My soles ached from the drop and my shoulder could not move, because it broke the fall.
Sore me, it hurts.
Turning, towards the rugged tree trunks where Corona laid against a tree. She had a worse drop leaving shivering apples around her disheveled body. She breathed raspy with her eyes glossed over and some part of me enjoyed seeing her like that.
I stumbled over the discolored leaves, young yellow apples, and twigs towards her.
The sword, I took it up. I stooped before her and placed it at her neck. Then she laughed, this arrogant fool.
“Something funny?” I asked.
“You are just like what we feared you would become.”
I blinked and circulated my jaw stopping myself from retorting prematurely.
She continued, “I can't stop you. I just cannot win.”
“If I remember correctly I am the child of a God.”
Corona's head leaned up off the bark. “Stow your conceit; was it not them who made the hells and heavens to frighten us into obedience? You had to die. To protect the greatness they created. Why she wants you to live, I cannot fathom.”
“My mother never ordered that?”
“No, she just wanted your body. Only that.”
I sighed, hating every minute of this. “Reasons?”
Laughter came out then those somber words. “Not sure.” She flinched and made a hissing sound as she slumped lower. “I am not that high in the order to know her thoughts, even now she changes her mind. She wants you to live.”
Why was I surrounded by self-centered people who only thought of themselves?
“You do not deserve it.” Her voice ringed in my ears when I looked up at the leaf sprinkled sky covered by thin trees in circles around us. “You deserve only death. Be-” She got breathless. “Because of you, I lost everything. Why would she cherish you, a cockroach?”
My fingernails bit into the handle. I kept it steady as my eyes blurred with fury staring at her face. I replied, “I have her blood.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Blood does not matter, only skill, usefulness, if you are useless, you should be killed on the spot. That is the Elam creed. I worked so hard to get to my position and I lost it to you.” She spat at me, but it was weak and volleyed under my chin. “You...”
I shook my head and licked my lips. Breathe, calm down, I stilled my arm and stared in those eyes, they shouted resolution, purpose, melancholy.
What was I doing? I was better than this, above all those fools and petty battles over paltry gains, titles, and traditions. As my fingers loosened on the pommel, I resolved that if I was to die. I had to die on my terms.
Yes, that was what I sought, her blood on my hands carried me to no peace in the afterlife. I breathed out and let the sword fell.
Getting up, I looked at her, and nothing resonated for her, yet gloom consumed me. I was sure, so I nodded at her. “Have life.”
She scowled and asked, “What?”
“I have life. Take care Corona, come to kill me again sometimes.”
I walked off only to hear. “You don't deserve it.”
Turning, I said, “I never wanted it in the first place, but I will take it for now.”
YOU ARE READING
Carmine (Completed)
خيال (فانتازيا)A young clever Princess of Ascus named Carmine is stuck in a daunting predicament by her father's decree. She wants to escape it by any means, for that was all she has ever done, running away from her duty, her crown. She must survive the darkest of...
