The Vixen Trials

Did You Kill My Father?

Dakkoul

"You may rise," the Prince said in clipped, cool tones, his bi-colored eyes frosty beneath the shadow of his plain grey cloak.

"I swear fealty to you," Dakkoul added before obeying.

"Do you? That's unexpected." The Prince tapped on the desk before him and the tapping sounded like a warning.

Dakkoul rushed to speak. "I should never have entered your room. I should have refused, run away, warned you."

"Your first loyalty should always be to my family," the Prince agreed. "But I've wanted to see you since that night. Why didn't you kill me Hattavah? It would have been easy enough to do."

Dakkoul drew a deep breath as the sweat pooled in his palms. "It's because you were a boy like me who missed his father and greeted me as a friend." He looked down at his dusty boots. Even now he couldn't really convincingly explain the strong revulsion he'd felt against carrying out his orders.

"I've changed since that night," the Prince said, indicating with a wave of his hand the bodyguards crammed into the room. "I've learned to be more suspicious and less trusting, as wise as a true Fox." He leaned forward and something flashed in his eyes. "Did you kill my father or was it my mother?"

"I didn't," Dakkoul stated and then wavered for a moment before deciding to say, "But it wasn't your mother either."

"Your owners then?"

Where did his loyalty lie? But did he even expect to walk out of here alive? Not really. If the Prince had killed him straight away, it wouldn't have surprised him. "Yes," he said and with that word
he betrayed his master and Malek behind him knew it.

The Prince leaned back on chair which creaked in protest. "So my mother also says, although she mourned my father only in public and didn't try to investigate his death. What proof do you have of your claims?"

This was it then. He would have to tell everything without even the promise of protection or reward in return. He gulped. "Lord Rustavan boasted of bribing the hunting guide with fine chestnut stallion and an magnificent bow and arrow crafted by the Enderaii. The guide was the one who slipped the poison into your father's starberry tea."

The Prince pulled the hood off of his head, revealing the narrowness of his face, the sharpness of his nose and his white-blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. "That guide was found dead."

Dakkoul shuffled his feet and hung his head. "That was me. Lord Rustavan said the guide couldn't live to babble his secrets."

The Prince did not look pleased. "So you have no proof just another story blaming someone else. You could have put that poison in the tea yourself."

Dakkoul made himself meet the Prince's cold stare. "I could have, but I didn't."

The Prince inclined his head slightly. "I do appreciate that you have not blamed my mother as so many others do and that you have openly implicated yourself as an accomplice."

Dakkoul's stomach constricted. He had implicated himself as an accomplice. What had he been thinking?

To his relief the Prince merely scowled and moved on. "I have not come here just to reminisce about the past. I have heard that the House of Lavilyn wishes to enter a contestant in the Vixen Trials."

"That is so."

"That scheming witch that owns you and her son must be quite desperate to regain my favour. They have promised gifts of considerable worth if I allow them to participate, not least the girl herself. And I am interested to meet this girl that rumour says the Hattavah was so captivated by that he did not assassinate her as ordered. Is this true?"

Dakkoul breathed out through his nose. "True, enough."

"And yet you are here having defied your owner twice. That's seems rather remarkable, doesn't it?"

Dakkoul swallowed. "It does."

"How fateful it seems that the two lives you chose to save may end up together. A girl so Fox-fair that that infamous assassin, the Hattavah himself, defies his traitorous master to save her. The girl wins the Vixen Trials and the hand of the Prince, whom the Hattavah also refused to kill because the mighty Fox intervened. What a tale for the masses! You can see why am I intrigued. Is she really as Fox-fair as they say?"

"She is. She even has the eyes." What Dakkoul did not say was this: that he despised Wayvolkan ideals of beauty, as he despised nearly everything Wayvolkan and another girl looking like Keilah would have been repulsive to him. It was she herself he found beautiful.

"But if she prevails, I will have to marry her. The other girls I know well enough and all will be tolerable, but what of her, this outsider? Is she someone I can be happy with or at least not dislike? Will she have the strength, dignity and passion required of a Wayvolkan Queen-Priestess? Will she lead well when the time comes and my mother howls with the arctic fox?"

Dakkoul looked at the Prince and his own Fox-fairness and recalled his words to Keilah - 'it would be a brilliant match for you'. Those words still held true, and although something in him, some foolish part that had always loved Keilah and desired her, suffered, Dakkoul said, "She is more than worthy of being the Queen-Priestess. She is brave – she came against me with her sword to protect her mother. She is compassionate – she rescued a slave girl from certain death."

At that the Prince sniggered then interrupted. "Compassion is hardly a virtue of the Fox."

This angered Dakkoul enough to say, "It was compassion that saved your life my Prince, and it strikes me that a wife that is kind and caring would make a much better partner than one who is selfish and cruel."

Chest heaving, he waited for a long moment for the Prince to respond. "Perhaps you are right. And I can see the rumours are true. You did fall in love with her at first sight and so spared her life. I must meet this bewitching girl. You will bring her to me when I summon you to my mother's woods at midday for a picnic lunch. Mind, only you Hattavah, not Lord Rustavan nor Lady Lavilyn. They disgust me. You may bring Lady Silsa if you think it necessary although I have not the patience to pretend to listen to her."

"As you wish, my Prince." Dakkoul made a hasty bow.

"There is one more thing, Hattavah," the Prince said with slitted eyes. "I hear complaints against you continually. The killing of that captain in the marketplace horrified the people I deal with. They want you stopped before you start wantonly killing Lords and Ladies. You chose not to assassinate me that night which has earned you enough of my favour to tell you this: you will not be the House of Lavilyn's Hattavah for much longer. You will walk away from the picnic alive, I pledge you my word on that, but I can not ignore your crimes forever. Any more open slayings, whatever the provocation, and I will deal with you. My people deserve a Prince who does not turn a blind eye to someone who acts as you do."

"I understand," Dakkoul said in a low tone. "There is a saying in my village. The shedder of blood will have his own blood shed."

"I'm glad we understand each other." The Prince smiled in a way that Dakkoul did not like even as he acknowledged the justice of it. He bowed again as Prince strode out of the room surrounded by his guards.

Malek got to his feet, a strange expression on his face. Dakkoul got right up into his face. "You forget this conversation, you hear? I'll tell you what to say to Lord Rustavan and that's what you'll pass on, nothing else."

Malek widened his eyes. "Of course."

The urge to really frighten Malek came over Dakkoul and he curled his hands into fists to do so when a better idea occurred to him. He should bribe Malek with something he'd care about more than any reward Lord Rustavan could offer, that was the safest way.

Dakkoul rested his fist on Malek's mouth, letting him feel the weight of it. "Keep quiet about this and I'll try to find out the whereabouts of your father." He removed his hand and brushed aside Malek's stammered thanks. Soon he would know for sure if Malek intended to destroy him. A dark cold feeling settled into his stomach. Tallie had been taken from him. Lord Rustavan no longer trusted him. The Prince was threatening him and Keilah was going to be in the Vixen Trials. Could his life get any worse?

Can it get worse? All comments and votes are appreciated!