Princess Axelia
Leonidas has our horses meet us halfway on our trip back to Rerimas before we part ways. Although, after everything he shared the last thing I want to do is be away from him, but he has to warn his council and mother about what we saw.
On my journey to Cadomia, I play out a variety of scenarios that could occur when I confront my father in hopes of putting a stop to this war before it has a chance to begin. It would be far too suspicious of me to wake him in the middle of the night, so I wrestle for sleep until sunrise.
"Princess," Miss Elysse says as she shakes my shoulders. "Good heavens you're covered in mud!"
Bolting up, I rush to my balcony to watch as my father sets out with Maynard and a unit of our army to the north.
I've overslept.
Flying around my bedroom, I gather a set of fresh clothes and my armor until Miss Elysse takes hold of an arm dragging me to a bath she's prepared.
"I don't have time!" I argue as I yank my arm free. "I need to catch up to my father."
"Do you know where he's off to?" she inquires and I nod. "Then you'll be able to find him after a bath. Look at yourself, there's crust in your eyes and twigs in your hair."
Groaning, I pull off the clothes from last night and slip into the steaming water. It helps to soothe my anxiety over what I will need to do next.
"Honestly, what has you so frazzled?" she prods while scrubbing my skin roughly in a few places the mud has stained.
"I think my father is going to attack Rerimas," I blurt, causing her to pause. There is doubt in her eyes but only for a moment before she continues washing. "What will you do if that is the King's intention?"
"I'm going to try to talk him out of it, or perhaps fight him," I figure since my words don't always have much effect on my father.
"Axelia, I worry about you getting involved. This isn't your battle and how awful would it be if you had to choose between protecting him or Prince Leonidas. What if only one can be saved?" she mutters before rising to grab a towel and wrapping me up.
I haven't considered that but hopefully I won't need to.
Opting out of answering her question, I pull on clothes and armor as I rush from the room to leave with Aries.
It takes us a half hour to catch up to my father's convoy, but the moment we do I make Aries hurry to the front where my father rides his steed.
"Axelia," he frowns as I ride along beside him. "What are you doing out here?"
My heart beats rapidly as I glance around and notice Maynard also looking surprised by my arrival.
"I thought I would join you," I offer with a shrug. "Where are we going?"
Slowing his horse, everyone else stops a few meters behind us. "There is a base up north that I am visiting," he explains, "but you are not to come along. It's dangerous and--"
"Why is it dangerous?" I pry.
Narrowing his eyes, he glances over at Maynard as well before gesturing for him to join us.
"Escort her back," he commands.
"No! I want to come along," I shout.
Maynard releases a hard sigh probably frustrated that I've gotten involved, but I wonder how long he has known about this.
"Axelia please," my father rolls his eyes. "I am on a tight schedule and this matter is important. Go."
He begins to ride away but I use Aries to cut him off.
"I know about the Ferals-- that you're collecting them," I disclose before swallowing a knot as everyone's eyes widen behind him.
Scowling, my father turns to Maynard. "Did you mention this to her?"
"No," Maynard responds, unfazed by my father's quick accusation.
"What are you buying them for? Why are they with the army in a secret base up north?" I regain his attention. "They're monsters. Absolute beasts. Why would you--"
"Because our spies have reported dozens of Princesses from other regions traveling to Rerimas. Leonidas, is going to marry soon and I can't allow him to become a King," he snaps. "He ruined my hopes of strengthening our army by marrying you to Prince Herakles so now I will ruin him."
"By starting a war?" I exclaim.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he then meets my eyes as he sighs. "Why does this suddenly surprise you? Have I not always said I would do so? Nothing has changed. I will watch him fall along with his Kingdom," he swears. "Maynard if you will."
Again Maynard approaches me, but I draw my black dagger which is enough of a threat to make him stop.
"Father, this isn't necessary or right. If Cassius finds out--"
"He won't," he interrupts me with a chuckle. "I've been planning this attack since the moment we buried your mother. He has no idea and neither does the Prince."
His confidence disturbs me. I've not seen a man so eager to destroy another at all cost.
Biting my lower lip, I hold my breath as I speak my next words. "I will report you to Cassius if you don't turn around now and come home."
Murmurs begin to rise amongst the soldiers of the convoy and they don't bother to hide their glares or annoyance as they observe our discussion.
"And why would you do such a foolish thing?" he quirks an eyebrow and crosses his arms over his chest.
Dismounting Aries, I muster up the humility to stand beside my father so he can look down at me while I continue my attempts to sway him. "No good will come from this. Rerimas will fall and then what? You can hate Leonidas all you want but taking his life in revenge is wrong. He hasn't done-"
"You believe him to be innocent?" he interrupts, and my heart fluctuates nervously now that the conversation has transitioned to my beliefs about the Prince.
Luckily, he signals for the convoy to wait where they are before guiding me and Maynard down a separate path. We travel for only a mile southwest before we reach the top of a mountain where a stench fills the air.
