Chapter 45

 

This chapter has been copied from the original and may contain typos and grammatical errors.

~*~

This chapter includes violence and stressful situations. If you are triggered by harm, you have been warned.

Lily hadn’t been to visit the Reeds in years, though Romeo made the trip about once a year. Her boys had never met their children, and she was wondering where she was going to fit three more children in their small house.

“You’re sure you don’t want to move into their house for awhile? It has more space.” Romeo asked her again. They had talked about this before. Only two hours before, honestly.

“I’m sure. I’ve never met the kids though, I hope they’ll get along with the boys.” she said tentatively. She wasn’t used to being tentative. She was used to being brave and direct.

“It’ll be fine. Robin is about the same age as our own, just a hair older, and the two girls are dolls apparently. They’ll love you.” Romeo said, not looking her in the eye.

He was hiding something. It had been a while since she had to be sharp with her observation skills, but she could tell when her husband was hiding something. “What are you not telling me?” she asked pointedly.

He fumbled with the pack on the bed. It held old clothes, ones from the Mainland. His style hadn’t changed much when he got here, so a lot of the clothes he had were patched or replaced over the years, but they were still unmistakable.

“I- I’m-” his eyes glistened with tears he rarely showed, and his voice . “She’s my god daughter, Lily.”

A look of disbelief popped onto her face. He continued, “It’s like she were my own child. I was there when she was born, I held her when she wailed as an infant. I taught her to walk! When I got here and Anwyn was dead and I had failed my best friend, and then to have them both brought back to life, I clung to them when I had nothing else. I can’t let her suffer the fate that the king would have her live.”

Lily fumed for a moment, waiting for him to finish. Once he had, he could tell she was beyond angry. “Don’t you think I would want to help Anwyn and Liam if I could? You forget, I have known Liam for years. Year before the Cupshires made their escape, I traveled with him for two years afterwards once he was free of the king. I would give him so much for him to be happy, to support him, but we have our own family! You think you’re going to leave me here by myself with five children to look after!? And you didn’t fly this past me first?”

“Lily, I’m not going to change my mind. I cannot stay here and let the world try and fix this problem; I have to help.” he said simply, forcing himself to look her in the eye.

“You’re choosing their family over your own!” she hollered. “You could die and our sons would have no father. If you die alongside Anwyn and Liam, which, may I remind you, is a strong probability, there are no backup plans. Anwyn may have been brought back from the dead, but without the spirits and Midshore you’ll be dead and there will be no coming back! Romeo, can’t you see that this is foolish! You’re needed here.” she urged.

He turned his head, once again unable to look at her. He took a breath. “Know that I don't make this choice lightly, Lily. I know it took so long for us to have a family, to be truly happy, but you also know that I can’t sit by when action is needed.” he moved towards her, around the bed, but she shifted away from her.

“Please, I don’t want to leave when you’re angry with me.” he pleaded with her.

“Then don’t leave.” she parried.

He lifted the pack from the bed and put it next to the door. “I have to.” He exited the room, hardly holding himself together. While it was hard to say goodbye to Lily, he knew she had a heart of iron. She would make it through ok, but his boys were something else.

They were building a toy set in the main room of the house. Romeo stood in the distance for a moment, trying to sear the sight of the two of them into his mind. He didn’t know when he would see them again. His return wasn’t guaranteed, and it hurt so much to think of never seeing his sons again. Just as he had held Gloria after she was born, he had held his two boys. He had cleaned them after they played in the mud, taught them to use a spoon on their own, how to read. What if he wasn’t here to teach them to shave? Or how to woo women? Or see his grandchildren? He felt his nose drip as his eyes produced tears.

Harrison looked up at his father, concern on his face. “Papa, what’s the matter? Your face is funny.”

His brother Christopher looked up as well, equally confused.

“This is what my face looks like when I’m sad,” Romeo tried to smile, tried to not start crying like a child. “You boys heard that your cousins are coming to stay for a while while Aunt Anwyn and Uncle Liam leave to go to the mainland for a while, right? You had both better be on your best behavior, or when I get back I’m going to ground you for a year, you hear?” he sniffled.

“You’re leaving?” Christopher asked. “Why are you leaving? When will you be back?” he was starting to be alarmed.

“Your cousin Gloria has gone where she should not have gone with people she should not have gone with. Your Aunt, Uncle, and I are going to get her back before anything bad happens.”He stroked his son’s hair. “I will be back just as soon as I can and not a moment later. I will think of you every hour of every day.”

There was a knock on the door. The door opened and Liam peaked his head in. Lana, Skye, and Robin came in the door, sleepy. Anwyn and Liam pulled in some of their items, and Midshore stood outside the door, not coming in.

Romeo turned back to his boys. “I need you to help your mother. This is going to be very hard on her. Promise me that you’ll be good to her and your cousins.”

“I promise,” Harrison said with big eyes. His brother did the same.

“Very good. I love you. Always know that I love you.”

~*~

She was sat on a hard chair in a damp room. The walls were cobbled stone, the floor was rough stone, and the table gave her slivers just by looking at it. This room was obviously not made for comfort.

