I left impressions of my bloody boots as I marched through the castle halls toward the Meeting Chamber. Something was wrong; the King was not the one to surrender so quickly in a war, regardless of whether we were fighting humans or not, unless... our enemies had killed the Prince. The thought increased my speed and I almost burst through the Chamber's double doors.
A hush immediately fell over the room. The King, Queen, Princess, and Prince of Atrofall glanced at me along with the King's only trusted adviser, the Kingdom's army general, and the General's son.
"Esmeray, you are covered in blood," The Queen pointed out with much displeasure.
"That tends to happen when you are fighting in a war, Mother," I retorted without humour.
"As if you really fought," Princess Leonora sneered.
"Well, you will need to go outside the castle walls to know if I really fought or not," I said, giving a fake smile before adding. "Not that I care what you think, Sister. I just want to know why our troops were called back. What happened?"
"We were captured!" The Prince said with more force than he probably intended to. He was looking very much still in shock and very much afraid.
"What?" I almost froze hearing my brother's words. This was extremely bad. There was no way the enemies would let us go without paying a hefty price. "What do you mean?"
"We were offered a deal," The King said looking down at the map of our kingdom spread across the table in front of him.
"What kind of deal?" I asked, my heart sinking in further. Did we have to give up our country and be banished? Or worse, become their slaves and rule in their name?
"They have asked for our most beautiful Princess," The King frowned as if the next words on his lips had already soured in his mouth. "For the Beast King."
"Asked? As in –?" I gritted my teeth in anger. As much as I hated my older sister, Princess Leonora, I would never wish her to be a slave to the Beast. Who knew what they would do to her? No, that was wrong. I knew what horrible things they could do to her. My blood started boiling at the mere thought of it.
"Marriage," the old advisor of the King, Atticus said as if relieved. "The King offered a matrimonial solution and they agreed, which is good as this will preserve our Kingdom's name, at the very least. If the rest of the countries found out we have sold a Princess to the Beast, we would have lost our respect."
That old man always pissed me off. Here, my sister had to face the horrors only a woman can imagine and he was talking about the country's reputation.
"But that is just the exterior, the marriage. We all know they would take a human only as their servant. Father, you can not do that!" I protested.
"Then what am I supposed to do? Die and give them my kingdom on a silver platter? With my Prince's head perhaps?" The King shouted with disgust. "That would please you, would that not, Esmeray?"
Of course, he would take his frustration out on me as if I were at fault here.
"I did not say that, Father," I closed my eyes in order to compose my voice. "I only think this is unfair to Leono–"
I looked over at my sister, about to fight for her, fight for the unfairness of this situation, when I saw her small smirk. The words died in my throat because there was no way my sister would smile in a situation like this, let alone smirk. And I knew that smirk, it was the same smirk she had given to me on countless occasions. For example, when she pushed my head into the water of our bathhouse, when she tried to make me blind by giving me a poisonous flower tea, and when she bribed three muscular square boys to scar me just because someone called me beautiful in front of her. But why was she smiling now? What had she done now? How could she have turned this on me –?
And that was when it clicked. I got my answers even before the Queen opened her mouth. I already knew. I already guessed what they were about to do.
"It is not Leonora, Esmeray," the Queen, my mother, said calmly. "It is you. We have decided you will be given to the Beast."
Silence.
Everyone silently stared at me for my reaction and I stared at my mother, not exactly shocked by their decision but surprised at the way my mother decided to phrase it and the fact that there was no emotion on her face. Not sad, not angry, not even regret for what she said and what they decided. She looked at it as if to say 'It is what it is'. Then I briefly glanced at the General's son, he looked battered from the war just like me but his eyes remained trained on the floor, he did not meet my gaze.
I wanted to scream, to yell 'No' in their arrogant faces but I knew from experience that would not work with them, so I simply tried to remain logical no matter how ridiculous the situation seemed to me.
"You said they asked for the most beautiful princess," I said turning to my father. My voice was steady but I knew they could feel the underlying anger in it.
Some scholars claim beauty might be subjective, as a person looks at another and decides whether they are beautiful or not to them. However, in this case, it would not be true since my sister made sure that I was no competition to her beauty.
"Yes, they did," the King answered grimly. "But I can not give them a princess who is already betrothed or married."
I could not help but frown. Yes, many, many suitors had tried winning my sister's affection and hand in marriage but none of them succeeded. She always got bored with them within one or two weeks. So, I knew it was just an excuse for my parents to save my sister.
"To whom? She was not betrothed yesterday," I said crossing my arms and slightly wincing. I had a fresh wound on the back of my left shoulder from fighting, which I completely forgot about until now. Fortunately, or unfortunately, nobody noticed my wince or the wound.
"She is today!" the King said loudly. "Now stop whining and serve your Kingdom and the crown. Do your duty to your homeland."
I clenched my fist so tight that my fingers dug into my palm and it took everything in me not to yell back at my father's face. If they wanted to play this game, then I would do the very same.