"Look over that cliff," he instructs.
I do as he says and find a lake of dead bodies below. They are shredded, mushy, dismembered and covered in dry blood with flies buzzing in a cloud over them.
"A patrol came across this last night," my father grumbles as he covers his nose with an arm. "The Prince lost control and slaughtered nearly two thousand people in a matter of hours. He's not his father. He is something much worse."
Leonidas' story about what happened last night matches exactly what I see. He didn't lie or try to mask how bad things got. Still, seeing it for myself does make me worry about if he were ever to trigger around me.
"He must be stopped, Axelia," my father concludes before turning and heading back.
Maynard follows him but I wait just a little longer mulling over my thoughts.
Leonidas lost control, but he didn't just slaughter anyone and everyone. He did what he could to prevent harming the innocent. All lives are to be cherished but he only killed prisoners.
My father, on the other hand, is planning to set loose perhaps an army of Ferals onto Reriman lands to kill however many it takes to bring down Leonidas. In all my experiences fighting Rerimans, they've never once attacked unprovoked.
They're innocent.
"Father, I understand you're scared of him," I say once I've caught up and he scoffs at my claim, "but I won't let you do this."
"What has gotten into you!" he shouts as we reach the convoy. "I had to keep you from killing him for the past few years and now you wish for me to show him mercy? Do you want to do the honors yourself? Is that what this is about?"
"N-no," I stammer. "I just--"
"He's a murderous, selfish, out of control monster, Axelia. A disgrace of a creation. A weapon left behind by his betrayer of a father," he continues to rant, stirring his soldiers who nod and cheer to express their support.
It breaks my heart.
Maynard meets my gaze and I notice he is the only one not hyping up my father, but when my anger begins to rise it is noticeable enough that Maynard shakes his head at me as though to warn I should hold my tongue. But I can't.
"Father," I interrupt his banter and he turns to me, "I don't want to kill the Prince. I want to marry him," I confess. "I've fallen in love with him."
The soldiers fall silent once more and to this, even Maynard appears at a loss for words as he and my father stare at me as though I've gone mad.
"You're what?" he asks, his tone ominous.
"I--"
Lifting his hand, he silences me.
"You let him escape that day, didn't you? And the night you stayed out--" he trails off as his glare deepens. "You stayed with him?"
Gulping, I nod, and he continues to stare at me with a mixture of confusion, anger and hurt swirling in his eyes before signaling for three other soldiers to approach.
"Seize her," he commands and I let them pull me from Aries while making sure to clutch my black dagger in its holster in case it tries to attack them on its own accord. "You will return her to Cadomia and lock her up as a prisoner before reporting her treason to the council," he tells them.
Prison?
"I'm your heir, you can't--"
"You're a traitor!" he growls and spits on my face. "You have disgraced our Kingdom. Your own body by allowing him to defile you! I'll be he's already planted his seed in you. Hasn't he? Impregnated you with some kind of abomination," he spits. Knees shaking, I feel as though his words are beating my heart. "I will find another suitable, loyal successor worthy of the throne. Make one, if I must. You'll be lucky if the council doesn't decide to have you exiled, if not beheaded."
What?
My heart drops, and I want to argue but a solider takes a dirty cloth and shoves it in my mouth as they tie me up to one of their horses. "You take her directly to the council," Maynard orders the three men bounding me, eyes stern. "Unharmed. For now, she is still heir to the throne."
"Yeah, yeah," they snort.
"Maynard, with me," my Father demands him.
I whine, begging him to stay. To disobey. In his eyes, the blue softens and I know he wants to.
Lips parting, he seems as though he has words of encouragement to share, but closing his eyes he turns on the heel of a boot and leaves me with silence.
Leaves me broken.
The three soldiers force me to walk the entire journey back to Cadomia in fear my father will feed Aries to his pet Ferals. By the time we arrive, I'm in tears from how my feet ache and bleed.
Just as we reach the tree line, the soldiers decide not to hassle with knight or guards about my crime. They're too eager to return north, so they strip me of my armor and weapons before using one of my daggers to cut my hair at shoulder length, and then they slap my cheeks until they swell.
"Who is this?" the gatekeeper questions them as we approach.
"A whore we brought along on the convoy, but she attacked the King," one of them lies.
"Why didn't you just kill her?"
"She can use her talents to entertain the prison guards," another solider chimes in.
"No use letting her go to waste," the third adds.
Rage fills me as I process their implications, but when I try to spit out the gag one of them punches me in my stomach before another elbows my forehead, knocking me unconscious.
When I wake, I'm on a freezing stone floor in a corner of a locked cell hand and ankle cuffed with a few other women as guards laugh and joke at a table in the center of the room about all the things they've done and will do to the women.
Panic causes my breaths to shallow, heart to race and body to shake which begins to rattle my chains.
"Sounds like they're waking up," I hear one of the guards announce to the others, and they rise from their seats.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Image of: King Valerio
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