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Tears of Angitite
Posted by Hannah, Feb 28. 121 views. ID = 687
This post was written in 4 minutes.
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 | This is a random chapter from the book I am writing. I'm going to paste the description here...
“The first time I saw you on That Fateful Day… I knew life would be hard for you.”
Princess Arina Edena Matinaque had always had a simple, if not easy, life. Parties, suitors, and dresses were her days. But on her seventeenth birthday, everything changes. She is suddenly thrust into a cold world where cruelty, politics, and injustice reign and nothing is as it seems. She soon meets a familiar face from her mysterious past and a voice guides her movements. Arina has to find her way to the voice who promises that she can tell her all the answers to her questions. But can she trust them both? Or will one or the other destroy her for their own gain?
Yurio has no idea who this woman is who he met next to a stream bed. She is strong, willful, and talks too much, but he is inexplicably drawn to her. When she asks him for help to get to the dark and mysterious Black Forest, Yurio has no choice but to say yes.
Arina must find the secrets of her past, of where she came from and what she is. And Yurio must forget his own painful past and find out who the woman behind the haze is, or his fight might be lost before it has barely begun.
But, when Arina has all her answers before her, can she accept them? Will she be able to embrace her past and look forward to her future? Will she help Yurio in his fight against the Noble’s she had once called family, or will she return to peaceful ignorance?
|  | This post has been awarded 12 stars by 3 readers. |
Chapter 2: God Bless the True King
It was a long way to the front hall. Arina could hear the tittering maids behind her. The rumors were circulating that she was destined for King Henri, and they were truer than any other rumor before. How am I supposed to marry a king twenty three years older than me? That’s besides the fact that he’s my uncle! She thought; fixing one of the gloves that had fallen to her wrist. The hallway echoed with their footfalls. Arina hated this hallway, no matter how lightly you stepped, you still sounded like a herd of horses.
The Festival was out in the Town; this was one of the few times of year that Arina could go out of the Palace. Other than the Festival day, and when she lived in Matinaque Palace, she was almost constantly behind the Palace walls.
Arina’s parents, Hagon and Bevan Matinaque were High royalty. They were coming back from the Procession. The Procession was a parade of Nobles who went from town to town taking turns supporting all the others in their country estates. It happened once a year, starting at the beginning of summer, and ending when the leaves turned red. It was meant to show the peasants their leaders, since most of them would probably never come even close to the Court. The Procession Festival was made to commemorate the end of the Procession and the return of all the High Nobles.
The sun hit Arina’s face as she stepped out of the huge double door entrance. Why do these doors have to be so big? Do they expect us to ride horses’ in here?
“Up you go, your Highness,” one of the slaves said, grabbing Arina’s waist with two large hands and lifting her into the waiting Carrier when she reached it. A Carrier was like a bed. It was rectangle, with dozens of cushions and four long poles sticking out of each corner for the slaves to pick it up.
Arina shifted her skirts and breeches so that they were flowing over her legs, hiding her slippers. “Thank you,” she said, nodding at the man when she was situated. She could barely hear her own muffled voice behind the thick veil around her face. The man nodded and stepped backwards four times, then turned around on his heel.
Four slave-men lifted the Carrier onto their shoulders. Arina hated Carrier’s, especially when they had a long way to travel. Her parents made her ride in them whenever she went outside the Palace walls because it was the style. “All the teenage Nobles are riding in Carrier’s.” Her parents said. I don’t care what every other teenager is doing, they’re all jerks. Why do they have to treat me like a piece of glass when I’m around, and talk about me when I’m gone? I know they think that I shouldn’t be the daughter of the Prince who is second in line for the Throne. Arina knew that she couldn’t blame them for not liking her. She wasn’t exactly Princess material. She would rather be outside in the Great Forest or on her horses’ back then on a throne with a sparkly thing on her head.
The slaves’ started to walk. Elvera walked next to Arina’s green cushioned Carrier. Even a High servant couldn’t ride in a Carrier; it would seem impertinent for a servant to ride in the same thing that Nobles’ rode. Even though Noble’s and servants could both ride horses. I never really understood that. Arina thought dryly.
