Carmine

Where had those blood drops came from? My shoes stopped in the narrow poorly lit corridors of this keep, creating many shadows around us.

Five said, “Intriguing.”

Fury raised inside of me. We stood in the passage that led to the guest room, so seeing blood unsettled me.

My walking increased as I chased the knowledge of what happened.

More blood drops greeted me once I reached inside the guest room. My sight wavered along the gleaming light across the smooth wooden floor. Valor’s head shook as he glared down at a beautiful blue gloss silk cocoon bound body of a woman. Sandream’s foot laid on top of a finely bound man wrapped in thick cream white sheets layered with dyed imprinted circles.

Janilla was slumped on the chair, eyes closed, fingers holding the bridge of her nose.

Everybody covered in some degree of blood. My fingers twitched in disgust at so much blood. Sandream though, had a piece of spear broken off in her gut and a good number of shallow and deep gashes along her arms.

What, the hell, was I looking at?

Valor turned to me and smiled. He motioned at me. “Ah, yes, glad you arrived. Look at this incompetence!”

I waved my hands with dismissal. “Quiet. What happened?”

Valor shot Sandream a dire stare with narrowed eyes. “The man is the King of Ascus. The woman, I do not know. But you had one job. Seduce him. You cannot do that right.”

Sandream replied, “We talked, it was working until that man tried to kill me.”

“The King tried to kill you?” I asked.

“No, some advisor named Budril,” Sandream replied.

“Then you let him escape,” Valor said with the point of his finger.

I groaned out aloud. You had to be jesting me.

Sandream retorted, “I would have succeeded if I was in my old shell. Not this trash heap you fraternize in.”

Valor said, “One, I would have done a better job, yes? Oh, here’s an idea, work with what you have, that is what you said, right, my Lady? Carmine does fine with a Shyia body. Way weaker than an Elamnite shell, you have no excuse.”

I opened my mouth, but closed it. Forget it, Janilla got up and we exchanged a knowing look of distress. She passed between those two arguing fools, reaching me with a twisted smile. I wiped a smudge of blood off the side of her cheek. “You okay?”

Janilla nodded. “Yes, yes.”

I turned and rubbed my chin. “Five, wipe clean the blood on the floor outside.”

Five replied, “Yes mother.” He left the room.

“Oy.” I gestured with my wide arms towards the arguing couple. They looked in my direction with stilted stares. “Sandream, we need to get those wounds attended to.”

Sandream shook her head. “This shell is on its last legs. Let us not waste time.”

Valor cut in with a mumble. “As long as you take responsibility.”

Sandream glared through him like she aimed to kill him.

I sighed. “At least take the wretched bark out of your stomach and draw those two up and let me talk to them.”

Sandream shook her head. “I'll bleed worse if it's removed.”

Valor probably already knew this because he turned away with a flat expression.

The King's hair was combed forward in a neat bun which complimented his height. His eyes intensified when they peered at me.

He was dressed in a satin blue trousers and boots. His bejeweled jerkin folded on his bed as his cotton shirt flowed over his thin arms and torso.

The woman was beautiful and well dressed. She had a few small jewelry pieces, probably a concubine. Sandream removed the cloths from their mouth.

The woman started begging for her life. I told her to shut up, she went to whimpering, while the King stared silently.

“Hello your Majesty, I am Carmine. I sincerely apologize for this situation and ask for your pardon in this regard.”

He spat towards the ground. “You got alot of gall capturing me like this.” That rough dialect and starch accent, he was not of noble birth. It shouted his low birth, which meant he lived in the gutters of the lowest cities in the west.

To think, he was my competitor.

“Sorry.” I motioned at Sandream. “Release him.” Sandream gave me a questioning tilt of her head, but she obeyed after a moment.

The King had much of his bounds loosened. The sheets fell off his regal figure. He wavered his eyes at the possible concubine. “Only I deserve such kindness?”

He cared for her. I said, “To keep you in line. King Adu, yes?” His face shifted into a scowl as he sat upright in the center of the room, with the bed to his right.

Valor stood closer behind the bounded woman and smirked at the King.

Adu rolled his eyes and motioned at Sandream. “Why send her? So confusing—”

I replied, “I have a decree bawling for my head. I was wondering if you had something to do with that.”

“No.”

“Explain my injured people.”

“That was my advisor, I have no idea why he did that.”

Sandream cut in. “He attacked as soon as he was clear I was Carmine.”

I said with a shrug, “Well, persons in your circle want me dead.”

Adu flexed his mouth and said, “Do not blame me. My mother said a union between us would be beneficial. As you are the rightful heir you can quell the hearts of men loyal to your father.”

