...11...
PERIPETEIA
The taste of freedom was intoxicating and she was nearly inebriated.
Her stray hairs flew wildly around her face, carried by the strong wind her equitation was producing.
She was riding at a very fast almost sickening gallop down the stone path.
She was extremely excited and nonchalantly delighted.
She eas raring to see what her freedom would bring her, happy at her peripeteia.
She gradually came to a slow halt at the sound of running water, splashing loudly in the silence of the night.
She urged the horse into a lazy walk as they arrived at a dead end -it was not so dead anyways.
The stone pathway had ended at the shores of a lake.
Her earlier internal ululation died within seconds as disappointment began to slowly seep into her, lambent yet lethal.
She hung her head, disturbed.
This meant that she had to turn back and go the intersection to try another pathway, maybe the straight path and not the left.
Meanwhile, the approaching sound of horses hooves indicated that she was being chased after.
It made her heart catch in her thoracic cavity, causing her diaphragm to stretch upwards, attempting to smother her heart.
She knew without being told that she had been found and was being pursued.
They were coming for her.
The hooves drew closer.
She looked left and right, forward and backward.
She was confused, unable to make a decision in that moment.
She would regret not doing so much later.
She was completely caught between the approaching devil and the clear water of the lake.
This was because there was only forest thickets on her left and right.
She decided at the last moment to dart into it nonetheless, despite whatever wild animal awaited her in it. She would risk it.
An arrow whisked past her, frightening her horse, indicating that it was too late to do so.
Her pursuers had caught up with her, pursued and overtook, yet to recover.
She would not let them recover.
She turned towards them all.
The Linamine soldiers flocked unto the shore from the stone path on horses, surrounding her quickly.
Their numbers made her raring spirit nearly die.
But that picture of her, wild and free, unrestrained in a lovely meadow came to her mind.
And her dead spirit sizzled to life, reviving with a new vigour.
She refused to be taken back to that prison.
She would stand her ground.
She would not surrender to them easily, not without a fight that is -even if it was a fight to the death.
She was ready for such.
'Surrender!' one of the guards at the fore front said to her in a really loud voice.
She shook her head vigorously at him, declining.
'No! Let me alone!' she protested.
'Surrender or be made to do so!' he repeated.
She wielded her weapon, a spear, ready for anything.
'Stop,' the emperor's voice rang out, clear and commanding.
All movements seized.
'All of you, retreat,' he commanded them in a loud authoritative voice.
'Everyone, retreat,' Cora repeated loudly.
The warriors obeyed, letting him ride forward.
He dismounted from clover and came to her.
She brandished her weapon afore him.
She was a good fighter but she could not best him, and she knew it.
He said nothing to her for a long while.
He stood, simply staring into her eyes with a cold hard and dark expression that sent shivers of trepidation upon her.
It was dancing flippantly around her body, chasing one another.
'Mine,' he finally said to her in a gentle voice that betrayed his annoyance.
She needed no one then to brief her of the intensity of his anger.
His eyes gave away the fact that he was fighting madly for control.
He was on the verge of losing it, at the very brink of his self control.
There was no even mistaking the icy murderous look in his eyes or the chilliness of his cold frightening aura.
'Beast,' she said to him.
Fear and anxiety threatened to crumple her to thousands of pieces as she stood afore him.
His gaze travelled over her once again, leaving her unsettled.
'It was your last warning.'
'Let me go!'
'No Mine, you cannot leave,' he said to her stepping closer with each word.
She pointed her spear at him to halt his movement lest he sneak an attack on her when her guard was down.
'Why can't I? Why?' she asked with desperation in her voice.
'You are mine. I shall keep you no matter what,' he said to her in a harsh unarguable voice.
She refused to believe such, refused to believe that it was going to be so.
She simply refused to believe him at all.
She was not going to remain his.
'No, no you can't! I, I want to leave! I don't want to stay here anymore. I want to go back to wherever I came from! I want to be away from you! I've had enough! Let me go, please beast, please,' she pleaded in a broken voice that should have touched anyone, but him.
'You can't Mine, you can't do so. You must return with me to my palace.'
'No I won't! I will not go back to that devil be damned place with you again. I would rather die than do so!' she told him plainly.
'Then, you leave me no choice. I shall have to make you,' he stated.
'No, no you won't!' she screamed, 'I won't let you do so!' she ended, charging at him with her weapon.
He evaded her first two moves skillfully and blocked the third.
'Stop this while I am sti being lenient with you,' he requested.
