The Sapphire Pendant

Chapter 11

Adeline

My face felt puffy and my body was limp.  I couldn’t believe that Josh was dead.  I buried my head in my hands.

The door slid open and I glared at whoever was in front of it.

“Come on know,” said Ironfist, “we’re talking you to the palace maiden so she can make you pretty again.”

“I do not want to be pretty,” I said, feeling like my old defiant self.  I stood up straightening up in my most rebellious stance.

“Oh but King Fox will want you to be.”

Ironfist and Thor stood at my sides dragging me towards a mountain with a dark, towering castle surrounded by a gate at the top.  I squirmed and writhed trying to loosen their grip on me.

I looked up at it, felt my knees go weak and my body collapse to the ground.

“Thor,” Ironfist said, gesturing at me, “carry her up the mountain.”

The giant obliged and my mind went numb as they carried me up to the castle.  I wobbled like a fish watching as the ground got smaller as we climbed up the mountain to the castle.

“Hello Ironfist,” an accented female voice trilled.

“Hello miss,” Ironfist said in a seductive voice.  The woman was plump and had the dark skin of an Islander with an accent to match it.

The woman laughed and caught sight of me, a half conscious lump in Thor’s arms.

“Who be the girl?” she asked.  Her arms were half extended towards me but then retreated when she realized that she probably couldn’t carry me.

“This is the princess,” Iron fist responded.

“Doesn’t look like a princess,” she said her stuttering language.

“That’s why I brought her to you. If anyone could make someone beautiful it’s you Clementine.”  Ironfist winked at her suggestively.

The woman called Clementine giggled again.

“Bring her in the room.”

I entered a lavishly decorated room, too decorated for my taste.  The king-sized four post bed was adorned with two canopies and a headboard.  Bars of gold were stacked by the fireplace, a large rug with what looked to be gold thread lie in front of the fire and one by the bed.

“Sit her on the bed,” Clementine ordered sounding like my father, a king, even though she was just a common maid.

Thor brought me to the bed and dropped me roughly on the plush mattress.

“Now leave boys, the king expects her presence in thirty minutes as well as yours.”

“I do not want to be in his presence,” I murmured tired from crying so hard.

“Oh she can speak,” Clementine said, “now leave.”

I didn’t need to look up to know that the two bandits had left because the heavy wooden door made a crashing sound as it closed.

“Now what be the matter sugar?” Clementine said as she stroked my hair.

“The love of my life is dead,” I said lifelessly splaying myself onto the bed, finally realizing that the duvet was really soft.

“Now, now,” she said lifting me up onto a chair in front of a vanity, “all more reason to find new love.”

I was confused by this but all I could see was my reflection.  I had blood stains on my tunic and on my cheek, dark circles around my eyes and a bruise on my forehead.