Tragic Innocence

Chapter 29: Haunting Enigma

            “Geeza limpa lofa nas, kranzic?!”  The furious Gagdo Goblin King paced back and forth restlessly across the beautiful gold tiles of their bedchamber.        Pentulla sank further within the watery depth of the warm bath that she was commanded to take, ‘to remove all filth that had filled her head’.  She avoided the destructive gleam in his eyes.  Her pride still smarted from the unwanted goblin invasion while she had innocently conversed with Crow.

            Her mind roved over the thoughts shared with the Turon prisoner and everything they had discussed.  How horrific it was to discover that Mikash’s father was slain ruthlessly by a maiden!  The Seductress, Crow called her.  Pentulla shivered.  That was the last she could recall.  Then all she now felt was a dark and heavy fear that lingered behind her shoulder, as if it watched, ready to snatch her living soul right from her body!  What was it that she had felt in Crow’s cell?  Did he feel it too?

            She pressed her lips together, recalling the last instructions that the goblin guard had administered to the keeper.  A shiver coursed up her back.

            “Loya ta!” he snarled angrily once more, with furious eyes penetrating hers. 

            She glared back at him, not allowing the emperor’s glare to intimidate her whatsoever. 

            “Well!  Answer me!” his voice lowered dangerously and was as sharp and piercing as a dagger.

            Pentulla shoved the dark fear aside and focused upon his incensed face, which was something she would prefer to do rather than live the awful apparition she had had.  “You lured me with him of course.  You know how curious I am and you baited me!” She lashed back with her own level of temperament.

            Crichtenzor pressed his brows angrily over his eyes.  He could feel his blood boiling within his veins.  “I did not bait or lure you as you claim!  You are much too keen for your own good!  It is my business what I do within these walls of my empire!  You are empress, yes!” he boomed as he turned his back upon her, pacing back and forth.  His cape floated behind him like a living flame, “But you do not have the privilege to call on the scum of my empire!  You are to remain here where it is respectable--”

            “That place would be respectable if you did not hold them against their wills!” she interjected brutally as her voice rasped harshly against her tongue.        “You are nothing to be making such observations!  These people have been living this way before you were born!  I am here to protect their ways from invaders like those!”

            “Free them!  They have no desire to be here no more than I do!” Pentulla screamed back as she lunged forward in the tub she lay in.  A large wave of water sloshed upwards, causing the emperor to hop back out of its way.  Pentulla laughed at the absurdity she had seen.

            Crichtenzor, refusing to be taken lightly or be made a jester of her thoughts, charged her.  He gripped her wrists and yanked her against him.  His breath was heavy and his chest rose and fell with a forcefulness.  She jolted out of the water with immediate response from his harsh hold as she gasped from shock and smarting pain his grip had caused.

            He tried to retrain his violent breathing through his nostrils as his gaze probed hers, then fell to her lips.  He growled and released her harshly as he tossed her roughly back into the water.

            Pentulla whimpered as she slid backwards against the tub, but not before she noted a deep moving glimmer of anguish behind his eyes.  Water spilled everywhere upon the floor.