"For the plans to be in motion, it will take some time but know this, I will do everything in my capability to make that time and its effects short for you lot. No more going to bed hungry." The man boomed as the crowd cheers again.
Penelope watched with vivid interest as the man brought out a sack of something heavy, thrust his hand inside and threw some of the contents on the people gathered.
He is crazy… was… was that… Gold? Penelope couldn't believe her eyes. It took the crowd a minute to register what happened before pandemonium broke out as people started to fight their neighbors who managed to gain just a handful of coins.
General Cain did the same move more times and the last time was to her direction and this time she was ready, she had rushed to the other directions like others did so she had some precious seconds to pick a few coins before hands started to reach for her. Using her thin figure to an advantage, she broke free from the hold of others on her and raced as far as she could from the crowd, some people broke into a run after her but Penelope didn't stop to check, she just continued to run until she felt she was far enough from the scene in an alleyway where she was paused to take a breather.
"Who do we have here?" a nasty voice said as she cringed, why didn't she look around before stopping?
"I didn't know that anybody was here, let me get out of your hair." Penelope said stiffly as she turned to make her escape from the same group of boys who confronted her in the crowd earlier.
"Not so fast Fly." The Bully said as one of his gang stepped in front of her to block her exit and she had no other option than to turn and face the bully.
"I don't have anything. The food I was eating earlier were given to me by some girls, I begged for it." Penelope explained in case he had seen her eating earlier, it was not the first time she was being cornered because of something that must have happened and she had just shrugged it off.
"Not that… Empty your pockets."
Penelope blanched at the order, the coins which she was already planning for. "Look I have got nothing on me."
"Then you will have no reason not to empty your pockets, let's see if those girls gave you anything more than just food or the rich noble man you spoke with later on." The bully said as Penelope contemplate, taking her chances with the boy guarding her escape route.
"No." Penelope voice shook but she couldn't give the coins away. Those were her ticket to eating well for the next two weeks.
"I was not giving you an option. Pad." The bully called and before Penelope knew what was going on, the one behind her gripped her arms as another gave her a punch on her face that left her disoriented. "Search his pockets, quick before somebody come along."
The boys let of exclamations of shock when they finally saw her coins, all three of them. "Jackpot, we will eat well for a while on this."
"Leave them, they are mine." Penelope protested as the leader struck her with his foot in a kick that left her winded.
"Guys, I think Fly here needs to be taught a lesson in sharing. Are you boys up to it?" Penelope could only curl in on herself as she was kicked from all angles before they finally left her alone, crying and moaning in pain.
"It took a while before Penelope could crawl to a sitting position and then stand up and slowly made her way to the place where she called home, a special place where she hid her clothes and anything that still held meaning for her, hidden behind one of the many alleys. When she got there she saw the gang that robbed her was already there scattering her things.
"He has to have more, find them." The bully gritted out as he kicked her bags of rags which she used to staunch the flow of blood. "What is he using so many rags for?" he added disgusted at the sights of the rags.
Penelope quickly hobbled away from the place before they would see her and give her another set of beating. Her new home has been destroyed, she would return during daylight to see if there is anything that she can salvage from the mess those people were making so she could find a new hide out and a place that is far away from these group of boys as possible. It won't be long before they start to connect the dots and so she needed to disappear, maybe to another district in the capital or she might just have to leave the capital entirely.
It was long after dark before Penelope found a new place for the night, it was not as secured as she would have liked it to be but it was also the best she could see, she was too tired to go and to look for a better place especially since she was bone wary.
She crashed on the ground as she fell asleep to the good times in her life when all she had to worry about was which of her mother debts to rich customers does she need to draw. The three golden coins which would have saved from weeks of hunger now was what her mother used to give her every month to buy anything she will as long as it had to do with things that will enhance her beauty as a girl. She was just seventeen and yet she had seen so much more than her age. She looked more like a sixteen year old boy but she prefer that over being a girl almost ripe for marriage instead.
Her family was her happy thoughts and when she sleeps, she lets herself believe that maybe she would be united with them in future and could go back to that simple lifestyle. It wasn't long after her eyes went close that her sleep was disturbed by some noise which made her jerk awake and then lay as still as possible as she watched the scene that unfolded before her very own eyes.
"No, please. I didn't mean to do it." The boy who for all intents could have been her because of his lean stature, dirty clothes and bruised body begs the person who stood in front of him, his face a shadow casted by the moon but all the boy attention was on the man not the two behemoths who were pinning him to the wall.
"You didn't mean to steal from me… because you did. You street children should be exterminated and I planned to do just that. I would be doing the empire a great service by ridding it of scums like you who would give it a bad name." The voice which could only belong to the Prime minister said as Penelope eyes widened at what she was witnessing.
"Please my lord, my life will be yours if you just spare me, I will never try it again." The boy begs with tears and snorts running down his face.
"And why what use will I have for your likes? I have nothing to do with you." The prime minister shifted and his moon cast its light on his face. The face which currently held hard eyes with an unforgiving glint and lips which were stretched in a grin that spoken of nothing other than ill. "But you are right about one thing though. Your life is mine and I decided if you should have it or not."
"Please…." The boy begs but the Prime Minister took out a jeweled dagger.
"And I chose not." The prime minister said just as he dug the knife into the boy chest, removed it and plunged it in again.
Penelope couldn't control her gasp of shock, she was heard and when they look towards her direction, she stood up and took off in a dead sprint, ignoring her pain, she could feel the pain if she was alive, she wouldn't be alive if she had remained there and the man next words confirmed the conclusion she had just arrived at."Kill that Urchin!"
