Thirty Three

Dyane was scared of me, my display of ruthlessness was enough to scare anybody from me but still, it hurts when she flinch away from me, or when she refused to meet my gaze or when I look at her and all I see in her eyes is fear, fear of me and what I am capable of.

“She will come around.” Orel said as I glanced at him.

“How come you always know when I am worried and the reason by just looking at me?” I complained as Orel laughs.

“I told you all your tells, didn’t I?” Orel said with his eyes shining, he was happy. I made him happy.

And in return he being happy makes me happy, knowing that I am responsible for his happiness makes me ecstatic. I love him.

“You might have but I refused to believe, I am not that obvious.” I whined as Orel laughs.

“We are in Northshore lands now.” Gwenn called as we all stopped our horses.

“What is going on?” Dyane frightened voice asked, I could not even comfort her because she was just as scared of me as she is of whatever was happening.

“Nothing, we just respect them and inform them that we come in peace.” Orel said.

“Where are the them.” I asked quietly.

“Everywhere” was whispered on the breeze by my ears as I shivered.

“Orel.” I called out frightened.

“Don’t be frightened, they would not harm you.” Orel gently soothed me then straightened as he addressed the winds. “We are here to see the king.”

“There is no king.” The first voice whispers

“Lies.” Multiple voices whispers

“They have come to finish him off.” All the voices said together.

“There is disunity among the voices, this has never happened before.” Gwenn said looking scared now.

“What does this mean?” Dyane asked in a tearful voice.

“It means that there is trouble.” Orel answered worry evident in his tone.

“We came in peace, not to see the king but the prince.” I blurted not knowing where the words are coming from.

“Lies” all of the thundered at the same time

“He sent for allies. We are his from Dar.” I pressed on.

“No.” the voices whispers in different tones as if they were divided.

“You can ask him, he will reaffirm our story.” I added.

“Okay.” The voices all said in unison then a man stepped from behind a boulder.

“If it was a lie you told, it is best to turn back.” He ordered.

“We are here to see the prince.” Orel takes charge the man took a stance.

“The person who spoke for all is the whitehaired one, she is the leader.” The man said as Orel exchanged a look with me.

“Agreed.” He said as the man relaxed his stance and made a strange note in his throat.

Before we go react, there was Darts sticking out of us all, including our horses. Before I faded into oblivion, I saw more like the first man stepping out of the landscape around us and surrounding us. I needed to ask Orel if he had an alliance with this people before, I will ask him when I am awake.



I opened my eyes to see someone feet close to my face, I quickly shifted my head back and slowly sat up because the world was spinning all around me, when my head stopped spinning, I noticed that we were all on the floor in front of a throne room and others were in different states of waking up, the messenger that I had whipped has even vomited and was shaking badly. That made me change my mind about waiting for us all to be awake before I said or did anything, I moved to him as he tried to make himself smaller.

“What did you do to him?” I panicked when his eyes started to roll back in his head.

“The bigger question is what did you do to him? His current state is your fault.” A voice coming from the throne direction rang, I didn’t turn to look at the voice because I knew that the only person who could talk that way was someone who has a lot of power, it is clear that he was the prince since reports show that the king is an old man. Then considering Orel and Mathilda age, it is safe to assume that someone young can be the ruler.

“What do you mean it is my fault, I didn’t poison him, and your people did by shooting Darts around?” I responded offended and barely keeping my annoyance in check.

“You might not have poisoned him but you ordered his whipping in Brookston, you made him weak as a child and pardon me for not having my guards at our borders carrying Darts meant for children, normally children don’t venture close to our borders, children on both sides of the border.” The voice said as I gritted my teeth.

“We were just a group of less than twenty people, and three of us as women, you should not have shot us, and we would have come willingly.”

“I know that but it wasn’t about your willingness to come, it is about keeping you so that you cannot leave or return without an escort. And don’t feed me lies about women, I know for a fact that the three of you are deadly.” The voice said in a mocking tone which made me angrier.

“Help him” I ordered.

“You do not come into my kingdom to order me around.” The voice growled, no carefree disposition present again in his tone.

“Please” I begged, I could not afford for him to die, it will be on my conscience and his death will hunt me for as long as I live.

“Already helped him.” The jovial tone was back in the person voice.

“So you just made me beg for nothing” disbelief clouded my tone.

“No, it was amusing for me so it is not for nothing and also I wanted to remind you that this is my kingdom, all my decisions will be made for what is best for my people, you will not strong-arm me into a decision I don’t want to make” the he added to make sure that I got his message. “Like you did to the queen.”

“I didn’t do anything to the queen.” I fibbed as I turned to face the throne now that the messenger was unconscious.

“Of course you didn’t.” the man said with his eyes twinkling in silent laughter like he knew something which I didn’t. “You just reminded her of what will happen to her kingdom if she says no. you are a smart woman, smart enough to know that you cannot use that same method with me. Let me remind you of what will happen when you try to try any funny game. You will never leave here alive, I will make sure the rest of your days are spent watching your husband beaten with you powerless to stop it.”

“I am powerless.” Desperation clutched my chest, what the hell have we gotten ourselves into. “My husband is the warlord, he is one of the ruling council of Dar, and I am nothing apart from his wife.”

“So you say, how many women have survived the maiden hunt in hundreds of years, none. How come it was until you became his wife that the Dar empire decide to reach out to Northshore when it has never happened before, this is not the first threat to Dar neither will it be that last but you made them reach out. And not to get me started on what you said on the border, you took the stand of a leader and so you are the leader here.” The prince explained.

“She might be the leader here because she took a stand but that doesn’t mean that you will heap those things on her, I chose her as my bride, I listened to her input, I already had plans to reach out.” Orel said coming to stand beside me.

“True.” The prince nodded his head to show his agreement with Orel words. “But something made you chose her and listen to her input. You recognized her for what she really is, don’t think that others will not recognize her worth too.”

“You have spies everywhere.” I voiced out when the words he said earlier kept ringing in my ears, how did he know so much about what was happening when with the way he is holding himself, they are an empire who wish to be left alone. I don’t know how they do their voices or whatever they do, they are a mystery to their neighbors around them.

The prince jerked in surprise that was the first time I could catch him unaware. “Very good, that is the reason why I knew that you were the leader.”

“Your neighbors don’t know much about you, yet you keep yourself updated to everything that happens, in case you have a fight with any of them, a pre informed enemy is the victor.” I added working everything out.

“Take them away for them to refresh themselves hopefully, they will join us for the meeting one of these days, it is a delight meeting you Lady Themis.” The prince said as he left the room ignoring my pleas of him remaining behind. Guards stepped out of the shadows as they hull us out of the throne room.