Saving Her: Chapter XI
Summary: Carter knows this is a good idea. She really does, because she's going to be saving Rosie, and anything after that just doesn't register. CarterxRosie
Author's Note: First I'd just like to apologize for taking almost two months to update. Second, I'd like to apologize for the craptastic quality of this chapter. XD It was really difficult to write, as for some reason I knew what I wanted to say but just had such a hard time painting it for you all to see. I hope I did well, and I'm really very sorry about the wait…I know it might be kind of confusing for some of you but I think it works best this way. We're also getting into what I think Costa Luna itself is like, history, customs, language and such, so I hope you guys enjoy my take on it. Anyhoo, go read!
Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Rosalinda/Rosie Gonzalez, Carter Mason, or Princess Protection Program and all affiliated characters and environments. They are the property of Disney in conjunction with Annie DeYoung.
Sophia eyed the several chambermaids with great distaste, tugging at her long white wedding gown in a huff. She had not known her palace staff to be so untrustworthy. Not one familiar face standing stoic at the doors in her daughter's bedchambers remained loyal to the Fiore family.
She would have them all deported.
"What has he promised you?" She questioned loudly to them all. "Peseta[1], perhaps? Accolades for your heroism?" Her tone hardened further when their faces remained unchanged.
"You are so willing to condemn my daughter to her death, so willing to send this innocent girl to her grave? Your selfishness is unprecedented!" She stalked forward, taking the loose ribbons at Carter's back to begin lacing them tightly.
"Purgatori tindrá les seves ánimes a cremar per tota l'eternitat![2]"
Carter looked down, too afraid to meet her own reflection in the gold-rimmed three way mirror before her. The queen's biting words echoed in the room and rung in her ears; she hadn't imagined the soft-spoken woman could sound so angry. She couldn't understand the language that came from her lips—Carter had gathered that it wasn't Spanish after all, despite the similarities—but tone was universal, and the shivering she saw from a few of the chambermaids made her think she was better off not knowing.
Carter's breath hitched as Sophia tugged one of the deep yellow coloured ribbons on the back of her crimson dress a bit too tightly. She ran a nervous hand down the silken waves of her dress, trying her hardest not to get lost in the memories of the past night. Her eyes followed the way the early morning sunlight caught in the deep gold slip underneath the fragile crimson fabric, and she let her mind swim away to the image her mind thrust forward of her best friend.
Her best friend in this same dress.
She could almost feel her, and it was euphoric.
Or maybe it was that sedative they forced into her last night.
She gave in; the memory fell over her like a wave, and she was powerless to resist as she was swept away with it.
Elegante had been right to leave in such a hurry, as not too long after he had gone those iron bars rattled open again in time with Carter's very bones. Kane snarled down at her, the two guards behind him wearing matching smirks. They were different than the last pair of guards, Carter noticed. One of them proudly displayed several multicoloured awards pinned together on his chest, a golden rope wrapping through the single matching epaulette on his shoulder. Her eyes narrowed. He looked just like—
Sophia gasped, and the sneer on Kane's face curled into a smile.
"Dimitri!" Carter's eyes flew to the queen, watching the shock on her face twist into betrayal. "How could you!"
The older guard said nothing, the smile never faltering on his face.
"I cannot believe you are siding with this evil man! I trusted you to keep Rosalinda safe! She is your charge, does this mean nothing to you?!"
Suddenly it made sense, and Carter couldn't help the small gasp that escaped her as her head swiveled around. Rosie had told her plenty of stories of her friends and family back home, including the story of The Royal Guard and its Captain. The Guard was Costa Luna's official military, but the Captain had a special responsibility. He was the princess's personal protector, her advisor, and her friend.
Dimitri was the Royal Guard's Captain.
"Yes, it is surprising, no?" Kane chuckled as he walked forward. "How does it feel, my Queen, the betrayal of those closest to you?"
Sophia's jaw grit, and Kane let out a loud bark of laughter that echoed in Carter's chest. He snapped his fingers, and Dimitri and the other man moved forward, seizing them both off the floor roughly. Kane turned, his long cape swishing on the ground as he motioned for them to be brought along with him.
