The Bastard Princess

87.

-HER-

I continued with my act while she carried me deeper into the ruins. I also made sure to look around to know where she was taking me, just in case I could master a chance to run. The patterns in the palace were eerily similar to the one in Zaeris.

I couldn't help but wonder where it actually was. Was it just some other place and I was just mistaking it to be somewhere else? But again, I had seen a full portrait of Arles hanging in one of the ballrooms. This place had to be related to him in some way.

Through the debris of the ruins, my mother carried me into what seemed like chambers where royals once lived. The place was entirely falling apart, making me wonder how safe it was to actually be there.

The ceiling and the walls were missing from several places. The snow entered the ruins from those places and so did the animals because I swore, I heard something purr in the distant.

"How are you feeling, my dear?" She asked me with utmost concern. It made me think if she would have shown this same level of concern if her greed wasn't involved in the cause. She definitely wouldn't have given a damn about me.

I was slowly starting to feel this resentment that I thought was long dead inside me. I felt this anger towards her. It was the strongest feeling I had experienced after love from Ares.

"No," I whimpered as I clung to her. She carried me deeper and deeper into the ruins, taking several turns here and there before we were finally in what seemed to be like a bedroom. What surprised me about it was that it was cleaner. It seemed like someone lived there. It definitely belonged to her.

She gently placed me on the bed, pulled some warm blankets over me and feeding some logs to the fire in the hearth before finally turning to me and asking, "What's happening to you, dear? Tell me,"

Her evil red eyes were now trained on me. Through the light that was entering the room through the window, I could now see the details of her eyes perfectly. To begin with, she had no defined pupils.

She just had a black blob in the centre of her completely red eyes, no whites, and the black blob slowly lightened as it expanded in the eyes. It was both terrifying and fascinating to look at.

The wound on her face caused by me had now completely healed, terrifying me to a certain point.

"I...I have a lot of pain in my chest," I lied to her. At this, her eyes drifted from my face to my chest before she stared at it for some moments.

"If you may then I can cut it open and look if there's anything's wrong," She offered her sick plan very politely.

"N-no, that wouldn't be necessary." I tried my best to sound sick, "I think if I rest for a week and eat well then it might go away," I told her as she listened to me with her eyes painfully wide and with full attention.

"You're right," She spoke in a daze before clutching my face almost painfully out of nowhere, "You must eat something. Look at you, you look so pale and worn out! I shall take good care of you!" If anything, her words pushed me closer to surprise and bewilderment.

She was ready to do anything to make me healthy for the sacrifice. I couldn't help but feel actually sick at this.

"Now tell me what is it that you wish to have. I shall arrange it for you!" She chirped, looking excited all of a sudden.

"Er..." I shifted in the bed, "Some chicken soup and spring rolls would be nice," I told her, maintaining my sick tone. She frowned at my taste, "Who eats such awful things? I shall bring for you the meat of some leopards and blood of humans. They always taste good and are good for your skin!" She offered.