Arina looked around her. The small group was walking down a large lane lined with civilians. Some of the civilians were cheering, but most were standing glaring at Arina’s little procession.
One man in particular struck her as odd. The man was in the back of the crowd. A hood covered his face so that all she could see was a sun tanned nose sticking out of a dark hole. A sword poked out of the cape he was wearing. The man seemed familiar, as if she’d seen him before. The weirdest thing about him, though, was how big he was. He was over six feet tall at least. Arina mentally shrugged, there’s nothing I can do about him now. Besides, there’re a lot of weird people in town. It’s probably nothing. We can’t arrest him for looking tall and suspicious.
Arina turned her head away from the man when he disappeared into the crowd. She kept waving at the people around her, her sleeves flapping in the wind. The wind trickled slowly under her veil. The coolness on her face felt amazing. She rarely felt wind, the Palace being behind the Palace Wall.
Having nothing to do, the memory of the day Arina figured out why the people always glared at her when she went by them on her way to town came to mind. She remembered the Festival almost four years before. She was riding on her pony, Heracles, who died a few months after the Festival, riding slowly down the Main Road. A larger-than-normal group of soldiers circled Arina. She figured it was because she was almost a year older. The civilians lining the side of the road looked angry. A few of them muttered among themselves. Then, suddenly, a man yelled, “Let the true King on the throne!” and threw something into the air. The thing landed with a splat right on Heracles’ head. The pony was too gentle to throw Arina, but he wasn’t gentle enough not to fidget and make Arina slip around in the saddle. Other shouts of, “God bless the true King!” rang through the streets.
Immediately, Elvera yanked Arina off of her pony, threw her to the ground and jumped on her, covering her completely. Half the soldiers closed in around the pile of Arina and Elvera, and the other half pulled their swords out and pushed the crowd back away from them. The group backed against a wall. One soldier ran toward the Palace Wall. Arina thought he was deserting her, but minutes later he came back followed by dozens of Palace Guards. A riot broke out at the sight of the soldiers. The civilians attacked the approaching soldiers and loud clambering and clanging erupted. The civilians’ fought with rocks, pitchforks, and stolen weapons from the fallen soldiers.
“Up Ari, we need to go.” Elvera peeled herself away from Arina and helped the princess to her feet. Arina was too confused to protest. She just wanted to get away from the horrible screams of the wounded. The soldiers were cutting the peasants down like wheat.
The soldiers around Arina were falling fast. The rioters were targeting them to try to get to Arina. Why do they want to hurt me? She wondered. A young soldier pushed his way through her circle of soldiers. He seemed to be sixteen or seventeen.
“Princess, this way please!” The boy cried, grabbing her arm.
“Elvera!” Arina screeched, clinging to Elvera’s arm.
“I’ll be fine, Ari. They won’t hurt me. Go with the boy, now!” Elvera screamed as Arina started to object.
“Please Princess. You need to follow me.” The boy tugged on Arina’s arm until she turned and followed him. The young soldier led the princess into an opening in the wall behind the circle of soldiers. Their escape was hidden by the soldiers and guards surrounding Elvera. The feet of the two escapees flapped in deep puddles of rain-water. They were running down a large alley from what Arina could see.
Soon, Arina and her liberator reached a wall that blocked their escape.
The soldier yelled something Arina couldn't hear, making Arina gasp behind her thick curtain of veils. He sounded scared.
“What!? You didn’t know that this was a complete dead end!?” Arina whispered angrily.
“I’m sorry, Princess; I was too busy worrying about getting you out of that riot to save your life to think of where the only place for you to go would go.” The boy said sarcastically as he studied the wall.
“Well, what are you going to do?” She asked teasingly.
“I don’t…” The soldier yanked his head around to face the alley they had just come from. Voices and footsteps bounced across the walls.
“God help us!” Murmured Arina, making the soldier look at her in astonishment.
