Chapter 4

Kiara wakes up in a cell after a bucket of water is dumped on her. Two soldiers are in the cell with her.

“We are here to prepare you for the Emperor.”

Kiara does not anticipate the blow until the foot makes contact with her side. Both soldiers kick and stomp on her until it hurts to breathe, Kiara curls into a ball, using her arms to cover her face. She is struck repeatedly until she passes out for the second time today.

When she wakes up, she is in intense pain, she pulls herself off the ground in a kneeling position holding the side that hurts the most. She whimpers, taking in short painful breaths before realizing something crucial. She is not alone.

She turns around and finds the Emperor sitting on a chair, he is still in his gold armour but Kiara notices that this one is different, shinier. Up close she can see his features, they are strong, yet somehow delicate at the same time. High cheek bones and a strong jawline, yet he has thin brows that are barely there, a long straight nose and lips that are the shape of bows.

Kiara makes the mistake of meeting his gaze, his eyes are hard and cold, there is not a flicker of emotion within them.

“A lesson must be made out of you.” He takes note of her red attire, of the swirling lines across her skin and realizes she is a bride.

“But I can’t seem to find the perfect punishment for you, one that will make you regret the day you were born.” He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He searches her features but cannot find the mark that proclaims she is married, then it dawns on him that his breach of the kingdom had interrupted her ceremony. He remembers she had called him a murderer after he had ordered the King and his council to be executed. Was she betrothed to one of the ministers? One of the King’s sons? No, her attire is far too cheap for her to be married to a prince.

That’s when the idea hit him.

“From now on, you will be the face mother’s attribute to the death of their sons, the name widows’ spit on when they remember their dead husbands. You will be cursed, shamed and harassed because of the mark you will bear…”

“I will not kill for you.” Kiara cuts the Emperor off.

She sees his lips curve in a smile. “I do not intend you to do so.”

The smug smile infuriates Kiara. “Then, what do you want?”

“For you to be my wife.”

Kiara tilts her head to look at him, not sure she hears the words correctly. “Your wife?” She laughs, holding her injured ribs but the pain doesn’t stop her from laughing harder. “You must be delusional if you think I’m going to say yes.”

“Again, I do not intend you to but I do have a little incentive, something that will make you change your mind.” He calls a soldier over and whispers something too low for Kiara to hear.

The man leaves and soon after, Kiara hears scuffling down the hall. A little boy of two cries in the arms of a soldier who handles him roughly. Kiara hears the mother before she sees her.

“Please let him go, take me instead but please let my son go!”

A young woman almost the same age as Kiara comes into the light, she throws herself down at the Emperor’s feet but is held back by the guards before she can get further.

“Please, I will do anything you want, let him go, please!” She wails as she struggles against the guards.

The boy wails hysterically in the arms of the guard. “Mama, Mama!”

“I do not hold your son’s life in my hands, she does.” The Emperor directs the woman’s gaze to Kiara, pointing to her in her cell. “All she has to do is accept my proposal and your son will be released into your arms.”

The woman struggles against the guards and they let her go, she crawls to Kiara’s cell and pulls herself up to her knees using the bars of the cell.

“I beg you, please. He is only a child, my only child. My husband is dead, I have nothing else to live for if he is taken away from me…Please I beg you!”

The woman’s eyes are wild, her hair tattered, her clothes in pieces, her face red and blotchy, smeared with dirt at places that made contact with the ground.

Kiara turns to the Emperor. “How stupid do you think I am? You bring in a bunch of paid actors to convince me to accept your proposal. Well, next time, you should have them say something other than the same words I said to you, in a bid to mock me. Take them away. I will not fall for your tricks.”

The woman at the bars looks from Kiara to the Emperor not understanding the scenario before her.

“I am afraid you failed to convince her.” He turns to the soldiers standing guard. “Run him through.”

Kiara and the mother watch in horror as two guards restrain the boy’s arms, while a third runs him through from behind, so that the women can have an unobstructed view.

The sword goes in and out of the small body without hinderance, blood pours out of the wound, the boy is dropped to the floor where he kicks his feet and arms in the throes of death.

“Its such a shame, did you know people who are run through with swords feel the intense pain of the blow until they die? Which of course, takes a lot of time.” One would think the Emperor was describing the weather, in his cool voice, and not someone, a child, dying at his feet.

The mother goes into another frenzy. “Phineas! Phineas!” She screams but the guards do not let her go, forcing her to watch her dying son until the boy gives up his last breath, which is very audible in the confined space of Kiara’s cell.

“You monster…” Kiara has her hand over her mouth in disbelief.

“I’m not the monster, you are. His life was in your hands, all you had to do was say yes and he would have been released into the arms of his mother unharmed. His blood is on your hands.”

