The Contest Ch. 17

Why was everything slowly rocking? It wasn't doing anything good for her head and stomach. Her eyes were itchy. She thought to rub them.

She couldn't. Something was blocking the movement.

Her eyes opened.

Wooden, creaking, a ceiling that felt rustic. There was an unfamiliar aroma in the air. Rellenora was reminded of a time when she had to go with her husband to a harbor. The ocean? Is that what that salty smell was?

She found that she couldn't move her arms and legs. Leather restraints kept her in place. The surface beneath her body felt like a mattress.

"Are you awake, pretty little Empress?"

The voice was wholly unknown to her. All she knew was that it was a man. So, she put her voice to the ceiling. "Who?"

"Who? Do you mean who am I? I'm the Captain of this ship. You're in my cabin."

Rellenora's eyes bulged. She licked her lower lip. Her finger's joints popped. "Why?"

"Because I can smell the magic in you." Footsteps on one side, so loud that Rellenora felt them in her belly and bosom.

Wait. She was naked. Why?!

A tear came. It glided down her cheek.

A man came into her vision. Asymmetrical Majustan clothing on a torso, long arms with white hands and dark silver fingernails. Long black hair braided to one side.

He sort of ... looked like Antonai.

When her eyes went to his face, they knocked away. She turned her head to one side. There were some nice furniture around. Too bad the walls were dull, only dry wooden paneling was there for her.

Her hair felt like it was in a high topknot. Where were her clothes?

Wait. Wait.

Her heart went off like fireworks.

Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait the fuck a minute?!

Why wasn't her brain so slow?!

Why could she understand him so quickly?!

And how did he know about her magic?!

"Are you wondering why your brain is working quicker than normal?" His accent was a bit scratchy. "It's because of a contract your father made with me. I couldn't remove your odd condition, but I could put a slender improvement there."

"Contract?"

He ... actually ... touched her cheek with the smooth tops of his fingernails! Rellenora trembled from her face all the way to her toes.

"He was reluctant, so I gave him time and a little comb of wood." He let his fingertips slide down her neck. Rellenora hated it almost as much as she hated his voice. "I told him that when the comb is broken in half, you will be sent to me, and your brain will be better."

Her father ...? He ...

The memory of her father's old hands making gestures after he had given her that comb ...

Did he ... did he want her to break the comb? Why didn't he just break it on his own? Was he that weak?!

Damn it! The only reason she had ever loved that comb was because it was from her homeland. Now that she had lost most of her fondness for that place, now that she was content in her marriage and her life in Zenthia, she had broken the comb because it didn't matter anymore. Her family didn't matter. Her old homeland didn't matter. Zenthia was her home. Zenthia was where Yban and Antonai lived, where they kept her happy and loved.

All this time ... that comb was something else?!

"Now, Your Majesty, I think it would be best if you tell me exactly what sort of magic you have. I need to know so I can understand how we can use it."

Use it? Use it?! No! It was hers to use! Hers! Nobody else's!

Rellenora pulled on her bonds and screamed.

***

The two pieces of the wooden comb were balanced on the palm of King Weiheng. The man stood in the middle of a library in the Empress Dowager's palace. The Emperor and his Royal Adviser were seated nearby, listening to the king.

"There are traces of magic here, and I recognize the scent." He had rather heavily sniffed the wood a few moments before. "This came from my eldest child."

Yban slapped an armrest of the chair he sat in. "What are we waiting for, then?! Take us to your kingdom!"

This fingers folding over the broken comb, the king shook his head. "I can travel nearly anywhere within moments, but I can't take people with me, only some objects." He put the comb's pieces inside a pocket of his. "You'd have to take a ship. Even so, my son is almost never home. He's left for months and months at a time. I had to name his younger sister the Royal Heir because of his absences."

"Then I'll go to your castle and wait," Antonai said as he bent down and gripped his own thigh. His eyes were bloodshot. His hair was unruly. "He has to come home one day."

Weiheng shook his head again. "You'd lose in a fight. His magic is different from mine, deadlier. Don't turn your son into an orphan."

For a change, Yban was the one who broke something. He slapped a tall but delicate statue and forced it to the floor, where it cracked and fell apart, making a loud and unpleasant noise. He stood up and hollered to the king, "Are we meant to wait around like fools while the Empress is held captive?!"

