The Wild Hunt (Part One)

The Interrogation

"I swear it your highness! I- I saw her stab him in the neck. I swear it!" The girl cried out.

I watched her from my throne as she sank to her knees. Her wrist was held by two guards, one on either side of her. They had their spears pointing towards her neck and tears streamed down her swollen face.

Before her confession, I had a guard beat her up inside her quarters before dragging her to me. Thanks to a couple of servant girls who noticed the expensive gown she wore, it didn't take much time to barge through Serri's room and find General Kapor, face down, dead, on the floor. Lying in a pool of his own blood and the Princess nowhere to be found.

"Enough!" I raised my hand, and the guards plunged their spears into her neck at the same time. Their golden tips shot out from either side creating an x before they yanked them back, clean through. Blood spurted out onto their golden armor. They released her wrist, and she fell face first to the floor. The guards remained unbothered as they straightened, staring ahead with motionless mouths.

"Bring me the boy."

To be honest, I didn't think Serri had it in her to run. Discovering how she hid her flowering from me for more than two years stabbed at me in an unpleasant way. She had the upper hand, and I didn't know. I wasn't sure what upset me more. The fact that I didn't slaughter her like the ones before her, when I had the opportunity or the fact that she killed General Kapor in cold blood and managed to get away with it under my supervision. It grated at me the lack thereof I took tonight. And above all other nights, her sanctification ceremony.

I knew General Kapor had been a decent man before his wife had passed, but it's been years since I've seen that gentle man. Which was why I had hoped he'd take her quick. How foolish of me. I wouldn't make the same mistake. Serri may have got the best of me this time, but I'll make her pay for it until her womb fell out.

The double arched doors to the hall swung open and two guards hauled in the boy by the hair on his head. I watched him squirm and writhe on the ground as they dragged him by a fistful of that bright, white-blond hair. He had his teeth clenched as he gripped the armored wrist above him. He wore linen pants and a sleeveless tunic. Traditional servant attire.

They threw him to the floor, and he laid flat on his stomach, his hands tucked close to his rib cage and his face turned down. I felt a smirk tug at the corner of my mouth. This was a boy who's been subdued to many of beatings.

"Yakoto."

The boys jaw shifted, and he spoke to the floor. "Your highness."

The deep bow was unnecessary, unless he was suspected of doing something heinous.

That was what I intended to find out. "Rise."

The boy rose to kneel, and his face remained expressionless. Those startling blue eyes were cool and collected. He glanced briefly at the slain body of the servant girl at the front of my throne. His head bowed slightly as he closed his eyes and then opened them. He looked at me but not at me. Through me. It ticked me off.

"I said, rise."

Before he could stand the guards yanked him to his feet and brought his arms around to his back. He clenched his jaw but remained unstartled.

How many times had he received a beaten? How many times had he been punished to remain so calm in the wake of death?

"Do you know why I had my guards come for you?"