“Come on, baby. I never had a Mern before. Give me some of those sweet lumps,” the fisherman said, fixated on her breasts. “You can use a little relief. I’ll give it to you good.” He licked his lips.
Anna almost laughed. “As if I would ever touch a slob like you.”
Angered, Lief dropped his ale then grabbed Anna by her braid, pulled her toward him and with his other hand, felt her breast, and again pushed his crotch into her backside. Before Lief could restrain Anna, she spun around him, unleashed a dagger from the small scabbard around her heel, and pressed the sharp edge against his throat.
Lief froze. “What are you going to do? Kill me? Tell the king, who you haven’t talked to in years, that someone fancied you? Well, go ahead. Because we both know that your ‘forever-foster-father’ doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you. Perhaps he’d sell you to me for the price of a whore. He would make a great deal of money on you. No doubt any man in the kingdom would pay to feel you.”
Anna knew Lief was right. The king hadn’t cared about her since the queen had died. Everything changed that day. For a relative of the high maiden of Mern, adult life in Ikarus was now no different than that of any other peasant. She hadn’t been provided for by the king since Queen Olivia had passed. Her quarters remained in the high castle, but she was deemed old enough to take care of herself. No longer was royal service of any kind provided for her by Alexandal’s servants. But she did not care.
“Let me tell you what’s going to happen here. First, you’re going to shut your mouth and stop drooling all over yourself. Go home, go to sleep and tomorrow when you wake up, you won’t be so stupid. Or you can keep trying to fondle me and I’ll break your little friend,” she said, looking down at his pants. “Okay?”
The horny fisherman submitted. But when Anna lowered her knife and walked back to clean up the flowers, he quickly reached under her gown and grabbed the bare cheek of her ass.
Anna turned back and launched her right foot straight into his groin, as hard as she could. There was a spongy crackle. Lief blew out his breath and fell to his knees.
“I warned you,” said Anna, walking away without a shred of sympathy. She quickly picked up her bag of spices and two books. Leaving the flowers scattered in the street, Anna ran off.
Outside of the kingdom walls, the trees swayed side to side as the north winds gathered strength; a storm was approaching. It was all the more reason for Anna to hurry on her visit to Rayne’s memorial at The Ponds. When she arrived at the overgrown weed-covered stone, she saw out of the corner of her eye someone running into the forest. He’d looked just like Montague. But why would Montague be out this late and this far from the castle, especially with a storm coming? There were few people who even knew of the memorial stone Anna and Indrid had placed there. Montague was one of them.
“Hi,” Anna said in a subdued tone. She kneeled. “It’s been a long time since you’ve been gone and I still think about what it would be like if you were still here. I can’t seem to let go of the past. I’m not sure who I am anymore or where I belong. I’m even questioning my own beliefs.” She looked up to the night sky and thought about their god, Gabriel Volpi. “And where are you, Gabriel? Don’t you care about your own bloodline? Well? Why didn’t you protect Rayne and keep him safe?” She didn’t understand; how can a loving god neglect his own descendent? Maybe, the old woman from the day Alexandal had claimed the throne was right. Perhaps Gabriel had forsaken them. “But then I ask myself, Rayne, what if you ran away and escaped? And it made me even more upset. Why wouldn’t you have come back for me? You wouldn’t just leave us. You would have come back for me, right?”
Anna stayed for only a moment of silence before she readied to leave. A deep breath relieved the pressure of heartache and crowded thoughts.
On the other side of the stone she noticed a fresh rose leaning against it with a letter underneath. She didn’t recognize the language nor did she know how to pronounce the words, but she noticed a fingerprint had been stamped there in what looked like blood. There were many people who spoke both native tongue and ancient Mern. But nobody could read more languages than Montague La-Rose.
Anna could only wonder whose blood the fingerprint contained.
BEHIND A cluster of bushes, Montague La-Rose waited until Anna left the memorial stone. He hid at the edge of the dense forest that surrounded The Ponds.
After the boy king, Rayne, had disappeared, Burton had finally made contact with Montague. An impatient bird had been sent to sing the message. Burton knew the boy was no longer amongst the living. He gave Montague a specific set of instructions in order to bring Rayne back to life. His sensei had told Montague about what happened to the boy; how he was kidnapped to be burned at the stake. Only, Montague couldn’t make out the names of the violators through the bird’s broken chirping.
The last step of the plan was the most difficult. Montague fought with anxiety for five months just pondering the final task. If he wanted to ever see the boy again, the old farmer had to cast a spell; an act he’d never performed before.
All Montague needed was one drop of Rayne’s blood. And he had it, stained on a letter with words he’d written in angelic language. Those words were words
