AN: I have a couple of things I would like to say:
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Chapter Two- Killing The Messenger
Regina sighed and leaned her head against the padded chair back. She sat again in the grand hall, going through another sleepless night, but she wasn't surprised anymore. Sleep was such an essential yet rare item in her life, and it was even more uncommon since she became the empress. She closed her eyes in order to catch a minute or two of priceless rest, but then the door opened and Regina jumped, panicked, and her eyes opened at once.
"I am sorry if I scared you, the Caesar." Adrian walked into the room, closing the door behind him with a soft knock, almost inaudible, and started to walk toward her.
"It is fine." She smoothed her hair with her hand in order to look a little bit more presentable. "How did you know I was here?"
"I know you don't sleep at night. We all do, Regina." She didn't correct him this time, didn't made him treat her formally, but she listened to what he had to say. "The servants told me you like to spend your nights here. That this place helps you… think." He finished his sentence at last and sat in one of the chairs that stood around the table in a perfect circle.
"Them." She said and rolled her eyes in contempt to the mention of the like invisible women, even though she probably would not be able to live without them after all the years she took their presence for granted. "Well, so why are you here?" she asked, rushing him to get to his point. She didn't need nor wanted company in the late night's hours, and with all the respect she had for her adviser, she just wanted him to leave her alone.
"I can send you someone, you know." A wondering expression went on her face. "To help you with your sleeping problem." He made himself clear.
"No thank you. I am fine. Now, get to your point." She kept on pushing, this time a little bit harsher.
"As you wish. My point is we have to figure out what we are going to do with our little outlaw."
"And it couldn't wait until the morning? What was so urgent to do this right now?" She rolled her eyes.
"Given the fact we are both awake, I don't see a reason why we shouldn't do this right now." He replied and smiled a sly grin.
"Why are you awake? Well, it doesn't matter. Anyway, it is kind of obvious. He needs to get into the coliseum." She said decisively and nodded her head.
"I can agree with that. When?"
"The sooner the better. And I want people in the crowed. A lot of them. They need to see the rule is still able to give a good gladiator fight and catch an outlaw or two when it is needed." She didn't forget to smile her infamous vicious smile that typified her. "I say, let him stay here for a couple of days. Let the rumors ran. And then let him fight for his life." She laughed a cold laugh that cut the air open like a thousand sharp knives.
Adrian opened his mouth in order to say something, but before he did as much as make a noise he closed it back shut.
"What?" Regina asked aggressively.
"I will take care of everything you need. Don't worry; I will put our best against him. He would not have a chance."
"Well, this puts an end to our conversation, which I still can't understand why couldn't wait until the morning." The adviser nodded, got up from his chair and walked toward the door.
"And Adrian?"
He turned around. She looked so broken in that moment, like she was hit over by a carriage. Her eyes reflect the tiredness she felt, and he wasn't able not to feel sorry for her, because even though she clearly wasn't pure hearted, he didn't believe anyone deserved this miserable fate.
"Do you think it will help me with my bigger problem?"
"I doubt that." He answered sincerely, and saw the corners of her mouth drop down in disappointment. "It was nice talking to you the empress, sleep well." She was exhausted, so she didn't even have the will to answer the man's remark; she just closed her eyes and tried to forget her issues.
When Robin got his consciousness back finally fine, he still wasn't able to see anything. The darkness surrounded him, and his heart started beating rapidly. It took him several minutes to remember what had happened to him, and he wasn't sure what he preferred: to stay in the lack of knowledge or to deal with the hard reality that slammed into him. Cold sweat started to go down his face when he realized the ground beneath him was moving. They were riding a carriage. They were probably on their way to the palace. Robin wasn't able to understand why the empress herself bothered to deal with a common thief like him. He was sure somebody will shoot an arrow at his heart and end his life the minute he got caught. But no, the Caesar liked a good show. She won't let him the simple pleasure of dying fast. She will torture him until he would rather die than stay alive under her hands.
His hands and legs were tied and his eyes covered, and he felt a couple of hands dragging him roughly, leading him from the carriage into an unknown place. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts not to fall, and some unpleasant comments from the soldiers that were looking after him, they went down stairs, a lot of stairs, more than Robin was able to count, even though he tried, and then someone pushed him into a cell, and pulled down finally fine the ropes that tied his hands and legs, and the fabric pieces that were wrapped around his mouth and eyes.
The first thing that Robin felt was pain. All of his body was in pain. He didn't know how long he was tied up, but it was certainly long enough to leave a sign on him. He thought he got pretty far from Rome, and if he was in the Caesar castle like he believed he was, the journey in the carriage took almost a full day, the most of it he spend unconscious. But it was probably better than sitting down there and conspire about his future, every speculation worse than the one before it.
Robin blinked; his eyes had difficulty to adapt to the candles light, as fine as it was, after all the darkness he had seen in the last days. A single solider locked his cell and went up the stairs. It seem like he regretted for a minute he didn't say anything, couldn't decide if to give Robin a hint about the destiny the empress distained for him, but then he concluded that the decision to be silent is the best one for him, and he kept going up the stairs, until Robin no longer saw him, but only heard his footsteps on the stone stairs.
