.
The way she said it and the bleakness that seemed to hover over her told me that when she referred the Summer King, she was not talking about Demetrius. Suddenly her tearful rant the night I tried to kill her made much more sense. My heart broke for her. "I'll take the job," I murmured.
That brought back the smile. She shot up and threw her arms around me, giving me a tight squeeze. "You won't regret it, I promise." She pulled back and grinned at me, a twinkle of mischief in her eye. "Make them trust you, Matilda. With trust comes freedom."