The Toils (Book One)

V. Domus Divisa

THWACK!
Maya fell to the floor clutching her eye, swelling rapidly under her fingers. Alice recoiled her foot and laid a heavy kick to Maya's face, spraying blood from Maya's nose up the hallway wall.
"I KNEW YOU'D FUCK HER UP!", THUD - another kick to the ribs.
BOOF! A kick to the head. Maya felt herself slipping out of consciousness. 
BOOM! 
Alice collapsed onto the floor, tears pooling in the corner of her eyes. 
"Alice...", Maya spoke weakly, "I'm- I'm...". Maya faded away, her breath shallow, blood dripping from various contusions across her face. Black and blue, Maya looked like a bruised plum.
The wrinkles on her face smoothed with the swelling growing worse, her lips covered in blood.
Alice sobbed loudly, the last of the sun's rays pouring through the open front door, mosquitos sizzling loudly just outside. 
Maya's stallion stood in the street alone, tethered to the fence line against the road watching on with the innocence only an animal can truly possess.

It was at least five in the morning before Maya reawoke, her horse sleeping beyond the gate with the moonlight illuminating him.
Alice was nowhere in sight, leaving Maya to surmise she was asleep, an assumption confirmed by the snoring audible from a room off the hall. 
Grunting as she stood, Maya hobbled out the door and roused her horse. The blood on her face had congealed, but that had done very little to appease the pain throbbing throughout her body and face.
With a pained squeal, Maya pulled herself onto the back of her stallion and rode the two hours back to the Citadel from Altomontis.
Tethering her stallion back inside the stables, Maya gave her ribs a gentle rub.
A tickling down the side of her neck altered her to a trickle of blood rivering from her ear.
She placed her wrist on her face, using the cuff from her robes to absorb the blood.
Barely holding herself together, Maya cut a path across the grounds toward the front door, two Guardsmen stood outside and beckoned her in as she approached.
Climbing over the threshold, she wrinkled her nose, a strong whiff of sickly sweet acid washed over her. A rhythmic drip echoed throughout the main hall, radiating outward from underneath the spiral staircase. By habit, and the grace of gentle moonlight through the windows around the room, she made her way to the center of the room.
It grew stronger as she took the first step on the spiral staircase, becoming overwhelming as she got closer to the third floor - until finally, she tripped.
Between the darkness on the staircase and her aging eyes, she found it hard to see who it was laying beneath her feet.
Bending over, she got a proper view - the cropped blonde hair, the soft (almost feminine) features of Geordie. A toxic mixture of blood and vomit dripped from his mouth, his face as swollen as her own. His back faced the roof, though his head was twisted almost right back to her; his neck not just broken but obliterated. 


"ORDER!", Randall shouted throughout the councilors chamber, bringing the rapturous shouting to a halt, "What has happened is abundantly clear".
"Don't you dare-", Ritty stood on his feet to stare at Randal without obstruction from Antonia next to him. 
"MAYA!", Randall shouted over Ritty, cutting him short, "Look at the two of them, both bloodied and injured".
Ritty scoffed and fell back onto the bench, he rolled his eyes into the back of his head.
"She's been under suspicion twice now!", Randall reminded the room, "This is far too much of a coincidence to be just a coincidence".
"You can't be serious", Antonia chuckled awkwardly, "her bones are nearly dust".
James cast a dark glance in Antonia's direction, his face red and splotchy from tears.
"Do you have a better theory?", Randall probed her, almost sincerely. 
"I- T-...", Antonia sputtered, "...No, I don't".
"I do", Gene cleared his throat.
"Mmm?", Randall didn't even bother to look back.
"I allowed Maya out of the city to travel to Altomontis", Gene admitted, "She wanted to notify her sister of Magnus's detainment". 
Randall sighed, steadying himself - "You broke lockdown and allowed her to leave the city?", Randall double-checked, "You, Gene, the head guard,  trusted with keeping the kingdom safe, allowed a murder suspect out of the city unaccompanied?".
Gene swallowed - "Yes, that's correct".
The room held their breath, Ritty surveying them carefully.
James sobbed quietly, puncturing the air. Randall's hands shook in anger - the color drained entirely from his face.
"Gene", Randall's voice quivered as he spoke, "You need to leave before I say something that we both wish was never said".
"Randall-", Gene started.
"NOW!", Randall spun on his chair violently enough to almost topple off. 
Agnes and Doris jumped backward in fright, and the room watched as Gene skulked across the stone floor to the steel door at the end of the chamber. 
Randall's lips twitched angrily watching Gene close the door behind him. 
His breathing heavy, audible throughout the chamber. His eyes were closed until they weren't, his pupils cast like slits as he gazed across the room at the few councilors still on the bench to his left, and the family on the bench to his right.
"It's becoming obvious that no matter what is done, this chaos will continue", Randall spoke with little confidence, "Someone within our house, is trying to sabotage us - in favor of one of you" - he looked to Ritty directly, making it clear precisely what he was implying - "This ends today. We had four people of equal standing waiting to be crowned, now there are two of you. This is a game that's become far, far, too dangerous to play. Magnus will be freed from the fifteenth floor", Ritty punched the air, though it was premature, "and Maya will be taken out the front to meet the guillotine at sunset".
"WHAT!?", Ritty shouted, and even James looked displeased. 
"SHE'S AN ELDERLY WOMAN!", one of the unnamed councilors above Thatcher and Sinclairs empty seats cried out.
"Surely not!?", Agnes hissed over Randall's shoulder.
"SILENCE!", Randall called out, his voice pounding their eardrums. 
"We ought to vote on these things!", Doris thumped her fists on the tiny square table sat in front of her and Agnes. 
"No, no more voting on this stuff! We have a killer running around picking off the King's children, they've destroyed food and put as at odds with our allies. We are in the midst of a crisis! I am the King-By-Proxy, and it's high time something was done about this!", Randall called across the chamber, "You want to waste time voting? Stand up and leave, perhaps the kitchen staff will play happy voter with you, but I'm done playing games".
"I won't let you do this, Randall, I won't let you take away the closest thing James and I have to a parent", Ritty stood once more.
"Then you'll be up on the fifteenth floor next", Randall wiped his hands together, as if removing filth from his palms, "If anyone needs me, I'll be taking up residence on the Third Floor".
"That's for Kings", James croaked, watching Randall stand up and brush himself off. 
Randall said nothing, smiling as if to say 'and what am I?'. He strutted across the room, slamming the steel door behind him.