The Elitra: Book One

Chapter Five

She picked her skirts up just enough where the toes of her yellow shoes peeked from beneath and she followed him. Outside she saw the boots had bodies. There were two men stationed outside the door, just as Duraun had said. But as she looked to the left, there were three more leaning against the wall. He wasn’t taking any chances this time.

Duraun noticed her gaze at the men.

“I told you.” He turned and headed back the way they had come, twice now and then called over his shoulder without looking back. “You should be following me!”

The men watched her as she stared them for a second longer and then with a defeated sigh she followed after Duraun.

She heard the five men behind her fall in step, trailing her. She was in serious trouble. This time, she didn’t think she’d be getting away so easily. She’d have to formulate a new plan.

Duraun led her down the three flights of stairs and down the long hall. And once again when she had first met him that morning, they were back in the grand hall. And it was exactly as it had been when she had entered, except this time, she was entering from a different door. The one she had seen Duraun enter through, behind the high backed chair.

The crowd of ladies in their fine dresses filled the floor, but this time they seemed more pressed to the walls, a wider area in the center, before the chair, was left open with only three people standing in its space.

Duraun moved into the hall and the low chatter rolling through the crowd of women seemed to die like the snuffing of a candle. Immediate.

Duraun moved up to the chair and leaned against an arm folding his arms over his chest.

“What is going on?” he said loudly.

Airena didn’t know where she was supposed to go but when Duraun looked around the back of the chair she assumed he was waiting for her to come up to him.

“Sit,” he whispered as she stepped up to him and indicated with a motion of his head to the chair he was leaning against. The chair that faced the court.

She looked at him nervously but didn’t question him and did as he said. She still wondered what he was going to do with her, and having her sit on display didn’t make his decision any clearer.

She fixed her skirts so they weren’t so bunched and then looked ahead. She felt a breath catch in her throat and she seemed to forget to breath out.

Duraun looked down at her with a cautious look but then looked back at the scene before them waiting for his men to explain.

Opette knelt on the floor between the two men. She looked rumpled, her dress torn in many places, her painted face was smeared with the colors and her hair was no longer in the neat long curls down her back. It was frizzy and looked as if she had just awoken from sleep, rather having been so put together earlier that day, but Airena didn’t imagine she had taken a nap and looked like that after. She guessed something had happened, since they were all assembled there, including all the ladies that Duraun kept in the ladies quadrant, as Opette had told her.

The man on Opette’s right stepped forward.

“This woman killed Jorge,” he stated and looked to Duraun.