"Oh but do not worry," Carter felt the tops of her bare feet scrape and peel against the stony ground as they were dragged behind the terribly brash general, biting her tongue at the fire it sent prickling up her legs. "They will not have betrayed you for long. What is that old saying, 'What is mine is yours?'" He laughed at the look of pure, molten hatred on the woman's face, grabbing her hand and forcing a silver and opal encrusted diamond ring onto her right hand. "Soon we will be married and I shall allow your chamberlain to return them to your side."
Sophia gave a single, bitter chuckle in response. "I have told you once and I will tell you again, I will never marry you!"
"Ah but you have no choice, My Queen. At first yes, it was a trap, but!" He held up a single, white gloved finger. "This girl here has ruined my plans. Or has she?" That finger swept against the side of Carter's face; she felt her skin crawl. "I have gotten to thinking, why go through so much trouble to inherit the throne when I could simply take it myself?"
"What are you babbling on about, Magnus?" Sophia spat at him, yanking at the arm Dimitri had firmly in his grasp.
Kane laughed. "I need not wait to inherit the throne if the Fiore family is no more. I shall be unopposed, and Costa Luna will be mine! But I think I shall keep you around, dear Sophia. You are of no consequence, with your dirty blood." His grin twisted in a way that twisted Carter's stomach right along with it. "Besides, I will need someone to provide me with an heir, no?"
They had finally broken free of the tunnels, and Carter gulped in her first taste of fresh, coastal air. The night was cold and slightly damp, satiating Carter's flushed skin with a hint of salt floating in the breeze. She looked around, taking in the way the gibbous moon illuminated her first glimpse of Costa Luna in a white glow. The night was completely still except for the wind rustling through the tall trees. There was a carriage waiting patiently several meters away, her heart jumping at the sound of the Clydesdale hooves on cobblestone.
Sophia was incensed. "I will not give you an heir, Magnus! I refuse to pass on your evil to an innocent child!"
Kane laughed again; airy and carefree as is her fiery words simply bounced right off his golden epaulettes. "Oh but you will. In is your duty as my wife. You have no choice in this matter, My Queen!"
He turned to Carter, and she tensed. "And as for you, girl, you are going to help me." Her heart stopped as he pulled her broken, dirty masquerade mask from his breast pocket, placing it back over her eyes. "You will not give me Rosalinda? Then you shall be Rosalinda." He leaned forward, his smirk confident and cocky. "The public will not know the difference, and it will not matter once I kill you."
Carter had to admit; it was a good idea. If she had been a crazy, middle-aged evil dictator she probably would have done the same thing.
The queen again tried to yank herself out of Dimitri's grasp, and she barely succeeded. For a moment Carter's heart leapt out of her chest as the woman broke from his grip, kicking at the general. One blow landed at his shin, and suddenly his boastful arrogance morphed into anger. He barked to a shadow Carter hadn't even noticed, hidden in the dark beneath the trees and another guard emerged, a fine needle point glinting in the light. Time seemed to slow as chaos erupted, and more shadows dripped from the thick darkness beneath the forest trees, seizing Sophia back into their grip and holding her still as the needle drew closer. Her eyes darted toward Carter, her mouth moving, but Carter didn't understand. She couldn't hear her over the roaring in her own ears, through the bark of more angry commands, the blur of moving bodies. And then time seemed to speed up again, and she realized…
She was free.
"RUN!"
Her leg twitched, and she hesitated for only a second before turning, darting for the cover of the dark trees. Her legs pounded against the dirt ground, tender flesh stinging as she ran, ran, ran as fast as her wobbling legs would take her. The chaos grew quieter, shrinking into the background until all she could hear was her own laboured breathing; all she could hear was her skin tearing in the thick underbrush, her feet striking the leafy forest floor. For just one moment, she allowed herself to think that she was free. For just a moment, a small smile of hope tugged at her lips. For just a moment, she looked back over her shoulder, her heart leaping as she saw she was alone.
That moment was her mistake.
