Bloodied Slap

Hector dropped his eyes, swallowing hard.

"I...I am very sorry for staring at your face, your highness."

She chuckled as she leaned away from him. "Why? I liked it."

He kept his eyes fixed on his feet.

"Will you tell me who did that to you?"

She said, and when he looked uo, she was examining her hands. There was nothing wrong with her hands, however.

"It is...it was my mistake."

"For choosing toti come here?"

She leaned back further, her hands resting on the bed, her palms stretched flat downwards.

"She deserved an explanation. We have been through so much together." He said, letting a small tear escape.

"It hurts my heart that I am not able to comfort you. But, would you perhaps, like to climb ladders?"

He looked up and laughed. "Then I will have a bigger wound."

"Well, the wound outside always does well to numb the ones inside, do you not agree?"

"You are wise, your highness."

She nodded as they both fell quiet, his thoughts going back to Lana's hurt face, her words. It hurt him more than it did her. The Queen just watched his face, taking in even the smallest details.

"I have this strong urge to dance.. With my subjects in gaiety and the excitement of ceremonies. But I would rather not."

"Why do you say so? You have the power to do anything, your highness."

"But I can't hold you on the dance floor." She answered quietly as she stood up, moving to a safe that used to belong to her mother.

She opened it, as he watched her, still not able to get used ti the Queen being affectionate towards him. Sometimes he felt like it was a bait. Like she wanted him to fall for it so she would leave him out to dry.

She brought out a strange item and held it in her hands.

"I won't organize one because then, I won't dance with you. We wont take the stage together."

She kept it away and walked back to him. "I am being selfish, right, Hector? You already have someone you love."

Hector swallowed. "I am not fit to marry you."

"I will decide that. I need you to participate, Hector. No matter what stands in your way, you have to. You have to take me as your bride."

He kept silent for a while as she looked down at her nails.

"What if I do not emerge the winner?"

"I do not intend to bring a fair contest. My life itself has never been fair."

Hector's eyes bulged at that. "Wh..what?"

She held his hand as she moved ckoser. "No one knows what I intend to ask for the competiton. They will think it's archery.. Etiquette or things like that. Well, except one person. This person too, will only pass the first stage, Hector. Because no human alive knows the answer."

He felt his heart beat sky rocket as she let go of his hand.

"What do you intend to do, your highness?"



"Is her highness in?" Adrian asked Donald as he got to the door of her chambers, his face calm. He had come to see her to tell her he knew exactly what she was planning, and to assure her that in some days, she would have to take him as her husband. No one else.

"She does not want to be disturbed."

"Ooen the door."

"I repeat, her majesty, the Queen does not want any disturbance. Only her hand maiden is allowed in."

Adrian adjusted his stance, his hands going on his waist, his body fully turned towards Donald.

"What did you say? The hand maiden is inside? I heard Mrs. Margaret left."

"She has a new handmaiden. He is inside with her right now."

"Did you just address the Queen's handmaiden as a he?"

"Yes." Donald said simply and turned, indicating he was not going to answer anymore questions.

"Can you describe my face to me?" The Queen said, bringing a little candle under her face to illuminate it.

"I can without the candle. You will hurt yourself that way." Hector answered, then collected the candle from her and kept it on the bedside where it had originally been.

She said nothing as she waited for him to speak.

"You are...you look like a Queen." He said, then dropped his eyes. Lana looked like a Queen to him too.

The Queen laughed. "You do not need to say it, then. As long as you know the colour of my eyes, You will move on to the last stage."

"Your highness...do I have to be the one? Does it have to be me? Can't it be anyone else?"

"Hector." She said, but he dropped his head as he shook it slowly.

"I can't just leave Lana. I am all she has....and she is all I have."

"Hector..." The Queen didn't finish what she was saying, before the door swung open and Adrian, seething from both ears walked in. Without a prior warning, he got a hold of Hector's clothes, and used it to lift him from the seat he had been on.

"Adrian!" The Queen said, authority in her voice, but to Adrian, not even her anger mattered.

"How dare you sit while the Queen sits?" He said through gritted teeth as he threw Hector to the floor, then removed his sword. "I will teach you such a lesson, that you will keep reasonable distance from her highness in the future. I swear it."

"Adrian, get out of my palace, right now."

Adrian paid a deaf ear as he raised the sword, ready to hit Hector with it. He swung hard, Hector already anticipating the pain as he closed his eyes, his chest heaving hard.

The pain never came, but a drop of warm liquid did. He opened his eyes and the Queen was standing between Hector and Adrian, her hand firmly holding the blade of the sword, the blood that had gathered, dropping hard on to the floor.

"Have you lost all your respect for me? Have you lost your dignity as a nobleman?"

"Your highness." Adrian paled as she forced him to bring down his hand, her hand all the while wrapped around the blade. Hector felt goosebumos as he saw the blade twist in her hand. She didn't even flinch.

"Have you lost common sense? Or do you just wish to know what capital punishment feels like?"

"Your highness, please let go. You are hurting yourself. For a lowly servant. He is just a lowly servant who has no value whatsoever."

The Queen broke into a small mocking laugh as she looked at her bloodied hand, then released the sword.

Adrian mistook it as acceptance and he turned to Hector. Before he could go to him however, the Queen raised her bloodied hand and landed a slap on his right cheek, causing his face to swerve to the left, and his hair to come undone.

"How dare you disrespect me in my own palace, my own chamber? How dare you come in here in the first place?"

"Your highness." He said again.

"Do not tempt me, Adrian, to wipe out your entire generation. Because I swear, I will do it."

She walked into her dressing room and covered her face with a veil, staining it all over with her blood.

"Donald." She called. "Get some guards and make sure he learns how to respect me."

Donald bowed and left.

Hector was on the floor, scared out of his wits as he looked at the pool of blood the Queen's wound was making at her foot, and then Adrian, whose eyes were dark as he watched Hector, his eyes hardly blinking. He knew what that look meant. He was in deep trouble. One he will never be able to live down.

'You made an enemy, Hector.'