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Chapter 12
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Helena watched in a daze as Demeus spoke to the woman in hushed tones. Her palms grew wet and clammy and she could swear that sweat was pouring from her forehead causing her hair to plaster itself against her skin. The innkeeper glanced in her direction once and nodded then turned back to Demeus. She watched as the innkeeper pocketed the coins Demeus had dropped on the table and took a key from the board behind her. She handed the key to Demeus and tilted her head in the direction of the stairs leading to the rooms.
“The rooms are up there,” she said in Eyrotian language.
Helena feared that her heartbeat would be heard because it was so loud she could practically hear the beat of blood in her ears. How was she to quietly tell him that she could not share a room with him, not just because she was married and had a child but because she couldn’t trust herself not to act on the strange attraction she felt towards this man. But he was a fisherman and fishermen were not wealthy people, maybe he only had enough money to pay for one room. If that were the case then it meant she had to restrain herself from thinking too much about him and what she felt from him.
“Helena?”
She suddenly realized that he had been calling her name and there was a crease on his brow as he gazed at her with concern. How long had she been lost in her thoughts for him to be so concerned? She plastered a smile on her lips.
“Yes?”
“I said we should find the room.”
“Certainly,” she responded with a forced laugh. She stepped back and let him lead the way. She could barely think as thoughts of the both of them sharing one room occupied her mind. She swallowed hard as they came to the floor that held the rooms. She watched as he checked each door they passed until they stopped at one in which he slipped the key the innkeeper had given him. There was a click and he pushed the door open to reveal a small dark room with worn but beat curtains, a small bed (how were they to sleep on that?), a washbasin, and a small corner that was supposed to serve as a dressing room.
Demeus held the door open and stepped back. “In you go.”
Helena nodded and stretched her lips into a smile before stepping past him into the room. Was he going to come behind her to strip her clothes off of her now? Kiss her neck and cup her breasts from behind?
The door creaked and she turned around sharply to protest but stopped short when she saw that he hadn’t entered the room, instead he was closing the door behind her.
“Are…are you not coming in?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“No, I figured you would want your privacy. I don’t suppose your father would be happy to know you spent the night with a strange man.” All the while they spoke in the Eyrotian language.
Helena didn’t know whether to be relieved by his concern and integrity or to be disappointed that he wasn’t ravishing her at the moment. She supposed that she was glad to know he hadn’t thought about renting a room for them to stay together but why did some part of her feel strangely unhappy? And where would he sleep since she had seen him collect just one key?
“What about you?” she asked.
“I have a place to stay in the village.”
Oh right! How had she forgotten he was from Eyrotia and therefore would have a home here since this was his homeland? She felt embarrassed at her forgetfulness but covered it up with a nonchalant shrug.
“Okay.”
“I will leave instructions for the innkeeper downstairs to cater to your needs. If you need anything, anything at all tell her, okay?”
She tried not to get drowned inside the strength of the gray storm of his eyes and nodded.
Demeus almost did not want to turn around and leave but he did. He closed the door and walked down the steps. If he didn’t know better he would have thought he saw disappointment in Helena’s eyes when she realized they would not be using the room together. Had she been hoping that they would sleep there together? Had she wanted that? Why was the woman so damn difficult to understand? He had told her he had a place to stay but that had been a lie, he was going to Banjo’s home to stay and if Likia so much as mentioned Helena he would take his god form and to his throne in Eyrotian pantheon to escape the woman’s shenanigans.
He sighed inwardly. Well, he had done the right thing by renting the room for her. It had been necessary for both of them, he didn’t want her father charging at him with a dagger because he could not keep his hands off his daughter so this was the best way to ensure that they never happened. And he would make sure that throughout her stay at Eyrotia, however long she needed to enjoy seeing the kingdom, he would keep his hands away from her.
That night while Helena was nursing a dinner of roasted bird, vegetables, a yellowish stuff that the maid had called cornmeal which had turned out to be surprisingly delicious, with bitter wine, she received some clothes from the innkeeper who said the clothes were a present from Likia, Banjo’s wife. No doubt Banjo must have told his wife about her arrival. But the clothes the woman send left nothing to the imagination if she could even fit into them after her huge dinner.
Helena thanked the innkeeper and folded the clothes on a small table she found in the small dressing room.
