The Goddesses Throne

by A. Kingsley

  “Antoine please, we were just seen walking out of the arena together. What are people going to think? You were just helping me through a hard time.”

  His voice was steady and calm. “They are going to think I am in love with you. This is how the world works. They will believe that I am trying to steal you from the prince. Now princess, what is it?”

  “I feel strange around Prince Julius.”

  “And he feels strange around you.” As soon as Antoine saw that shocked look spread across her face, he put a hand over his lips. “No, no, no. I should not have said that. You know, I did not even mean that. Sometimes I lie. Oh I am actually such a liar,” he was rambling in attempts to fix his mistake.

  “He does? I know you are not lying. Why does he feel that way?”

  The carriage came to a halt and the two of them crashed into one another. Antoine quickly pulled away from her, pushing his glasses up to his nose.

  “I don’t know, you two need to talk to one another. I refuse to get involved. Now please I beg you, get out of this carriage and please princess do not talk about this again until we are alone.”

  Clare huffed. She got back out of the carriage and one of the guard’s escorted her up to the spare bedroom, Antoine trailed a few feet behind them, cradling his book in his hand like he would a newborn child.

  On their way to the bedroom, a little boy ran up to them. He didn’t look like the Demetrias’s. He had olive tan skin and dark wood colored hair. His eyes were a deep hazel green and freckles dusted his small face. He was short and scrawny, but bursting with energy. “Italus,” the guard greeted. “The princess does not feel well, you must excuse us.”

  “She looks like Maximus!” He said as he pointed to her hair. “Rest well princess!”

  “Thank you Italus,” she beamed, smiling just for him. Once the little boy left, the guard continued their journey to the bedroom. “Prince Julius will not mind if Antoine accompanies you. If you need me, I will be just outside your door. I will remove him at any time,” the guard told her.

  “Thank you, but I assure you that won’t be necessary,” Clare said as the guard shut the door, leaving her and Antoine alone.

  “My luggage must be here, let me find your painting.”

  “No,” he whispered. “I don’t want you to change the subject, not yet. What do you need my help with? It was rude of me to refuse out of terror. You are a princess, I am me, I over reacted, I should help you, it’s my job to help not only Julius, but everyone he cares about.”

  Clare rolled her shoulders back, “you can still refuse me. I will not obligate you to say yes. Tomorrow I leave on a retreat with Cassius to learn valuable information. I do not fully trust him. I want you there as well, I want you to meet us on our trip a few days after we’ve started.”

  “I can not help you if I do not know what information you are looking to discover. You have just met me, you’re being silly.”

  “Magic,” she whispered, her voice barely heard. “But I trust you, I can just feel you are a good person. We had an instant connection, there is no denying it.”

  His mouth opened when he realized she was talking about the green glow, Julius had been right. “Maybe we did, maybe we do, but no, Cassius would be furious.”

  “He’ll only be upset at first, I promise after a while that he won’t mind. Surely there is something out in this world that you desire, that you want to discover. Your family serves, but what is it that you want?”

  Antoine tugged at the ends of his blonde hair, “it does not matter what I want. Cassius will kill me if I show up and if it is not Cassius then it will be some monster and if it is not some monster, it will be the people when they find out that I have been accompanying you. I want to survive Clare. I want to continue serving the prince and continue to bring back money to my family. But I want to help you too. Magic is a dangerous thing, especially for a young woman to carry. I will help you, but I beg of you, to help me come out of this alive.”

  He was pleading to her in the quietest voice that he could manage. Clare was a young girl, only a year younger than him, but she was a princess and any man would be foolish not to care for a princess. They’d be an even bigger fool not to care for a tender and kind soul like Clare. She had been right, there was an instant connection when they first met, something that he had never felt before.

  Clare took his hands in her own. They were warm and overworked, “I will do my best to bring you out of this alive, though I don’t see that as an issue. If I may ask how do you know about the danger of magic?”

