A Prince's Pride

Chapter Forty

*Aaron*

The fury that consumed me upon Riley's death boils over into a rage. I try to stand, forgetting about the Krishan surrounding me, and they force me down. One of them leans next to my ear.

"It would be best if you kept your head, Emperor," he says, "there are people up here that could be used against you."

I look over to Milo who, like Piper, was gagged when they were removed from the cell. Silent tears stream down Milo's face as he looks down at Riley's body. Fearing for his life, I force myself to sit back and reach out to grab his hand as the Krishan steps back.

The fighting in the arena below has broken out, all of the tributes now fighting in a free-for-all, but I can’t take my eyes off the woman who killed my sister. Riley's murderer is particularly skilled, cutting down the other women, and fending off their attacks with ease. 

After a relatively short time, Riley's murderer and a woman with olive skin are all that's left. They circle each other, sizing each other up. The other woman seems to lose her nerve. She throws the dagger she’s carrying aside and starts running. A stupid move, really, when you consider there’s nowhere for her to go. 

Riley’s murderer catches up with her and stabs her in the back. The woman falls to the ground, and the sounds of her choking on her own blood echoes up into the stands. I’m slightly upset that she wasn’t killed by one of the other tributes, but at least now I have the chance to kill her myself.

Those people in the crowd who cheered when Riley was being murdered go crazy, screaming and clapping for the winner of the Chariot.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” the Sultan’s voice rings out throughout the arena. “The winner of the 94th Annual Chariot is Charissa Eliote!”

Charissa raises her sword into the air as the cheering swells to a tumult.

“Charissa, congratulations,” the Sultan continues. “Throw your weapon aside as the Krishan enter the arena to collect you and the bodies of your fallen competitors.”

Charissa throws her sword aside and a moment later, the gates open and Krishan come into the arena. I watch as they pick up Riley’s body and carry her and the other fallen tributes out through a single dock. One Krishan walks right up to her and escorts her through the same gate as the fallen women.

***

As soon as the Chariot is over, we're ordered by our captors to rise and the four of us are led through the corridors of the Khal Majal. 

I feel numb, like a piece inside me has died. Everywhere I look, I see Riley's body, bloody and dead. I can't stop imagining the look on my mother's face when she finds out her only daughter is gone. I think about the way she almost stopped living when my father died. Will that happen again? Will I lose my mother again, just after I've lost my sister?

*Milo*

 The Krishan lead us through the maze of corridors in the Khal Majal back to our cell room, remove the bindings from our wrists, and order us into our cells. When they separate us, they put Aaron and Gavin in one cell and me and Piper in the other, but don't chain me or Piper to the wall. I rip the gag from my mouth and turn on the Krishan.  

"Tell your Sultan this won't work out in his favor," I say. "Killing us is only going to bring the entire might of Theo against Sandalia."

"The Sultan knows what he's doing. We're planning to kill you in the desert and make it look as though bandits attacked you. Queen Elaine won't know it was us." Then he leaves without another word.

Over the next couple of minutes, Aaron is inconsolable. I reach through the bars and hold him as best I can while he cries for the loss of his sister. Piper sits next to me, pulling on the binding cuff, but it doesn't budge. 

"Is there any hope of getting it off?" I ask. 

"Probably not," she says, but she doesn't quit pulling on it. She tries incanting and, though her words come out echoing and crashing together, nothing whatsoever happens. 

This waiting is the worst part. The minutes tick by and it's almost as if I can feel the time I have left on this Earth draw to a close. 

When the door opens again, the Krishan who arrested Aaron, wearing a purple cape, enters our cell room. I somehow know this is it. We're going to be taken to Sultan Aegor and will be executed. 

"It's time for your execution," he says. "I am Corrlin, the High Commander of the Krishan. It would be in your best interest to come quietly." At that last sentence, he gives us an odd look. It's like he's trying to tell us something, but I have no idea what it is. 

The four Krishan with him unlock our cells and lead us out. When they bind our wrists, they leave the ropes very loose, ball up the extra, and put it in our enclosed hands. If I pull my wrists apart, the ropes would fall away. 

"What—" I begin, but Corrlin cuts me off. 

"Do not speak, prisoner!" he says, his eyes wide as he stares at me. 

I don't understand. Is he helping us?

Corrlin leads us from the cell and down the hall. When we climb the last stairwell leading into the palace proper, one of the Krishan behind us lifts the back of my shirt and I feel a dagger slide in between the waistband of my pants and my back. A glance at Aaron tells me the same happened to him. 

