I want ot thank those of you who added Amethyst and/or Silent Hunter to your favorites or alerts. It means a lot to me. Things will start to pick up from here. Next chapter will be Garjzla's story's begining.

Maya stood before her father, her dark brown eyes following him as he paced.

"If you keep that up, Father, you're going to give me a headache." She said.

"Shut up." He hissed.

"No need to be snippy. I'm just speaking the truth." He turned and looked at her, his eyes narrowed into a heated glare, "I have a question."

"Which would be?"

"What happened to my mother?"

"She left."

"When, where, why."

"She left when you where 3."

"Why do you have to be so blunt and vague?"

"Last time I remember seen that two timing elven whore was the day I put my sword through her."

"Care to elaborate?" His eyes darkened, "If you are trying to scare me off, you will have to do more than stare at me."

"Your mother was an elven caretaker of the dragon eggs in the past. She would bring them to whoever the console said and if they hatched she would bring the dragon and his rider to them. We meet after my dragon was killed, and I took Shruikan from his rider."

"Love before you went corrupt. How touching." She mumbled.

"She served me well, until she turned on me and took you from this castle."

"I wonder why she took me."

"Your mother always had a loud mouth on her. She would yell at me for beating you, yell at me for sleeping with other women."

"And you call her a two timing whore."

"Are you going to insult me after everything I say?"

"If you would say something that shocked me, maybe not."

"It was your 3rd birthday, Morzan and his kid was here and your mother thought it was wise to run with you. I didn't see her for 5 years after that day."

"And the one place you didn't look is where she ended up."

"When she came back to me she was begging for her life, saying she was sorry for running and would do anything for me. And she did just that." A sick smirk stretched out across his lips, "After spending countless weeks floating from man to man, she ended up on my floor, begging me to stop this. And I did. Slowly I killed her and enjoyed every minute of it."

"Sick bastard." She winced as his thoughts blended with hers.

"She had it coming. As will you if you try anything like that."

"I wouldn't be dumb enough to come back." He turned and glared at her. Once his gaze meet hers she felt her throat tighten up and she started to cough.

"I hope you wouldn't be dumb enough to run." Her brown eyes dulled as she gave up her fight with him, "Good girl. Return to your room and wait for my next set of orders." She glared at him and walked from the room.

Stupid two timing asshole. She hissed, rubbing her neck.

What? Murtagh asked.

I'm trapped. She pushed opened her bedroom door to find a beautiful black sari laid out on her bed. A note was sitting next to it in the tailor's crapped handwriting.

I found this in a box. You said no white and nothing traditional, so I hope this works for you.

"It's beautiful." She picked up the light fabric and smiled.

"What's beautiful?" Murtagh asked.

"My wedding dress."

"That's it?"

"Do you honestly think I was going to wear a white ball gown?" She rolled her eyes and folded the fabric neatly and placed it on her vanity, "Galbatorix is a bigger ass than I can image."

"What did he do this time?"

"It's what he did to my mother. The bastard sent her to the barracks striped, drugged, and helpless. When she found her way back to him, he killed her. Slow shallow cuts around any major artery or vein, and watched her bleed to death on the floor."

"How do you know this?"

"I asked him. And he showed me." She turned to look at him, "And I will never bring up my mother again."

"We have the rest of the evening, what do you want to do?"

"I wish we had the rest of the evening. He is having a party in our honor and we must be there."

"My Lady, your gown is in your wash room." Ayah said.

"Thank you Ayah. Return to your room, Murtagh. I'll come get you when I'm done." She kissed his cheek and pushed him out the door, "Lets go get ready." The small maid nodded and followed the Rider into her bathroom. Stretched out across a large vanity sat a red wine colored corset ball gown. Ayah helped her into the dress and combed her short hair.

"Why did you cut your hair?"

"It was getting in my way." She lowered her eyes, "And no one will recognize me." After Ayah stepped back, Maya shook her head, letting her bangs cover the right side of her face.

"My lady, The king requests that you-" A small servant boy said before Maya cut if off with a fiery glare.

"The King can make request of me all he wants. Doesn't mean I will listen. Go."