by Kate Sander
“He thought you might say that,” Sebastian said, “That’s why he has Judith locked up. He charged her with treason, saying that she let someone into the house without permission. If you want her out of prison, you will come to the main suit and talk with your husband.” He made sure to emphasize husband.
“Shit,” the Queen muttered. “You’re lying. Only I have power over Judith as she is my servant. Even Intelligence wouldn’t allow Armend to lock her up. You’d never get away with it,” she yelled.
“Maybe,” came Sebastian’s reply, “But are you willing to take that chance?”
Got me there, she thought. “Tell him I’ll be down in a minute,” she said to Sebastian.
“I have been instructed to escort you. We wouldn’t want you to get lost.”
“I know my way around my damn house!”
“I must follow my master’s instructions,” came the reedy reply.
“Fine, have it your way. Give me a minute.”
She went and found the silver dagger Judith had smuggled to her a couple days before. She hid it in her dress and made sure she could draw it easily but that it was unseen. A last check in the mirror. All bruising was covered. Holding her head high, she walked to the door. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself, fulling expecting Armend and Sebastian to charge the door.
She didn’t know if she could take them both out, even with the hidden knife. Fuck it, she thought and unlocked and opened the door.
Sebastian was standing there in his usual black outfit, unreadable expression on his face. “My lady,” he said, offering her his arm.
She strode by him, ignoring the offer. He shrugged and followed her. They were silent for the walk to the main lounging suit.
The Queen strode through the doors and didn’t notice where Sebastian disappeared to. Her husband was sitting on a couch, reading a book and sipping wine. Probably wasting the good vintage. He looked well. He had probably had the best healers and herbs at his disposal. Hell, even his nose seemed straight.
She strode into the room and sat in a chair opposite him.
“You look well,” she snarled.
“My dear, why the hostility?” came the smooth reply. He marked the page in his book and put his wine down. When she just stared at him, he continued, “I feel as though we had a misunderstanding last week and I would like to make amends.”
“Pretty sure I understood,” she sneered, “You can’t get laid any other way so you have to force it. Pretty simple really.”
He reddened. “That, my dear, is not the case.”
She laughed in his face, “Yes, it is. Tell me a time when you didn’t force or pay.”
His face went even redder, “That is not your concern,” was his stiff reply.
She knew she was playing with fire when she roared with laughter, but she didn’t care. She wouldn’t live in fear. She fully expected not to survive this encounter anyway. Wiping her eyes she said, “Well, enough about your pitiful dick size. What do you want?” Reaching across the table, she took his wine. She took a sip, staring at him over the rim of the glass.
Armend’s eyes narrowed, “The council has been asking questions, and I wanted to ensure you were prepared today. I also wanted to ensure you were on the same side as me on some specific issues.”
“I can assure you I’m not on your side on any issue,” she said, sipping his wine.
“I will kill Judith if you don’t comply.”
“Kill her,” she said venomously. She mentally cried out to Judith and apologized, her heart broke as she said the words, but she kept her voice steady. “She’s a servant. What do I care about what you do to her?”
The Queen knew she was in danger. Armend simply stared at her, muscles tense, jaw clenched. And he stayed dead silent.
Suddenly, the door to the chamber opened, and Intelligence walked in. She carried a long silver knife and she had a crooked smile on her face.
The Queen jumped up and the wine spilled on the floor, “What is the meaning of this? You dare enter without my permission? Sister you overstep!”
Intelligence laughed, a high pitched cackle, “Sister! So you remember that, do you? Your disgust and disregard for me since I returned to Solias made me question if you even recognized me.”
The Queens face blazed red, “Of course I recognized you,” she spat angrily. “When you sauntered into that first council meeting my heart stopped and I was crushed in disappointment.”
It was Intelligence’s turn to redden, “Of course,” she yelled, all composure lost, “I’ve always been a disappointment to you! I was a disappointment to everybody, you and mom and dad. You couldn’t get me out of that house fast enough. The trials couldn’t come fast enough. Mom and dad just wanted me clear so their perfect little angel could marry the prince and vault them up the social ladder.”
