Princess Reviled

by Butler, J. M.

  Amelia ground her teeth against one another, cursing the tears that rose. She would not have her grief misunderstood. The sight of the others in line brought back her sternness and sealed the tightness of her mouth. She met the gaze of all who approached her, each of the nobles and the final two of the newly appointed elder commanders until Vorec came at the last. His face and neck required even less patching now as his healing had progressed. He glowered at her as he stepped closer. "I am grateful the king has finally listened to reason. Even if he would not heed it all. You deserve far worse than this."

  "I am not finished," Amelia said.

  "I think you are." Vorec ripped both her sleeves, leaving her scarred arms exposed entirely. The material hung on by mere threads. Gasps of horror rippled out from the crowd. "There is no doubt of the monster now."

  Amelia deadened herself further to the emotions. She would not break though the heat of shame raged through her. Should she drag him to the deep mindreading? She cast the thought aside. Who knew what she might find in there? Instead she focused on the grey iris of his eyes and the silver and cobalt specks, willing all of her anger and pain at him, hoping that he would feel it.

  He maintained eye contact for five breaths longer, then winced. Shaking his head, he scoffed but his voice was strained. "Rabid pinchat," he muttered before stepping away.

  Amelia tightened her grip on her own fists, feeling the fabric flutter in the wind. Those who had already had their turn at humiliating her had returned to their box, and they stared openly. Linufe covered his mouth, his shoulders slumping. Queen Alita had turned her face down, hiding everything. The elder commanders watched, seemingly aghast, with the exception of Vorec who maintained his look of assured satisfaction as he returned to his seat. King Theol studied her as well, his expression slightly twisted from its previous appearance of detached observation. Somehow his thought was the one that crossed to her through the morass of horror below. "How?"

  Amelia focused on him and shot the response back, the cold anger intensifying the thought that answered his question. "I didn't cooperate with Naatos."

  King Theol too averted his gaze and closed his eyes briefly.

  The five delegates from Nalthume and Reda continued to watch. A narrow-bearded man spoke to a woman in blue velvet. She whispered back, disgust tinging her otherwise refined features.

  Consul Justice stood on the end of the platform. She kept her hands folded before herself, her posture dignified and erect. When she turned her attention to King Theol, the king shook his head almost imperceptibly. The faintest of frowns shadowed her face, but Consul Justice blinked it away and strode forward into the middle of the platform. "Treachery cannot be tolerated in any form. Betrayal is unacceptable at all times. She who was once our princess is no more." An attendant strode up onto the platform with a large pitcher of water, followed by another. "Lives were lost through this traitor's calloused self-absorption. Lives were ruined through this conspirator's vicious indulgence. Lives were destroyed through this hypocrite's cold baselessness. The lives lost, ruined, and destroyed must be paid for. Let all mark and sign of the traitor be removed. No remembrance of this cursed one maintained. And may no punishment or blame or guilt or tribulation fall upon us because of her." Consul Justice turned then to the third and newly arrived attendant who carried a large bucket. Picking it up, she turned to face Amelia. "May you alone bear the mark and shame of your acts and your omissions." With that, she flung the contents at her.

  Amelia barely turned her face before the blood struck her. The bead screamed within her mind, straining to break free and thrust her into the cold as the thick red streams ran down her body, her hands bound too low for her to shield herself or wipe her face.

  "Libysha and her leadership have done all that they can." Consul Justice returned the bucket to the attendant and then turned to the remaining two. The first poured clean water into the basin. Consul Justice washed her spotless hands in the water and then held them up. "May they be free from any blight or mar that flows from that which was once family, friend, and royal."

  The attendants carried the vessels of water to the nobles, royals, and elder commanders. One by one, they all washed their hands. Queen Alita trembled but did as the others, still refusing to even glance in Amelia's direction. King Theol washed his hands last. As he dried the water, he spoke again, his voice haggard. "Consul Justice has spoken. There is no princess. Sentence has been pronounced. Now let it be carried out. Blessings and prosperity to Libysha. Death and destruction to her enemies."

  28

  Courtyard Shame

  Amelia focused all her energy on restraining the ice within her mind, the cold that threatened to overtake her. If she broke into the cold now, she would be shot down as an animal. There would be no opportunity to fix things or do more than perish. Amid the boos and japes of the crowd, two guards unchained her and then dragged her down the wooden staircase to the closest outer courtyard and to a cage set on a cart. The cage, though tall, was barely long enough for her to lie down in. Straw lined the bottom. When they flung her in, Amelia remained on her hands and knees, staring at the cracked foundation.

  The metal door slammed behind her. A loud grating signaled that the lock too had fallen into place.

  Amelia counted her breaths. Her arms shook, and the dull ache through her core continued to spread, worse than the agony of the flogging.

  It had happened.

  It was finished.

  Slowly she stood. Her hair hung in large wet clumps around her shoulders, still damp with blood. It stained her clothes and skin. Even though she wiped at her face, nothing removed the stench.

  The one good thing was that this cage had been situated in an enclosed section of the courtyard. No one to stare. No one to mock. Not that it mattered.

