Bound by Roses (The Bound Series Book 1) (16 page)

Marguerite quickly joined sides with her friend. She delicately placed a white rose upon Lord Red’s chest, crossing the rose placed by Saledii. A hand then wrapped around Saledii’s shoulder.

“Come, Saledii,” Marguerite tried to pull her away, “Let us go.”

“Where, Snow?” Saledii nudged her shoulder knocking her friends arm away, and did not look at her, “Zhan’ding is my life now. With my father dead, I must run this city. I must keep the realm safe. I have no more time for adventures.”

Marguerite wanted to touch Saledii’s shoulder again, but left her side. She did not watch her leave. Saledii knelt again before her father. Minutes turned to hours. Saledii did not recall moving his body to the tombs below the city. She only remembered calling the Ministers to her in the throne room. She sat tall within the wooden throne, her father’s ring bright upon her middle finger.

“The Wolf Queen has been recaptured, and more properly secured?” Saledii asked, eyes cold, staring out towards the Ministers.

“Yes. As you know, at great personal sacrifice—”

“Do not speak to me of great personal sacrifices, Minister!” Saledii growled as the creatures they hunted, and interrupted the Minister, “I know more of personal sacrifices than any present.”

“Lady Red, our sincerest and deepest apologies,” another of the Ministers bowed. He like the others, were still dressed down in black robes. Sashes silver around their waists and shoulders, “What are your orders?”

“Gather the forces. We will hunt down every last Wolf, and eliminate every last wretched creature from the face of this realm!”

All the Ministers bowed to Lady Red, ruler of Zhan’ding.

Saledii from the tower that overlooked her majestic red-bricked city watched the soldiers leave. She smiled for the first time since her father’s passing.

                            ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

In the throne room, blood red banners hung. They fluttered in the breezes that blew in softly. They were even brighter in the sunlight. It shone in unfiltered through the hundred windows high above. Saledii sat upon the wooden throne, tall and still as a statue. Curly red hair raged as a fire. Nails long to a point and painted in copper. Gown, a beautiful jade that wrapped around and hung off her shoulders by nearly transparent crimson straps. A square opal upon a delicate silver chain hung around neck. Around her the Ministers, they in their elegant scarlet robes and copper sashes. Next to her, a tall gangly man in amber, who held tight in his hands a scroll and quill.

Before them all a group of local peasants from a small mining village called Argentums. Two carried a small detail lacking wooden chest. Unlatching the aged lock, one slid the lid away. Saledii found it to be half filled with silver coins. Crudely casted silver coins that she knew bore a rose. Both Houses agreed a rose that was neither red nor white, centuries ago in their mutual greatness. Saledii hated them. She resented all that they stood for, that which made the House of White superior to her. She wished to just melt them all down, and recast them. Recast them in her image, a red rose. Saledii’s mind returned quickly to the matter at hand. When a Minister cleared his throat.

“Is that all?” The Minister craned his neck from where he stood to see into the chest.

Saledii adjusted herself upon the throne to see as well, “I do believe taxes were higher than this.”

The lanky man next to her shuffled through several scrolls that held. Saledii snapped her fingers without looking at him. Shuffling a little more before nodding silently to Saledii with squinted eyes. A few Ministers chatted and gossiped in hushed whispers. The villagers looked upon each other wearily.

“We apologize, Lady Red,” those that carried the chest shuffled back as the village elder approached. He was a tiny man. Hair grey, but still he possessed the vigor of youth that came through his eyes of pale sapphire. The cloth cap he wore was taken off and squeezed between his fingers. He fiddled with it endlessly, “But, but the silver mines. They have become over run with Wolves. They have returned, in great number. The trek to Zhan’ding alone through the Hessen Forest is challenging, at best. They are encroaching upon our lands. They—”

“There is no need to worry,” Saledii threw a hand into the air. She stared down the peasants. “The Wolves will be disposed of. As
we
have always done.”

“Words. It is all words!” A younger peasant of those present shouted.

“Be quiet!” The Elder tried to silence the young man. He stumbled over the chest. The force of his foot caused it to fall over. The silver coins spilled outwards. Their chimes cascaded into all ears.

“I would listen to your Elders, child,” Saledii burst out.

The young man stepped forward, his foot kicked through the coins, “The House of Red takes no action to protect the realm as it once did. But gladly taxes us to death!”

“No report has been given of the Wolves growing in number,” Saledii rose from her throne. The peasants fell back a few paces as Saledii stepped down, “If you cannot produce the silver needed, than you should have come to us sooner. We cannot be held accountable for the vastness that is our domain if we are not told of a threat.”

Saledii turned back with a grin towards the Ministers. They chuckled and nodded their heads in agreement. The lanky man scribbled away on a scroll all that transpired before him and the court.

“You have grown lazy and content, Lazy Red,” the young man called out to Saledii.

“I beg your pardon?” Saledii did not look at him; she merely stared at her great wooden throne. Her breaths grew heavy.

“You no longer care for those beyond your crumbling walls!” The young man yelled to Saledii, his voice monstrous to those quiet. Those that were with him cowered as Lady Red stopped her advance to her throne. She turned upon him. Her head cocked slightly to the side. Lips pursed. Fists tight and knuckles snow white. Copper nails dug into her palms. Blood dripped delicately to her feet. She spun sharply upon her heel. Her jade dress spun outwards like a great shockwave.

“How. Dare. You!” A finger pointed straight at the man. Blood clung to her nail. A drop hung like a tear. He cowered back. His foot slipped upon the silver that had cascaded from the chest. Head smacked and impacted the sharp wooden corner. A scream rang through the hall. Blood pooled where the man’s head hit. Saledii watched the light leave his eyes before she turned upon her throne and sat again.