Early the next after skillfully escaping Likia’s questions about Helena, Demeus made his way towards the inn hoping Helena was well rested and ready for their first day of sightseeing Eyrotia.
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“The dress is not tight, my lady, you’re wearing it the wrong way.” Helena raised an eyebrow at the maid the innkeeper had sent to help her dress. The maid came forward and unbuckled the hooks holding the dress up, she helped Helena locate where to put her hands then buckled it up for her. It was a dark red tunic that stopped at her sandaled feet, over the thick material was a veil of see-through silk that had blew gently in the wind. “You will need this.” The maid pulled a veil from the bundle of clothes Likia had sent to her. She pinned Helena’s hair up and attached the veil to it before wrapping round. “Have you done this before?” Helena asked. The maid giggled. “Yes, my lady, I have taken care of many merchants' daughters. They always love my services.” She brought the mirror from the dressing room and handed it to Helena. Helena gawked at the image she saw. The only time she had ever looked this good was during her wedding feast with Robos. The m
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For the millionth time, Demeus squeezed his hands by his side. If the jeweler’s son’s hand touches Helena’s skin anymore under the guise of fastening a jewel piece on her neck or wrist he may be forced to throttle him. And the smile on Helena’s lips gritted his nerve. Why wasn’t she smiling at him like that? She only ever seemed to argue with him and when she wasn’t arguing she was silent and her silence was even worse than her arguments. But with this jeweler’s son, she seemed to be at ease and they were conversing smoothly. “Try this one on,” the jeweler said to her while holding up a nice piece of bracelet with ruby stones encrusted in the silver chain. The ruby stones were the same color as her hair. “This will look beautiful on you,” he said. Demeus had to agree with him. He could already envision the look of the bracelet on Helena’s pale skin. “Bring your hand, my lady, let me help you.” “Let me do it.” It was Demeus who spoke to the surprise of everyone since
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Neither Helena nor Demeus spoke as they headed back to the inn. Torlan had departed from them long ago to drink at a tavern. Demeus suspected that his reason for leaving them was beyond his need to fulfill his love for drinking and whoring. He could sense that both Helena and Demeus needed a moment to shake off the shock of being attacked. For Helena, it was her first time experiencing such from mere mortals. For Demeus it was not his first time being attacked since he often disguised himself as a human but he could sense from Helena’s sullen countenance that she was shaken from the experience. As they walked in silence in the busy streets of Eyrotia with the traders calling to people to buy their wares and drunken men falling over one another in the dying light of the day Demeus cast concerned glances towards her. After a while, he pulled her close and draped his arm around her shoulder. She looked up at him with bright blue eyes and smiled. She was extremely grateful for h
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Cursed by the Gods: Rise of Phoenix Author note
So I didn't want to make this book long. I hate writing long books! So I have decided to stop Phoenix' story here. Book 3 will be coming out soon but it might take a while because I am literally exhausted. I know there are a lot of lose ends in both Phoenix and Cleopoda's books but those lose ends will be tied in the third book since that's the final book in the series. I really feel like hiring a ghostwriter at this point because my arms and creative juices are screaming for help. Hehe. But I'll write the third book soon. Till then...adios
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The crowd of people watched withdrawn breathes as Goyre mounted the podium. Basten was on his knees on the podium facing the crowd. At the edge of the execution field, his mother cried and wailed, pleading with the goddess. “My son is innocent!” She cried. “He was bewitched by the cursed princess.” Rudo held her back, his eyes blazing with hate for Merea. How did he let himself become manipulated in her web of lies and deceit in her eagerness to assume the most powerful seat of Eyrotia? How he was sacrificing his son because she declared him an obstacle to her plans. He remembered her words. “Sacrifices need to be made.” He was paying the biggest price for being on her side. Goyre fashioned a sword from her metal gown and held it over Basten’s head. She looked at the crowd gathered. “This is a lesson to everyone who stands against queen Merea. And to anyone who chooses to betray me.” She raised the sword, it caught the sun on its shiny surface. As she
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“What do you mean my son is arrested for treason?!” Rudo demanded. Merea walked away from him. She had ordered the guards to throw Basten and Phoenix in the dungeon and sent some other soldiers out to look for Teo, Dan and Styx. Rudo hastened his footsteps to match hers. “It pains me to say this but your son was found with Barigo’s precious daughter,” she spat with malice. “And it seems that she has bewitched your son like she did the king. They were planning to disband from the army, it may also please you to know that it is rumored that Phoenix and her band of friends seek to overthrow the king and install her as queen even before his demise.” “Does the king know about this?” Merea stopped walking, turned to him and smiled. “He does, and he has given me the freedom to do as I like with them. The king is on my side, are you Rudo?” He looked down at the ring she twisted between her thumb and index finger. He understood her question, in fact, h