  She wiped her face again, then leaned her forehead against the cool metal. What was she supposed to do?

  The door creaked, then footsteps drew closer.

  Amelia did not look up.

  A dark figure moved within her line of sight, then turned, its back to her. "I know that this has been difficult for you, but you must be quiet. There are some things that need to be said in private."

  Anger roiled in Amelia as she recognized King Theol's voice. "Is there something you wanted?" Her grip tightened on the cell bars. "You may be a king, but I cannot believe you actually had the gall to come here after everything you've done. You know I'm not a traitor, you know—"

  "Yes." King Theol nodded, but he kept his back to her. "This is not what your mother and I—"

  "I've been exiled and all reference to me has been stricken from the record," Amelia said. "I don't think you should be referring to me in any way as your child."

  "This was not what we wanted, but it was the only choice we had," King Theol said, his tone harsher this time. "Now be quiet and listen. As you may have guessed, things went badly with our diplomatic efforts. Our allies wanted your execution. You must not return to any inhabited city of Libysha, but if you are able, you should get to the Tue-Rah and leave. The Tue-Rah will remain out of sync until all the others have been restored. Vorec sent someone there to put the crystal back into place and cast the Para bands through. I sent another to ensure it was done. I cannot be troubled with the plight of the other worlds. My focus must remain here on Libysha."

  Amelia despised herself for even wanting to return to this place for all those wasted years. "Your focus is small."

  "Perhaps so. But I have ordered that your belongings not be taken from you. There are additional supplies as well." King Theol placed two good-sized satchels into the cage, sliding them through the bars. He still took care to keep his face hidden. "We all are responsible for our own actions, and I must answer for Libysha and for my family. There are things you can't possibly understand."

  Amelia shot him a glare. "I understand enough."

  "It is not necessary that I be here," King Theol said. "I do this because you are my daughter—"

&n
bsp; "Do not call me that ever again," Amelia said. "I know why they hate me. I understand why they hate me. But you…" She bit her tongue, the rage building to a peak. "All I can do is beg that you don't do anything more foolish. You are about to cost your people that you claim to love even more. You cannot kill Naatos and his brothers. They need to be alive to restore the Tue-Rahs."

  "If Elonumato wills that they survive, then nothing that we do will be enough to destroy them. I must do what I must for the good of this nation."

  "When Vawtrians are near death or threatened, they have a powerful burst of energy that—"

  "Amelia, your beliefs about Vawtrians are childish at best," King Theol said. "Death will find a way. If you and the Machat were less focused on keeping those three alive, you would all be in better positions."

  "What about the Machat?" Amelia frowned.

  "They have been incessant in their attempts to convince us of their position. We have been forced to place many under arrest." King Theol sighed. "I am not blind or deaf to your pleas, Inale, nor to your perspective. But what you and the Machat fail to realize is that there are more immediate concerns with protecting a nation."

  "You're imprisoning the Machat! For what? Are you going to arrest the whole race?" Amelia stared at him in disbelief. "They're prophets. If they're telling you to do something, don't you think you should listen? They can see the future!"

  "For seeing the future, they have done little to avoid being caught," King Theol said tensely. "Inale—"

  "I am Amelia."

  "Amelia…" King Theol bowed his head, shoulders tensing. "I hope that it will be of some comfort to you that your friends, the ones who tried to free you, will not be prosecuted further. Once you are gone, they will be placed on probation. You must not return here. I have instructed the guard to take you to the edge of Libysha and then to release you unharmed into the otherlands and to be provided with one of the horses. The stretch of land between the nations. If you take the back way, keeping the Mallakish Mountains in sight, it will take you a day or so to reach the Tue-Rah, and from there, I suggest that you go to Ecekom. Or anywhere else that you choose. You must not return here, or I will be forced to have you executed."

  "I will do what I must." Amelia pulled away from the bars and stepped to the back. She folded her arms tight over her dress. The drying blood crinkled against her skin.

  "Amelia…" King Theol pressed his hand to his brow. "Do not make it harder than it must be."

  "If Elonumato wills it, then let it be so."

  "I understand your anger. But do not give in—"

  "I'm not angry." Amelia tightened the grip of her fists. "I am enraged, and I am barely holding myself together."

  "This doesn't mean—"

  "Do not insult me any further by claiming that this doesn't mean you don't love me. I recognize that you are in a difficult position. That there are things with our allies that I do not entirely understand. Though given the supposed strength of Libysha, it would seem that whatever your allies hold over you must be some dark and terrifying thing. But no matter how hard it was for you or your wife, you owed me far more than you gave. I did not deserve any of this. And Vorec! You didn't even chastise him for having me flogged. I was flogged! Publicly!" Amelia caught herself as the scream tore out and then ground it back down, gritting her teeth together. "There is no justice or righteousness in anything that happened today. You're little better than Naatos. Justice is nothing except a means to an end for you. It's for the greater good. Always for the greater good so that you can crush the skulls of those who block your path without having to suffer the guilt of accepting what you've done."

  "If you are found within this nation again, you will be buried in a pit beside your husband and your grave will be sealed with mortar like his and his brothers." King Theol stood straighter, his shoulders squaring. "Do not think that the burden I feel will grant you any leniency. I know what is best for my nation in the end, and I will ensure she receives it."

