Cursed By The Gods Book 1 and 2

Chapter 53

Twice Cleopoda had wiped at the blood that dripped from her nose to the brown pages of the old book in front of her. She was grateful Garius wasn’t looking, sometimes the old man would be busy looking through the old man to care whether she read or not. But she read, she read because from Garius asked her questions at the end of every session and he hit her cruelly and with frustration whenever she failed to answer correctly. It wasn’t easy to read the almost faded symbols and scripts from the old brown books, mouth the words which meaning she didn’t know and at the same time try to halt the voices in her head, they were so loud sometimes, they made her head ache and caused her nose to bleed but she did her best to hide it anyway. She scowled hard at the book in front of her and tried to make sense of the small letters, there weren’t any illustrations in this books like there were in the one of yesterday so she had to double her efforts to understand what was written.

Garius forbade anyone from helping her, forbade even Mama Remin from seeing her or bringing her food. Even Strukus was not allowed to see her, the one time he had snuck into the library to bring her some honey Garius had caught him and beat him mercilessly before roughly handing over to Mama Remin.

“I told you to keep him away from the princess, this is just a warning if I see him anywhere by her again I will make good my promise and have his head off.”

Cleopoda had watched in fear as Garius beat Strukus, she wished she was grown and powerful enough to stop him but there was nothing she could do but sit shaking in her chair, she hid the bowl of honey Strukus had brought for her and ate it while Garius wasn’t looking. After her study session that day she had sort Strukus and found him in Mama Remin’s bed with a split lip which he stretched into a painful smile when he saw her, his arm was bruised too and appeared to have been broken. When she tried to apologize he stopped her.

“I am a man now, Cleopoda, men don’t need sorries.”

She had laughed. “You’re a six year old skinny boy,” then she turned serious. “But you need to stop trying to sneak into the library if Garius kills you I will be forced to bury your body.”

He waved her words aside. “Did you like the honey?”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

As she sat down in the library trying to sniff back the blood she wished she was Strukus, she wished he had been born in her place and she in his, no doubt Mama Remin would love her as much as she did even now.

“You have been on one page for such a long time now.”

Her head snapped up at gruff Garius’ voice, he was staring directly at her with those cold eyes that made her shake, she quickly scanned the page she was on to make sure she got everything in it before flipping to the other page. It was a book of kingdoms and so far she knew already how the first natives of Camelorn had wondered before getting to a rich and fertile land filled with crops and animals and of fresh water, a place they would one day call Camelorn. History said the land was first inhabited by the gods but the people had made a bargain to worship the gods and offer sacrifices to them in exchange for the land, the gods had demanded the heads of the firstborn sons which the people willing gave and then the gods had formed a place of their own, a place which they called Mount Kpamos. Garius had made her read the life and achievements of every king from the first generation to her grandfather, King Philip III but under Octavius’ entry there wasn’t much listed yet except the war he had fought against the Amire and the day of his coronation.

There were so many other nations Garius wanted her to know about because as he said, it was her duty to know about them whether or not she was accepted as one of them. The evening was fast approaching, he would let her go only after she answered the questions he had for her. When he stood from his seat and asked her to close her book she did so. He began to ask her questions based on all she had read. She did her best to answer correctly, it was painful since she had to think through the loud voices in her head, some were insulting, some were cursing at her but there was a still small one that was very faint, through it all she answered her questions grateful that her nose had stopped bleeding.

Garius listened as the child recounted all the parts of Camelorn’s history, she was a smart child. If only she was a true child of Camelorn he would have called her a true replica of Octavius but everything about her was different from her skin to her white hair to her strange purple eyes, it was the strangest of all because none of the gods of Camelorn had any like that. He refused to believe Emilia sold herself to a strange god, she was a good woman whose life was torn apart by the birth of the seemingly harmless child in front of him. Every time she read he couldn’t help but wonder why the gods would drop such a child in their midst through their queen, several times he had gone to the priests and to the seers in the village who at the very beginning had been concerned too but none of them had any answer, none of them understood the way of the gods unless it was revealed to them and in this the gods were silent.

“C-can I go now, sir?”

Garius started to answer when a cry rent the air, at first it sounded like a sound of pain but as he listened closely it sounded like people were hailing and shouting praises. He frowned, for years there had been nothing worth hailing for so what was all the commotion about?

Cleopoda frowned at the strange noise. She could hear Papa’s voice, she heard him laugh- she never heard him laugh before, it brought a smile to her face. But there was a strange voice too, it was deep and loud.

“You don’t look a day older you bastard, my sister-in-law must be doing a good job on you. Where is my niece?”

Before either Garius or Cleopoda could react the library door was thrown open and a huge man walked in. He wasn’t as tall as Papa but he was tall all the same and was just as muscular as him, his hair was longer and dark. He turned immediately to Garius and pulled him into a hug.

“Garius, you old bastard you’re still alive.”

Garius laughed with the man. He pushed away from him and slapped him hard on the shoulder. “Angus!” he was smiling in a way he never smiled at her. Papa walked into the room, he didn’t notice her because he was watching the man called Angus and Garius greet each other with a proud smile on his face.

“The runaway prince,” Garius said to the man. “The only one who solely traveled the world, even your tongue sounds different now.”

“I have been in many places it is only fair that I should speak like this now. Now, I haven’t seen my sister-in-law yet but where is my niece?”

He turned around and saw her standing there. The atmosphere in the room changed at once, even papa’s smile was no longer bright and Garius’s smile was almost completely wiped off.

 Angus bent on one knee and peered closely at her. Cleopoda moved back slightly wishing the shadows were thick enough to hide her, she bowed her head down.

“This is my niece?”

“Apparently,” Octavius answered after a long pause. He barely glanced at her before he pulled Angus up by the shoulder. “You should come and rest brother, you have had a long trip back home. When you have rested you should tell me all about your journey.”

He was back to laughing and he was clapping Angus on the shoulder. Angus laughed with him again, he cast one look at Cleopoda before joining Octavius in leaving the library, Garius went after them and the three men went laughing and talking all at once. Cleopoda tiptoed to the door to see if they were really gone, the passage was empty save from the soldiers that stood on guard. She closed the library door behind her and ran to find Mama Remin.