VALCRESH'S ARENA OF JUDGEMENT

I am not a queen because I rule, I rule because I am THE QUEEN.

Birthed in my heart. Alive in my veins…

************

Zorgan caught up with Nadezhda, and they strode toward the seated King and Queen of Valcresh.

‘‘My son’’ The woman by the side of the King sang to Zorgan with a blinding smile. The corners of her eyes wrinkled, and her velvety green attire spread to envelop Zorgan. He hugged her briefly, clearly shorter than the woman wanted to be held by her son.

The Queen walked up to Nadezhda, her arms still open, and she embodied her in a warm nuzzle. Nadezhda was slightly stunned because the woman had not given her time to salute her and had rather gone directly for a hug.

It had been a while since anyone had hugged her.

‘‘Forgive me, child, I didn’t quite get your name at the wedding,’’ The Queen said.

‘Thinking about it now, I didn’t exactly meet Zorgan’s family. All I knew was that they were part of the audience on the wedding day.’

Nadezhda responded to the Queen and she was patient enough to pronounce her name slowly, ‘‘Na Dezh Da’’

Nadezhda smiled; it was not every time someone was willing to get her name right.

The Queen took her by the hand to lead her to the seat directly beside her. But before Nadezhda could sit, Zorgan stopped her.

‘‘I’ll sit by the Queen’’ He said without warmth, his eyes trained on his mother. She wanted to refute but Zorgan slowly peeled Nadezhda’s hand from hers and placed himself between the both of them.

‘‘Son!’’ The King acknowledged, eyes on Zorgan.

‘‘King!’’ Zorgan called tersely, eyes on the Crown of Valcresh.

There was a sizzle and cackle in the air, and Nadezhda’s timely salute to the King was the jinx that broke it.

She lowered herself, neck bowed in reverence. ‘‘Honour to the King of Valcresh’’.

There was a roar in the Crowd and the moment was dispersed. The standing Royals finally settled on their seats. Nadezhda was seated between Evadne and Zorgan while Zorgan was between his mother and Nadezhda.

‘‘I apologize for Evadne’s acts. I never knew she had such a bad fire to her’’ Zorgan whispered into Nadezhda’s ear.

The swift flare of his breath into her ear, coupled with the slight weight of his arm to her side, sent a haphazard, tingly feeling within Nadezhda. Bewilderment confronted her judicious consciousness and she turned to him.

Black and grey complimented each other, darting into befuddled and keen orbs. Grey noticed purple lines underneath the skin of deep-set black eyes.

‘Awful gaze. He looks like he spared no rest throughout the night ‘

Black pierced grey, ‘Judgemental eyes for a lovely face. How ironic!’

Another roar of laughter from the crowd tore their eyes from each other and to the pit below.

Three jesters stood on the sand, making funny faces and speaking hilarious and mocking words at each other. But their moment seemed to have ended as one of the gates from the pit below was rolled away. About fifteen men and women bridged by chains were led out.

They looked worn out and almost lifeless. The guards leading them made them face the King’s dais and they were kicked savagely to their knees. Nadezhda’s hand involuntarily squeezed the handrest of her seat.

The once loud arena ran deathly quiet and the silence carried the words of a wee and shrewd-looking man who somehow managed to have a boisterous voice.

‘‘Hail the Crown, the King of Valcresh’’ The man called.

‘‘Hail the Crown, the King of Valcresh,’’ Everyone repeated after the man.

The man used a staff he was wielding to point at the first two men. ‘‘Found to be habitants of the South as they claimed but they were seen trespassing the Royal threshold’’

The King lifted his right hand and his palm stayed open. The crowd howled and cheered. Not understanding Valcresh’s culture, Nadezhda clapped her hands softly along with the ecstatic crowd.

The next six persons were facing identical judgment. Nadezhda crinkled her eyes to ensure that one of the persons she was seeing was indeed a teenager. He looked not a day older than her chambermaids.

‘What could he have done?’

‘‘Spies of the North… found killing three warriors of the South as they were about to flee’’ The man announced.

‘‘Bastards!

The whole lot of them deserve death’’ Evadne commented under her breath.

The stones and structure used to seat the crowd shook lightly as the crowd went into a frenzy and they appeared more displeased than Evadne.

‘‘This is the purpose we always need you Zorgan. You were barely away and look at what these untamed beings have done.’’ Evadne spat crossly.

She was partly referring to Nadezhda because she felt after the event of Southern Royals, the only reason Zorgan had not resumed his duty was because of ‘his new wife’.

Nadezhda wholly disregarded her as there was something far more disturbing. Two of those, pronounced to be from the North, did not have their heads bowed like the rest of the other prisoners, and one of them was the teenager she had spotted.

Instead, ‘How are they fearlessly looking towards this part of the arena? And why does it feel like they are staring at me precisely?

They show no sign of distress. Why do I feel this way?’

Unsettled and apprehensive, these were the sensations that coursed through Nadezhda, and she was befuddled by the eccentricity of the moment.

Without looking towards Evadne, Zorgan raised a brow as he nodded vigorously at her words.

The noise in the crowd subsided a little, and the King lifted his hand. His hand was in the air for a moment before it formed into a fist. The crowd went joyfully wild but Nadezdha couldn’t bring her hands to clap.