"No," I said, gritting my teeth so hard that it hurt. "I am in love with another and somewhat betrothed as well."
The reaction was immediate. The King, the Prince, the Princess, and the old advisor all yelled at the same time.
"What?" The King stood up, almost forcefully knocking back his chair.
"No, you are not!" My sister shouted.
"You are lying!" Yelled my brother.
"Good Heavens! Save us!" Atticus, the old advisor, exclaimed, looking up at the ceiling.
"To whom exactly?" the Queen asked quietly before anyone could say anything more. "And I hope you do realise that betrothed means he will be ready to marry you. Considering the current situation, he has to marry you right now. So do you really have someone like that?"
"Of –" I looked over at the General's son again but he still did not look up, which hurt like hell, but I knew I could not show weakness like him. Not now. Not ever. So, I turned the question to my sister instead. "Does she? Does she have someone who will marry her right now?"
"I do," Leonora smiled extra sweetly and started walking. "I am so lucky that I do. I am going to marry Arthur."
Leonora stopped beside the General's son, Arthur. My Arthur. The man, who woke up in my bed this morning, kissed me before we went to defend our kingdom. The man I was in love with for five years.
"Arthur confessed his undying love for me as soon as he realised, I might be given to the Beast. Father and Mother immediately agreed that this would be the perfect way to save their precious daughter. We would be married today. Right now. It is rather romantic, is it not, sister?" Leonora giggled looking at me.
That little two-faced lying snake giggled at me. My hand itched; I wanted to slap her. I wanted to slap her so hard that six or seven of her teeth would fall out and I knew I had the strength to do so. But then I looked at Arthur again, who was now looking at Leonora with a small smile. However, as soon as he saw me looking at him, he ducked his head again and that was when it happened. The realisation hit me like a sword thrust into my heart. Leonora was not lying, this was not just a ploy of parents to save her. Arthur was not forced into this. He did it because he wanted to. He betrayed me willingly.
I threw my head back and laughed. Like a maniac.
All of them stared at me, bewildered.
"Has she finally gone mad?" the old advisor muttered under his breath.
But I did not care anymore. I simply did not care.
Not a single person in this room cared about me. So what was the point of being logical or rational anymore, if they really had decided that I would be the pig to slaughter?
"Oh, I can imagine how romantic it was, sister," I said between my laughs. "When he proposed to you, he must have looked as eager as he did in my bed last night."
"ESMERAY!" My father yelled, marching towards me.
The Queen looked disgusted, my sister's face twisted in anger, my brother looked shocked, and the advisor and the general both turned to look at Arthur.
"She is lying!" Yelled my beloved Arthur to the stunned people in the room.
However, before I could point out that I was not lying in the slightest, my father's hand landed across my cheek. The King was not the strongest soldier in our kingdom, but he was strong. Thus, it was no surprise that a slap with his rage-filled force would not only knock the breath out of me but also make me spit up blood. I stumbled backwards holding my cheek and was sure my father's hand was imprinted on my cheek with angry red marks.
The room went absolutely silent again. The only sound was my father breathing heavily and me coughing up blood.
"You were always our greatest disappointment, however, I never took you to be vulgar as well!" My father said seething. "I see you have grown to be a woman with no-character, you deserve to be slaved by the Beast. The home of those monsters would be the right place for you, you do not deserve to carry out our family's name or this Kingdom's."
My father's words had a similar effect on me as the slap, but I straightened up and faced him.
"What if I say no?" I said looking straight into my father's eyes.
"Then the rest of our kingdom burns," My mother replied as if challenging me to say no.
"They might spare our people, but they will kill us first," My brother said quietly, shivering.
Both of our parents turned to him sharply, they did not want me to know this.
"So I am sacrificing myself for you all?" I said bitterly. "Not the kingdom."
"You will sacrifice yourself for this kingdom," The Queen finally raised her voice slightly. "Because if you say no, I will burn down this Kingdom myself before it can fall under the monster's rule."
I stared at my mother because she did not just threaten her entire Kingdom. But she did. Everyone else looked equally terrified of her. Because everyone in that room knew she was not threatening. No, my mother did not threaten, she promised. The proud Queen would kill each and every person in this Kingdom if that is what it took to save her legacy from being tainted by those monsters.
The last of my protest died in my throat. As much as I hated my family, my Kingdom came first. It always did. Atrofall, my Kingdom was the reason I was fighting with literal monsters today and if I had to marry one of those monsters, just to save my people, then I would have to do it.
"That is what I thought," My mother smiled satisfied with my submission. She turned to the door and called out. "Guards!"
Immediately, two of the armed royal guards marched inside and bowed.
"Take Princess Esmeray to her room to get ready and bring her to the Royal garden as soon as she is done," The queen ordered. "Make sure she does not run away."
The guards looked surprised just for a moment, but they quickly recovered and stood on each side of me.
"There was no need for that, Mother," I said giving her a bitter smile. "I can not escape, you made sure of that. I will marry the Beast."
[To be continued]