But, she chose to ignore him, chose to seal her ears, refusing to listen to him.
He attacked her then, once, twice, brutally.
He had her disarmed in two moves that vehemently threatened to knock the dernier soufflé out of her body.
He caught her falling form in his arms, twirling her.
He brought her against his hard stable body with her back to his chest.
His left hand came, latching firmly unto her waist and the right across her neck.
'I warned you,' he said, whispering into her ears.
She felt the tears run down her cheeks, tears of failure, warm and salty, carrying with it all her sorrows which she were sure was just about to multiply.
'Please,' she pleaded one last time, completely exhausted, 'let me go.'
'It was your last warning,' he repeated as he lifted her over his shoulders.
Something snapped in her and she began to struggle with him, fiercely, like a wounded cat, cursing and screaming like the worse of harridans.
Then when they drew close to his horse, she began to cry harder, and beg, like the victim that she was, at the mercy of a power higher than her.
He paid her no attention, setting her atop his horse and joining her in an instant.
He reined his horse, completely unperturbed by her.
'Return to the Linamine castle,' he ordered.
'Return to the castle everyone!' Cora repeated in a louder voice.
They all set off for the Linamine Palace with her still acting up, crying and screaming.
She was throwing a tantrum on his horse, begging to be let go.
He rode on swiftly despite it all, unshaken.
His heart -she had always known- was hard as stone.
But, she had hardened it more by breaking her promise to him.
He had warned her.
Therefore, he was not to be blamed for whatsoever he decided to do to her.
They rode fast and furiously to his manor, going through the four gates once more.
She watched with a heavy heart as the gate to freedom closed each time, barring independence from her, watching liberty slipping slowly out of her grasp.
It was all over, for her, all over.
They arrived at his manor soon.
He dismounted and hurled her down not so tenderly.
She gasped as he heaved her unto one shoulder.
'Spread the word to my convoy, the guards at the gate and all involved, not a word of this incident goes out. If such happens, then a cruel death awaits the offender,' he instructed Cora.
She received his order with a slight bow and right then began to pass the word.
The emperor simply took her into the manor.
Peter received him at the door.
'Welcome my lord,' he said to his master who grunted a reply.
Peter didn't mind.
He knew that his master was too angry to care to speak.
'Where did you find her?' the third Prince asked the moment he stepped into the living room.
The occupants of his household were all gathered there, in the living room.
They must have awoken from whatever commotion that he had caused when he had discovered that she was missing.
'The royal lake,' he answered, setting her down and shifting quickly away from her as if she thoroughly disgusted him.
Xiera gasped at the reply.
Her lady was really getting bolder by the day.
Why could she not just sit still and make do with whatever she was seeing at the moment?
Why was she seeking that which she could not attain at this moment in time?
She didn't know and she didn't dare to ask her too lest her hands be forced.
'You disappoint me,' he said to her, staring into her sharp green eyes, his eyes burning with the intensity of his anger.
'I'm sorry,' she said, realizing that she was as good as done and there was no amount of pleading that will rescue her.
He closed the gap between both of them, his hands coming to her face to angle her chin so that he could properly look into her frightened eyes.
The raw intensity of his angry gaze set her on the edge.
'Please,' she choked out.
'It was your last warning,' he whispered to her through gritted teeth so that she alone could hear him.
And a tear slowly slipped down her brown cheek.
'I'm sorry,' she mouthed.
She was incapable of producing sounds, an effect of the effect that he had on her.
He wiped away the tear with his thumb, running it over her skin slowly, extremely slowly.
Some sort of warmth seized her at the gentle gesture.
'You gave me your words. You were bound to it and so I trusted you. I trusted you!' she flinched as his voice rose a notch.
Each of his words conveyed to her his deep fury.
'I'm sorry. Please forgive me beast,' she mouthed again, still yet to find her lost voice.
They stared at each other for a very long time before he spoke again, their eyes reading the varying emotions in their gazes.
'You, you played with my trust."
It was an accusation, and his voice was loud enough for the whole empire to hear.
'You took it for granted. You deceived me,' he continued.
She fought back her tears.
'How dare I forgive you Rose?' he asked her, addressing her by something else except for "Mine" for the first time.
So, that was her name, Rose?
Well, she couldn't ask him that now, could she?
'I'm not someone to be trifled with,' he told her next, his voice carrying so much venom that she thought she would die from the chronic poison.
She swallowed in trepidation.
'I'm sorry,' she said again.
This time, she was audible, having found her voice.
He said nothing for a second or two, his hard gaze lingering on her face, terrifying her.