‘‘Quit it, Eva. Our brother just wedded. You wouldn’t say such words by the time you get married’’ A voice carried from one of the seats by the King’s right hand. It was Prince Mael, the King’s first son who was yet to be pronounced as the Crown Prince of Valcresh.

The King and Queen sent a scowl his way as they wondered what had taken him so long. He clenched his teeth but showed no noticeable reaction. Evadne huffed at his defense.

The wee man on the sand carried on to the next set of prisoners. Prince Mael leaned forward in his seat and sent a smile to Zorgan.

‘‘You must be Dezhda-‘ Mael called to Nadezhda.

‘Dezhda?’ Nadezdha interrogated her memory. She still couldn’t put a location to the face but she smiled. ‘‘Yes, I am’’.

‘‘You might be displeased that I couldn’t stick around for your wedding. It was so sudden and I had numerous emergencies to deal with right here in Valcresh.

I hope you can understand?’’ Prince Mael asked.

Nadezhda flashed a smile and nodded in the affirmative. ‘I didn’t even know you existed till this very moment Prince Mael’.

His dull green eyes assessed her, but he wasn’t satisfied with his impression of Zorgan’s wife.

He could have been regarded as the most surprised the day Zorgan had announced his ties to Nadezhda in the presence of other Royals. He could not believe that yet again, this brother of his had gone right ahead to do something he hadn’t.

So he gathered what he could about Nadezhda, and he had been disappointed. He had been expecting her to have ties to a great kingdom, probably by her father or mother.

‘Mulish, dead mother, regarded as just another child of the King of Isoloth…There is nothing much to her. She is harmless’

‘‘Maybe when we are back from battle with the re-grouped strays we can have dinner with my brother. Although I have no idea why he insists on leaving with us tomorrow. After all, he just got married to an alluring woman like you’’ Prince Mael said with a mild pout.

‘Warfront? Tomorrow? But he has said nothing to me?’ Nadezhda thought surprised. She looked to Zorgan who evaded her gaze.

Evadne, who had witnessed the silent inference in the air, bit into it immediately.

‘‘Do not tell me you have no idea sister-in-law?’’ She rhetorically asked.

Nadezhda knew what Evadne was trying to do, and she didn’t spare her a glance.

‘‘Or maybe he is considering not going at all.

You are a titled soldier, Zorgan, and now you are married.

Leave the matters of war to your brother and other commanders’’ The King cut in, an underlying command rather than a suggestion in his words.

A dangerous glint appeared in Zorgan’s eyes. Probably he could have seen reasoning with the King’s words if his father truly cared, but he knew that wasn’t the case.

Zorgan tried to blink the fuming tremor within him away but it just wouldn’t go. It was more than two decades and his father could see no wrong. His fingers intertwined and strained on one another as he imagined squashing the unquenchable fury within.

Just yesterday, he believed he had overcome it.

‘‘Son, your hands can reach more people when you begin from Valcresh. We just want what is right for you- Always’’ His mother added in a small voice.

Mael and San enjoyed the discomfort of their brother. Most times, when he is away from the fame of the world and with his family, he shows that he is still that twelve-year-old who locks himself in his room for weeks, mourning a soul that was doomed from the start.

Feeling like he was close to parting from his skin, Zorgan tried to rise but Nadezhda’s hand abruptly came atop his hands. Surprised, Zorgan’s hands fell apart and she clasped her hand to one of them.

‘‘I believe my husband has the best of Valcresh at heart-” Nadezhda began, looking Zorgan in the eyes, to the hearing of every royal and high official in that axis.

‘‘A man willingly leaving his newly wedded wife behind is almost unheard of but it shows his dedication to the Realm and he couldn’t bring himself to tell me because he must have been worried -”

Leaning closer, she continued. ‘‘Do not be Zor… you know I’m capable of taking care of myself.

Everyone will agree with me when I say, a Kingdom is first protected at the gates. If the gates fall, the chances of the kingdom falling is extremely high and we do not want that for a Kingdom as strong as the one our King has built.

I need this hand, but Valcresh needs it more.

Do what you will’’

To the ghast of every eye, Nasdezhda’s lips came down on Zorgan’s knuckles. Zorgan’s eyes widened at her act while the lips of most fell. She fixed her lips on his knuckles while staring straight at him.

There was an outburst from the crowd and all the Royals managed to drag their gaze back to the sand where the last man was being beaten.

For those the King had opened his palm to, they were to be brutally flogged and released. But to those whom his hand had folded to a fist, they were to be executed.

Six soldiers stood behind the prisoners from the North and they all wielded terribly sharp swords. The prisoners were spaced but they were still on their knees.

The teenager gave one last look to Nadezdha before he dropped his head downward, eyes to the earth. If his head was placed at the wrong angle, there would be a need for the sword to fall on him more than once, and the pain would be beyond death, so it was preferable to stay prepared.

At the sound of a command, swords cut through flesh and bone, and six heads dropped to the earth. This seemed to be the highlight of the day as the already wild crowd screamed at the top of their lives, feeling exhilarated at the death of their enemies.

Nadezhda’s eyes popped and her blood ran cold.

The only movement she wasn’t even aware of, was that of her hand squeezing Zorgan’s.