Human Targets
The start of the journey was uneventful, with the queen taking her horse ride slowly. Hector wasn't sure what he should expect, and had to keep slowing down his horse to match her pace.
She didn't even acknowkedge his struggle, as she continued on her way, her chin lifted, her eyes fixed on her way. The guards lagged a very long distance from them, and Hector knew that was the highest they would let the queen go without them. He rolled his eyes. It should be others who needed protecting, not her.
"I apologize about earlier, your highness. I do not know what came over me."
She turned to him, then slowly raised her veil. A brow was lifted, and her lips pursed.
"You took your time."
He blinked. He had gone speechless when he saw her smiling, but he probably should have apologized still.
"I apologize for that too."
She turned away, letting the veil fall again and they continued on their way.
"The queen is holding a contest? When? Why?"
Adrian was struggling to sit up, as he had developed a fever from the pain the wound had given him, and was still bedridden. Lord Kucas sat, his head bowed and supported by his hands.
"It's a rumor about her and you..."
"Did you start it, father?"
"What?"
"I said, did you start it?"
Lord Lucas went speechless as he watched Adrian's eyes bulged with anger. He was not oblivious to how much she meant to his son, and he knew Adrian wouldn't be privy to him doing things that could ruin her in order to force her to marry him.
"I was looking out for you."
"If it's going to hurt her, then I don't want it!" He yelled, flipped the covers from himself and walked out, his steps a little staggering.
"We are here." The Queen said calmly and Hector looked at her. He thought he would be the one navigating, but, she was. He stopped his horse and got down from it, and before he touched the floor, she had gotten down from hers too.
"I could have helped you." He said, then realizing he had talked informally again, added, "Your highness."
She chuckled and handed him her arrows. "You must think I am some fragile woman."
"You are the queen."
"And a queen should be strong, Hector. I have been to war as a princess. Should I not do better as a queen?"
He stepped away and let her question hang in the air. Was she really doing better with the amount of servants she had? Servants that had been mere children when they were brought in? He had worked in the palace for as long as he could remember, and Ms. Margaret, then younger than she was now, had been the oy one who took care of him. The queen had been a princess then, one he never saw, and never wished to.
She walked to him and took an arrow. "I am waiting for your answer."
They stood like a man and a woman, the difference closed by the chabge in outfit that she had made him undergo, and it looked like they had once met as equals. As a normal woman and a man.
"You should."
"Do you think I am?"
He bent his head. Should he lie and get himself out of this?
She turned away and took an aim. He looked at her aim, only to realize it was a human aim. A real human was wearing a tiger's hair, but it was so obviously human.
She turned to him. "I asked a question."
His mind was on the person, probably a servant. But then again, what did he think? She was actually going to run after deers? The queen herself?
"That..that is..."
"Yes?"
"You're not...hunting?"
"I am." She answered, then raised her bow higher agsin, one of her eyes closed to help her concentrate.
She was going to hit it. She was really going to hit it.
He watched as she drew the string back, and without thinking dropped the arrows in front of him and ran to her, wrapping his arms around her from behind. He upset her balance and her stance, and made her let go of the arrow so it fell only a few feet away from them.
He was breathing hard against her, his forehead covered in cold sweat. He started to hyperventilate, holding on to her tightly, refusing to let go. It was as if he was scared of something else, rather than the danger the man in a tiger's skin had been in.
"Don't do it." He said to her, his breath fanning her neck.
He felt warm against her, and his arms wrapped around her like it should. Like he was given those arms to hold her in them.
"Please don't." He said again, and this time she turned.
"What's wrong?" She asked, scanning his face. He looked up to her and their eyes met. She watched him for a while, her eye thin and concerned, his wide and afraid. He suddenly released her and moved away, pushing his hands behind him.
"I apologize but..." His voice broke as the images came back. Arrows flying around, fire burning down houses, his bereaved father lying on the floor in a pool of his own mother's blood.
"The target was human." He said, barely managing to say the words out.
"I know that."
He looked up at her. The queen was...just like her father. The man who had taken everyone from him.
"Then you are not doing better." He said, anger clouding his senses. "You are not doing better if your hunting involves shooting down humans."
"Then, do you expect me to hunt a tiger?"
"Don't go hunting at all if you can't hunt wild animals. Is the price of a life mere enjoyment for you?"
She raised a brow.
Saying the last part gave him a feeling of deja vu. Like he has said the exact same words to someone else before.
"I don't know." She said, taking the fallen arrow from the floor and walking back to him. "Should lives have prices?"
They were eye to eye and the queen had to raise her head to meet his eyes, because he was taller. His eyes filled up, with dread, with hate.
"You have surely been to war as a princess." He said.
"I don't lie." She answered, then turned the arrow to her stomach, and pushed it in with all the strength she had.