Seneca followed his mother and Krista into the room.

“Ms. Reed, you tell an interesting tale. You say you’re from the Western Islands, but as we all know their proof of existence is on the same level as, say, the after life. It’s nice to think about, but it’s far from proven.” the queen addressed. She shifted her stance. “By your own admission, you spent years with Lucian Blake, were very close to him, and yet you also say that you know nothing of any plans the king may have? I find that hard to believe.

“Tell us what you know, and this will be a better experience for us both.” she leaned forward on the table.

Seneca saw Gloria shift. “I don’t know anything. I don’t know who the king is, who you are, or what the king plans for me.”

“How many troops does he have?!” the queen hit her hand on the table. “How much does he know about us? Where are his safe houses?!”

Gloria flinched at the burst of anger. “I swear, I don’t know.”

“As much as I’ve been able to collect, there are things that only his closest supporters know. You were aligned with one of his closest supporters, practically his step son, and you expect us to believe that you know nothing?”

“I’ve never lied to you. If I had known anything about what you have here, or wanted to know more, I wouldn’t have been avoiding dreaming of Seneca all these years, would I? I would have been trying to gather information.” Gloria pleaded

“That’s Prince Seneca to you,” Krista corrected snidely. “I don’t know what sort of powers you have, but you won’t be gathering any more information.”

The queen smoothed her skirt. “I see,” she said. She turned her back and knocked on the door, letting in Barnabus. Compared to most men, he was massively broad and intimidating.

Gloria shifted further into her chair and bit her lip. “You think you can scare me into telling you information that I don’t possess?” she asked. “As much as you try to frighten me, I can’t tell you what you want to hear.”

“He’s not just for show, darling.” the queen said calmly. “I give you one more chance to confess before this turns ugly.”

Gloria’s mouth became a thin line and her eyes went wide. Seneca could feel her shaking though he wasn’t touching her. She shook like a leaf on a branch in a stiff autumn wind, but she didn’t speak.

His mother signaled and Barnabus lashed out, striking Gloria in the face. She cried out, and Seneca flinched. He gritted his teeth.

Gloria turned her head to face his mother, Krista, and Barnabus again, anger on her face. “If I could use my powers, you would be cinder on the floor.” she threatened.

Barnabus lashed out again, and Seneca flinched once more. He made his way to the door and let himself out into the hallway. He tried to even his breath, and the pain he had felt radiating from Gloria diminished by a few degrees.

He heard a sudden noise from in the room and he winced. Another noise came, this one of a shifting table. He winced again.

He knew the noises too well. He had been on the business end of Barnabus enough times to know the score of sounds that came from a beating, and he knew the pain that came along with it, and he knew the fear that was married to it all.

He paced the hallway, wanting to leave the area and have nothing to do with the interrogation, but it would be seen as cowardly. If he was going to be king, he had to be able to stomach an interrogation, gruesome and it may become.

Krista exited the room and brushed off her skirt which wasn’t wrinkled. Seneca walked over to her and leaned against the wall, then quickly stood back up straight. It felt like the wall had bit him, and he looked at it in confusion.

“It should be done soon. She seems to really know nothing about any of it. Too bad, we could have really used more information.” she said. She seemed unbothered.

Seneca heard the raised voice of Barnabus and bristled. “Doesn’t it bother you?” he asked.

“What bothers me?”

“The violence. She said she didn’t know anything, and yet we beat her.” he averted his eyes. “It’s- wrong.”

She looked at him with mild annoyance. “If we believed everyone who said that they didn’t know anything, we wouldn’t know anything. People lie. They do know things that they aren’t willing to tell us without a bit of pressure. The harder we interrogate, the faster we know what they know. It gets results and it shows our foes that we aren’t to be taken lightly.”

“But she’s on no one’s side!” he objected. “She came from the islands. Have you ever heard her accent before? It’s different than any accent I’ve ever heard. She didn’t know who the king was, who we were, heck who the Church was! And we hurt her in exchange?”

The annoyance turned to skepticism. “Are you sure that she didn’t bewitch you before you equipped her? You can’t sympathize with the other side. Not only is she a witch, she’s the king’s sought after heir, and anything that aids the king will cripple us.”

His mother and Barnabus exited the room. They closed the door behind them, not bothering to lock it.

“She’s useless. A pretty face, that’s all. The daughter of Anwyn, yes, but she knows nothing of the king’s plans.” his mother said as she walked away. “I need to write some letters and let our supporters know of the events that have transpired.”

“I’ll join you. I should tell my contacts in the capitol as well. Our plans may have to be accelerated.” Krista added.

Barnabus shadowed the queen and the three of them filed down the hallway. Seneca felt his heart shrink, as he watched them walk away so cavalierly. He looked at the room they had left behind them. He touched the door. It felt like he was touching a candle, painful and sudden. He looked through a crack in the door and saw Gloria curled in a ball on the floor, weeping.

