18 | ACT I, SCENE XVIII

P R E V I O U S L Y

The remaining tiles slid back with a groaning, rusty scream, revealing a gaping opening - pitch black tunnel with steps leading under. I could hardly believe my own eyes, damn it, because this was absolutely not happening. There was a secret passage under the Citadel.

CARLEIGH PALACE, SUNCAIRN, ELLESMERE.

VERONA

"DOES NESSA LIKE LILIES?" LLEWELLYN asked me shyly, taking a swig of the ginger root beer as I broke into fits of laughter.

My uncle's pathetic attempts at flirting with aunt Vanessa were hilarious to watch. She always had a look of innocent surprise as he'd solemnly try to woo her. Father took great pride in teasing his sister at every chance he got by pressing mother close to his chest and kissing her.

"She hates lilies," I scowled at him, and a solemn, pained look crossed his face.

"What does she like? Roses? Carnations?"

"I'll tell you if you get another bottle of root beer tomorrow. Make that two," I said, grinning.

"You wicked thing," he teased, wringing his hands. "Just like your father."

"Yes, yes, don't go on. I have my father's hair, my mother's eyes, my great grandfather's balls, blah, blah, blah... Do we have a deal, uncle?"

His eyes glinted as he clicked his tongue disapprovingly, chuckling.

"If your Amphitrite finds out about the beer, she'll skin me alive."

"She's out with father right now," I reminded with a tricky smile. "They won't know. Get the beer, and I'll tell you which flowers Vanessa likes so you can flirt with her."

"I'm not very good at flirting," Llewellyn rubbed his nose abashedly, rather self conscious.

"I'll teach you," I promised with a devilish grin, and his lips tugged up in an adorable smile.

"Tomorrow, then," he said, marching towards the gates with his nose in the nose in the air.

"She loves chocolates! Dark. She hates vanilla," I called after him, smiling to myself.

"Thanks!" he grinned. "Owe you one."

"You owe me two!" I wailed. "Are you going back to Stormholt?"

He dejectedly nodded. "It's cold as hell there. Edwina and Tristan really know how to make everyone miserable."

"But... the way she looks at him, it's like she wants to tear off his clothes!" I exclaimed, surprised.

"Ah, you don't tell me," Llewellyn added. "Every time Tristan looks at her, I'm half afraid he'll push her right against a wall and kiss her senseless."

"I know," I gave him a knowing smirk. "Is it happening? I think he's found his match in that fierce woman."

"I'd pay good money to watch that," he muttered slyly, gleefully rubbing his hands together. "Well... I must go. The builders needed my help with something, I am the god of stones and earthy elements, after all," he declared importantly, puffing his chest.

"Why, you're no better than your brother!" I chuckled, flicking his nose. "Go!"

"Tomorrow," Llewellyn said loftily, prancing about the grass and giving me a wave. "And don't flick the nose, you know how red it gets!"

"Tomorrow!" I waved at him, and he grinned, then teleported, disappearing on the spot.

I started to trudge back to my home, the Carleigh Palace. I wondered when my parents would be home. They'd been out since afternoon, but now it was getting dark.

Suddenly, I felt footsteps behind me.

Before I turned around it see who it was, someone slipped a bag around my head and knocked me with something hard, as the world went black.

• • • • •

WEDGEMORE, NORMOUNT.

TRISTAN

"Deimos!" I barked sternly, raising my voice as I pushed past the crowd of greedy buyers, "what the fuck is the meaning of this?"

Deimos was lazily standing next to the platform with a whip coiled in hand, radiating tendrils of danger as he raised his purple eyes to look at me. His expression did not change a bit.

"You stay out of this, Valmont," he hissed, flicking the whip in the air. It struck one of the slaves at his feet as he cowered fearfully and the girls on the platform flinched at the sight of the red mark he inflicted.

"It's King Valmont to you now," Eros stepped up from beside me, his grey eyes turning serious as he looked at his brother. "Why are you doing this?"

"Stop this. Right now," I hissed, and a hand went to the sword at my side, resting on the hilt. "Slave trade is illegal in Endollon."

"As far as I recall, there is no law that forbids me," Deimos sneered, drawing out his own sword. "Perhaps you forget that you are not in Stormholt anymore, your Grace. This is my Kingdom, and I shall do as I wish."

"Perhaps you forget that I am High King now, Everly," I growled in a deep voice, frigid and cold to the core. "Which means that if I tell you to stop, you stop. Right now."

"Please... let me go!" a high pitched scream from behind me forced me to tear my eyes away from Deimos, and I turned back to find a huge man trying to wrestle a young girl into chains. She resisted, trying to break free, but the man was clearly larger. The man twisted her hands behind her, securing it with a chain, as she cried out in pain.

I suddenly saw her face and froze.

She had striking purple eyes and golden hair streaked with grime and dirt, muddy just like the rest of her injured skin.

She was the commodity Deimos had been trying to sell at such a high price.

