Shadows Bleed

XXXVI

XXXVI

Little more than ten minutes had passed since I left the Emperor's presence and, upon returning to it, I noticed he was in much worse shape than previously. The royal robes he wore, which had already seemed to weigh him down, now rested heavily on his shoulders, like the world itself.

Most noticeable was his skin, blanched and sagging; he looked to be on death's door. His hand, the same I had kissed, was wrapped tightly in a cloth bandage, stained red, blood dripping thorough the thin fabric.

Curtains were drawn across the circular window, the only light entering from smaller window-slits lining the top of the walls, just below the ceiling. The guards gripped me violently by the arms and pushed me forwards. One of them slammed his boot into the back of my leg, sending me to my knees.

"You know," the Emperor began, wheezing with painful effort, "my doctors tell me I have thin blood, and that I should rest more. I never really took such an affliction for granted but it seems that, on this particular day, it has alerted me to your true intentions."

"What are you talking about?" I uselessly attempted a lie.

"I'm talking about the needle with which you stuck me when I so graciously granted your request. I didn't feel it right away, my nerves are rather slow in that regard, but, no more than two or three minutes after I dismissed you did I notice the blood flow from my hand."

"Why are you telling me this?"

He looked at me with much scorn, his eyes filled with hate and, I believed, shame for allowing himself to be so easily deceived. He waved to the guard beside me.

"Do it."

I did not have time to react as the guard's fellow grabbed both of my arms, pinning them behind my back and holding tightly as his companion grabbed my hair. A knife slipped from its sheath and, with on fluid movement, the guard sliced through my hair just above the nape, my beautiful auburn locks plummeting to the ground.

The other guard released me and I rocked up only to fall forwards, feeling strangely weak and exhausted. I stared at the severed cluster of hair, sitting on the floor before my eyes, as the Emperor continued to speak.

"Who would have thought," he said. "That Aeriae Llewyn, the Crimson Sorrow herself, would have the gall to enter my palace? Now, tell me what you did to me or I will kill you."

"I didn't do anything," I spat back.

"LIAR!" he screamed. The guard drove his boot into my chest. "I can feel the poison coursing through my veins, consuming my body. What is it? What did you put in me?"

"I don't know," I said truthfully, for Vaskarth never revealed to me what the poison was.

But the Emperor did not believe me. He signalled the guard and I felt the heavy boot slam into my stomach again.

"I have not the patience for this; where is the needle? Where is the poison?"

I assumed he maintained hope that his physicians could identify the poison from the ring and administer an appropriate remedy before it killed him, for there was little else he would gain from obtaining the ring. And then it hit me; he thought I had used a needle; he was still unaware of the ring's existence. This could work to my advantage.

"May I stand?" I asked. "Allow me this and I'll give you what you want."

"Your word has little value here, Aeriae Llewyn," he replied. "But yes, you may stand."

The guard who had beaten me was sent forward to help me to my feet. I struck. Slipping the stone from the ring, I drove my fist into his face, the needle-point finding his left eye and sending him stumbling backwards as he clutched at his face in agony. I pulled the throwing knife Vanja had given me from my boot and stabbed the guard to my right through the gap in his armour above the chest, the blade punching a hole in his throat.