“That I could, but you have to get the people that love you under submission. A King that cannot control his charges is—quite unattractive.”

Adu averted his eyes and nodded. “Indeed. I will deal with that.” He pointed at the woman. “When she is free.”

I nodded at Valor and he released her. She then got all huffy and upper-class in behavior as she strutted forward.

Valor held his palms in surrender to her, but Adu quickly simmered her down saying, “Go get mother, speak to no one about my sister being here, understood?”

The woman nodded and left. Adu stretched, stood then sat on my bed. Sandream's shoulders shivered and her neck craned forward. I asked, “Sandream?”

Sandream nodded at me. “It is fine. This shell is not worth saving.”

“It would have been saved if you had not screwed it up. No wonder you lost your last shell,” Valor said.

“Valoooor,” I said. Sandream narrowed her eyes at him.

Valor waved at us with dismissive flair. “I had that body for two hundred years. You lost it in two weeks.”

“I had my precious shell for three thousand years, so do you not dare sully my competence.”

Valor gestured at her, paused, his hand moved towards me. “Oh yeah, technically being around Princess Carmine is the problem then.” He wagged his finger at me. “You know you are a hard person to protect.”

I frowned.

“Excuse me, how can you have a body for two hundred years?” We all looked at Adu who spoke up. Damnation, I forgot, he knew nothing of the underworld that we existed in.

The door opened and I was immediately squashed within the arms of somebody?

“Carmine, it is a soaring joy among the heavens to see you!” This voice sounded familiar.

She drew back and I saw her long braids crested with gold strains on the two front ones while the others were left blank. Her dark brown eyes and round face sang to me.

By the Gods— “Marideth?”

“You remember,” Marideth said. It would have been hard not to. Marideth was a part of the core of servants. She was different and sort of invested in the life of the court. As far as I knew, she was relieved of duty and left mysteriously.

Marideth waved her hands and moved back. “Where are my manners? I bid you welcome my Lady, the honored true Princess of Ascus.” She curtsied.

She came up and smiled. It was then I noticed how immaculate she was dressed. She definitely turned heads in that blue bell dress with gold trimmings and small ocher gems across the length of her sleeves.

“I am Adu’s mother, the regent Queen.” She fanned her hands before me. “Well, I am nothing more than a mother to you now that you have returned to us. Hion was happy to know you are alive.”

“That is good to know. It felt like decades have passed since I saw you,” I said.

“Right my lady, I—” Marideth said before screaming. I pulled her close and eased her concern with pats on the back of her head. She saw Sandream and the blood, I forgot about that.

Took a short while to explain they were my guards and just got into a scuffle.

She was horrified and jumped to Adu’s side looking on with disgust, so did his returned concubine.

I asked, “Where is Hion?”

Marideth started, “Not sure, but he should be on the grounds somewhere.” She held her hand on her chest watching Valor washing away the drying blood from the floor with the pot of water. “We have heard about your plights my Lady. That great demons and ghosts chase you.”

I stared at them. Aconm knew about the underbelly of this world. Not sure if Marideth or Adu would get introduced to it with ease as they became ruling class some months prior.

But based off what I knew, it was very likely that if Elamnites took interest in someone they either took their body or married off one of their servants to them.

Them knowing too much information would have been to my detriment, for now, the half-truths left my lips. “Elam, more specifically a witch wants me dead,” I said.

“I see my Lady. Well, do not worry you are safe in our arms, right King Adu?” She asked.

He looked away. “I am not so sure of that." I could not blame him. She frowned and was about to speak when I interceded.

“King Canus is dead, because he tried protecting me. The witches came for me and Canus paid the cost. I do not think it would be wise for me to come with you.” I shook my head. “It would be best for me to hide, under your protection of course—just not with you. So returning to the palace will not occur. I do want to see my father’s grave. At least that.”

She breathed in and nodded with a dejected drain of her face. “Yes, Princess, I heard about that. I knew Aconm was lying.” She wagged her finger at Adu. “Such a horrible thing, I was talking to the Eathen King about it. Terrible th—“

“The Eathen King is here? Is his wife here?”

Her eyes rolled up in contemplation then she lit up. “Yes, I saw her, my Lady. Green hair wig, right?”

Para must have changed it, but she always hated her black hair, so it must be her. “Ah, yes, that would be her.”

The door opened and Five came in. He slammed the door and went for the clothes chest. He lifted it with one hand and jammed it in front of the door. He rushed forward, took up the bloody sheets, tied one end to the bed’s end frame and went back to the door.

A dark feeling came over me. I asked, “Five, what is it?”

Five tied the door knob and looked back at me. “They are coming.”