The Zodiac Stone

Chapter Twenty-Five: No One Will Listen

"Relon," the Leader of the Sagittarius uttered.

Relon stopped, closed his eyes and held a hand to the Leader.

"You're telling me, an Ophi," Relon hissed, "you're an Ophi!" His voice carried around the room. The echo bounced around them, but it didn't faze Aine.

He sat with a still look on his face, one that glared down at the former king.

At that moment he heard bootsteps and a woman with short blond hair and dressed in shades of brown and green entered the room. Aine recognized her as the Virgo leader.

"What about an Ophiuchus?" she asked. Aine heard a flicker of fear tremble her voice. As she walked over to the king her eyes went right to Hirens, thinking Relon had meant him.

"Holy Stars! It's a real one!" she screamed and hid behind the Sagittarius leader. "Why are we just standing here?"

She looked between the three leaders. Relon just looked back at Aine with a curled lip. Servana clenched her jaw but didn't say anything and the leader of the Sagittarius gave her a shrug.

"I don't know what's going on," he said. "No one is saying anything. But that boy, in my colors," he spat on the floor, "is an Ophiuchus as well."

"There's two Ophi's?" she stumbled backwards and sank to the floor with a hand to her forehead. Now it was her voice that hummed through the room as she sent prayers to the stars to protect them.

Aine stood and stomped down the stairs. He headed for the four leaders.

"Stop there!" the Virgo leader cried with both her hands up. Her face had paled and tears were streaming from her eyes. "Stop, please! Don't come any closer!"

Her words only enraged Aine until he felt his fingers crushing the soft skin of his palm.

He stopped a few feet from her as the leader of the Sagittarius stepped in his path.

"What is wrong with me?" he asked the Virgo leader.

She remained on the floor and didn't answer. Only her sobs left her lips.

"Right now, I hold your fate. I want you to answer what is wrong with me that makes you quiver so?"

"You're an Ophiuchus!" she yelled. "What else is there to it that you don't understand! You're a creature! A disgusting creature!"

Aine didn't hear when two pairs of footsteps stormed into the throne room.

"What's going on?" Aine recognized the voice at Fien, the Leo Clan leader. Aine looked past Relon and Servana and saw the Taurus leader, Dalgo was also with him. They both had weapons brandished, Fien a long-curved sword, and Dalgo, a thick-poled spear.

Aine stepped away as the two leaders were filled in from Relon. Aine looked around at the enormity of the room and imagined a long table with fifteen chairs, three for himself, Westerlee and Hirens, and twelve for the Clan Leaders.

"When you have all gotten on the same page, we can discuss things further at the table." Aine walked over to the envisioned table that had appeared as he pictured it and took one of the seats closest to the throne. He wanted a full view of the door as the leaders arrived. As he pushed the chair out, he had a better idea, one that would allow him to have a better handle on things when the rest arrived and asked the stone for parchment and a quill pen. A jar, a feather and a stack of thin parchment paper appeared at the head of the table. He began scribbling across the parchment.

The sound of his quill scratching the paper caused the Clan Leaders and the king to stop and look over at him.

"What do you think you are doing boy? You think that now you are the self-proclaimed king–" some of the leaders gasping, "you are changing the rules, I set in place? This kingdom works perfectly the way I designed it. Nothing you say will change how we do things around here."