The sisters were facing off in the sitting room, chests heaving. One, tall and beautiful with perfect long brown hair. The other, short and scrawny with coarsely chopped blonde hair. Both with fiery blue eyes. Intelligence still had the knife pointed at the Queen, but it appeared to be forgotten.
The Queen balled her fists at her sides and said in a dangerously quiet voice, “You little brat.”
Intelligence blanched and stared. No one had ever talked to her like that, “I am the Head of Intelligence and the youngest on the council,” she yelled, spittle flying. “I demand respect!”
It was the Queen’s turn to laugh, a cold high laugh, so close to her sister’s, “Leave it to you to demand respect while giving none. How dare you think of our late parents like that, let alone speak it out loud. Leave it to you to twist the truth so you are the victim. Do you remember anything of the truth? Or did the Sun Gods warp you so much that you can’t recall facts?”
“I can recall enough,” Intelligence had found her voice again, “I can recall that you were always the favorite. I figured it out early that our parents only had me so you didn’t have to go to the trials. They had their perfect little girl who they didn’t want to give up, so they had to have another kid when they realized you were going to be sent away. It’s a good thing I came around when I did or you would have had to go.”
The Queen looked at Intelligence, as if for the first time. She felt the rage seep out of her.
Intelligence didn’t understand. She could handle the rage and passion from her sister, she had been prepared for that. But the look of compassion her sister gave her caught her completely off guard. She felt her own rage start to ebb.
“So you don’t remember? Or maybe it’s my fault because you were so young and you just can’t remember?” The Queen spoke quietly, as if to herself. Intelligence watched her intently, barely breathing, pulse beating in her neck.
“I want you to do me a favor and believe me,” the Queen said looking at her sister’s blue eyes, “I know you don’t think you owe me anything, but do me this one favor before you kill me.” Intelligence looked at the knife pointing at the Queen. She looked back up and nodded, but she kept the knife where it was, pointed straight at the Queen’s heart.
The Queen nodded, took a breath, and started, “Mom and dad couldn’t have kids after me. At least they had a really hard time. I was eight when you were born. We were fully prepared for me to go to the trials and spare you from any fate. The three of us wanted you free from the start. Then a funny thing happened. I had caught the eye of a boy of around the same age.” The Queen looked pointedly at Intelligence, “The Prince and I had started becoming friends.
The Queen continued, “I was almost ten, you were two and just so cute. You were the light of my life. I was preparing myself to join the Sun Gods when our mother came up with a plan.” From the corner of her eye she saw Armend lean forward in his chair. “Mother decided that I should marry the Prince and try to manipulate him in to getting rid of the Exalted, getting rid of the one child from every family rule, and ultimately getting rid of the Sun Gods.”
Intelligence stared at her sister, st
unned. She didn’t want to believe her, but something in the Queen’s tone had her convinced.
The Queen continued, her eyes glazed, trapped in the past. “I didn’t believe her. Sure the Prince had taken an eye to me but I really didn’t enjoy his company. We mostly played together because father made me. When I told mother how disgusted I was with the proposition of marrying that oaf, she told me that it would be my sacrifice for the family. That if you were to ever be free, I had to do this and it had to be soon. That was our mistake,” She focused in on Intelligence again, “We thought it would be easy to change the rule. It wasn’t”
Intelligence spoke softly, her hands shaking, “Do you remember that day in the garden? It was the day before your wedding day. I couldn’t figure out why you were so sad.”
The Queen smiled sadly, “Yes that part was selfish of me. I was sad because I was giving up my future and it had taken too long. The King wouldn’t give his approval until his son was eighteen. That left only a year or so for me to change the law before you were ten. I knew I couldn’t do it. Our parents had gambled and lost, so they were going to lose both their children.”
“That was the memory I held on to during the trials. When we laughed and played in the garden before you went away. I always remembered how you were sad then I made you smile.”