The panicked girl crashed into something hard and tall and she gasped. It grabbed her, arm snaking around her neck and tilting her head up, and then another gasp as she felt a thin, cool metal pinch the tender skin of her neck. The area pulsed, and heat rushed from that single point through all her veins, and her heart sunk again as she felt her body grow heavy.
She moaned, her knees buckling as she collapsed backward into the arms that trapped her, ensnaring her, oppressed her, and then the inky darkness that swam on the forest floor slinked closer, and her eyes slid shut.
Carter gasped; the air filled her lungs as she tore herself away from the memory, trembling. Sophia met her eyes in the mirror, apologetic.
"Ho sento[3]…have I hurt you?"
The Louisiana native shook her head, smiling meekly in response.
The night passed on in a haze for Carter then, her mind swirling in and out of consciousness as they were carted off into the night. It may have been minutes, hours, or even days, she wasn't sure, but the next she knew the carriage jerked to a stop, and they were moved once more.
It was still dark out when Carter felt herself dragged back into the air, or maybe it was just the black spots dancing in front of her eyes. Her mind was wrapped firmly in a fog as the sedative they gave her pulled her back under. Her eyelids fluttered heavily as she tried desperately to figure out where she was, where they were taking her. The image of the guards expanded into two, then four, then six and back again like an accordion as she tried to focus, but to no avail.
She felt her body stop, floating somewhere in the limbo between the worlds of waking and sleep, and her eyes opened again.
Kane stood in front of her, ordering hundreds of men every which way. For all she knew they could have just been a handful of men, but her double vision stubbornly refused to clear. Her blearily eyes found the limp form of the queen, dead to the world where she rest in the guard of two very tall men conversing in their native tongue with Kane and Dimitri. There was a fresh patch of green and yellow skin around her forehead that hadn't been there before.
Carter had watched as the queen had been dragged away from her, unable to comprehend the fear that was creeping back into her chest. Dimitri had smiled an eerily similar smile to the malevolent man chuckling beside him, and then Carter felt a jolt swirl down her insides at his next words.
"Very good, brother." Kane clapped him on the shoulder, and Dimitri's smile grew proud as his ego swelled. "Continue on like this and we shall have Costa Luna sooner than we had hoped!"
Carter's mind spun. Brother? Dimitri, captain of the Royal Guard for more than 10 years, was his brother? She looked down, eyes wide, considerably more awake than she had been moments earlier. How long had Kane quietly been sinking his teeth into Costa Luna's hierarchy?
She started as the grip around her arm tightened from uncomfortable to painful.
"What of this one, germà[4]?"
"Ah, yes…the girl." She felt bile rise in her throat as his stale breath coasted along her cheek. She didn't have to see to know how close he was. She could feel him, and it made her sick.
"We have great plans for this girl." He pulled away from her, and Carter felt herself being pushed forward none-to-gently. She stumbled as a large hand hit in between her shoulder blades, shoving her forward. The frigid cold trapped in the marble beneath her raw feet stung, goosebumps rising up over every inch of her skin as she was forced to walk. Two big hands wrapped around her arms, squeezing too tight as they dragged her along.
She felt trapped, and confused, and quite honestly terrified. Her ears weren't helping as the eloquent language floating around her head was nothing she could even try to decipher. It reminded her of this old silent film she had watched with Ed once. There was a flurry of movement, and lips were moving, but all she could hear was the dramatic rise and fall of that old ragtime piano.
It was kind of funny, in a way.
And then she had to give herself a mental slap. What the hell did they put in that needle? She bit down on the inside of her cheek, shaking her head furiously and blinking hard.
'This is not funny. None of this is funny. You're loosing your mind, Carter!' She bit her tongue as one of the hands squeezed so hard on her arm she felt all the blood rush to the tips of her fingers. She was almost certain her hand was going to explode.
She looked down; there was just enough space underneath the blindfold tied tightly around her head for her to see her own raw feet, and the pattern of the marble floors as she was 'escorted' through the castle. Carter wondered what the rest of the castle looked like. This was Rosie's home, and she wished she could see it.
'Rosie. For Rosie.'