"This is the signal," says Corrlin, holding up his hand, his pinky and ring finger touching his thumb, his index and middle finger in the air. "It is called the Pecuro. We are the Dehaka, and we are on your side. Stay quiet until I raise the Pecuro."

I'm confused about everything that's happening, but especially why they would call the sign a Pecuro. A Pecuro is a bird that's prevalent in the culture of the Southern Tribes. It isn't real, but it's said to be a water bird that dive bombed navy ships invading the Southern Tribes from another land. 

When we enter the throne room, we find the Sultan sitting on his throne and two dozen Krishan, most of them wielding long-bladed spears, though a couple carry swords. Ten more form a line between us and the sultan, all of them holding bows. 

But my eyes are trained on Aegor. I'm not sure what it is, exactly, but there's something different about him today. He looks the same, but there's a presence coming off him. It's somehow familiar to me. 

"Milo," Piper whispers, "do you sense that?"

I nod, but don't take my eyes off the Sultan. We approach and the Krishan not wielding bows close ranks around us, surrounding us on all sides. Corrlin moves so he's in the middle of the room, but off to the side, so we have a clear view of the Sultan. 

"Well, well, well," says Aegor, looking down at us. "How the mighty have fallen."

"Let our guards go, Aegor!" says Aaron. "You can execute us if you want, but let them go!"

"Your guards have already been executed," says Aegor. 

"No," says Aaron in a disbelieving whisper. I'm not sure if I believe it, but I don't know what to believe. Something strange is going on.

"For many years, too many years," Aegor continues, "Midoor has been the powerhouse of Pensia. With you out of the way, taking it over will be quite easy indeed."

This doesn't make any sense. Where is all this coming from? Yesterday, Aegor seemed upset we were going to die. He had been planning to deport us. Now he's happy about it?

"There will certainly be a new power," says Corrlin. "But it won't be you, Sultan." He raises the Pecuro into the air, and so do many of the guards, though none of the archers standing between us and Aegor. I try to take a quick count and realize less than half the guards around us are Dehaka.

"What is the meaning of this?" the Sultan asks, standing from his throne.

"This is a coup, Your Majesty. It's time for your reign to come to an end," says Corrlin. 

"Kill them!" the Sultan roars. All at once, Aaron, Piper, Gavin, and I drop our binds and pull the daggers from our pants. Piper, who is wearing a dress, doesn't pull a dagger from anywhere, but advances on one of the Krishan. A lump of fear forms in my throat when I realize the majority of the Krishan are looking at me, murder in their eyes. 

The Dehaka around us move to engage the Krishan and chaos ensues. I lock eyes with the nearest Krishan as he levels his spear and moves toward me.

*Aaron*

A Krishan lunges at Milo, spear in hand. I hold the flat side of my dagger in my hand and use it to shove the spear away from him, but another Krishan step forward, thrusting his sword at Milo, who jumps backward. I step toward the Krishan, grab his arm, and force it down, causing him to scream in pain. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice another Krishan coming up behind Milo, but I won't be able to reach him. 

"Milo, behind—" I start to shout, but one of the Dehaka have already intercepted him. 

I'm most afraid for Milo. I've taught him some self defense but without his magic, he's a sitting duck. And, for reasons unknown to me, the Krishan seemed to make him his first target. 

The Krishan whose hand I'm holding grunts in pain and falls away from me to reveal Piper, pulling a sword out of his back, the Krishan she stole it from dead behind her. 

"I didn't know you could fight," I say. 

"You thought I was idle while magic was illegal in Middor?" she asks in a mock scathing voice. 

I bend down to pick up the sword from the fallen Krishan and move backward, stepping in between Milo and two more Krishan advancing on him. As they swing their swords at me from either direction, I duck. They've left themselves exposed as they follow through with their swings, and I'm able to take one down with a quick stab of my sword. 

The other knocks the dagger out of my hand with a kick. I'm about to bring my sword up to meet the Krishan's, when Gavin stabs him through the side with his dagger. Gavin steps closer to him, twists the dagger, and wrenches the sword him his hand before pushing his body over. 

Behind me, I hear the throne room door open. My group advances deeper into the throne room, fighting off Krishan as they try to get to Milo, who is now surrounded by Gavin, Piper, and myself. I turn to the throne room doors to see more Khrishan piling in. 

"Backup!" shouts Corrlin. I'm not sure what he means. We can't move much farther into the throne room without meeting the archers, who I assume haven't fired at us because they don't want to hit the other Khrishan. And I can tell the Krishan who just entered are not our backup, for some of the Dehaka around us break from our group to engage them. 

