The Blood Pact Ch. 37

Lord Ruvano returned to his chambers to find me wearing the cream-colored gowns of the Virgin Priestess. He paused upon seeing the mess which surrounded me, but only for a moment. In the radiance of the rose window behind me, I stood like a resplendent goddess, unmoving at the heart of a tempest.

Surrounded by a small handful of his best men, the spymaster -- soon to be king -- strode right up to me. I had to fight to keep a scowl from my face. Oh, how I hated this man.

The guards stayed by his side as he moved, a bristling cloud of armored bodies always between him and any potential danger, even here in his own chambers. Of course, these chambers had proven permeable enough to all manner of intrusion in the past, and their current state didn't exactly make them appear any less threatening. Their hands all rested on their sword hilts, their eyes vigilant for signs of danger. They all knew Lord Ruvano was not the popular choice for the crown so danger could be coming from anywhere -- even within the presence of this seemingly banal woman dressed in the gowns of a priestess.

Lord Ruvano stopped before me and smiled one of those oily, condescending smiles he was so found of throwing around. He stoked my chin with the back of his hand, saying, "You're flushed. But then I can see you've redecorated a bit."

I said nothing, merely kept my expression as flat as a carven statue. I'd already waited long enough for the right moment, I could bide my time a little longer. When everything was right, nothing would be able to stop me.

His finger slipped beneath the collar of the gown and lifted it teasingly away. It would be just like him to fuck the "Virgin" Priestess mere moments before the ceremony and leave her standing up there on the chapel dais throughout the whole coronation ceremony with his seed dripping down the inside of her legs.

"It's a shame you have to cover your body with all this. Maybe we should remove some of these layers..."

As much as I disliked the costume, its many different layers would serve me well for the occasion. Rather than slap his hand away and risk reprisals from his tightly-wound guards, I merely stood my ground.

"You yourself said we have to maintain appearances for an event this prestigious," I said. "Besides, would you really want everyone in attendance seeing beneath these gowns? With the king gone, what's under them can now be for your eyes only."

"Indeed!" With a sharp slap on my ass, he turned to leave, his guard enveloping him once again. "The clerics will ensure you know your role. Play it well, and you'll have naught to worry about the rest of your days."

Was that a threat, or a promise of leisure? No matter. I knew my course, and nothing he could say or do would stay me from it.

A small gaggle of clerics in their white robes shuffled out of Lord Ruvano's way as he exited. They all looked like they'd rather be doing just about anything else at the moment, fidgeting and quivering in their boots as they bowed and shuffled restlessly. They took me away into back rooms of the chapel only they and a select few others had ever seen. The lead cleric was a jittery man with a white ring of hair around the edge of his head who didn't ever stand as tall as my shoulder. Repeatedly and in a high-pitched voice that dripped with apprehension, he instructed me as to what my duties would be in the coming ceremony until he was certain I could handle it without error. However, it seemed as though I had very little to do besides stepping forward at the right moment, extending my hand over the crown, and reciting a simple prayer.

They must have doubted my abilities regardless, because when the ceremony got underway, I was assigned a layperson to ensure I ended up standing in the right place throughout all the preliminary decrees and invocations. It was surprisingly easy for me to stand stark still while the boring parts of the coronation stretched on and on. Perhaps it was my imagination, but the enthusiasm of the gathered nobles did not seem nearly as great in their participation for Lord Ruvano as it had for Lord Rosenthal. Clearly he'd twisted some arms and leveraged quite a few of the secrets he'd gathered in order to force them all into this.

When the crown was finally brought out to be placed upon Lord Ruvano's head, forever anointing him as sovereign king of the realm, the lead cleric had to stand on a gilded box at Lord Ruvano's left shoulder in order to raise it high enough. I would not have been one bit surprised if he'd also been standing on tiptoes beneath the dragging hem of his ceremonial robes. Even watching the scene with a sense of cold detachment, I still found myself holding my breath as I watched the crown being held over Lord Ruvano's head in preparation for the virgin's blessing.

One of the other clerics, standing unseen at the side of the dais, then began intoning a lengthy prayer that was my cue to start forward. I'd been told by every sweating cleric beforehand that I was to moderate my step so that I arrived at Lord Ruvano's right shoulder with hand extended above the crown just as the prayer ended so that I could then begin my own.

