still {on HOLD}

chapter five

{Etanna-Prior Kingdom} (POV of Queen Adela Torrence-Straugh)

So it was done, Madison and I had officially plotted how to kill my husband.

It was an elaborate plan, to be conducted when I returned home. Madison and I had other business on our hands. I made one of my guards ride back and tell Hartley that I wasn't to return until the 8th month. With this being the end of the sixth month, there was still much to be done.

We then decided that we would ride out to the Delorian Kingdom to see the wretched state that they were supposedly in. We rode out on a slightly sunny day, our horses tall and war gowns flowing back from the speed of our horses. Our small fleet contained all the men I had brought with me, a small part of Madison's army, Madison, and myself. Quincy, Madison's husband insisted on staying home and caring for their children.

The whole time we were riding, I continued to think about Hartley's murder in the back of my mind. It was not hard for me to believe what Madison had told me. I had seen Hartley strike our children, he had even struck me before.

Hartley was gentle, sometimes. He was sweet and caring if you gave him a chance. But under any other circumstance, he was a cold-hearted, nasty bastard. I had seen him in battle before, an unmerciful killer. It then dawned upon me that though I had loved Hartley for a short period of my life, but no matter how much I cared for him, he had to die.

I was snapped out of my cloudy thoughts by Madison's voice.

"Look, over there. There's smoke." she said in a hushed voice. I gave a signal to our men to hault. They all stopped and once, their horses skidding and kicking rocks of the edge when they stopped.

We looked over the edge to the direction that the smoke was coming from. What remained of the Delorian kingdom looked like a pile of rubble. We rode down the rocky hill and onto the path that led into the kingdom. No guards stood at the entrance, their was no entrance.

Our horsed squeezed through the rocks to somehow slip inside. Glancing around, the place was covered with soggy mud, fog or smoke; it was too difficult to tell, and the houses seemed to be barely standing, as they were made of strangely piled rocks.

Suddenly, a tall, grey-haired man wearing what looked like a burlap sack stepped out in front of us. He was followed by a dirty-haired, shaky, whore.

"Who wishes to to intrude in the remnants of the Delorian kingdom?" he spoke with a scratchy, obviously drunk voice.

"Queen Madison Etanna-Prior of the Etanna-Prior kingdom and Queen Adela Straugh-Torrence." I spoke. The man pondered the names and laced them over his drunken tongue before he spoke again.

"Sounds like a bunch of whore names to me." He said, spitting and chuckling at himself. His shaky woman snickered from behind him. Madison's prized archer readied his bow. With the wave of a hand, Madison dismissed him and he lowered his bow. I lowered myself off my horse and slowly paced over to him.

He chuckled again as I pulled a small knife from my pocket. I waved it in front of him a few times, like I'd been taught from my sword master. Then, with the agility of a cheetah, I waved it in front of him again, this time cutting his cheek. His hand immediately shot up to the wound. He yelled a variety of profanity then I waved my knife again, this time cutting off half a finger. He cried out in pain. Then, I raised my leg and kicked him in large stomach. He fell to the ground, still yelling his profanities. I placed my boot upon his large belly and pressed into it with the heel of my shoe.

"My friend and I are not bottom feeding scum, unlike yourself. We are royalty and we will be treated like it. Now, my friend, you and your lady have a choice." I said pointing my knife towards her. "You can either die here like the peasant you are or you can return with me to my kingdom and serve me. You will dump the chamber pots of my family, you will scrub the floors and walls and ceiling until they are spotless and then you'll clean them again. Am I understood?"

He yelled his profanities again before exclaiming, "Bloody hell I will, woman." I lifted my foot and then drilled it back into his torso again.

"I said, AM I UNDERSTOOD?" I proclaimed.

"Yes, y-your highness. I am loyal to you now. Yes your queen."

"Good." I said as two of my guards hopped off their horses and put he and his wife in shackles. I climbed back atop my horse. "We ride on!" I exclaimed as our fleet ran on infront of us. Madison stayed behind to speak to me.

"I like your way of handling things, my queen." Madison says as she nods to me.