  "You and Vorec are very much the same too. I thought he was a brute and you naive. But you're just two expressions of the same phrase."

  "He and I were at odds in this matter. I was foolish to think that I could let any softness of the heart guide my actions and my conduct. Both the elder commander and I love Libysha, and we both know that there are times when what must be done may result in our own legacies being sullied, but we do it anyway because we have the future in mind." King Theol shook his head, his voice thickening. "And you can claim that we did not care about you, but that will never make it true." He remained silent for a breath, then wiped his eyes. "May Elonumato guide you." He began to leave.

  "I have one more observation, Father." Amelia leaned against the bars, almost pleased to see the pained way he stopped. He hinged slightly, then straightened, looking once more at the gateway. "Today was the first time you and the queen ever acknowledged me publicly. You spent more time and wealth preparing to disown and exile me than you ever did in making me feel welcome. The only thing you may have spent more on was the labyrinth you locked me in."

  King Theol bowed his head. "It's…complicated." His voice was little more than a whisper.

  "Not really." Amelia pulled the bags in farther and took the two paces to the end of the cage. "And you know I'm innocent. That I'm not a traitor. Because if I was a traitor, all I had to do the whole time was open that damned cell door."

  "The fact that you did the right thing should console you. Elonumato rewards—"

  "That doesn't make you right." Amelia stared after him. Warnings pricked within her mind not to push him too far, but the rawness of her nerves ignored it. The weakness that she had sensed in him was clear now, the strings that pulled him apparent. Hatred toward herself rose most prominently of all. "And if you really believe that, then you should be terrified of the price you will have to pay. Even if you don't, what you have done is—" She struggled to find the words.

  "I will pray that Elonumato has favor on you in the new world," King Theol said. "May He have mercy on your soul."

  Amelia suppressed the scream that rose in her chest. "Pray for me to have favor?" she repeated softly, then louder, "Favor?" The muscles of her body tightened, clenching. She fought to smother the rage as it grew stronger and stronger. "Pray instead that I don't become what you feared."

  29

  Second Chair

  In the closeness of that cage with all her rage building, Amelia had never felt more like an animal. She grasped at her arms, hugging herself tight, digging her nails deep into her flesh. It was barely three paces from one end of the cage to the other, two from width to width, but she moved and strode and grasped at her hair because the madness intensified, the cold shrieking for her to let it grow. Some vague fear rose within her each time it pulsed, reminding her of the woman in her dreams. Her voice shrieked in Amelia's head, cackling and tormenting her at her failure.

  She had to collect herself. Had to figure a way out of this. Where was Elonumato? Why was He never sending anyone to help her when she really needed it? What was the point of all this?

  Her wrist caught on a strand of tangled hair. Ripping it out, she cast the hair aside. It didn't even hurt. The fever of her own madness sent warnings in the back of her mind. But this wasn't an illness. This was rage. Every wrong and violation, every suffered moment and anguished sacrifice, played back in her mind at a speed so rapid that she could skim through it in five breaths before it began all over again.

  Stop! She grabbed at her head, digging her fingers into her scalp. Her breaths quickening, she worked through the steps for escape. She had to pick the locks. Yes. That was the first thing. But not now. The driver would be coming at any moment to—

  A faint electrical warning pulsed up from the backs of her knees and through her chest. Amelia released her head and glanced toward the entrance just as Vorec strode through. He still wore his ceremonial plates and blues, the silver embellishments shining in the sunlight like Consul Justice's ador
nments. He walked with a much easier stride now, his pace almost casual even though he carried…a chair.

  His presence sent Amelia into an immediate repossession of herself. Whatever weakness she felt, whatever madness cracked within the confines of her skull, she would not let him see. Amelia straightened her shoulders. "Hello, Vorec."

  "Amelia." Vorec set the chair down, his hands on the back. "I wanted to see you before you left."

  Amelia resisted the urge to fold her arms over her chest, instead choosing to set her arms akimbo. Her shoulders ached with the tension. "I am sure you are very pleased."

  "More relieved actually. When I came for you, I was all but convinced that I would be convicted of treason. Yet Elonumato has shown great favor to me. Not only did the king ultimately accept my actions but it reassured the diplomats who returned with him that you did not have the sway they feared. Libysha has taken a blow today, there is no question about that. But she will recover. And your exile, though not precisely what I desired, will be enough to quell concerns our allies have rightly held. It is good to know that today all the monsters will be eliminated and that all will go precisely where they belong."

  "You are making a very big mistake. I'm not even sure if I should warn you anymore. It's obvious. Maybe you deserve what comes. And when Naatos and his brothers do get out, I'm not sure how sad I am to think about what they'll do," Amelia said.

  "So much for your compassion." Vorec sat, chuckling darkly. "I always knew what you were, Amelia. And I warned everyone. No one listened until now. Sometimes I even had doubts myself. But I always knew."

  "Are you trying to tell me that it takes a monster to know a monster?" Amelia asked. "That perhaps we aren't really that dissimilar?"