It was her own personal mantra, the only thing that was keeping her sanity from flying out the window.
Any more than it already had, anyway.
Carter's body buzzed as the foreign substance in her blood finally began to err. She felt like she was underwater, wading under the tide of an ocean that was forcing her back with all its might. She stumbled again, hitting her head on something hard and unforgiving as she felt herself get shoved around to the right. The sound of double doors burst open, the force blowing into her hair, and that's when it really sunk in.
Fear shot through her as she was shoved forward again, and suddenly there were hands, fingers, nails—touching and grabbing and pulling her forward. Her head snapped backward as her body lurched forward, and her feet could barely keep up with the pull as she fell harshly to her knees.
'For Rosie.'
She had felt the panic surge through her veins as hundreds of calloused fingers gripped her entire body, tearing at her dress, pulling at her hair, forcing her down to grind her head into the floor as they made work out of her.
'For Rosie.'
She felt the terror immobilize her, the chilling night air ghosting over her flushed and bare body as those fingers dragged her by the ropes chafing at her bony wrists across the frozen marble floor to dump her body into hoarfrost water, scrubbing her skin raw.
'For Rosie…'
Her mind grew hazy, shutting down in the face of absolute fright as she was clothed, zippers and hooks catching at her torn skin, the 'shing' of metal shears biting at the ends of her hair. She felt a twinge as each lock fluttered like the softest of butterfly kisses down to the floor. Her face was painted to perfection, down to her last elegantly curled eyelash.
'For…Rosie…'
Being manhandled by these empty faces around her was an experience Carter wished she could forget.
She felt violated.
Another tug on the ribbons of her dress brought her back to reality, and her eyes snapped up as Sophia patted her on the shoulder gently. The frown lines in her face were pronounced, but significantly more lax than they had been.
"All done, mija. You are beautiful." Her voice was tired and quiet, hoarse with the strain that comes only after the anger has left. She sighed, smiling softly as she met the young girl's big eyes in the mirror.
"It is strange…you look so much like my Rosalinda."
Carter's eyes drifted away to catch her reflection for the first time. Her heart skipped a beat and she leaned closer, a bit baffled. She did kind of look like Rosie. For a moment Carter wasn't sure the girl staring back at her was herself at all. They had cut her long wavy hair so that it sat tapered just below her breastbone, a crop of bangs hanging just so into her eyes and swept aside. Her make up was done naturally, brown and gold with peach glossed lips that matched perfectly with the deep crimson dress that hung on her slightly too-skinny frame, glittering with flecks of gold in the sun. Carter breathed out slowly, aware that she could see her skin palpitating over her wildly beating heart. And then a wave of emotion swept over her, stinging the backs of her eyes, and one more of the handful of remaining strings that held her together broke.
"I just wanted…I just wanted to help. I just wanted to keep her safe. But I think I just made things worse."
Sophia turned her around slowly, holding her face. "Do not cry; you will smear your makeup."
Carter chuckled softly, sadly. "I'm sorry."
"This would have happened had you been here or not, Carter." Sophia pulled the girl into her arms, motherly affection taking over her senses as the small girl drew in a shaking breath. "She is safe. We have talked about this." Sophia kissed her hair gently. "It is you who is in danger, Carter. I am sorry I could not keep you safe."
Carter felt frozen, words tangled on the tip of her tongue, pressure building in her chest. She didn't know what to do. She felt disoriented and confused, and helpless.
"My mom died when I was fourteen." She blurted out finally, clutching childishly at the ruffles along Sophia's waistline. "She was sick for a long time and then one day she just went to sleep and…never woke up." Carter heard the queen's intake of breath, felt her arms tighten in her embrace, and she sighed, letting her tired body sag for just an instant. "I have my dad but it's just not…the same." She paused for a long moment, whispering so softly the queen wasn't sure she had said anything more.
"Maybe I'll get to see her soon."
Sophia felt her eyes mist over, a maternal protectiveness surging up and over her entire being. She ran a soothing hand over the girl's hair, glaring at the air above Carter's head. She could almost make out the malevolent man's evil face, smug with victory in the dust that swirled around between a shaft of morning light. A slow breath fell from her lips and the dust twirled way. "It will not go that far, Carter. I will not let it."