Kicking a chunk of the statue away, Weiheng said, "You should wait for me to find a way to deal with him. First, I need a way to nullify his magic so he won't be a threat. Second, I need a way to locate him. He's never where he says he'll be. Third, when we know where he is, we'll need a strategy on how to rescue the Empress." His eyes were sad when he turned to look at Antonai. "I'm going on a quest to find everything I need to create the spells. You must remain here and hold your friends and family close."

He turned into shadow then. He didn't even say goodbye.

***

Inside the office of the king of Ribenji, on a windy night that shook the windows, King Weiheng quickly introduced himself and showed off a jade pendant shaped like a white dragon. It had been given to him by the Emperor of Zenthia. He explained that the Empress herself was in danger, and he needed a few things in order to craft spells for rescuing her.

"I need grape wine that has been pressed by the feet of a child between the ages of twelve and fourteen, enough to fill a single cup of tea, any grape will do as long as the grape is native to this area. Don't worry about the taste. Also, I will need a bolt of silk fabric woven by your queen, completely unmarked and not dyed, originating from a native silkworm."

These processes would take a month to complete, but there was nothing to do for that. So, after his request had been accepted, Weiheng hurried to Udin. Once there, he asked the king for a natural black pearl that weighed at least one grain and came from a mollusk in the least populated beach in Udin. The king just happened to have that. So, he handed it to Weiheng. Then, with a pleased voice, he asked the king for a jug of blood from a wild Udin boar, adult and male. That request could take a few days, a few weeks, or even longer. Weiheng knew he'd have to check in every few days.

Finally, King Weiheng appeared in Henrill and asked the queen there for two things. First, he asked for a simple ring of gold that had been mined from Henrill's land. Second, he asked for a lock of the queen's hair. These things didn't take long at all to get a hold of.

Weiheng then hid in his castle, inside his little office. He cut a lock of his own hair away and put it in a small box, planning on using his hair for the magic later.

An idea came to him, an idea that might make the spells stronger. He rushed over to the Majustan seas and filled a flask with the water there.

Reality was unforgiving. Time had to pass on without the Empress being rescued.

Exactly what his son was doing with that woman, Weiheng couldn't rightly say. He hardly knew the young man.

***

Mujun Yu.

That's what he said his name was.

Rellenora learned to hate the name almost as much as she hated him.

When she wasn't strapped to a bed, she was kept attached to a wall via a loose chain. She wanted to go the only window in the cabin, open it up, and look for birds, but that wasn't possible. The chain wasn't long enough.

She was given filling but unpleasant food, dry and thick. Her most hated meal consisted of chalky disks of cooked flour, salty and shriveled meat, and some flavorless cheese.

During the day, every few hours, a cabin boy would show up, his tanned face darkening from embarrassment. He'd replace her chamber pot with a clean one, planning to empty and wash the used one at a later time. He'd take away her dishes, straighten up the room, and make sure the Empress wasn't dead.

During the night, there were gruesome events.

Terrible events.

Rellenora had vomited on several occasions. That Mujun Yu would wipe her clean and ...

Continue.

Manipulating her body as if he had every right to.

She had to close her eyes because the sight of his cock sinking into her was too much for her mind.

"Why don't you tell me? Go on. Tell me a little bit about your magic. You'll feel so much better if you do. Give me a word, a noun or a verb. I know you can't make a full sentence. I only want a hint."

As if she actually wanted to cum!

She didn't. She wanted the assaults to stop. She wanted to go home. She wanted to stop weeping and screaming.

She wanted to ram a long hairpin into his eye.

"A child of ours would be magnificent, a perfect sorcerer! Imagine the might our family could wield!"

Mujun didn't care about her family in Zenthia, didn't care that she was married and had another man's child ...

Damn, she missed Ermen. The soft scent of soaps and powders against his warm skin. The feeling of his jumpy little feet against her motherly kisses. The sounds of his silly little gurgles and breaths.

Even his urgent shrieking. Even that.

If it meant that his work on her brain was reversed, if it meant that she would be slow again, then Rellenora knew she would gratefully return home in an instant. She'd even give up her ability to understand any spoken word in any way, as long as she could go home.

