Cursed By The Gods Book 1 and 2

Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Days later, Emilia remained in the shelter of her room, refusing to see anyone most especially that lying bastard Octavius. She didn’t care what he did anymore, he could go back to his mistress for all she cared, after all she was the best thing he ever had. She waited day after day for an opportunity to escape and the provided itself when messages of razed fields and stolen crops got to the palace. Octavius was busy with dealing with the new disturbance so she used her chance while she had it. Once night fell on the tenth day Emilia got up, wincing slightly as pain shot through her bruised side, she pulled her trunk, took it by the brass sides and lifted. It was a bit heavy but managed to heave it her chest. She got to the door and pulled clumsily at the brass knob to open the door. The door opened to the dimly lit passage, it was empty, the guards were probably downstairs drinking or dallying with maids. She entered the passage making sure to avoid bumping the wooden trunk to the door frame, her feet guided her along cold dark passage. There was a torch burning at the end close to the stairs that led to the servants’ quarters, her destination where she would find the stable hand whose help she had employed with two pieces of gold coins earlier that day. The servants’ quarter was dark too and snores resonated from insides many of the room, from some came silly giggly sounds of devious maids and the grunts of guards.

Emilia ignored all of this and continued on her way until she got to the kitchen, at the end was the door leading to the stable which opened to reveal a small soot covered face. It was the stable boy. He hurried over to her and assisted with the trunk. There was a horse snorting impatiently and pawing at the ground, there was a saddle on it, the stable boy heaved her trunk unto the horse’s back and tied it. Emilia stepped back as she realized there was only one horse when she requested for two.

“Where is the other horse?” she asked.

“There would be no need for it, ma’am”

She caught something in his voice. “What do you mean by that?” There was no way Ilena would not want to go with her, after all Octavius had accused them both. She had personally sent the stable boy to her to brief her on the plan, he hadn’t come back to report to her but she assumed Ilena agreed, her loyalty was to her after all.

“My queen,” the boy’s face came into the light, there was an unreadable expression on his face. “Ilena is dead.”

The news was like a blow to her belly, her breath left her in a sharp gasp, it felt like her lungs had been vacuumed. She stared disbelievingly at the young boy who looked at her with sympathy. “When did this happen?”

“Last night, my queen.”

And Octavius had said nothing about it. No doubt he planned it, he must have sent guards to kill Ilena as punishment to her. Tears streamed down her face, she tried to blink them away but they soon came running down until her vision became clouded and blurry. Ilena was a mother to her, her best friend since she was just little. Her head ached as memories of Ilena rushed through her head, the woman had been there when she was born, celebrated every single birthday with her, cleaned her wounds when she fell, scolded her when she did anything stupid… Ilena was just always there. Her death seemed surreal.

“I need to see her- her body,” she cried.

The boy frowned at her, his eyes darted around the stable with nervousness. His life was in danger if the king realized her helped her escape, to take her into the palace to see the woman whose body may not even be there was risking his life, putting himself in danger.

“My queen, you need to be on your way. If anyone sees you here or sees me helping you it wouldn’t be good for either one of us, there isn’t so much you can do to protect me if the king demands my head.” He watched as a new light entered Emilia’s eyes, there was a determination in them even though tears still spilled down her cheeks. “We should go, my queen, if you want I’ll…”

“You’ll come with me,” she said firmly.

He nodded. That’s what he had been about to say because though she had the determination to run away she was too shaken by the news of the death of her maid that there was no way she could protect herself if she traveled alone.

It was late the next day when Octavius heard the news of Emilia’s disappearance. His heart broke into a million pieces, though she had hurt him bad and deceived him he still loved her so very much. She was his wife, the one he had promised to spend the rest of his life with, the one he promised his loyalty to, now she was gone.

It was after the council meeting when the nobles had reported more strange happenings again that he had received the news of her escape. It hurt him that he couldn’t love her well enough to prevent her from running and between handling the razed fields and the strain in his palace he didn’t have enough strength to carry on. It was a good thing Ashterah wasn’t demanding much of him just yet, she only ever came to see him at night bringing more bowls of the thing she called ice cream in different flavors. He hated that he depended on her now that his world was falling apart. Once she had asked to see the source of his sadness and misery.

“She doesn’t look special,” Ashterah had said when she peeped into the crib.

He looked at her with disgust. For a goddess she was quite light in the head, anyone looking at the child would know she was not ordinary, even if she wasn’t a god she was special. Even he with half his god powers as a daemon could feel the waves of power resonating through her.

“She looks…different.”

“Doesn’t make her special,” Ashterah had responded. Then the child had opened her eyes, Ashterah sucked her breath at the beauty, the allure that lay in those eyes. There was something about the child, something she found attractive like what she had found in Octavius.

But that was all she could see and even though she manipulated the image of Helos and Emilia together there was still a chance that it was the queen’s fault the child was different. The child’s skin was nothing new, there were gods with colors such as that and anyone of them may have either forced himself on Emilia or had an affair with her.

Octavius sighed as he recalled that she had been no use to him in helping identify what powers the child had.

As he thought about the troubles coming down on him he paced until he found himself in front of the nursery with the door slightly ajar. He looked in and saw a young woman and a male child by the window, she was bouncing the baby up and down side. Soon she walked over to the crib and sang to the child that was supposed to be his. She put her own child down and picked up the baby, the baby cooed and reached for her face, framing her face in her small hands. The woman chuckled and kissed the air around her, the baby laughed and pulled at the front of the woman’s cloth with her mouth open reaching for the woman’s breasts.

“Calm down, Cleopoda, there is enough to feed you,” the woman laughed. She walked to the rocking chair, sat on it and pulled her tunic down for Cleopoda’s searching mouth. He looked away. A stranger was taking care of his own child, a child he refuse to look at, the one who brought the problems into his marriage tearing his family apart. Shaking his head at the misery that had become his life he walked away.

Remin sighed as she saw Octavius walk away, she had hoped that he would come in and see just how harmless and loving his child was. She was such a happy baby even when the whole kingdom hated her, even when he own birth number despised her so much that she couldn’t bear the sight of her and had run off just to be far from her. She looked at Cleopoda who sucked at her n****e with an eager mouth, she was still weaning Strukus so she had enough milk to sustain Cleopoda.

She put her hand through Cleopoda’s tight curls and stroked her head.

“It will get better child, it will.”