The soldier who had run the boy through, had his sword out, shaking the blood off, before anyone could make sense of what was happening the woman freed herself from the soldiers and impaled herself on the same sword that killed her son.

“Would you look at that? Now you have the blood of two people on your hands.” the Emperor says, turning his golden eyes on her.

Kiara watches the blood pool into her cell, she tries to get away but it finds its way to her feet, collecting around her, the blood of mother and child.

“We have to make sure this doesn’t happen again, it defeats the purpose of this exercise.”

“Are you ready to accept my proposal?”

“No.”

Her voice is so small, she doubts the Emperor hears her until he says, “Bring in the next child.”

A child of seven is brought into the cell, this time it is a girl with blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Despite her ragged appearance and tear stained cheeks, Kiara recognizes her instantly as the butcher’s daughter and makes the mistake of calling out her name.

“Latana?”

The girl turns at the mention of her name, recognizing Kiara, she reaches out through the bars. Kiara grasps the tiny hands and tells the girl everything will be okay, before she is forcibly ripped away from the bars.

This exchange does not go unnoticed by the Emperor. When the mother is brought in by the soldiers, he beckons her closer to him. Latana begins to cry as she sees her mother.

“Please…” The mother pleads. “Have mercy on my daughter…” She doesn’t finish the sentence, she sees the soldiers drag the body of the dead boy and his mother out of the room. The woman begins to weep hysterically, knowing that the fate of her and her daughter is sealed.

“Shhhh….Shhhh…” The Emperor takes her face in his armoured hand. “You might actually come out of this alive. Do you know this woman?”

The woman follows his gaze into the cell, her eyes widen as she recognizes Kiara. She returns her gaze to the Emperor and nods aggressively.

“What’s her name?”

“Kiara…”

“Kiara.” The Emperor tests the name on his tongue. He turns back to the woman and smiles. “All you have to do is convince Kiara to say, ‘yes’ and your daughter leaves here alive.”

The woman rushes to the cell and grabs the bars. “Please, Kiara. Say yes.”

“Please, Kiara say yes.” The Emperor mocks, thoroughly enjoying the scene before him. “You wouldn’t want the blood of another mother and child to be on your hands.”

“Please, I am begging you.” Latana’s mother begins to cry.

“You don’t even know what I’m saying yes to!” Kiara screams at her through the bars.

“You are saying, ‘yes’ to save her daughter’s life.” The Emperor interjects.

Kiara shoots him a glare, understanding the game he is playing. Latana wails louder, her mother continues to beg Kiara through the bars. The Emperor is unaffected by the scene, his gaze is locked on Kiara.

“Say yes.” He implores.

“No.”

He turns to the guards holding Latana. “She says no, Slit her throat.”

“No!” The mother is held back by the soldiers as a blade is drawn across the soft flesh of the child’s neck.

Latana is dropped to the ground as she begins to gurgle and thrash around.

“You hear that sound?” The Emperor turns to Kiara. “She is drowning in her own blood.”

He turns to the mother and leans down to whisper in her ear in a voice audible enough for Kiara to hear. He directs the woman’s gaze to her cell as he speaks. “I want you to look at the face of the woman that took your daughter away from you. Remember this face anytime you realize your sweet child is no more. All she had to do was say, ‘yes’. Just one word. She had the power to return your daughter to you but she refused. Who does that to an innocent child?”

Kiara looks on in disbelief as the Emperor begins to sow the seed in the heart of Latana’s mother. She looks at Kiara with tears running down her face, the eyes that are full of sorrow, slowly begin to fill with hatred.

“Whenever you think of your child, curse her name.” The Emperor ends as the mother is taken away, Latana’s mother doesn’t break eye contact with Kiara as she is taken away from the cell.

Kiara turns to the Emperor but she has no words. He relaxes in his chair.

“I can do this all day. I can bring in every single child in Dion and have them slaughtered in this room until you are swimming in their blood. Can you? Can you look at the faces of all the children I bring in, of all the mothers who plead for their lives knowing you have the power to save them and say no? Can you? Can you live with their blood on your hands?”

Kiara hears the sound of a crying child coming closer to her cell and the sound of a hysterical mother not far off. When the child is brought in, she sees that it is just a baby. The mother is held down at the feet of the Emperor.

“Kiara here has the power to save your child, all she has to do is say, ‘yes’. If she doesn’t, your child will be strangled to death before your eyes. All you have to do is convince her.” He tells the mother, directing the gaze of the mother to the cell but he gives her enough room to see the body of Latana, with an open throat, being dragged out of the room.

The woman turns to Kiara and begins to plead for her baby’s life.

“What will it be Kiara?” The Emperor leans back in his chair.