The Queen smiled, “I forget what you said. But you were always the only one who could cheer me up. And I remember laughing in the garden, playing in the leaves.” She looked down in sadness again, “I tried,” she whispered, “Oh god forgive me, I tried.” A tear glistened down her pale cheek. She put her face in her hands and wept.
Stunned, Intelligence didn’t know what to do with the information. “I joined the council cause of you,” she said suddenly. “I wanted to come back and protect you. I had a talent for pushing emotion down and blocking it off from the rest of me. And then I started to show a talent for hurting people.” Intelligence looked up, “I used it to get back. I just wanted to get back, so I did terrible things. I wanted to get back to look after you. Then I walked into that room and the look you gave me... I couldn’t handle it.”
“I saw the monster my ineptitude had created,” said the Queen, wiping her face. Some cream wiped off and Intelligence saw a dark blue bruise on her sister’s jaw.
“It killed both mom and dad, you being in the trials. I had gotten the Exalted disbanded, at least I thought I had, until you sauntered up. I lost the sweet girl, the only one who could make me laugh, because I wasn’t smart enough to get that fat oaf of a husband to go against his precious uncle.”
The Queen shook her head, revealing dark blue bruising along her neck as well. Anger boiled over. Speechless, Intelligence stared at her sister. The Queen looked back at her then hung her head, ashamed. Intelligence and the Queen both turned towards Armend.
Neither saw Sebastian slinking from the shadows towards the Queen.
“Kill her,” Armend said to Intelligence, “That was your part of deal. It’s not my fault you don’t want the reward anymore. That was always the deal.”
Shocked, the Queen looked at Intelligence questioningly.
Intelligence shook her head.
“KILL HER!” Armend yelled. The shock of his voice caused Intelligence to raise the tip of the knife a little.
The Queen felt someone shove her hard from behind.
28
Rosie
Intelligence stared at Armend. She had forgotten all about him in the room. It had been just her and Anita. Her soul was rocked. Her sister had married a man she didn’t love, let alone like, to try to save Intelligence from the trials.
Those bruises… What had her sister gone through at the hands of her new husband? It must have been terrible. For all these years she had blamed her sister for everything, and it wasn’t her fault. Guilt was rising in her throat. She wanted to puke.
“KILL HER!” Armend yelled, and the sudden noise snapped her out of her reverie. She had forgotten about the knife in her right hand, and it jerked up in surprise.
From the corner of her eye, she saw her sister lurch forward and fall. Strange, Intelligence thought, Annie never falls. It happened in slow motion. Annie fell towards her and Intelligence reached with her left hand to help stop her fall. Annie gasped. She must have twisted her ankle, Intelligence thought dumbly. Something hot and wet dribbled down her hand. Odd. I must have cut myself on the knife.
A sudden intake of breath from Annie that sounded like a gurgle snapped everything back into real time. Intelligence looked down and saw her hand around the hilt. Everything was covered in blood, with only the hilt was exposed. The rest of the knife was imbedded in Annie’s stomach, right below the chest. Intelligence could tell by the dark red blood that it was fatal.
Annie slouched and trembled and Intelligence caught her weight and lowered them both slowly to the ground. She held Annie’s head on her lap. Her beautiful brown hair flowed over Intelligence’s robes. Intelligence didn’t notice everything darkening with blood.
“No!” Intelligence choked, “No Annie no!” She was sobbing, brushing the hair from her sisters face, “No no no no no!” she could barely see due to her tears.
The Queen gasped, short quick breaths. She raised her hand to Intelligence’s cheek and whispered with a trickle of blood coming from her mouth, “Oh Rosie. I found you. You’re home.” Her hand fell, leaving her blood on Rosie’s cheek.
Her blue eyes went dark.
Rosie cradled her sister’s head and sobbed, “No Annie, no.” She wasn’t Intelligence anymore, she was Rosie. That little girl of ten terrified to leave her family and her sister. Her best friend. She didn’t hear Armend yell for the guards. She didn’t hear them arrive. She didn’t hear Annie’s servant girl walk into the room and scream. Annie’s bright eyes were dead, and it consumed her soul. It was only when they grabbed her arms that she started struggling.