The boy pulled a long sword out of its scabbard and wielded it expertly. He pushed Arina behind him, into a corner in the wall. A group of three men ran up the alley. They stopped when they saw a soldier covering the Princess they had been trying to kill behind him. One of the men laughed. Arina could still remember the laugh, it was like a hyena when it corners a weak animal.
“Ah, it’s that new kid. What’s his name again?” Arina was alarmed to see a soldier among the men and, relieved, she tried to go out from behind the boy who had her pushed against the wall.
“Princess, don’t move.” The young soldier said sternly.
The last thing Arina could remember was the three men attacking, including the soldier, and the young soldier fighting them. She was hit on the head and fell unconscious almost immediately after the fighting commenced. She woke up a day later with a bump as big as her hand on her head, and to find that the soldier who had saved her life was dead. She wept long and hard about that. When she asked her mother why the peasants had attacked her, her mother told her that “a lot of people don’t agree with your uncle’s politics. They think he is too hard on the common man and too easy on the Nobles. And they don’t like the war.” That was the first time Arina had heard of any kind of war.
Arina was yanked out of her reflections for the second time in a day when the Cärrier reached the Festival. The Festival wasn’t exactly what the name intended it to be. It was basically a big group of Nobles in the middle of Town Square talking, complaining, and lying about all the places they had just visited while the commoners watched from behind a wall of soldiers. Arina looked at the peasants and saw the hooded man again. He was still staring at her. Well, she couldn’t see if he was really looking at her since he had an overly large hood over his head, but he was looking in her direction.
Arina’s Carrier was let through the soldiers and she was brought to the middle of the group of Nobles’ to where her parents sat next to King Henri. The slaves holding her Carrier lowered it slowly to the ground. As soon as they had bowed and stepped away, Arina took Elvera’s outstretched hand and lifted herself to her feet. Elvera bowed to the king, lowered her eyes to the ground and stepped behind Arina. Arina curtsied low to the ground and stayed down.
“Your Majesty, welcome home,” She said to the ground.
“Thank you, Niece. Please, stand up.” Arina creakily stepped out of her curtsy. She looked around at the Nobles around her. Young Nobles were in a tight knit group off to the side. They were whispering and laughing. She knew they were talking about her by the way that most of them were turned towards her. She knew about the rumors that she would be marrying her forty-year-old uncle. They just didn’t know how true it really was.
“Well, now that everyone is here, we can go to the-“ The king stopped talking abruptly. Arina looked over to see what had interrupted him just in time to see him fall to the ground, an arrow sticking out of the back of his head. Patches of blood festooned her parents. Arina hastily looked into the crowd to see the man in the hood holding the just-used bow. He grabbed a new arrow faster than her eyes could follow.
Arina was suddenly tackled to the ground by Elvera, just as she had four years before. Elvera didn’t quite cover all of Arina anymore, but she still covered up enough that she wouldn’t die if she got hit by an arrow. The wall of soldiers circled around the Noble’s and then closed in tighter. A few of them went to the hooded man.
The man jumped into the air and double-kicked the first man to reach him. Blood spurted out of the soldier’s nose as the hooded man jabbed the next soldier and tore his sword out of its scabbard. The crowd around the king’s killer cleared away from the fight. The peasants watched but didn’t reach out to help either side. They stood with stony faces, not wanting to join either side.
Two remaining soldiers approached the man with their swords drawn and ready. The hooded man stabbed the first soldier in the chest with his sword like a snake, then twirled around to jab the last soldiers’ head with the butte of the sword. The two men fell to the ground at the same time. He’s fast! Arina thought, trying to breath under the weight of Elvera.
Soon, another soldier stepped out of the wall of protection. The hooded fighter whistled as he parried the blow of a sword from the thick necked soldier. Soon, a black horse with white leggings ran through the icy crowd. The man jumped onto the horse just as an arrow from one of the wall soldiers flew into his thigh. The man grunted, but made no other noise. He kicked the horse into a fast canter and flew out of the Town Center. Reinforcement soldiers on horses arrived just as the black horses’ tail disappeared behind a shop.
