Cursed By The Gods Book 1 and 2

Chapter 59

He knew something was different. He could tell that the meeting in the Council Room today would be different from the others. He could feel it in the gloom that hung in the air around him and he almost didn't want to don on his royal robe. As he walked down the hallway of the palace Octavius wished he could merge himself with the wall away from the world and his responsibilities as king of Camelorn. He had woken up sharply after dreaming of several ways to kill Ashterah and has woken up disappointed to find that he was on his bed with her brand on his neck.

The guards stood at their place by the wall and when he approached the dark wood door of the Council Room one of the gaurds stationed there pushed it open. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the nobles standing rather than sitting. Unlike before when they would be feasting on the food the servants served for them even before he arrived, they were standing around with grim faces that didn't bode well with him. At his entry into the room they bowed as they should be with tight lips and stiff backs. He raised a hand to them, a hand he would gladly wrap round the neck of a certain goddess to squeeze hard. He passed by them and took his seat at the dais but when he sat down they refused to sit but stood with different emotions ranging from rage, anger, pity and hatred on their faces. He was less concerned with why they had such looks on their faces, all he wanted was to go back to his room and hope that death would be merciful enough to take him away.

"What is the problem?" he asked the nobles. Even Amelia who was known for her gossips was tight-lipped and grim and Gtori, the noble in charge of economics in the kingdom, known to favor food and wine turned his back against the many lamp chops, fruits and wine that the servants had set out and on closer inspection Octavius realized that even servants were absent in the room. He took a deep breath and tried to steady himself.

"Your Majesty," Aprolos said. It was obvious he had resigned himself to be the spoke man of the group since no one was willing to do no more than stare at him with unforgiving eyes. " Reports are getting worse by the day. Our kingdom is in trouble! Just yesterday reports came that an entire village was burnt to the ground!"

"Have you stationed guards like I asked you to?"

"We did!" his voice was raised but he quickly lowered it as he realized to whom his words were addressed to." Their dead bodies were dragged to the bank of the river this morning and the people are losing their patience, cared for their lives at the escalating casualties that results after every attack from these bandits."

Gtori who had let Aprolos speak on his behalf while he stared through hostile thin eyes at Octavius finally decided to talk. " This bandits are destroying what your father and your fathers before him did for this land and you sit there doing nothing!"

"You will not speak to me like that!" Octavius roared. Even then Aprolos was already holding him back.

"But Your Highness, the people are in the river villages are no longer safe. Any more deaths like this and a huge blow will be dealt to our economy."

Octavius resisted the urge to laugh cynically. Of course when they had come to him to report the news the other day they had eaten and acted like it wasn't very much important because then the economy had not been threatened but now that it was they could not stand to lose all that they had worked for. He looked at their greedy faces and realized he hated them all, they came into his palace to eat his food and went about their businesses with little regard for anyone but themselves. He had even reason to believe that if the economy had not been threatened they would have been content to let the people of Camelorn die in the hands of bandits. As he sat there watching them he knew they were waiting for him to say something, give an order that would end the killings but he was so tired and weak that he couldn't come up with anything. But he didn't have to because just then he noticed the small priest standing behind Aprolos.

"We sort help from the gods Your Majesty," Aprolos began. "They have confirmed that you have something to confess, something that has brought a strange thing to our land since your father died."

He stood up and regarded the old priest who had come forward to bow low before him. If his heart was purely human anymore it would have been beating so hard it would echo around the room instead it was his mind that was suddenly very active. He knew what he had to confess, his enslavement to Ashterah. A god could publicly claim a man as his own but when it was done in secret it was considered a taboo. He was surprised to find that his heart was in fact already made up about what to do, it was as if he had known this day was coming. He looked at the priest before him who kept his head bowed down with his cloak covering the length of him. In a moment of defeat he shrugged off his robe and laid it on the arm of his gilded chair.

With a sigh he said " What do you want me to do?"

The priest knelt before him with his head to the ground. " We have consulted with the gods and have been told that you are to make your confessions in the temple of Robos, offer the necessary sacrifices so that peace will once again be restored to the land."

" I will do as you have said." 

The nobles regarded him with slacked jaws but they recovered quickly as he sent for servants to ready horses for the ride to the temple. His mind was at peace that now he would not have to hide the emblem on his neck. Once the horses were ready for him, the priest and the nobles who had not brought their horses he led the way downstairs where they mounted and took off. As they rode through the streets Octavius realized just how bad the situation of his kingdom was, people lined the edges of the street to hail at him while others cried with their hands in the air asking for his help and intervention in saving the lives of the people. He dutifully raised his hands to the subject and made promises that seemed to come from the mouth of a stranger. They got to the temple where some temple prostitutes stood calling for them and offering their services. The priests arou the front of Robos magnificent temple chased them away and ushered him into the temple. It was a building of pure gold, gold was in heavy supply in the time when the temple of Robos was being built. The altar was coated with gold, so we're the bowls for offerings and water, the statue of Robos that stood at least 10 feet tall was of solid gold depicting the god in a long tunic that blew in an invisible wind, the string gold arm was stretched out holding a rod that had the thunder symbol of Robos on it and the huge feet of Robos made of gold were set wide apart so that he looked like he was brandishing his gold rod of thunder at an unseen enemy.

At the feet of Robos Octavius knelt. The nobles stood a way off behind him while the priest directed the temple hands to bring a bowl of water and a cleaning cloth so that Octavius could wash his hands before touching the god's feet. 

"You can make your confessions now."

The words echoed in his ears as he gripped the feet of the gods. He could hear the nobles mumble behind him, it was time they knew that the one they bowed to bowed to a woman and crawled to her bed everyday before she fed him with her blood.

"I am a slave to Ashterah."

The words had barely gotten out his mouth before a strong wind blew into the temple sweeping bowls off pedestals and slamming some of the temple hands back against the wall. The wind howled fiercely and threatened to lift everyone off their feet until it suddenly stopped. Octavius opened eyes he hadn't realized were shut and before him stood Robos in a loose white tunic that stopped mid thigh exposing muscular thighs. One hand of the tunic was loose, falling below his strong shoulder, his silver hair blew around his face and around piercing white eyes.

"How dare you speak such lies against my daughter?!" he raged. He slapped Octavius so hard across his face that he flew off the statue and landed hard against a column. Blood from a loosened tooth dripped from his mouth. As he started to pick himself off the floor he felt rather than saw Ashterah standing in the shadows at a corner of the temple with her hsbdstti her mouth and tears running down her cheeks. She shook her head vigorously side to side in a silent plea. Octavius laughed without humor at his situation, a goddess who was so afraid of her own father that she could not openly claim him as hers even though she claimed to love him. He wiped the blood from his lips, he wasn't expecting anyone to believe him even when Robos was standing there staring evilly at him.

"Take this foolish mortal and deal twenty lashes to him for this blasphemy. I want his blood poured in a bowl at my altar," Robos commanded.

When the priests refused to obey him for fear of their king Robos grabbed one of them a d snapped his neck in two. They rushed to strip Octavius to his loincloth and tied him up. He refused to struggle but surrendered completely to them while they tied him up.