And then it was silence. The most horrible and agonizing quiet Robin have ever heard. He wanted to scream. Just to scream and to scream and to scream. But he kept the silence because he didn't want to look weak to the empress or one of her people. The only thing that was worse than being a prisoner of the Evil Caesar is to be taken as weak by her. Even though he knew his fate was doomed, probably in that same day she decided she can't handle the troubles he was doing to her anymore and sent the order to chase after him, he still had hope, as little as it was, and believed he could still change his fate, that nothing was lost. Yet if she sees him as weak, and won't look at him like a threat or someone who was necessary, he won't be able to negotiate and get what he wanted the most- his life.
The silent shocked him. He didn't know how long he was sitting there in the candle light, servants going up and down the stairs and giving him some food and water, only what he needed for his exciting, maybe even less, making such a big effort to keep alive a man that would probably face death anyway in a day or two. He knew nothing was done out of the empress kindness. No, she wanted to kill him publicly, throw a show for all to see.
The quiet also gave him time to think. He thought about the hunger, the loneliness, about everything he left behind. Roland, his Merry Men. The men that trusted him, that were willing to give their life to save his, he was sure of that, that left everything they had behind, no matter how little it was, and for that he was grateful. You really don't know how to appreciate what you have in life until you lose it and you are near death, swinging by the big abyss of hell: one leg here, the other there.
Robin got up from his sitting place on the cold cell's floor and started walking in it, making two steps on one direction before he encountered the wall and had to walk back to the other direction. His nerves loosened. He was always an outdoors kind of man, he liked the nature, and this horrible captivity affected him in the worst way. But the thing that stopped his restless walk was quiet steps that were heard down the stairs. They were so gentle, they didn't belong to any solider nor servant. A little grin showed up his face when he figured out which woman was walking down toward him. Apparently she was kind enough to come and meet the outlaw.
"The empress" Said one of the old maids after she got into the room. Her white hair was pulled into a clean bun on the top of her head, and she didn't forget to bow before she continued to talk. "Commander Graham is here. He wants to speak to you."
"Let him in." Regina dismissed the old maid and the young one that took care of her hair with a wave of hand, and it stayed down, going over her shoulder like waves of black velvet.
After the servants left the room, Graham entered. He looked tired. Not as tired as Regina, but exhausted enough so even not the sharpest person could see the dark circles that surrounded his eyes.
"I hope you have good news." Regina said and walked closer to him. She wrapped her hands around his neck and kissed him, a forced kiss by Graham's side. But he played along, he couldn't resist her. She asked him to do something, and he refused, and this was the price of his disobeying, which she took as worse than failure.
"In matter of fact, I have. We caught the thief. He did a lot of troubles, forced us to chase after him for far more than we planned, but we caught him eventually. We had to faint him to prevent any kind of resistance, but he got his consciousness back… eventually." He took a step back and looked down.
Although he was taller than her, she still threatened him. She had the power, and she has never let him forget that, even in the most intimate situations.
"He is here now?" she asked almost excitedly. She turned around to look in the big mirror that was hanged on the wall of her bed chamber and started to check her appearance carefully.
Graham winced his face disgustedly, and hoped she didn't notice. He wasn't able to understand how this beautiful woman, that could have seen so harmless in first sight, was able to be happy over a vicious game that had an execution of a man in its end, a man that his biggest crime was to search a little justice in the unfair world they lived in.
"He has been here for two days, actually. I only arrived now because I was left behind in order to search for his men, a search that led to nothing. They probably split into two different directions the minute the outlaw understood we were on to him, and they managed to hide or escape.
"Two days? He has been here for two whole days, and no one bothered to say to me that you imprisoned him?" Outrage expression was up on her face, which Graham saw through its reflection in the mirror.
"The empress, you have to understand that people don't know they have to come to you in these situations. They assume you are here because you were Leopold's wife, that is all. And those who do know they have to come to you, well, they are afraid of you. I got here after midnight, so I wouldn't have asked to wake you up unless something urgent had happened, so I preferred to let it wait until the morning."
She didn't fix him and told him that in the last night, as most of the nights that she had spent during her grown life, she didn't sleep, and even if he had bothered her it would not make such a difference. "Their fear is justified." She finally got her eyes off her reflection, walked to the door and slammed it in Graham's face rudely, leaving him closed in her own bed room.
After a second of wondering about Regina's actions, the former huntsman walked out the room and closed the door shut behind him.
"The Caesar, may I ask where are you going?" He started following her, and didn't have a hard time narrowing the gap between them with the help of his big footsteps, yet she continued to walk, even with the solider by her side.
"Well, isn't it obvious? I am going down into the dungeon to have a little chat with our friend the thief."
"Regina, I insist, don't do this. You don't have any interest in this outlaw, and he doesn't know anything about Snow White."
"You insist?" She stopped walking and turned around to him, making sure he see the rage in her eyes. "First of all, it is the empress for you. Second, you don't know about the interest I have or don't have in the outlaw. Another thing is that I understand our relationship may have confused you, but I am still the one to get the decisions, the ones that concern me and also the ones that concern you. I am not an ordinary woman, don't you forget that."
She kept walking until she got to the staircase that led to the dungeon that Robin Hood was finally fine locked up in. "I guess you can show yourself the way back, can't you?"
Graham nodded and bowed, defeated, and Regina smiled triumphantly. "The empress" He said and turned back to the dark hall that led to the palace.
"Graham" she said after he almost disappeared from her sight, in such a voice that could almost sound sweet. "I hope you learned you lesson from our last meeting. There is no need for me to humiliate you in public again, right?" She started to walk down the staircase, her steps so quiet, gentle, and the thoughts running up her head about what, or more correctly who, she is going to see in less than a minute.