As I strode regally across the lush red carpets, I came into the light of the windows behind the altar just as the cleric's prayer reached its high point. My cream-colored gown seemed to come alight, transforming me from a mere whore into an angelic vision. The proper placement of the players in regard to the light coming in through the windows was probably the only reason for the strict starting times of the ceremony.

As I approached Lord Ruvano, my pace quickened by a hairsbreadth. I hoped no one noticed.

I extended my hands as I had been told to do. With Lord Ruvano's back to me as he faced the crowd, I could only imagine the smug, conniving expression he wore.

I would put this off no longer. As he himself had said, we made our own fates by seizing those opportunities that come our way. This was mine.

Instead of placing my hands above the crown, I instead reached into my robes. As I drew forth my blood dagger, the gowns flew open. Underneath, I was wearing Nikelle's Blood Dagger uniform, the black and red of it standing out starkly against the glowing white robes which flared out behind me. I felt the barb of the dagger pierce my skin and the cold numbness as it greedily sucked on my lifeblood.

Everything happened so quickly, no one had a chance to stop me. They didn't even have a chance to warn Lord Ruvano about what was happening right behind him. I thrust the dagger into his back, parting his ribs and piercing his heart with a single blow. I felt his warm blood wash over my hands and saw a spray of red over his shoulder as the blade exited through the front of chest. A convulsive tremor ripped through his body. I could only wonder what his expression was now.

His suddenly limb body fell off my blade and crashed face-first to the steps of dais, sliding to the bottom before coming to a stop. The gathered nobles appeared to be in shock, none of them able to believe what they'd just seen. Even the head cleric stood frozen in place, his eyes wide as saucers as he still held the crown aloft. Lord Ruvano's body remained motionless, a rapidly widening pool of blood forming under him on the stone floor of the chapel.

My captor, my tormentor: dead at last.

Now I suppose it was my turn.

With Lord Ruvano's blood still dripping from my blade, I stepped forward to confront my fate. I was prepared to feel the sting of the guards swords as they cut me down, to be thrown in a dungeon, raped, tortured, and ultimately executed in the most vile manner they could imagine. I'd had enough of this life. I'd avenged Nikelle. There was nothing left for me to do.

Terror of all terrors in the head cleric's eyes, and shaking like he'd just come in from a blizzard in nothing but his smallclothes, he must have thought he was going to be joining Lord Ruvano any moment. Without warning, he dropped the crown he still held onto MY head and backed away with a jerky bow.

"A-a-all hail Queen Stephanie!"

"What the --!" If he had been confused by my sudden actions, I was even more so by his. This must have been his befuddled attempt to save himself. "No, you idiot, I'm not going to hurt you! And I don't want this bloody crown either!"

I went to snatch it off my head and cast it aside, but catching sight of the nobles staring up at me, I froze. Delphina and her husband were near the foot of the steps, looking just as shocked as the rest. In that moment, I was a stranger in their eyes. It almost made a tear come to my eye. I'd insisted from the beginning that I was not a killer, but here at the end, I'd cut down Lord Ruvano in cold blood for the entire royal court to see. Just who the hell was I anymore?

Standing at their side, however, Fildrich's surprise quickly turned to bemusement.

"All hail Queen Stephanie!" he said, kneeling with an impish smile on his face.

What was that fool doing? This was no time for his stupid jokes!

However, as I stood at the head of the dais, a bloody knife in my hand, the crown of the kingdom on my head, the blood splattered gowns of the Virgin Priestess hanging from my shoulders, and wearing the uniform of the Blood Daggers, it was now my turn to stare dumbfounded. All of the nobles dropped to their knees in an elegantly cascading wave as they rose up their voices proclaiming their loyalty to me, their queen.

"All Hail Queen Stephanie! Long Live the Queen!"

They must have thought it was a coup; my own attempt to wrest the crown away from Lord Ruvano for myself. Those bloody fools.

"Stop it! I'm not your fucking queen. I don't ..."

My pleas were drowned out by their encouraging cheers. They must have been mad, utterly and completely insane. Why would they even want me as their queen? Words failed me entirely. I didn't know what to do. Even when I was able to follow a path of my own choosing, fate found a way to interfere. I had been ready to die but I couldn't even be granted that. Was I forever to be nothing more than a mere puppet dancing on fate's strings?

To Be Concluded...