Then, the side door to the throne room opens and I understand what Corrlin was yelling. He was asking for his backup to enter from the side room. 

My heart swells when I see Oswald, Exavier, and all of my guards enter with three Dehaka, all of them holding up the Pecuro. Most shockingly, I see all of the tributes, except Riley and Orelia, are with them, all of them wielding weapons. 

I don't have much longer to look until I'm fighting again, three of the Krishan having broken from the fight to advance on Milo, but they're outnumbered. Between Piper, Gavin, and myself, they don't get within ten feet of Milo. 

It's clear our side is winning. The Dehaka have managed to shut the throne room doors and Khrishan on the other side are banging to get in, but it's hopeless. 

"Enough!" a loud voice booms out through the throne room and the fighting ceases immediately as we all look up to the Sultan. His face is purple with rage, a vein in his forehead pulsing madly.

"You!" he shouts, pointing at me. "I challenge you to a trial by combat!"

I hear Milo groan behind me. In an instance like this, he's probably rather I refuse, especially since we're winning, but that wouldn't be the honorable thing to do. 

"I accept," I say to Aegor, "and if I win, your men will stand down. You will be deposed and I will place a new head of government, adding Sandalia to the Empire of Theo."

"I accept your terms," says Aegor. 

I grip the sword tighter in my hand and start walking toward the steps leading up to the throne. Though the archers part in the middle and move off to the sides of the throne room, Aegor doesn't descend the steps. 

He looks down at me, a sneer on his face and yells, "Archers! Kill Milo!"

I whip my head around to see five archers notch arrows and fire at Milo. Though I started moving when the archers raised their bows, I know I’m not going to make it. Gavin, Oswald, and Exavier are too far away, having moved apart to watch me and Aegor fight.

Time slows as the arrows fly through the air, heading straight for Milo, but I’m not going to make it. I’m not going to make it. But she does.

Piper steps in front of Milo and I watch as, one-by-one, five arrows bury themselves in Piper’s body. I keep running until I reach them, Piper laying back in Milo’s arms, blood oozing from her arrow wounds.

“NOOOOO!” I look up at the Sultan as Piper shudders in Milo’s arms. The scream came from him, but it wasn’t him screaming.

He starts rubbing his right hand over his left as if he’s been stung. A moment later, he pulls a silver ring with a large purple gem set into it and throws it at the ground.

When the gem shatters, I realize it’s a phial. A column of black and purple smoke swirls into the air, a column of smoke I recognize. I know who’s going to be standing there when the smoke dissipates and, sure enough, Phoebe Dylan is standing in the throne room.

“Piper!” she shouts and she starts running toward us. I stand, holding my sword in a defensive stance, but Phoebe incants, and I’m thrown telekinetically away, but am caught by two of the Dehaka.

I look over to see Milo thrust his hand out at Phoebe, like he’s forgotten he can’t use his powers right now. Phoebe incants and he’s thrown backwards as well, leaving Piper alone.

Phoebe is sobbing now as she leans over Piper and places her hands on her. She starts incanting and the arrows lift out of Piper’s body and are thrown sideways. As I watch, the holes on Piper’s body start closing, but then stop suddenly. Phoebe starts incanting faster, clearly afraid Piper is going to die. She’s so focused on healing her, she doesn’t notice Piper’s binding cuff as it starts glowing, getting brighter and brighter until it shatters.

With an incantation, Piper sends Phoebe flying across the room, knocking over the five archers that shot her. Phoebe scrambles to stand up and everyone gets into a defensive stance, but Phoebe only reaches into her pocket and pulls out what I think must be a pocket mirror, though I can only see the back of it. She sighs in relief.

“Is that—?” Piper says, but she doesn’t get to finish. The Sultan starts shouting, drowning out her words.

"Help me, Aaron!" he says. "She killed my children, she forced me to restart the Chariot and she killed the victors. She said she's collecting—”

But before he can finish, Phoebe incants and sends a blast of dark purple energy at him, then throws a phial at her feet and vanishes in a swirl of purple and black smoke.

“What do you mean?” I ask, turning toward the Sultan. But I only take one step when Aegor throws himself down in a low bow.

“No, please, don’t hurt me! Please! I surrender!”

“Pathetic,” I say as I advance on Aegor’s weeping form, walking up the steps to stand above him. 

All of a sudden, he springs up, uppercutting me in the jaw, and sending me sprawling down the steps to land on my back. I look up at him and see his eyes are pure black. Aegor reaches behind him and pulls a sword from seemingly nowhere, then jumps from the platform, swinging the sword down at me. 