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She was served food and wine but she could barely eat a bite, not when her hands and feet were bound. And she couldn’t have stomached any food if she tried. Not when she kept thinking about Uruel’s betrayal. Was this his plan all along? To lure the soldiers of Eyrotia out so that he could easily conquer the nation? Was the marriage announcement just a farce? Were the men of Eyrotia dead already? Basten? Teo and Dan? Styx? “You have not eaten your majesty, you must be hungry after my men hauled you from Uromi.” “Where am I?” The spokesman for the men, the one who had first spoken to her where she was taken to the room, replied her. “Your mistrust of us is very disheartening, your highness, considering the fact that we are your soon-to-be subjects. You are in safe hands, we have orders to keep you safe and well-fed, if anything happens to you we will be killed.” “Something will happen to me if someone doesn’t explain what is going on here,” she said thr
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She fought against the stronghold on her hands. Something was sliding along her legs, soon she felt something stronger hold her legs and hands together. How had she or any of the other soldiers lost guard? They were supposed to have at least sensed the invaders! One moment she was looking at the bodies of the soldiers tied upside down and the next moment a strong hand was clamped so tight around her mouth that her screams were stifled. She saw with horror the ruthlessness of the invaders, how easy it was for them to slit the throats of the men nearest her. When they dragged her away she couldn’t see Basten or Teo and Dan but the men of Eyrotia were already aware of the attack at this moment and were fighting back. None of them even knew that she had been dragged off. After all, she wasn’t of any importance to the army or any of the men there. Would Basten know she was missing? Was he dead? Dread seized her heart at the horrifying thought. Suddenly the men’s transport
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The cry of anguish rang throughout the entire kingdom. It was barely dawn when the disaster struck. The outer villages were burnt down to the ground. Men, women, children and animals, were all killed. More than that, the soldiers who had been stationed in Uromi to occupy the land for the king were killed. A messenger came running in the early hours of the morning, bloody and tattered on a tired horse. He told a sickening tale of slaughtered men. According to his accounts, the men were sleeping when a group of men dressed in clothes as dark as the night showed up and quietly slit the throats of the soldiers of Eyrotia. He had seen this on his way back from the woods where he went to relieve himself. The attacks on the outer villages were described in the same way; men dressed in black snuck in and killed everyone before burning the villages completely. “Who could have done this?” was the question on the lips of everyone. “It could be the men of Uromi seeking to take r
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Phoenix stared up at the elegantly carved ceiling. There was a cold cloth pressed to her head. The servant taking care of her worked silently as she pressed the wet cloth against her forehead, returned it to the bowl of ice-cold water to wet it again but to Phoenix it felt as though every move she made was amplified by some strange powers in a hundred folds. The image of Uruel standing in the room donned in his armor after the brilliant light he had caused dimmed was imprinted in her memory. She remembered how her breath completely stopped from the shocks of one night. What was Uruel doing here and why had the king said he had intentions of marrying her? Surely there must be some sort of mistake, she thought. She started to rise but the maid held her down gently. “You must stay down, princess.” The word Princess was beginning to grit her nerves! She didn’t want to stay down, she wanted to stand up and find answers to the sudden events. “What time is i
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Two days later it was announced that the king was throwing a huge feast to celebrate the capture of Uromi. In their honor a two-week celebration was announced, the celebration of the festival of Fists which was supposed to be at the near end of the year was moved up to honor their bravery. There was much to be done, a lot of preparations to be made but first, there was something important going on in the royal house. The third day after the soldiers returned Barigo invited the nobles for a small celebratory dinner and a special announcement. Phoenix dressed in the white gown trimmed with red thread at the hem Goyre had gifted her with along with the one of hold thread hemming the edge and the white slippers which she wore Patry had given her when she left the pantheon. The bright color of the dress set off the color of her eyes and hair. She was securing her veil over her hair which she packed high on her head when the door to her room opened. She turned arou