  “My cousin had magic. One day I saw her slip, from an innocent young girl, to someone frightened and afraid. She told me and I was a coward. I stayed away from her. I am alive and she is not. She was hung for the power she possessed by a group of evil people and when she was gone, they extracted the magic from her. I am afraid that they could do that to you. As much as I want to live and how much scared I am of death, if it is my assistance that keeps you from suffering a cruel fate, then I will help you. But you still need to talk to Prince Julius about what you are feeling, that is not my conversation to have with him princess.”

  “Antoine?”

  “Yes?”

  She pulled him in towards her chest, he awkwardly froze, his hands sticking out near her sides. “Thank you,” she said sweetly.

  He let his arms relax behind her as he rested his head against her shoulder. “You’re welcome,” he said quietly.

  The UndeaD

  Sage had not been enjoying herself. Julius’s company was nice, but that was the only good thing about the event. Her sister was gone once again and out of her sight and men were being killed before her eyes. At least Cassius had left her sight, he had left their booth to sit next to his parents. Gracielle struck up a conversation with him. Though Sage had tried to talk to Cassius’s parents, Erebus had not been fond of talking politics with her. He dismissed her and turned back to his wife who had given her a tender look as an apology. Towards the end of the event Sage had almost fallen asleep. The event was scheduled to last all day, but when Maximus got bored, they were allowed to leave. Eventually he and his lover got tired. Maximus and Julius stood and waved to the crowd. The people cheered and as they applauded, Maximus gave them permission to leave.

  “I have to talk to your sister when we get back to the castle,” Julius said awkwardly as he grabbed Sage’s arm.

  She pulled away from him, her eyes hot. “You don’t get to be mysterious and pretend to be sweet. I hope you know whatever you say to her will come back to me. Don’t you dare try to hide anything from me.”

  Julius winced, that fire in her eyes scared him. “Well then I guess I will talk to both of you when I get back home. I hope you are both very good secret keepers.”

  “I do just fine,” Sage said, she walked in front of him to avoid talking to him. She heard Maximus laughing up front, his eyes staring at the two of them,“oh shut up,” Sage scolded. She got in the carriage with her mother and slammed the door.

  Gracielle raised an eyebrow. “What did a man do to upset you, this time?”

  “You say that as if it happens all the time,” she said as she watched her mother smirk. Sage groaned out in frustration,“okay, so what if it happens a lot? Men are irritating. You should have put me in an arranged marriage with a woman, my life would be less infuriating.”

  “If that was an option I would have, but there are no other princesses in Europe besides Cisily and according to Adria and Erebus, she does not count. Aren’t you happy with Julius?”

  “Typically, just not right now.”

  “Well that does happen sometimes, your father and I didn’t always get along.”

  Sage did her best to think back to her early childhood, to remember a moment where her mother and father fought, but she couldn’t remember a time and it infuriated her. Their relationship always seemed so perfect. Wade would kiss Gracielle on the cheek when he returned home from work, they would eat dinner together every nig
ht, bathe together and sleep in the same bed. Whenever he had the chance to be, he was attached to her hip. They took their space when they needed it, but most days they were together. Her memories of her father always included her mother. She had one distinct memory of him alone, when he handed her his sword, the blade was covered and it was placed in a clear box with a lock on top of it. “I am giving you this because I have to go away soon, so I can protect our kingdom. Just keep it in your room until your mum lets you use it and unlocks it for you. Treat it well.” Then he kissed her on the cheek. That was the last time she had seen him. She opened her mouth to speak, to tell her mother that she missed him or that they seemed perfect together, but she didn’t wish to upset her, so she stayed quiet.

  When they arrived at the castle, Sage had calmed down a bit. During the carriage ride her mother had started up an odd conversation about the different kinds of frogs she had seen down by the moat and Sage listened with intrigue and concern. At least it had taken her mind off of things. When she stepped out of the carriage she rejoined Julius. They hurried up the stairs of the castle, avoiding the adults. The guard showed them both to Clare’s guest bedroom. When the door opened, Clare and Antoine were laying on the bed, admiring a painting. She noticed her sister and jolted up, shoving the painting back into his hands.