But how could she go home? She was isolated.

Was she trapped forever?

And even if she could go home, even if Yban and Antonai held her close, would she turn to her husband, remember the abuse by the man who looked so much like him, and recoil in pure fear? Would she try to hide in Yban's arms, no doubt making everyone feel uncomfortable?

Would she look at her own child, with his black hair and white tail, his silver fingernails and white skin, and would she grow to hate him? Would her heart turn on him too?

Just ... how much damage was being done to her?!

But now matter how much abuse she sustained, Rellenora refused to give Mujun any words that could lead to him understanding her magic. She didn't want to give him any more ways to use her, and she didn't want to let him have the satisfaction.

He ... tasted like ... fish and salt.

Horrible!

***

Two potions had been made. One was in a white cup. The other was in a black cup. The white cup held a thick black liquid. The black cup held a milky white. Both potions were lukewarm and kept on a desk near a window that let sunlight into the office.

King Weiheng poured some seawater out of his flask and into black cup. He didn't mix the two liquids together. Then, he lifted half of the now infamous broken comb and dipped it into the black cup as if he was softening a biscuit or cookie. The potion coated the wood like paint, only it didn't drip. He held the comb over his palm, and he flicked it.

A single drop, unnaturally produced, fell to his hand. It hardened into a glass marble with a white swirl in its center.

The king performed a similar action with the other half of the comb, dipping it in the black liquid in the white cup. His actions resulted in a opaque black marble, as lovely as black jade.

He believed he was required to help, even if it meant that his son would be killed. He believed that, as a father, he was responsible. He didn't raise that boy well enough. He didn't pound the correct morals into his head hard enough. And now, his son had likely done one of the worst things.

There was no way Weiheng would allow Antonai, or even Yban, to put themselves in danger. Absolutely not. They weren't responsible. Besides, they needed to look out for that baby prince.

No matter how much those two men angrily demanded to be informed once Weiheng had found Mujun.

But ... when he put the marble with the white swirl on top of a map of the known world ... when he saw a recognizable red dot appear ... Weiheng knew that he needed to change his mind.

Mujun was on the ocean.

He picked up the locating marble. The watched the white swirl slowly, oh so slowly, rotate inside the glass. The faster it spun, the closer it was to its target.

Weiheng couldn't get to that son on his own. He needed to get a few ships, which wouldn't be difficult. Still, that poor Empress might panic if and when the ship she was on was attacked. At least one person she knew should be available to comfort her.

Yban. Weiheng nodded to himself. Definitely Yban.

Antonai was too important, an Emperor with enemies, a father to a small child. He needed to be kept safe so that his heir could be kept safe.

***

It turned out that the Cloud Maiden was a pirate ship that Prince Mujun Yu had funded and was the captain of. He even put a spell on the vessel to have it look like it was in several places at once. That was a difficult spell to make. He probably had to use a shard of a mirror to stab a sailor inside the ship in order to put the magic in place. Well ... that was Weiheng's hypothesis.

One morning, he had multiple ships surrounding the Cloud Maiden. In order to keep Mujun from being able to use any magic, he kept the black marble up to five inches from the one with the white swirl. In order to keep this accomplished while still being able to view the swirl, Weiheng put the two marbles inside a tiny wire cage that was chained to his belt.

Canons were strategically fired. They wanted to damage the Cloud Maiden, but they didn't want it to sink. A very important person was inside and didn't need to drown ... or be knocked out or any other dangerous thing.

Soon, it was time to forcefully enter the Cloud Maiden ... which was not a metaphor for rape in any way. The opposite, when one thought about it.

While on a deck of a ship, Yban lunged at the first opportunity, but Weiheng put his arm out to stop the young man. They needed to wait for the sailors to have some time to attack the pirates, weakening them as one might say. Mujun wasn't able to perform any magic. So, he'd only have the abilities of any other man. Assuming that the Empress was his most prized cargo, he'd likely stay with her.

Yban's green eye grew crazed as he waited, digging his fingernails into a ladder of rope that he wasn't really planning on using. He only wanted to put his impatience and anger into something. His teeth seemed tight. His jaw seemed tighter.

As smoke filled the air, as flames raged on, Weiheng eventually heard Yban shout, "I'M GOING!!" Weiheng had to stop him again, putting his fingers in the younger man's curled locks and hurling him against the deck.