Anger welled up in me at the plight and I made to her, now drawing out my sword with the intention of teaching the larger man a lesson he would never forget.

"You bastard," I spat.

"Please!" she screamed, and tears ran down her cheeks as I heard a bone crack and she sobbed. My fist connected with the larger man's nose and knocked him on the ground.

"You ass-" he shouted, holding a hand to his bleeding nose, lunging at me. I neatly leapt out of his way and he hit the ground head first. I towered over him, cornering him, a knife at his throat.

"Mind explaining what you were about to do?" I questioned. The man laughed and his hand raised to punch me as I swept it aside carelessly, crushing the bones of his knuckles.

"Get off me," he snarled, and I pressed the tip of the knife deeper into his neck.

"Not before you tell me what is going on," I hissed angrily. "How dare you manhandle a lady like that? She is a person, not an animal, you dumb idiot!"

"Let me go," he croaked. "This is not my doing. Deimos made me do it. The Derwentwater is drying up, his gold is disappearing with it. So he asked me to round up all the fertile girls in Normount so he could sell them for a price."

I violently released him before nodding to one of the guards of my retinue, who got my signal and started to drag him up, chaining him. I would deal with him later.

"Please... please, it hurts," I heard the girl whisper somewhere, and found her sobbing over something on the grass, clutching at something that was making a pitiful noise.

"Enough. Now be a good girl and come up here before I make you," Deimos said coldly, pushing past Eros and roughly hauling her up by her broken arm as she let out a howl of pain. He kicked her aside, dragging her to the platform.

"Please!" she cried, trying to resist, but he picked her up effortlessly and sat her down on the stage, taking up the whip himself and addressing the silent crowd of buyers.

"As I said," he continued, apparently pleased with himself, "a hundred silvers for her. Have you seen her eyes? Such lovely eyes. Schooled in the arts of-"

"-let me go!" she screamed, breaking into fits of tears, trying to escape his vise like grip.

"Silent, girl!" Deimos roared, and this time his eyes darkened and he raised his whip once more, sending it down with a crack and a hiss on the golden haired girl.

I protectively pulled her behind me as she shook with fear, eyes on the whip.

The leather struck my cheek instead of hers.

• • • • •

The slap of the whip tearing my skin open resonated loud and clear as everyone within a twenty foot radius fearfully looked at Deimos. You could have heard the blood trickling down my cheek and dripping to the ground. But the only sensation I felt was undiluted disgust and pure anger, even more fierce than before. How could an eons old god even think of laying a hand on a ten year old girl?

"You... you struck the High King of Endollon..." Eros spluttered, shaking like a leaf, moving his eyes from Deimos to me.

"God save us... you shouldn't have done that, Lord Everly," a richly dressed man spoke from the crowd, face whitening.

"Please... Tristan," Eros pleaded, but then he saw the glare in my eyes and backed away, flinching.

"Enough," I uttered in a venomous tone, my voice deadly silent as the skin closed over quickly, healed already. Yet the evidence of the blood still remained.

"You got in my way," Deimos spoke through gritted teeth, rolling his whip. "Move."

"She is not a goat or a cow, you bastard," I spat. "Unhand the rest of them," I glared at the women paraded on the stage. The girl behind me clutched at the sleeves of my shirt, and I pressed her to me securely, wrapping her in the confines of my cloak as she wept into the fabric, clutching her arm.

"This is not your circus. Not your monkeys. Get out," Deimos said. "I need my money, and I will do what I have to get it."

"You won half the Derwentwater, you stupid fool!" I said furiously. "A river that turns things to gold. Perhaps if you spent less money on gilded chamber pots, you wouldn't have to make a living off girls centuries younger than you!"

The harsh comment left my lips as pure silence descended on us. It was deafening.

"They were mine," Deimos growled agitatedly. "Get the fuck out of here, Valmont, and let me do what I was doing."

"Wedgemore Keep is built out of solid gold. Melt it down, Everly," I spat, referring to the seat of House Everly, an enormous Keep fashioned of pure gold from the Derwentwater.

"I will do as I like," he threatened, stomping his foot on the ground.

"No wonder your children are as vile as you. The apple did not fall far from the tree," I countered, clenching my fists.

For a moment, Deimos looked taken aback.

I leaned in closer, hovering near his ear as my hand tightened around my knife.

"Now that we're talking man to man, Lord Everly," I began softly, my voice a threatening whisper. "The next time I see you parading slaves in Normount," I paused for a moment, phrasing my words, "-I will strip you naked and do the same to you."

I took the whip from his hands, as he froze, looking at me white eyed and shocked. Coiling it neatly, I dropped it into his palm and lingered near his back.

"The next time perhaps, Deimos... I'll try my hand at using your whip," I finished, turning on my heel away from him.

• • • • •

Aha.. this was a filler chapter - but the next one is longer and jam packed, I promise! Ps. What do you think happened to Verona? Someone kidnapped her! Keep guessing, until next week! Do vote please :)