I did this to her. he thought. I brought her here, I’m the reason she is in this mess. All because I wanted to show them that I could be worth something, to earn their praise.

He braced himself and opened the door. How the other three of them had been able to stand being in the same room with her he couldn’t fathom. He felt anger and grief gushing from Gloria like waves of knives. He fought the urge to turn around and forget it all and approached her.

He touched her shoulder, and she flinched away from him like a wounded animal. He saw her face and his stomach turned at the sight of blood. He never could stand the sight of injury, much less the sight of blood.

“If I had my power, this place wouldn’t be standing. You’d all be raised to the ground.” she quietly gurgled. “I hate you all…”

“I’m- I’m so sorry.” he felt the words slip from his lips. He had never said them in honesty before, nor had he meant them so deeply. In the past, he had always said sorry to get himself out of trouble, but he hadn’t truly been apologetic. But now, feeling the pain from Gloria, the betrayal he had sewed in her, the pain his actions had led to, but didn’t feel anything but sorry.

She looked at him, scorn in her eyes. She was judging him, and he felt that he would be worthy of any verdict. “I believe you.” she said through gritted teeth. Her eyes were streaming tears, and her hair had fallen out of its binding.

“Let me take you upstairs. We’ll get you cleaned up, take care of your cuts so they don’t scar as much.” Seneca eased.

Gloria didn’t move. “What’s the point?” her voice was flat.

“The point is to not let them get you down. Don’t let them see that they control you.” he assured.

“But they do. You do.”

It felt like she had stabbed him. “I can’t change what has happened.” he said with firm gentility. He didn’t say anything else. He couldn’t promise anything else. He couldn’t say he could help her, for if he freed her it would be treason.

Besides breathing, she still didn’t move. She just laid her head back against the wall and said nothing.

Seneca carefully slid his arms under her shoulders and knees, careful to be gentle, and he lifted her from the floor. He walked out of the room and went up the stairs to his room. He had modified his room recently to have a bit more space.

He sat her down on the end of the bed and retrieved the water pitcher. It was cold from sitting near the window and not having a fire burning in his room. The light in the room wasn't enough to see by, so he stood and started to light the candles around the room.

His skin tingled when she spoke. “Why do they hate me?” she croaked.

He took a deep breath, exhaling through his nostrils. “You may as well know. You’ve already paid for knowledge you don’t have, so it seems only fair that you know what everyone else does.”

He finished lighting the candle and he sat down next to her. “20 years ago, my mother discovered she was expecting a child. It should have been happy news, the monarchy would have an heir. But it was already rumored that she couldn’t bear children anymore, and any child born would be thought to be illegitimate and from another woman, claimed to be hers.

“The signs of her being removed from the throne were all there. The king took several mistresses, never settling on one for too long before moving to another. No one would have believed that my mother and the king had shared a bed in well over a year, though as it’s told-” his cheeks went a shade of pink and he cleared his throat, “they had times of passion on very rare occasions.

“Still, when the king met Queen Anwyn, she knew that he had found the one to replace her. It was early in my mother’s pregnancy so no one knew. Everyone thought she was barren so no one was looking for the signs.

“After some time, the king arranged with the Church to annul his marriage to my mother, and he married Queen Anwyn instead. What he didn’t know was that my mother had told the cook to charm his food so that he could not sire any children. That way her child would be the rightful heir without having to worry another child would be considered for the monarchy over her own.”

He looked up at the wall ahead of him. He had always been terrible at eye contact when being serious. He had once stared into Gloria’s eyes to make her see him, but now that he knew she was mortal and as flesh and blood as he was, it was hard to look at her for long periods of time.

“And so,” he continued, “my mother was removed. She was taken from the palace in a carriage, driven to the border, and dumped. The people seemed pleased with the new queen. She was young, plain but slightly beautiful, and most importantly the probability of bearing a child was higher.”

He stretched his legs. “The story the king likes to tell is that he and Queen Anwyn were madly in love and discovered they were expecting a child on their journey to the northern border. There was a dispute with the native people who lived there, and they were going to rally the troops. The pair was thrilled and they were hoping for a girl, odd as that is. On their journey, they were set upon by a mixture of bandits, terrorists, and knights from their own guard and the queen was kidnaped. They took her with them on boats and sailed into the horizon. It was later said that she had been shot on the shore, but they didn’t know if she was dead or if she had lived. They questioned the head terrorist for months about the whereabouts of the queen and where they had taken her, but he didn’t talk. He eventually escaped and though they hunted him for years they were unable to find him. So the king sent out scouts to every nation, every town, insearch of his missing wife and child.

“You are that child.”

You know how I always say I won't post chapters at 11:30 at night? Well, It's 11:30. Where did the day go?!

I love Seneca's expressive face. I can't get enough of it. It's so easy to get him to make the face I want, and the poor guy wears his feelings on his sleeve constantly!

As always, please share any ideas, comments. or feel free to private message me plot ideas or wishes. I know I keep the plot of the story pretty close to my chest so it's hard to make requests, but if any of you feel inspired, I'll consider just about anything.