There was a knock at the door then, and another empty face appeared at the door.
"Ja és hora de[5]."
Sophia sighed heavily, placing her hands on Carter's forearms as she pulled back.
"You need to tell her."
Carter looked confused.
"When you see Rosalinda again, tell her you love her."
Carter's eyes went wide. "Wh-what? I don't—I'm not—"
Sophia chuckled lightly. "You cannot lie to me Carter Mason. One does not make such a sacrifice for a simple friend. You are in love with my daughter, yes?"
She swallowed thickly, her stomach cold as she looked up at the Queen. She was right; she couldn't lie to her.
"…Yes." She squeaked, and Sophia chuckled again, releasing her with an affectionate pat. "…How did you know?"
"It is in your eyes, núvia[6]. Tell her. Knowing Rosalinda she will not spurn your affections, whether she returns them or not."
"But—"
The queen shook her head, walking over to the man waiting to deliver her to her fate. "Do it, as a gift to me for my wedding."
The way she said 'wedding' made it seem like she wanted to scrape the word off her tongue, and Carter understood suddenly, how much this was affecting the older woman. More than she had let on. Carter understood.
The Louisiana native nodded her consent, watching the woman she had come to think of as a mother figure be bound once more. She smiled weakly, and then the woman was gone, disappeared into the bright flood of the morning sun.
"…be safe."
The melody of celebration and music burst through Carter's ears, burning them with the sound that rung through the private gardens of the Fiore Palace as she was led behind Costa Luna's newest married couple. The parade marched loud and proud out the palace's front gates, heading toward the capital square to introduce the nation's people to General and Mrs. Kane for the very first time.
She stumbled, unaccustomed to the very high heels wrapped around her feet when a gentle hand steadied her. She sighed, smiling in thanks through the blindfold around her eyes.
"Thanks Mr. Elegante."
She heard him breath out heavily, patting her hand that rest for support in the crook of his elbow. She remembered the relief she had felt at seeing him come through the doors to Rosie's bedchambers as her allowed escort. She had sat with him, cloth tied gently this time around her head as she listened to that eloquent foreign tongue swirl in the air around her, binding the former queen to that malevolent man forever.
Till death do they part.
She felt guilt rip through her as they took their vows, the pain and anger in Sophia's voice clear as she promised herself to a man that had destroyed and stolen everything she held dear. A moment of silence passed, the presiding priest murmuring softly, and then a burst of noise as Kane let out a triumphant bark of laughter that was echoed in every corner of the garden by every lackey of the Royal Guard. She cringed, squeezing Elegante's hand in apprehension as the flurry of noise and movement rose up around them.
"Where are we going?" Drums burst to life behind her, brass blowing into the air, and then they were moving again.
The Latin man spoke quietly into her ear, slipping himself and his young friend into the procession of musicians, performers, and several fleets of the guard, marching proudly toward the capital square. "It is custom for the ruling family to present themselves to the nation after marriage."
Carter wasn't even fazed anymore. She had been through enough trauma that now she was fairly certain she had turned off. Apathy was quickly becoming a friend. "And then what?"
"Then we wait."
Carter hooked a finger under her blindfold, tugging it up a bit so that she could see where she was going. Costa Luna was actually a very beautiful country. Lush and green, like something out of the fairy tales her mother used to read to her every night when she was small. She drew in another greedy breath of fresh, cool air. The outdoors was becoming a rare privilege, and she wasn't sure when she'd get another.
"Did you find any help?"
She could see his mouth turn down into a low frown. "No. There is nobody left. I went through the chamberlain's records, and he has been inserting his people into the castle for close to ten years now. Most of the royal staff is from Costa Estrella's militia." He hesitated. "It seems that he has been switching them out, and then killing them. His men take their identities and it is like nothing had ever been different."
Carter felt sick. Maybe she hadn't turned off completely yet then, because she could feel her world tilting. Elegante's grip tightened, steadying her on her wobbling feet.
