Princess of the Damned (11 page)

“
I didn’t know you could make such a face.” He drew in a deep breath to recover from the laugh. “Palace life does have its humor sometimes.”

“
I am not amused.”

“
I didn’t think you would be, but I think that is what makes it so damn funny.”

“
What are you two talking about?” Nora asked curiously. “I haven’t seen your highness laugh in a while.”

“
Yes, what
are
you two talking about?” The General inquired.

Nala took in a deep breath and then exhaled. “I am just a dancer, no matter how you look at it. Chastity isn’t exactly appreciated in my profession. Let’s never talk of this again.”

“
Agreed,” Sayan chuckled.

“
There is a lovely, sweet spice in the air,” the general noticed. “What it is?”

“
My father also sent me some cinnamon with the tea from the Far East, but I don’t know what do with it. We don’t normally use such ingredient in our food, so I asked Nala for advice and she gave me a lovely idea of combining it with our sweet bread.” Nora received the tray of bread from the servant girl behind her and presented it to the prince. “Would you care to try one? I just had one and- I just had one and-” She jerked forward and coughed out blood onto her hands.

The general unsheathed his sword and pointed it the servant girl’s neck.

“
It wasn’t me!” The servant girl screamed out. “It wasn’t me! The sweet breads were from-” Her eyes flew to Nala. “Lady Nala had me hold it since we left the kitchen!”

Nala was confused with the servant girl’s accusation. She was in the garden when Nora and the servant girl arrived. Nora was glaring at her.

“
W-why…why did you – Nala!” More blood gushed out of her mouth.

The general switched the point of the sword from the servant girl’s neck to Nala’s. Sayan snatched the sword from the general and decapitated the servant girl. The blood from her broken veins sprayed out like rain. The head rolled onto the courtyard and the body fell to the ground like a log. Nora screamed out at the sight and fainted away.

Sayan leaned in closer to the general’s ear. “You may be my best general, but point your sword at Nala again and your fate may not be so different.”

The guards were running toward the scene. “Get the girl a physician,” General Malin said to his men.

Sayan snatched Nala’s hand and lead her to his room. She stood quietly waiting for him to speak.

“
You watched a human being getting decapitated without so much as a reaction.” Sayan stared at her face. “That is also a new side of you I have never seen before.”

“
Why did you kill that girl? Shouldn’t you have questioned her about who poisoned Nora?”

“
I already put an end to it.”

“
Could it be that you think I did it?”

“
You have never cooked anything near edible in your life, and with your intelligence, you wouldn’t make it look so obvious.”

“
And if it was really me?”

“
I really could have cared less. I have killed more people than you ever will.” His eyes lowered to her hands. “If possible, I never want you to stain your hands with blood, just in case there is an afterlife. I want you to go to a different place than where I’m going.”

“
I am immortal.”

“
There is no way of knowing that. There is a possibility that you could die of old age.”

“
If there is indeed an afterlife, are you afraid of where you are going?”

“
As long as I can complete what I’ve set out to do, I could fall to the depths of hell for all I care. If the eternal damnation of one man can be traded for a few decades of peace for millions of people, I say it’s worth it.”

“
What it is that you want to accomplish, Sayan?”

“
Outbreaks of war tore our nations to pieces. The rich are getting richer, and the poor simply starve. Men are prostituting their wives and selling their children into slavery. The people live day to day with no hope of tomorrow. If it weren’t for you, I would have been food for the wolves. No child should grow up in the ravages of war. That is why I must unite the four kingdoms and make Phasia whole again. I will build a strong army to secure our borders and I will do it by any means necessary. There will be many more lives lost by my hands in the future. If there must be retribution in the afterlife, I ask the gods to let me finish what I have started.”

The Southern King
paced back and forth in his throne room. He had been waiting anxiously for the arrival of his quest. A jolt of fear skewered his old heart when he heard sound of the doors opening. Two handsome young men each opened a door and bowed their head.

A beautiful young girl with raven black hair entered.

She walked down the aisle with dignity and grace. The loose silk gown added majesty to her movements. She walked past the king and headed for the throne. She turned around and sunk onto the seat. The Southern King slightly lowered his head at her presence.

“
Have you waited long, your majesty?” The girl asked.

“
Not long at all, Lady Lilan.” The Southern King lowered his head even further to avoid looking into her silver eyes. “My messengers sent me the good news. You have successfully captured three cities from the Eastern Kingdom.”

“
Are you pleased with my work, your majesty?”

The Southern King continuously nodded his head. “Yes, yes, my lady! Everything is satisfactory! That is why I have prepared what we have agreed upon.” The Southern King waved a hand at the pile of treasure chests behind him. “It is all there. Not a gold coin short.”

The girl examined the chests with her eyes. “You are very generous, your majesty. Is there anything else you need help with?”

“
Well, there is one more thing…” The King stuttered.

“
Please enlighten me, your majesty.”

“
The Eastern Kingdom is seeking reinforcement from the Northern Kingdom. If it were four years ago I could have dealt with it myself, but the situation has drastically changed. I do not know if you have heard, but the black army has gotten much stronger in the recent years. The Dark Prince, they called him, has never lost a battle. This concerns me greatly.”

The girl switched her sitting position as she chuckled. “Yes, I have heard of this man. But no matter how strong he appears to be, he is only human like you, your majesty.”

