A forbidden love

Chapter 13: Arenas

Arya's POV

I tried to get to Aanan as soon as possible, really, I did, but I ran into a few...difficulties along the way. For starters Soren would not once leave my side unless he was summoned by either my mother or his father. Even then he made me tag along so that I was still in eye shot. Other obstacles were that Evelyn was also hovering around me like a lost puppy, and then went on and on about what dresses I planned to wear for the day's events. 

I didn't mind her company, but I really needed to get to Aanan. Hours passed by, and not once was I left alone to myself. It was already four in the evening when I got into my emerald, green dress. It graced the floor and had a small trail from behind. "This dress shows off all your curves sister." Evelyn came into my room to check on me giving me a kiss on the cheek, "thank you." I gave her the most realistic smile I could muster. "I'm going down to meet mother in the quart yard, Soren will be up shortly to fetch you."

And then she left. Everything was quiet...very quiet. I couldn't hear the faint sound of footsteps passing my room, or the distant laughter of women roaming the palace halls as per usual. Not even with my advanced hearing. Finally, I was left along. I thought this was my only chance to get to Aanan, so I ran for the door and swung it open. Before taking another step, I ran into a solid wall of flesh and muscle, "Arya!" I looked up to see Soren standing right in front of me.  

Two muscular hands were placed on my upper arms and concerned eyes stared down at me. No, no, not now! He wasn't supposed to be here so soon! "Soren! You scared me, what are you doing here?" His eyebrows curled into a confused expression. "I'm here to take you down to your mother and sister. They are already waiting for us in the quart yard." There was an awkward moment of silence for a second, then two seconds, as I shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

 "Well, are you ready to go?" Soren was the first to break the silence, I looked up to meet his gaze and then watched as he extended an arm for me to hold onto. I reached for his hand, and then suddenly stopped midway in my tracks. "Hold on, I almost forgot something." I turned on my heels and sped back into my room. Digging through my drawers I pulled out the moon pendant mother asked me to hold onto. This might be Aanan's last hope, I must give this to him before it's too late. 

Clasping it around my neck, I made my way back to the door where Soren stood expectantly. "You've never worn that before." My finger traced the circumference of the crescent moon resting on my bare skin, "there's a first time for everything." I took Soren's arm and we walked together arm-in-arm until we reached the quart yard, and out into the gardens making our way to the amphitheatre. 

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We watched as the seats started filling in, and more elves arrived to witness the flogging of the very first fae seen in hundreds of years. (The very fae who just so happened to be my soulmate might I add.) Today was going to be documented in our scrolls and remembered for as long as our species remained. This day would be seen as a small victory against the fae. Little did we know about the grave consequences we were going to have to face.

“What’s taking Soren so long?” Evelyn shifted in her seat, scanning our surroundings for any sight of Soren. He left us a while ago to check in on the guards to do a rollcall. “I’ll go check on him.” I dismissed myself and made my way down the main staircase and down a hallway that led to the holding cells where creatures were kept before they were thrown into the lion’s den.  

I tried to reach out for Aanan, but I was met by a blank wall, I couldn’t sense him anywhere. I marched through the halls until I heard a faint whisper around a corner. “-don’t mess this up.” I could clearly recognize that voice, Soren. Everything went silent and I took that as my que to make my presence known. Infront of me stood Soren, and three other guards. In the cell next to them was a limp body…Aanan. “Soren, there you are. Mother and Evelyn were worried you lost your way, it’s time we returned to our seats.” His head snapped to my direction, and for a moment it looked like he had a glare smeared all over his face. Quickly replacing it with a half-assed smile he responded, “Arya, you shouldn’t be down here, this is no place for a princess, I’ll be there shortly.”

I had to get him away from there and buy myself a minute or two with Aanan. “I passed a royal guard on the way here, he said something about-” think fast Arya! “Being a man short? He said to let you know the moment I saw you; you’d understand?” This was the best I could come up with, Soren was in charge or a lot of things including the royal guard, if anything this might buy me some time. “s**t, that bastard!” He turned around and signalled for the other three guards to follow him, “You three come with me, Arya you know the way back, please don’t stay here any longer.”

He kissed me on the forehead and left in a haste, cursing under his breath. I ran to Aanan’s cell, falling to the floor. “Aanan! Aanan, answer me.” I watched as his head slowly lifted to meet my eyes, “get out of here, you shouldn’t be here.”