"I don't…get it. Didn't these people have family? Friends? Didn't anyone notice that oh, I don't know—their faces were different?!"
"One of the reasons King Fiore was so beloved to our people was because he was kind. He implemented a policy to help the poor and homeless. He brought them to the castle, and in exchange for work he clothed them and allowed them to stay in the servant's quarters he had built on palace grounds. These people had nothing and no one. I suppose it was the perfect setup for Kane to slip in his men unnoticed."
Carter sighed, resigned and Elegante patted her hand. "Of course there are few left loyal to the Princessa, but like the Queen they have been imprisoned. I cannot release them without drawing suspicion to myself."
"No, yeah…of course…what about The Program?…My dad?"
Carter felt the ground underneath her feet change to smooth brick, the chatter of voices around her escalating into thousands of cries she wasn't so sure were in positive favour. The muscles of Elegante's arm flexed in tension under Carter's fingers, and suddenly her heart was pounding for a whole different reason.
The brass horns tooted off into an echo, a low and steady rumbling of snare drums vibrating in her ears as the march stopped. Carter tilted her head up, peering down the bridge of her nose in an attempt to covertly observe her surroundings.
They had stopped in what she assumed to be the capital square. A large, white polished marble statue of a broad shouldered man stood in the centre of a large fountain, water swimming at his feet a meter out all around. Two epaulettes sat on his shoulders, tasseled and proud, stiff collar surrounding his strong square jaw and a crown adorning his full hair. He held one hand to the hilt of his sword, the other straight at his side. One look into his marbled eyes and Carter knew it was Rosie's father. The sculptor had perfectly captured the shape of their shared round eyes and wide, proud smile.
The entire square had been decked with shimmering fabrics of red and gold, the nation's colours waving proudly in the wind. Thousands of flowers bloomed all around; vines of jasmine climbed up the walls and beautiful curling ivy spilled out over every terrace. Bluebells rustled in the wind, adorning the face of a large marbled building that was much more grandiose than the rest. Carter's heart clenched. Bluebells were Rosie's favourite.
Elegante quickly pushed the cloth back over her eyes as two guards approached to take her from his side, but not before Carter noticed the four large cameras focused onto the wide mouth of the balcony from that building, and the miles and miles of what seemed to be every native Costa Lunian flooding so far back into the city she could see nothing else.
She knew that her arms were going to be completely black and blue tonight, if the incredibly stiff grip each guard had on her again was any indication. The hard brick under her feet changed to a spongy carpet as she was shoved into an archway, the cool and slightly damp darkness washing over her skin. Distant clicking echoed off deeper into the structure, and she could distinctly make out the sound of thin heels clacking out of sync with thicker soled boots right next to it, creating a chaotic melody that Carter felt her heartbeat thud in synonymy.
The noise from the angry crowd outside briefly vanished as she was led up a spiraling staircase, only to promptly re-explode into her ears as the sunlight crawled back over her skin. And then something else entirely began to crawl under it at the sound of a voice, rippling and magnified as it rang out into the thunderous collective of voices to silence them like a blanket.
"Ciutadans de Costa Luna! Benvingut![7]"
Carter flinched as a cold hand wrapped around her forearm, tugging her close into their side and out of the bruising grip of the guard. She relaxed as an ocean of soft lace brushed her bare arms, the cold touch turning familiar.
"I am sorry Carter." Sophia whispered sadly into her ear, tucking her protectively into her side. Carter felt the dread begin to ball in her stomach again.
"Why—?"
Kane's voice rippled out into the air, tinny through the microphone into which he spoke. Carter felt the panic begin to creep back into her chest as he spoke, still in that elegant foreign vernacular which she couldn't understand. His voice rose and fell like the tide, powerful and proud and so disgustingly self-satisfied. She could hear the smile in his tone as with each new word his speech became sharper, quaking with his newfound power. She could feel the crowd become restless, the sounds of protest soft at first and then growing in ferocity at every new proclamation of his power.