  “Julius do you need something?” Antoine asked, clearing his throat.

  “No, but you may stay for this conversation.”

  Julius sat at the end of the bed and Sage sat down on the other side of Clare. The two sisters exchanged confused looks.

  Julius was quiet at first. He seemed to be formulating his thoughts, wondering how to phrase what he was going to say. “Clare. I know you have magic. You didn’t have to tell me, I didn’t have to overhear it, I just knew.” He took another breath. “Oh Oralee, Sage please promise you won’t run away after hearing this.”

  He met her eyes, she didn’t seem happy. Her arms were folded over her chest, her lips dropped in a pout.

  He continued despite her lack of acknowledgment. “The reason I could figure this out is because there is magic inside of me.” Audible gasps escaped the sister’s lips. He kept going in a panic. “I am not a user, I can not use magic. Please let me explain. The night that Cassius’s father and his guards broke into the castle. I died. Maximus is my twin and we can not live without one another. He took me to a man in the mountains and asked him if there was anything that he could do. He was a man with good magic that had turned dark and because he cared for his king, he brought me back to life. He had already revived one of his own family members. I guess once a healer revives there is no turning back. It took a week for me to come to, but I did. I am normal, just a bit clumsy and a little robotic at times. I’ve lost nearly all of my childhood memories before the age of twelve, Max has had to talk me through them. I promise I am no ghost, no spirit, but I was once dead. Any questions?”

  Sage’s fists were clenched tight, her knuckles curling inwards, she was a ball of rage.

  Antoine seemed rather calm, just nervous. As Julius’s servant, this was something he had been entrusted to keep a secret, he wondered how the two girls would take it.

  Clare’s face had brightened a bit, though she wasn’t smiling, the answer to her questions had presented itself. “So the night of the murders, you said that Adria wasn’t present. Yet she is roped into the mess as well? And now not only did he murder two, he murdered three. Speaking of Cassius and his family where is he and do the king and queen know you’ve been revived?” Clare asked.

  Julius shook his head. “Maximus said he’d distract Cassius, so I assume they’re downstairs. Adria wasn’t present the night of the murders, yet she is roped into this mess because she didn’t try hard enough to stop him. But no I do not hate her because even if she tried harder, I’m not sure that she could've stopped him anyways. Though don’t get me wrong, I still am not fond of her. To answer your other question, they do not know that I died. They think I was just badly injured.” He self consciously moved his hand over his shirt, where his scar lay underneath. He looked away from Clare and turned his attention to Sage, “please say something,” he pleaded.

  Her anger had turned into hot tears that she wouldn’t let fall. “How dare you not tell me. You lied to me, you told me that the scar was from a bad wound. Do you not trust me? Don’t you think it’s a bloody good idea to tell the woman you’re supposed to marry that you have been artificially remade? Or that your heart doesn’t beat as fast as it once did?” She stood from the bed ready to storm out the door, but Clare pulled her back down and held her sister in her arms. She rested her head on Sage’s shoulders and rubbed them in hopes to comfort her. If she left now in fury, it wouldn’t look good to the rest of the royals.

  “Hear me out Sage. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to fall out of love with me.”

  “Are you even in love with me Julius?”

  “Can we have this conversation later?” he pleaded.

  “Yes, please let this be a private conversation, but let’s also focus. You know more about magic. Obviously you and Clare feel connected because you share this similarity. What can you tell her to help her? What do you and your brother know?” Antoine asked.

