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sixteen

Carnaxa

“ H ave fun with that, did you Ereon?” The King startles me as he appears beside the bed.

Ereon pulls me closer to him, shielding me as best as he can from his father. I hide my face in the bend of his arm. I’m still catching my breath, unsure of everything that just happened. One moment I was scared, but Ereon’s voice ... it soothed me.

“It’s time for plal ryow ,” his father announces, and I hear someone stoking the fire behind me, the wood ablaze and whistling through the excitement.

Ereon shuffles from above me, and I feel the coldness from his missing body. He stands in front of his father.

“No,” he says simply. “She’s my wife and I refuse. I own her — I say what happens to her. Not you, nor any man here.” It’s then I notice what I felt under my fingertips, I felt the ridges — the marks that still bleed. Left by a whip, and I know I’ve seen similar wounds before. Once before.

“Remove her!” My father’s voice orders in my mind. I remember fighting against the guard who was trying to remove me from my balcony ... the sounds of my father’s whip as it came down across a taut and wide back.

Ereon’s father pats his cheek. “Cute that you would try to save her. Doesn’t matter.” The King lowers his voice as he threatens, “You will not embarrass me and make it appear as if my only heir is weak. You will perform the plal ryow , or I swear by Ra Syam , I will do it for you.”

Ereon looks at me as if making a decision and then he acts. His right fist comes up, quick as a flash of lighting, and connects with the left side of his father’s face. The King falls to the floor, but Ereon doesn’t relent. He keeps hitting his father and the crowd surrounding us stops to stare. The people talk amongst themselves at the display of the Prince attacking their king. Shache Ataiun comes rushing through the crowd to pull Ereon off his father as he continues to assault him. It takes three more Prel soldiers to remove him from his father. They hold Ereon with his arms behind his back, but he spits at his father, anyway.

“Don’t fucking touch her!” Ereon yells. “ I will say when she is to receive the plal ryow .”

King Atlas stands, wiping away blood that drains from his nose. He grabs the whip from Shache Ataiun and slashes it across Ereon’s front. “That was a mistake, boy.” He runs his hand across his chin. “You think she is any better than the whore you’ve loved all these years? The one who made a deal with me before she ever stepped foot in your room.” He back hands Ereon, before turning to the rest of the crowd and exclaims, “My son is intoxicated with the feeling of being inside a woman of innocence. The plal ryow will continue.”

Two guards dressed in black start towards me, and I scream. Ereon fights against the men holding him, but it’s no use. The men grab me and I squirm to get away from them. I bite, I hit, and I scratch as much as I can.

“Oh, I do love it when they squirm. ”

My breath quickens at the fleeting memory, only to be riddled with more.

“Looks like our princess is awake.”

“Look here, fellas. Our little princess thinks she can put up a fight.”

“Oh, from what I’ve heard, Shaston men don’t care much for women.”

I remember my hands being tied. Being struck. Rain falling down on me. The way I prayed to the Goddess to save me, only to realize she wasn’t there. She didn’t save me. Ereon did. Ereon and ...

Members of the Prel grab my ankles, taking me away from my thoughts. I can’t breathe. I can’t move. My heart beats so fast. My chest hurts and I clutch at the shell still there, wanting to remember something that was once happy.

“If you like your hands, I would suggest you take them off my princess.” Ereon’s voice. He was there, fighting, as he is now. Fighting … for me.

The memories replay in my mind as my worries take over. The men spread my legs, holding my wrists above my head. I hear Rhenor’s voice bellowing from the throng of men, “She is the Princess of Antalis! Do not touch her!” That’s all I hear from him before his voice goes quiet. The men holding my wrists push harder against me.

“This is a better place for your hands. Don’t use them to hide from me, I promise I want to see all of you.” Another voice ... another man.

“Hold her down! She is but one girl!” the King’s commands. I hear Ereon still fighting against the men holding him. My eyes lose focus, the edge of my vision becoming black. I thrash against the men holding me. I don’t know what’s happening, but I won’t be weak. Not again. Never again. Despite all my strength, they have me secured.

King Atlas walks up to me holding an iron rod in his hand, flaming red as if just removed from the fire. He smiles down at me, his dark hair disheveled from the tangle with Ereon. He raises his hand and slaps me across the face and I sense the bitter taste of iron in my mouth .

“So much trouble ...” He lets the hot metal roll in his fingers. “You had better be worth it, daughter of prophecy.”

My feet are pulled apart and the melting flesh on the inside of my thigh is felt before I can register the thought. No, I smell it first and then I feel it. It smells like leather as it’s tanned over a flame. I scream so loud I know the ancestors must hear me. The pain takes over everything inside of me and I want to die. Because at least then I wouldn’t feel this pain.

King Atlas pulls the iron away before throwing it to the floor. “Now you belong to Shaston. You, daughter of prophecy, belong to me.” He walks away, his men along with him.

I look around, hoping to find Ereon, Rhenor, Siphonie ... or my ambassador. Surely he wouldn’t have agreed to this. Where is he? The servants flock me then and adrenaline leaves me. I fall into the darkness that calls me.

“ A l? t neni pe, o a l? peng? pe w? lomo popo ra l? ,” the woman screams before she slices her own throat. I’ve seen this scene so many times. It starts with a war of fire and water before it ends in death. The woman forever sacrificing herself. I stay in this limbo, watching the dream unfold. The images don’t even surprise me anymore.

“It’s time, Daughter.” A woman appears before me .

She catches my attention. I jerk up, or I think I do. The floating and falling feeling keeps me confused. This voice I’ve heard before ... before I found my body.

“Carnaxa ...”

I stand up as best as I can, this voice, I know. It’s my mother’s.

“Carnaxa!” she screams and I turn in the darkness, trying to find her. Trying to save her if I can. I spin and spin, nothing but darkness and stars around me.

“It’s your time. You need to remember. And I need your help.” My mother emerges from the darkness. Her long hair flowing around her.

“Remember what?” I ask, still unsure if this is real or not.

“Everything ... you need to remember everything.”

I reach out to touch her, to let my fingers graze across her silk-like skin once more. It’s been so long since I saw her. I held her as she breathed her last before death took her. I watched my father become the shell of the man he was and I remember ... Thylas ... he was there. He took me from her bed, screaming. He held me.

“Yes, he did. But it’s more than that.” She smiles down at me, caressing my face. “I didn’t know he would have a hand in this, I’m sorry. I should have known — even then.”

“Thylas?” I ask, confused by what she’s telling me.

“No, Khaysus. He figured out what I did. Combine the mountain and the valley.” Her body begins to vanish slowly.

“ Ata , I don’t know what you are talking about.”

She smiles at me, reaching to touch my cheek. “Combine the mountain and the valley.”