“
He certainly does not fight like a human. My generals have accompanied him into battle against the invaders and reported to me what they have seen. He towered above his enemies on his black stallion and held a massive blade in his right hand that sliced though his enemies at the speed of his horse. He leaves a trail of blood and flesh in his wake. I seek your help, my lady. My army cannot face him alone. They fear him, as they fear death itself.”

“
This man sparks my interest.” The girl disappeared from the throne and appeared again at the exit. The King gasped at the surprise. “I want to meet him myself.”

The two handsome men closed the doors as they followed her out. The Southern King dropped to his knees. They made it clear that they were not humans, but only when they demonstrated their power did he realize this to be true.

The night had
always been her ally.

She was more than a dancer, she was an illusionist. Darkness provided the atmosphere to invoke curiosity, as well as excitement in her audiences. It is the perfect stage to create the illusion of beauty and she needed nothing more than the illumination of the moonlight to flaunt her sword dance.

The sound of the blades being drawn was crisp. They were thin enough to cut through the air smoothly along with her movements. Their silver surfaces reflected the moonlight, giving the effect that she was being wrapped by a ribbon of light. She felt the audiences’ eyes on her, watching her every movement. As a dancer, her job was to captivate their eyes and hearts during her brief performance.

The banquet hall was filled with claps and praises after the music and the dance came to an end.

The Northern King left the comfort of his throne and walked down the steps. She knelt in front of him, but he roughly pulled her up. He stared mesmerizingly into her pale green eyes, through the white feather mask that she wore. His eyes moved up and down her face and focused at her lips. He roughly pulled the mask off, and the malicious expression on his face suddenly peeled away. He dropped the mask to the floor.

She let out a surprised gasp from the back of her throat.

“
Is she not the perfect creature like I’ve said?” The Western Prince asked. “Smell her, your majesty. Her scent alone can make you drunk.”

The King pulled her closer and sniffed her neck.

Nala instinctually looked to Sayan for help. He was staring back at her with a stiff expression on his face and then looked away.

“
Are you sure you want to give her to me?” The Northern King asked the Western Prince.

He nodded.

The Northern King let out a loud, satisfying laugh. “I will take this generous gift of yours, Ce!” He turned to Nala with a hungry look in his eyes. He picked her up into his arms and planned to carry her away from the banquet.

There really was no other choice.

Nala pulled out a small dagger hidden in her heel and aimed it at the King’s neck. Sayan caught her wrist and squeezed it tightly until she was forced to drop the dagger. The King dropped her onto the ground and kicked her away. She reached for the dagger on the ground, but Sayan caught it first. He pinned her down to the ground, held the dagger high and stabbed it into her chest.

It didn’t hurt as bad as she previously thought. It was painful, but bearable. She looked up at Sayan, wanting to praise him for it with subtle smile, but she frowned instead. There was a painful expression on his face, as though he was the one being stabbed.

She spit out the blood that had gushed up from her stomach. She drew a deep breath before she let her heavy eyelids rest.

“
Sayan, what is
the meaning of this?” The King demanded.

“
I suspected that the woman was an assassin disguised as a dancer, Your Majesty. That is the reason I have not presented her to you.” Sayan said without tearing his gaze away from her.

The King turned toward the Western Prince, demanding an explanation.

“
I will clean up this mess, Your Majesty.” Sayan picked her limp body up into his arms and carried her out of the banquet hall. General Malin and his men awaited him at the end of the corridor. He steadied his steps, and only when the door was closed behind him in his domain did he allow his consciousness to slip away.

The memory returned to him in his dream. He held the sharp dagger in his hand as he plunged it into her flesh. She screamed out, her sweet voice frantically begging him to spare her life. The four corners around him oozed out crimson blood, filling the room. The space was getting smaller. The blood was rising to his waist and then to his neck. He swam toward ceiling to keep his head above the surface. Blood completely filled the room, forcing its way into his lungs.

He bolted off the bed. Cold sweats drenched his body and soaked though his tunic. It was just a nightmare, but not all of it was dream. He searched the room for her. He could not think. He could not piece together fragments of simple thoughts. He shouted out her name repeatedly, until he heard a reply.

The door creaked open. A cloaked figure of a woman slipped in and quickly closed the door behind her. She pulled down the hood and smiled at him.

Nala!

She was standing in front of him.

Sayan ran to her and wrapped his arms around her small body. He held her tightly to make sure that she was real and not a dream.

“
Never make me do that again!” He shook his head. “I thought I’d killed you. I thought I’d taken your life with my own hands! Never again…never…”

“
I am immortal…”

His hands stripped off her cloak and undid her dress by pulling on the strings keeping it together at the shoulder. The fabric fell to her waist, exposing her full breasts. Her body was unscarred. The wound he inflicted was gone. He had to make sure. He had to see it for himself.

She pushed him away and wrapped her arms around her chest. “What do you think you are doing?”

He was a little confused at his own action, but he was even more confused at her reaction. Her cheeks flustered bright red. Is this the same woman who wanted to bathe in the desert spring while there were soldiers around? Shyness was the last word he would have used to describe her.

“
The cloak!” She shouted at him.

He picked up the cloak and handed it to her. She snatched it from him and wrapped it around herself.

“
Why are you embarrassed?” He asked. When she glared at him, he kept quiet.

“
Why did a killer faint away after he thought he just killed a woman?” She snapped back.