  Julius forced himself not to look at Clare or Sage, instead he focused on the back wall as he spoke. “I know that once a healer revives a human soul they’re lost to the dark. I know that magic is something that certain evil minded folks are trying to steal. That it can be dangerous. I could have woken up scary and malicious if the magic was not performed properly. I can not be certain how, but I know the Goddesses are real. After my experience, my faith strengthened. I thought I saw Oralee while I was out, but I may have been delusional. Clare must be careful. My secret is contained within this room and with Maximus. The man in the mountain sadly passed a year ago, he could not live with the darkness anymore. The knowledge of my secret died with him. Where does your secret lye Clare?”

  “With everyone in this room and Cassius.”

  “Cassius, really? If he tells his father you are done for!” Julius exclaimed.

  Sage shouted back at him. “Watch your tongue.”

  “I’m sorry but it’s true. I have no doubt King Erebus would use magic for something cruel if it came into his possession. I’m sure he supports those trying to acquire it. He would try to take over our kingdoms again if he got a hold of magic, I just know it,” Julius whispered. “We can’t stay in here much longer without Cassius getting suspicious. Sage, please, please talk to me later. Clare, I recommend you visit our temple tonight and pray with anyone accompanying you on your journey, Sage told me a little bit about it.”

  “Cassius and Antoine will be joining me,” she told him.

  Julius raised an eyebrow as he looked over to Antoine. “Oh is he now?”

  “I was going to run away, but I suppose telling you is a bit better isn’t it? I won’t be leaving for a week or so. She convinced me to join her on her journey today.”

  Sage fell out of her sister's embrace, looking rather proud. “Of course she did. Who’s going to watch and make sure Cassius isn’t doing something stupid,” Sage added.

  “Right, well I suppose in the meantime I’ll have to make do with another servant,” he teased. “Now I think we have to go back down to the main floor.”

  Clare stood and waited for her sister to link arms with her. Sage had hesitated between staying behind to speak with Julius or going with her sister. “We will talk about it tonight,” she told Julius. Sage linked arms with Clare and walked down the stairs with her. When Cassius saw the sisters, he immediately broke out of conversation with Maximus. “Oh Clare, there you are. Maximus was chatting with me on and on about eyeshadow and I don’t know if I can hear it any longer.”

  Clare raised an eyebrow at him and smiled at Maximus who looked rather offended. “I would love to talk about eyeshadow with you while my fiancé does something else.” She sat herself down in front of the king. Sage sat b
eside her. Both of them had just sat through something difficult to hear. Maximus radiated a vibrant energy, it was nothing like Julius’s. They were twins but opposites. It was odd that Maximus knew this secret and was acting so normal, but this was his brother and he would conceal their secret with his life. He was the one who had sought out dark magic after all.

  Cassius scoffed. “Well alright then, I see how it is.”

  Erebus emerged from behind the corner, Queen Adria by his side, Gracielle trailed shortly behind. “Or, we could refrain from talking about makeup and discuss the important political matters which you have truly brought us here to discuss,” Erebus proposed, his voice haughty.

  Maximus stepped down from the table he was standing on, his lips drooping into a frown, “party killer, fine.”

  Julius had re emerged, clearing his throat. “I was going to show Clare and Cassius something, is this a conversation that they need to be involved in?”

  Maximus looked over to his brother, his smile returning. “No. Though a shame I did not get to talk about eyeshadow with Clare, she does not have to be involved. Your partner,” he teased, pointing to Sage who still looked cross. “Will stay, she is a future queen after all.”

  The two groups split. Julius took Clare and Cassius somewhere undisclosed while the rest of the royals took their seats.

  Sage had followed her sister with her eyes until she was out of sight. She assumed Julius was going to take them to pray like he had promised. She still trusted him with Clare’s life, but it did not take away from the fact she felt betrayed. Such a large secret, she didn’t know how to feel about it. In a sense, Julius was a walking ghost, not meant to be on this Earth. She shuddered, her eyes settling back on to the people in front of her who had just gotten comfortable in their seats. This time her mother would expect her to participate. Her silence would be valued as ignorance in a setting like this.