His gaze dropped to her dress and the look of disgust that she had noted in his eyes earlier returned.
He turned away from her quickly, his anger accelerating.
He walked away from her, apparently to cool off some of his choking steam.
'I detest that dress,' he snapped at her turning back to her.
Her eyes instantly dilated.
'I hate to see you in it!' he began to approach her with betraying malicious intent in his furious sable eyes.
'No, don't!' she yelped, embracing herself protectively.
Zoë stood adjacent to both, watching the nasty ongoings with a smug smile on her bitchy face.
Let the bitch suffer, she thought, she deserves it.
Fairy stared a little frightened for her friend.
The little Prince hurried to stand between the both of them, shielding her from him.
'Get out of my way,' he bellowed at the third Prince alongside a hand gesture.
Fairy shivered unconsciously from the fright that the sound of his voice caused to grip her.
'First,' he addressed the emperor, 'do not do such here,' he reprimanded him.
'She disobeyed me.'
'But you can't do that here,' the third Prince stressed in a pressing voice.
'I wasn't going to and you know it,' he sneered at him.
The third Prince only sighed at his words.
Sometimes, his brother was quite unpredictable, especially when he was as angry as he was now.
He didn't trust him in this scenario, not even a bit.
Though he didn't think he would do such.
Such contradictory thoughts ran through his skull, pestering his brain.
'Forget it,' he requested, 'and tamper justice with mercy.'
His plea removed some of the emperor's steam.
'She's only young and naïve. She'll make mistakes, of course, and you have to forgive her despite it all,' he ratiocinated.
'She trifled with me!' he stressed. 'She keeps trifling with me! It's an insult to my status! I will not have her repeat this. I shall have to punish her, mercy or no mercy!' he bellowed.
'I didn't say you shouldn't first, I'm only asking you to go easy on her,' he said stepping away from afore her and then offering her to the big bad wolf.
She nearly ran and clung to him.
But, she didn't because she didn't want to call down another of the beast's wrath by clinging to any man that wasn't him at the moment, in the heat of his overflowing anger.
'I shall,' the emperor assured his brother who sighed with a forlorn look in his eyes.
He pitied the lady but could do absolutely nothing to shield her from his brother's ire.
It was not his place to save her from his fury.
He would only be an unwanted meddler in the catastrophe.
'Please,' she begged, 'Please,' she chorused in a shattered dispirited voice.
'No, you've used up all of your chances,' he told her.
Her lips parted in silent terror.
'You gave me your word and went back on it. I already told you this before; I will not be blamed for whatsoever happens.'
His voice crushed her to pieces. She knew that he had said so and she had agreed to it.
'I'm sorry,' she whispered through a storm of tears, begging frantically, afraid of this beast afore her and his unquenchable fury.
'You are not sorry Rose,' he told her. 'I will make you sorry,' he assured her wickedly in a voice that could freeze water.
She gaped, uncertain wether to breathe or scream.
'Please,' she mouthed inaudibly.
Her lips quivered with her plea as she shrinked away.
She was condemned, doomed.
'My lord.'
Peter's voice interrupted him, halting him from saying whatever he had wanted to say to her.
He turned to the man.
'The bathe in your bedroom is ready my lord,' he conveyed to his master who only nodded.
He went to her.
She stared at him.
'You shall totally regret that you did this to me,' he said to only her hearing.
She shuddered greatly in terror, trembling in fear of what was to come.
Her shoulders hunched and her eyes widened in fright.
She put out her right hand in defense, fingers wide.
"Please," she mouthed, alarmed as shivers ran down her spine.
She gasped as he lifted her into his arms bridal style.
He began to take her away, to his living quarters.
The blood drained from her skin as her entire body grew still.
'First,' the third Prince called after him. 'Please be lenient with her,' he pleaded again.
The emperor ignored him.
'Please do not let any harm come to her,' he warned.
The emperor stopped on the third stair and turned to him.
His eyes were glazed with a dark and intense emotion.
'I won't Little,' he assured the third Prince sarcastically.
But it was enough for him.
'I can't let harm come to her for I will never forgive myself if such were to happen to her and you know it,' he added with a growl.
The little Prince nodded, reassured at his words.
Now that she had the time to ponder on it, she realized that the feeling, the heat enclosing her meant only one thing.
It was delight and affection.
She was pleased that he didn't want harm to come to her.
He gave the third Prince one last look and with that, he turned and took her up the stairs, to his bedroom.
.
..OmaPhinaPhire