“Iscariot!” The Elder yelled, crumbling to his knees, “M-my son. What have you done?” He stared deeply at Saledii.

“I have done nothing,” Saledii commented, flicking her fingers and removing her blood from her nails, “He slipped himself.”

“My-my son!” The Elder screamed.

“We shall deal with the Wolves,” Saledii barked at the shocked peasants. A few shuffled forward. “Now leave!”

The peasants gathered the dead, Iscariot. One of the women closed his eyes. The blood poured without end from the hole in his head, as they drug his lifeless body. A few silver pieces were stuck to his foot. Saledii sat upon her throne and stared at the blood soaked silver pieces. Her heart did not break for the loss of life before her.

She waved her hand before her, fingers pointing at the crimson pieces, “Someone clean that mess up!”

Several servants appeared and began to clean up the blood. One attempted to pocket a silver piece. A Minister descended as a hawk does and forcefully removed the piece from her hand. The Minister raised the young girl up by her fragile wrist. He brought her ear close to his lips, “You attempt that again, and your fate will be no different than the peasants whose blood you know clean.”

He dropped her. She rubbed her wrist before continuing to clean the blood away. He then rounded up the silver coins into a satchel that clung to his hip. His fingers bled.

Three Ministers approached and stood before Saledii. “The Wolves?”

“How are the Magic Men coming?” Saledii did not look upon any as she talked. She merely watched the silver be scooped away.

“They have made some progress,” a Minister bowed as he spoke.

“Then send a contingent to the mines in the meantime,” Saledii rose and began to exit but was stopped by a page boy,

“Lady Red, a moment.” The young boy spoke softly. Hands folded behind his back.

“Yes, errand boy?” Saledii did not stop walking. She climbed stairs.

“An individual has arrived, and is requesting a private audience with you,” the young child said.

Saledii stopped, “A private audience? Who is it?”

“They did not give a name, only that they are a traveler summoned by your desires,” the boy said.

“Where?” Saledii looked down at the boy, but she stared past him to the wide expanse of stairs below him.

“Your sitting room.” The boy bowed.

“Thank you.” And with that, Saledii brushed hair out of the young boys face, before she applied force to his tiny forehead. The pageboy tumbled backwards. Saledii watched the child contort and bounce. Bones broke. Skull smashed against the wall. Blood splattered. His young body crashed at the base of the stairs. A snap resounded in Saledii’s ears. He would not move, or tell any of her visits. She needed to know none knew of this meeting. Saledii turned with a great flourish of her jade gown and continued up.

She entered her sitting room; the doors as they closed drowned out the screams of those that just found the boy’s broken body. She did not care. She would not need to explain herself to any. She was Lady Red of the great House of Red, affairs to protect the Realm where hers alone. Yet at the moment, Saledii was more concerned with the stranger that stood near the window who was cloaked in a beautiful slate robe. Immensely tall, the hooded stranger stared out the window.

“Have you found what was needed?” Saledii asked.

“A poison so rare, no known cure exists?” The voice that called from the stranger was deep and rough, “Yes.”

Saledii approached with quickness to her step. The individual removed a crystal vile from an inner pocket with gloved hand. The vial with its cork glistened in the sun, but the poison it held was putrid green. So thick, that no light passed through. Purple bubbles could be seen moving about within the poisonous liquid. Saledii reached for it, but the hooded stranger pulled away playfully, “Payment, Lady Red.”

“I have paid your price already,” Saledii reached again, but the hooded figure vanished before reappearing behind her.

“Another payment is required if the intended target is to be subdued.”

“Always one thing or another with you, isn’t it?” Saledii turned and let out a huff.

The stranger she could tell smiled at her, “I did not make the rules, Rose Red.”

“And what payment do you require for the death of Lord White?”

“Lord White? Why in this great realm do you wish him harm?” The cloaked figure asked. The voice that called from under the darkness of the hood was no longer deep, but high. The voice ran through Saledii as nails upon stone. A deep chill, but she tried not to shake. She did not want the creature before her to know its voice was unnerving.

“My reasons are my own, Fairy,” Saledii hissed.

The Fairy began to put the crystal vial away, “No reasons are our own, Lady Red. All is done at the whim of destiny and fate.”

With another huff, Saledii continued, “to make Snow and I equal once more. So she can understand the choices one must make for her people. To bear the hardship and weight of those decisions upon her shoulders!”

The cloaked Fairy, she could tell smiled from under the hood, “Then all I require are the missing pages from the spell book.”

Saledii inhaled sharply, “But my Magic Men need those pages to—”

“Not all of them,” the Fairy threw a finger into the air, “Merely the one to
Call upon the Moon
. You stole other pages because you thought them needed. Such as the Binding Spell, which you have placed upon this very room.”

The Fairy with a flick of the wrist was able to dispel all the magical incantations that Saledii had placed upon the room. Every last rune, and magical symbol the pages described glowed as bright as the sun. Saledii squinted as they shattered, and snowed down gently. The magic numbed Saledii’s skin softly. Soon the sparks disappeared as embers do, into nothingness. Saledii’s lips were pursed as she stared deep into the Fairy,

“Clever, Fairy.”

“I would say the same, were I not already bound,” the Fairy spoke, and Saledii’s ears perked up, “but I digress from my tale, the pages stolen for the poison? Do we have a deal?”

“Yes,” Saledii’s words echoed like thunder.

In a flash brighter than lightening the Fairy was gone. Saledii fell to the closest chair and cried. Cried for her choices she had made. For the destiny she placed upon herself and Marguerite.

Their fates their own, but destiny’s bound.

                            ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Months have passed since the death of Lord White. A ceremony Saledii refused to attend, for her own guilt prevented her from leaving her own quarters. Though it was in that darkened chamber she mourned the passing of Lord White, and her actions.