"Sire, we shouldn't be this close to the palace this night, we should have left a while ago. Nobody should link you to what is going on in the palace." One of the men following Lord Vallas said but he just shook his head."And nobody knows that I am here by this time." The man leaned on his cane, his fingers brushing the design, the golden Raven. His mind flashed back to the street boy of earlier, the boy was right and at the same time he was wrong. The people who wore the golden Raven on anything other than their amour are the real heroes, the ones who would do anything to protect the Empire even from the emperor. And they certainly don't follow the path of justice, not when Justice is now blinded and led by the partial, not when justice is on the side of those who want the down fall of the empire."But sire…" The guard who voiced his complains earlier started again but Lord Vallas replied, his tone razor sharp with his will."You can leave
Penelope stared at the man in silence while the man stared back at her. She licked her lips nervously as she lets out. "When did you know?""When I grabbed your wrist." The man replied. "What on earth would possess a lady to go through such an unscrupulous scheme? What will your parents say? They must be sick with worry and even if you are an orphan, what will your relatives think? Females are not meant to roam and sleep in streets, they are always taken care of…" Vallas rants filling the room with his anger, maybe one of the reasons why this hits too close to his feelings was because the girl he was supposed to get married to do something of this sort in a bid to escape getting married to a warrior. She was found out as a girl while escaping and was killed in the worse nightmare available to a lady. And it is like this Girl in front of him wanted to follow in Riya footsteps."By being married without their opinion. I don't want to get
And the next morning, they were off. Beating the early crowd which always occupied the cobbled streets and merchants who arrive early to sell their wares to the travelers for an exorbitant fee. The capital was a big place but what made it bigger were the other villages that was set up around the capital, there by adding to the capital might and forming a hub of business activities which interlinked one part to the other. Most people often made the mistake of referring to it all as the capital but it wasn't, each of these villages were under districts which was under a noble and then the king. The reason why Vallas was running away from the capital was because the capital itself is a district and under the control of the Prime Minister unless the Emperor interferes and that was something which the man rarely did. He needed to leave the clutches of the man who had something out for him."Nervous." Vallas asked Penelope from beside her, he had been watching her just as
The next morning, Penn was awake, dressed and ready to take on the world when her door opened with a bang."Good, you are awake." A taller buffer boy strode into the room without knocking. "My name is Stanley and I am going to show you around today."Without acknowledging the presence in the room, Penn continued with putting her new shoes on. She would need to see Vallas later so they can make plans about how they would go about achieving her mission."Hey." The tone of the boy, Stanley turns sharp. "You have no right to ignore me.""Get Out." Penn said instead."Excuse me?" the boy questioned."Go out. Close my door, knock, wait for an invitation then come in." Penn said as Stanley stared at him. "Do you want to keep gaping at me or do you want to get this ridiculous chore over with so we can go about our lives and not see each other again."Stanley snapped his jaw closed so hard that she could
"And here is the meeting room, it has been empty for a while but I don't suppose it would be empty for much longer since Master will send missives to tell his friends he now has an heir and visitors will start visiting, most of them will be entertained here." Agnes explained but Penn thoughts wasn't in the explanation. It was on the words Leda used in ushering him away from the kitchen, Stanley was her son? And Penn had just used her large mouth to bad talk the second most powerful person in the compound son and probably the most deadly."Sir… Our tour is over." Agnes said softly laying a hand on Penn chest and batting her eyes at her but Penn ignored the gesture. He had bigger things to think about than trying to decipher the meaning behind the rapid eye blinking the girl was doing that was making her look weird. Penn jerked at the contact, she didn't like to be touched by those she didn't know but still she smiled. "Of course.
Penn opened the door to the meal hall which suddenly went quiet as she entered but the silence didn't unfazed her, instead she took wide strides to the man table where she sat down besides Vallas and opened the dishes before her. Vallas continued his conversation with his trainers while Penn listened with half attention. It was a while after that before conversations resumes it flow in the room.Penn started to pay attention when she heard her name from Vallas in passing words. "…will need Weapons training and a training in subterfuge and in Lessons on behavior."At the last words, Penn snorted and when Vallas looked at her, she asked. "What am I? a girl? Why do I need lessons as if I am going to be wooing suitors?"Vallas removed his eyes from Penn own because he knew the exact questions Penn was asking. "That attitude of yours is one of the reasons why you need those lessons.""No." Penn
"Young master, you cannot run away from your lessons." Rima says searching for Penn who was on a low branch of the tree closed to her quarters, eating an apple and watching her behavior teacher face slowly getting red with anger. There were few things which Penn got to like about her new life and one of them was getting on Rima neck and watching her lose her cool. The girl was too composed and straight laced for someone who was young. Even Master Vallas was more carefree than her. Penn paused that thought. Master was on a class all on his own. He was even more carefree than Penn herself."Penn, this is not funny." Rima stomps her foot on the ground. "I can't keep losing you, what will do you think that your father will do if I tell him that you keep escaping from your lectures? I will be sent away and that will bring discredit to my father since he was the one who actually suggested that I should be your teacher." Her eyes filled with t
Since Penn agreed to ignore the actions of Stanley, Rima had been lost in thoughts. Penn was a better man that Stanley was. He was kind, considerate and loyal to those he cared about, all qualities she was looking for in a husband. And it also helped that Penn was easy on the eyes. His beauty rivals hers and she was the girl. His brown mop of hair he never bothers to care about, framed his face in unruly cuts, something she had learnt that he did himself with a sharp knife. His face although it was shaped like a woman, there was nothing womanly about Penn. His eyes were hard, that of a man who had seen things in life. Enough things to haunt him but he refused to let them get to him, Penn spirit shone bravely from his eyes. His nose was a little crooked from being broken multiple times but they added to his appeal. His body was a bit on the slim side…not racking up muscles like other boys but he was muscular enough and people rarely know of his sl