I can’t help it, I close my eyes just before I die. When I hear the sound of metal on stone, I’m sure my head has been cleaved in two, and let out a yell.

“Gods, you’re so dramatic,” says Riley.

My eyes fly open to see my sister, holding a sword over me. The sound I heard was her sword deflecting the Sultan’s.

“You!” he shouts.

“Me,” says Riley, sounding as happy as can be. She steps up and thrusts her sword up into Sultan Aegor’s throat. He gurgles as Riley pushes, shoving him onto his back where he dies.

Riley turns to me and holds out her hand, then pulls me to my feet. I can't help it. I move forward and pull her into my arms, squeezing her as tightly as I can. 

"You're crushing me," she says. I let her go and look at her. 

"How are you alive?" I ask. 

"I'll tell you later,” she says.

“I’m just very confused about everything,” says Gavin, looking at Riley like she’s a ghost. We all turn to look at him. “What did the Sultan mean?"

"I can answer a few things," says Rija, advancing from the crowd of Dehaka. "But first," he turns to the Krishan and says, "my father is dead. Most of the Krishan are under my command. The Trifecton is no more and the line of succession has been broken. I am assuming control of Sandalia. If any of you object, speak now."

Not one of the guards around say anything. 

"Good," he says, then turns to me and Milo, who's walked up and grabbed my hand. 

"I only found out about this today," Rija continues. "Until two years ago, the Chariot had not been held for nearly three decades. It was your father, Emperor Aaron, who put a stop to them."

"And Phoebe forced him to restart them?" I ask. "How did you discover this?"

"I went to my father tonight and demanded he release you. I insisted that I could convince you to leave without retaliating, when I actually planned to ask you to return with your army if our coup failed, but he wouldn't. That's when he told me a witch was forcing him to keep the Chariot going and that she had murdered several of my siblings when he tried to refuse. Even I do not know who lives."

"But why would Phoebe want the Chariot to continue?" asks Milo. "What was she collecting? And what was that mirror?"

"I have no idea what she’s collecting," says Piper, walking up. I can still see wounds in her that weren't fully healed. "But that mirror used to belong to our mother."

"What is the Trifecton?" asks Gavin, apparently following his own line of thought.

"They were my three eldest siblings. The first three in the line of succession. If my father died, they were to be brought here to rule Sandalia.”

"I just can't believe Phoebe happened to be at the place we were planning on vacationing at," says Riley. 

"Well, our destinies do seem entwined with her," says Piper. "I doubt that's the last time we'll run into her. I should've recognized it was her the moment I saw the binding cuff. It's her handiwork, after all."

"Speaking of which," says Milo, "how did yours break?"

"Well," says Piper, "I couldn't use my own magic while wearing it, but some of my power and hers mixed when I broke our collective apart. Some of the magic she tried to use to heal me came from me. It recognized me and I was able to overload the binding cuff with it. Of course, that meant I wasn't able to heal all the way, but I'll take care of that later."

"Can you help me out with mine?" asks Milo. 

"Not right now, I'm sorry. Redirecting the magic took more out of me than it should have."

"And you also took five arrows," says Riley. 

"That too," agrees Piper. 

"Okay," says Gavin as though he's having trouble keeping up, "but why are all the tributes alive?"

"Oh, I'll explain all of that when I tell you my story," says Riley. 

"I have a question," says Milo. "What really happened in your room, Rija?"

"I kissed you because iIt was my hope you would leave Sandalia and we could perform the coup."

"Then why did you chase after me when I tried to leave?"

"I found that I had been developing feelings for you," he says. "But that is no matter. I will not interfere with your relationship."

"You know we can't just walk away from this, right, Rija?" I ask him.

"I figured. Little as I want my people to be ruled by another country, if this Phoebe is out here, joining you is my best bet for protection. I will join your empire."

"Very well," I say. "Kneel."

Rija kneels as I pick up a sword and walk up to him. 

"Rija Ran, as the Emperor of Theo and Ruler of Midoor, I hereby name you Sultan of Sandalia," I say, tapping each of his shoulders with the flat edge of the sword. 

"I swear fealty to you, my emperor. I will follow your every command without question and pledge my undying loyalty to you," says Rija. 

"Then rise, Sultan Rija Ran, ruler of Sandalia."

Rija rises and smiles at me. 

"Well, there's only one thing left to take care of," I say as I hand the sword to Oswald. 

"And what is that, Emperor?"

I punch Rija in the jaw, as hard as I can, sending him staggering back until he topples over onto his ass and say, "That's for kissing my husband."