"WAIT UNTIL I GIVE MY PERMISSION!! DO YOU WANT TO TAKE RISKS WITH THAT WOMAN?!"

Rubbing his cheek as a chastised child might do, Yban got up to his feet and leaned against a railing.

But then ... he stilled, his muscles turning rigid. Even his loose trousers looked frozen.

"Hmm? What is it, Boy?!" Weiheng tried to search for something worthy of the anxiety, but the smoke made it difficult.

"Give me a spyglass!"

Weiheng handed him one and waited for him to find what was so interesting. After a few moments, he heard Yban call out, "She's there! Two men have her!" He returned the spyglass to Weiheng, who then used it to look where Yban pointed.

Off in the distance, on the Cloud Maiden's deck, Weiheng saw a small woman in a plain white robe with wild blonde curls all around. On each side of her, two armed men were providing an escort. Protecting the little blonde, they led her to an area with hanging rowboats. As they settled the woman to a boat, they made very telling hand signals.

Ah, looks like they didn't have to personally get onto the ship after all. His men found the Empress very quickly, and they were doing a wonderful job of keeping her out of the battle.

But, what about Mujun?

Weiheng's stomach soured and his fingers nearly broke the spyglass. He wasn't sure why.

As the rowboat was lowered down to the water, Weiheng gave Yban the spyglass and said he needed to go. He retreated into the darkest parts of the ship, and he let the shadows take him.

Within a few seconds, he was inside the Cloud Maiden, in one of the cabins. Avoiding the flustered and frightened pirates, he searched every room he could find.

Inside the biggest cabin, he found a bed with straps, a chain attached to a wall, and a Majustan man face down on the floor, in a puddle of blood.

Weiheng turned the body over.

Wounds ... the throat, the chest, the belly. His right hand was much bloodier than the other. There was an equally bloody knife nearby.

All those wounds seemed to be self-inflicted.

"I should have loved you." It was a coughing whisper. He put his hand over the corpse's cheek. Without even realizing he had any tears, he saw a few drop against the nose and lips of the dead son.

"I should have raised you. I shouldn't have put you aside."

A cough, a true cough. His body was hot and cold.

"If I ... if I had been your Papa instead of only your father ... you might not have become this. It's my fault."

There wasn't anyone or anything that could have convinced him otherwise.

***

Prince Mujun Yu had been planning to overthrow his father. He was in the process of funding his own private navy. Exactly why he had taken the Empress of Zenthia was mostly unknown ... mostly.

The moment Weiheng was close enough to smell the woman, he secretly figured it out. The Empress of Zenthia had magic in her. He chose not to tell anyone, because he believed that it shouldn't be a well known fact. Weiheng realized that Mujun had seen the Empress at some point, probably while she was still a princess, and smelled the magic. He wanted to do some magical breeding, which would put great power in his potential lineage.

And when he found out he was under attack and he couldn't use his own magic anymore, he released his prisoner and killed himself in one of the worst ways. Maybe he wanted to make sure that nobody would assume he was still alive so he could be given enough time to bleed out?

It didn't matter. He was dead.

And Weiheng had a corpse to burn.

***

On a chilly afternoon, Empress Rellenora was escorted inside the walled complex. Then Prince Yban walked the Empress to her private palace. She didn't look like an Empress. Her hair was wild. Her fingernails' lacquer was chipped to the point of almost not existing. Her body was hidden under a man's set of baggy clothing, gray and brown, with dirty patches sewn over holes. Her feet were inside wooden slippers that weren't a good size for her.

Her teeth were worrying over her lower lip.

Because all the trees had lost their leaves, which were dry and brown.

Once she was inside the White Jade Palace, she ignored all the nervous women's attempts at washing and grooming her. She stomped her feet and screamed, "Ermen?!"

The wet nurse, accompanied by a nanny, rushed to the Empress within a few minutes.

His little mouth hungrily taking in nourishment, the coddled Prince Ermen was fat and happy, his tail lazily curling and uncurling.

He was fat.

He was so fat!

Rellenora's knees gave out. Naeva was there, and she tried to help her mistress to her feet.

How long ... how long had she been gone! How much of her child's life had she missed?!