“I know, I’m just here to give you this, I couldn’t come up with a better idea.” I unclutched the pendant hanging around my neck and reached in between the bars to put it around his neck. “Stop princess, I told you to wear it, what are you doing?”

“Protecting you of course, I can’t watch as they flog you.”

“That’s why I told you to leave, don’t watch this!”

It was my duty to be here, there was no way for me to leave. The only way I could convince him to wear the damn thing was if I lied to him. “Okay fine, if you wear it, I’ll leave.” Grabbing it from my hand he hung it around his neck. “Now leave and don’t look back.” I felt a guilty conscience brew in the pit of my stomach, It’s for the best, right? As long as he was safe. I turned around and made my way back to my waiting mother and sister. “Did you find him dear?” My mother turned to me expectantly, “it’s about to begin.”

“Yes, I found him, he’s just dealing with a few more matters, he’ll be here shortly.”

“And now, my brothers and sisters, the moment we’ve all been waiting for.” A man in the arena bellowed from a platform placed right in the centre. Behind him was a wooden pole in the very centre of the platform, dried blood stained the surrounding area. Next to him was a small brown bag, the one he usually kept with him. This man was the torturer, he proudly walked around with his bag carrying all of his torture toys, occasionally threatening passer-byers who got too close to him. “Today you will lay your eyes on the very first fae seen in centuries!” His hand swung towards the direction of the main entrance to the arena where two heavy iron gates were pulled open.

The crowd roared as they watched the pair of guards walking out next to one another. Tailing behind them was another guard holding a thick chain in his hand, and just behind him was Aanan. Chains adorned his body, cuffs chained his hands together, shackles around his ankles, and the thick chain locked around his neck as he was tugged by the guard in front of him. Behind him were another two men, he was completely surrounded. Once they all made their way to the platform, his hands were chained to the pole above his head.

The crowd cheered on as the torturer dug through his bag looking for his first weapon of choice. Slowly pulling his hand out of the bag, he pulled out a scissor. “Is this what you all want?” He lifted the tool above his head and took in the praise he got from the audience. He turned to look at us, the royals all sitting alongside one another in our own little box. “Your wish is my command your majesty.”  Everyone went silent for a spilt second as all eyes turned to us, waiting for my mother’s approval. “Arya, why don’t you? This is your first step in proving that you have what it takes to be a proper queen.”

I turned to my mother in shock, “mother?”

“You wanted to prove that you are capable of protecting yourself, this will make people fear you, show them that you’re not some pushover and that you’re not afraid to put your power to the test. Show them that you’re capable of protecting yourself, as well as your people.” This was something I never thought I’d be asked to do, let alone by my mother. I had to give the order to lash and humiliate Aanan in front of all these people.

All of a sudden, all eyes were on me, “Your highness, princess Arya, per your mother’s wishes, will you give me the command to continue?” All I could see was the shock in Aanan’s eyes as his head shot to my direction. It felt like the weight of the world was put onto my shoulders all at once. Disgust and guilt boiled in the pit of my stomach; I’ve let him down. There was no time to ponder on the question, you have to think on your toes my dears. I lifted my finger and gave him a slight nod, “proceed.”

“I thank you, your highness.” He turned back to Aanan and grabbed hold of the hem of his shirt, and gracefully cut the shirt through the middle making it tumble to his sides exposing his bare back. The man turned back to his brown bag and scratched through it until an expression of ‘aha’ reached his cheeks as a mischievous smile crept onto his face. He lifted up his head and surveyed the audience’ anticipation, taking in all the attention. He pulled his hand out the bag revealing his next weapon of choice. Flinging it up in the air he yelled, “our future queen has spoken!”  

The crowd roared as he held the whip high in the sky so everyone could see it. In the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a familiar figure making its way to the rest of us sitting in our secluded box, it was the one and only Soren. I turned to face him, when my eyes travelled down his figure to his hand where a familiar item of jewellery made itself comfortable in his palm. The pendant I gave Aanan, how does he have it? “Your majesty, your highnesses,” he looked down at me with a smirk on his lips. “I believe you dropped this Arya.”

He handed me the pendant and I snatched it from his grip like a dog stealing a bone. “Where did you find this?”

“It was just outside that fae’s cell, you need to be more careful, if it had fallen into his hands who know what would have happened.”

It would have protected him. “Thank you, you’re a lifesaver.”

All I could think of was why the hell was it not around that damn prince’s neck. I clasped it around my neck for safe keeping, it’s the only place I knew it won’t get lost and turned back to the arena. There’s no saving Aanan now.