“After him!” Arina’s father cried, kneeling by the king’s body. The soldiers on horses pushed their horses after the hooded man on the black horse.
Arina heard wails go through the Nobles’. They cried and knelt next to their deceased king. The young women ripped their veils off as a sign of respect for their dead monarch. Elvera unwrapped herself from Arina and lifted her to her feet.
“We need to go, Princess.” Arina couldn’t take off her veil as a sign of respect. If she did, her markings would be out for all the Noble’s to see. But, if she didn’t take her veil off, it would be thought of as rude and indecent to the deceased. Arina would probably be forced to take her veil off.
Arina jumped onto the Carrier as Elvera called the slaves to come into the circle. The guards let them through, though only by Elvera’s insistence. The slaves were hurried into picking the Carrier up and carrying it out of the circle of guards. Elvera called Arina’s guards over to circle Arina. Only three of them could follow them back to the Palace. The rest had to stay and protect the new king, her father’s older brother Juiop. Her father was the youngest son, so he would be the last king in the Matinaque line since none of the brothers had been able to have sons.
As she traveled through the streets of the Palace City, Arina watched as the lines of commoners on the side of the road were dispersed by Palace soldiers. The peasants looked confused and frightened. Arina looked down and saw a soldier shoving a young pregnant woman holding a toddler in her arms. He was trying to make her go faster, but her swollen legs kept buckling.
“Stop;” Arina told the slaves carrying her Carrier. Before they had put the Carrier down on the ground all the way, Arina had jumped off of it and was heading towards the woman. Elvera tried to catch her charge, but wasn’t fast enough.
“Arina, get back on the Carrier! Do you know how much danger you’re in?” Elvera almost screamed, but Arina ignored her. When she reached the soldier he stopped and saluted the princess. Well at least he recognizes me.
“Your Highness,” he said inaudibly.
“What are you doing?” Arina was angry, but she kept her temper. Just breathe.
“Ma’am, we were ordered to get all of the civilians into their homes as quickly as possible. By all means necessary. ”
“Did your stupid brain ever stop to think that maybe she is sore from being pregnant? I guess it wouldn’t.” Arina kneeled next to the pregnant woman. “I’m so sorry, Mother. You will be safely escorted to your home, and given ten shillings for your pain.” Arina directed the first part of the statement at the soldier, and handed the woman the coins out of her purse.
“God bless you, Your Highness! God bless you!” The young woman looked at the coins in wonderment.
“Now, soldier, I want you to escort this woman and her child to her house in safety. One of my men,” Arina signaled to one of her three guards, “will go with you to make sure you do not touch her again.”
Elvera stepped forward. “No Princess. Please, let me go. You will be safer without a Guardian than without a soldier.” Elvera linked arms with the young woman, holding her up, and started to walk, giving Arina no time to respond. Arina nodded reluctantly as the soldier followed the two women, his pride badly wounded. Arina’s guard stepped back into formation, and Arina walked slowly over to her Carrier. She put a foot up, and then saw a young girl staring at her. Arina stepped down and walked forward. The guards gawked at her in disbelief, but all of the civilians stopped walking away and stared at her: calculating. She walked, her head held high, the rest of the way to the Palace. To tell the truth, it felt good to walk more than a few feet at a time. People stared hard as she walked by them, and she couldn’t help but marvel at what a small act could do to so many people.
Copyright 2008 Hannah. All rights reserved. FifteenMinutesOfFiction.com has been granted non-exclusive rights to display this work. For permission to reprint this item, please contact the author.
| This post has been awarded 12 stars by 3 readers. |
Comments
Hannah
Feb 28 | There was a prologue and a chapter before this one, but this is one of the best of the three. :)
~Posted by Hannah, Feb 28 | 
Josiah T.
Feb 28 | Nice! I like writing fantasy too. Right now I'm working on a trilogy, and I posted a spin-off series from that on here. :-)
~Posted by Josiah T., Feb 28 |
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