The Amethyst Queen

It would not be long now. The city gates had been breached. Bloodshed pooled in the cobblestoned streets and the stench of war wreaked through every home. Word of my father’s loss had already been delivered to me. Shouts of panic echoed through the halls but I kept my door locked, blinking back tears with every armor heavy footstep that ran past my chambers.

Three days ago I was eating my fill of a breakfast feast with my father in our great hall. Now with the same sunrise, everything else had changed - I had lost everything. My king had fallen in this battle, along with a thousand of our strongest men. He promised before riding off he would return to me, but it would be a promise that never saw another morning together.

The roars of malificent men were growing now. Would I be taken as prisoner? Killed on the spot? Surely tortured first? I had relinquished my guards to fortify the castle but none returned. I walked over to my window but did not have the bravery to look at anything below the radiance of the new sun. Something in the orange sky still made me feel grateful - of the life I once led, the life that would soon end. The deeper red streaks reminded me that I would soon be with all of those just recently fallen. Our beautiful city of Galanthra was slain and throne to the dogs of war, but for what?

Another boom rocked my room. Dust shook from the walls and the glass of wine on my table dropped to the ground, splintering its shiny shards across the floor. I stared at the pieces reflecting the sunlight. No doubt the Niltide had entered my castle now.

With a deep breath, I walked over to my wardrobe. Inside was a small box nestled in the bottom with a blanket of dust over top. I carefully removed it and placed it on my lap as I knelt on my floor with the glass fragments. This box had never needed to be opened - until this morning. Lathiac steel had laid inside for nearly two decades. One blade I hid inside my knee length leather boot. Another I would keep in my hand as my first line of defense. The last I hid under my bed for safe keeping.

I closed my wardrobe and went back to my window. My mind tried to drown out the screaming, the pumbling horse hooves,the steel clanking. It imagined birds chirping, children laughing and fresh air sauntering through - but was abruptly interrupted.

“This is the one! This one is locked!” yelled a man outside my door. I turned to face the wooden hatch and kept my knife behind my body, tied into my fingers.

Show no fear, I reminded myself, one of the last things my King had told me. I closed my eyes and remembered the last kiss he had placed atop my forehead. “Show no fear,” I repeated out loud.

My door shattered just as easily as my wine glass had. Splinters pelted the floor just as I had opened my eyes. It took a couple blows but my door was now open. My eyes locked on who would be entering first. Instead, no one entered. No one even spoke. A moment passed and my body almost relaxed, but my soul reminded it of our reality.

Suddenly, not one man, not two, but three barged inside, all with blood covered armor, worn swords and the stench of death. The first took off his helmet and gazed upon me as if I was his first meal in days. A feeling of repulsion vibrated up my back. My hands squeezed the handle of my knife in attempt to steady my shaking body.

“You picked the right fucking door, Lew!” said the soldier with the wickedest grin. He let his helmet fall at his feet, signaling the other two to do the same. Three men with wide, wild eyes and sloppy smiles all gawked at me.

“Do not worry, little thing. We are not supposed to hurt you,” the oldest one said, slicking back his sweaty hair with blackened blood on his fingers.

“Yes, but… I have not heard anything at all from Kaleb…” said the last soldier. “Chance he is dead?” All of the men laughed.

I could not take this cat and mouse game, not after all of today’s loss. I laughed with them, mockingly. All three immediately shut their mouths. I stared blankly at them until I could not stand to look at their ugliness any more and my eyes rolled over my shoulder.

“Guess King Derek never taught the future little queen any manners,” said the first soldier to take off his helmet. He stomped towards me, unsheathed his sword and compassed it to my neck. My fingers still laced around my knife. His face went from hateful to hungry as his eyes fell across my body. The light’s reflection from the steel of his sword ricocheted as he dropped it from my collar past my chest, slicing the top of my dress bare. I kept my eyes on the ruthless man in front of me as the other two laughed behind us.

He sneered at me while the others began taking off their armor, his sword now pointing at my navel. Large, heavy gusts of breath began errupting from my chest. Though my breasts plunged from my clothes, I kept my hands behind my back as not to give away my hidden weapon. As if my situation could not get any worse, a fourth soldier quietly appeared. My eyes glued to the new man who wore a purple crest on his armored chest, who had entered the room and stood still by the fragmented door.

The oldest soldier strolled over to me, pushing me against the wall and taking a bundle of my hair into his grimey hands. He smelled it from tip to root, inhaling it like his life depended on it. The third man came around the other side, fulling trapping me. He grabbed me by the chin, forcing my gaze filled with hatred to meet his, which was filled with excitement.

The soldier with the drawn sword used his free hand to grasp my breast. The breath of the three men was revolting, especially as they laughed in my face.

“Take this so I can get my armor off,” he demanded of the one grasping my hair. They smiled at each other as he handed him the sword. The sound of more armor clattering on the floor echoed to the rhythm of my heart. With the one backed away, I could finally see the fourth soldier again.

“Are you not going to join?” I hissed, writhing between the steel and my stone wall.

All three men turned to look at the much larger man standing in the door way. The only helmeted man shook his head slowly at me, his hand on his sword, chest billowing out from beneath his purple chest plate. The men seemed stunned. My hair was quickly dropped and fell back to my waist. My chin was released and I was once again given some power over my body.