She screamed and sobbed. Armend yelled, “Take her away! She murdered the Queen!”
Rosie kept her eyes on Annie’s as they dragged her away thrashing and twisting. She wanted to get back to her sister. Annie was laying there, hair strewn about her. Her beautiful blue eyes glazed and staring blankly. Finally one of the guards grew tired of Rosie’s screaming and thrashing and touched her with the electrified end of a Pulse stick. Rosie felt pain throughout her body. She convulsed on the floor and passed out.
She woke in one of her dungeons. She didn’t care. She didn’t eat when they fed her, she didn’t sleep when the Pulse light went off. She was dead inside. She just saw Annie’s cold dead eyes and heard her last words, “Oh Rosie. I found you. You’re home.” They played over and over in her head. Never once did Rosie stop to think about why Annie had fallen. It wasn’t even in any thought process. The bruises on Annie’s neck and jaw were forgotten.
“Oh Rosie. I found you. You’re home.”
Rosie sat on the side of her stone cot and waited. She knew what was coming but she was broken. She didn’t care. But the irony was not lost on her that the methods she had so carefully developed and fine-tuned would soon be used on her.
They came for her a few days later, or weeks, or months. Rosie couldn’t be sure. She just sat on the edge of her cot and remembered her sister’s cold dead blue eyes.
“Oh Rosie. I found you. You’re home.”
They brought her to room 7X. She didn’t scream. She didn’t beg. She just stared straight ahead. When the new Intelligence, Armend’s minion he used to call Sebastian, asked her if she killed the Queen, she nodded. When he asked her why, she stared straight ahead.
The new Intelligence was careful, but he was clearly an amateur, used to killing and not getting information. He tried too hard to cause a lot of pain at the start and didn’t take his time ramping up to the crescendo. At one point in her life she would have instructed him. At one point she would have told him that one well designed session could do the work of ten poorly executed. But she couldn’t bring herself to care. She nodded when he asked her i
f she’d done it and stared during all other questions. She didn’t scream, flinch or cry. Eventually he grew bored and sent her back to her cell.
A brief thought crossed her mind that prisoner 613 had once reacted to torture the same way as she just had and she had admired her. But 613 wasn’t broken, and Rosie was. She looked down and popped her three broken fingers back into place.
She saw Annie’s eyes. Her cold, blue, dead eyes. She put her head in her hands and wept. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed to no one, “Oh Annie I’m so sorry.”
They came for her again a few days later. She expected it and relished it. It would finally be over. The guards walked her out of the dungeons. They didn’t bother to bind her hands or feet, they knew she wouldn’t try to run or fight.
They walked her to the top of a tower, to the most public gallows. Thousands upon thousands of people from Solias booed her presence. She didn’t care. She didn’t even feel the old and rotten vegetables that hit her faded white prison robe. She allowed herself one gift. She started to picture the day in the garden. She, barely nine, her sister seventeen.
She didn’t fight when her lover, Justice, put the noose over her head. She didn’t notice his cold stare of disgust. She didn’t even hear him say “I loved you,” into her ear.
She pictured her and Annie running in the garden. The wind blowing through the trees, the smell of autumn in the air, her sister turning to put flowers in her hair.
The floor underneath her disappeared.
Her pulse stopped when the rope snapped straight, breaking her neck.
The thought of her bright, blue-eyed sister in the garden, flowers in her hair, her dearest Annie, was burned forever in her mind.
29
Armend
“We have had a terrible month, here in Solias.” Armend’s voice was strong, carrying across the large open courtyard. The Sun Gods were ready to march. They all stood at attention, armour polished and gleaming. At least it would be gleaming if the rain wasn’t pounding on them. It hadn’t let up since the wedding. The moat was flooding and sewage had started to seep up in the slums. Armend was entirely focused on the upcoming march. He didn’t have time for trivial things like a little bit of rain.