"What's he saying?" Carter whispered frantically, desperate for an answer, but Sophia only shook her head, whispering apologies into her hair. Her panic increased, and she began to tremble, the pressure in her chest building like the protests of the people before her.
"What's going on?"
Still her question went unanswered, and then the malevolent man let out a bark of laughter that was chillingly familiar, and she heard Sophia scream in dissent as she was ripped out of her hands, several calloused hands seizing her up and pushing her forward. All the breath left her lungs as her stomach rammed into the frozen stone of the balcony railing, a momentary swirl of vertigo locking her muscles down in fear. Kane choked her by the back of the neck, his fingers digging into her pressure points until black stars exploded behind her eyes. She felt him press into her back, her spine rippling in a strange cocktail of hatred, alarm and disgust, and then he spoke, his words zooming past the shell of her ear and leaving it burning in their wake.
"Adéu a la seva princessa preciosa Rosalinda![8]"
The remonstration increased, ringing in her ears. In the wild torrent of voices she could make out Sophia sobbing behind her, Dimitri chortling in victory, the loud laughter of men that blended with Kane's as he addressed the world once more, switching into English. Carter had a feeling it was just for her benefit.
"So I invite you all to join me, my people, to witness the fall of the great Fiore family once and for all!"
Then it began.
The vociferous noise increased to such a loud decibel Carter wasn't sure she could hear at all. Kane moved back from her, quaking in gleeful laughter as the guards seized her again. She felt herself yanked backwards, dragged down through the cold building and straight into the lion's mouth. The painful chafing of thick hemp ropes around her wrists and ankles burned along with the panic in her chest as the country's collective outrage shook her to her very core.
"The sister islands of Costa Luna and Estrella will be united under KING! MAGNUS! KANE!"
The uproar exploded into the air. The crowd began to rush, toppling over the wooden barricades and fighting against the Guard. They spilled over the boundaries, putting everything they had into clawing their way to the dictator atop the balcony who watched their meager efforts with a sick delight. They pushed again, with the force of the tide under a full moon, yelling and fighting and screaming as they held fast against the resistance. And then there was a single gunshot, slicing through the air with finality…
And then it began again.
The ocean of resistance turned into an ocean of bodies as the square was washed through with a wave of red, bullets raining down from the darkening sky. The guards at her side shoved her down as she tried to yank herself from their grasp, the sound of shooting and screaming cutting through the square.
"VISCA COSTA LUNA![9]"
They shouted, roaring mightily as the rumbling of thousands of pounding feet trembled in the bricks beneath Carter's own. She shook her head furiously, blindfold slipping off the bridge of her nose, and then she could see.
Her world spun. Red. Everything was red. The Guard stampeded against the native resistance, bullets ripping from the throats of their guns to match the screams ripping from the throats of their target. Women and children scurried away from the haze of gunpowder that had settled upon the square, shielding their young from the cold and bloodthirsty soldiers mercilessly slaying any who crossed their paths. Carter struggled again, trying in desperation to free herself from her captive state with wide, disbelieving eyes. She heard herself scream, kicking at the men who held her back as she watched a circle of Guards stand at ready, boots glistening with the water of the fountain now turned to red. More soldiers formed an outer ring, violently tearing down any brave civilian that still tried to knock past. Her eyes flew to Dimitri, grinning in his Captain's garb as he signaled for ready fire. Guns were drawn, clicking into place as the screaming grew.
"VISCA COSTA LUNA!"
Her world spun again, until it slowed and slowed and then finally halted, rolling over on its side. Carter's vision swirled and swam and tilted, pushing through quicksand as her sight and sound muted and mumbled like a dull wubber of noise. The horror in her eyes dimmed into just a whisper of the life once coursing through the square as she watched in seeming slow motion each body jerk and fall, red spraying around the air like the first rains. Dimitri gave another battle cry, and the gunmen focused on their target.
"VISCA COSTA LUNA!"
There was an explosion of gunfire as Dimitri's arm swung down, and a hailstorm of bullets impaled the former King's marble body, clouds of shattered marble cloaking his gentle face from view. One by one, piece by piece, the last remaining statue of hope was dismembered, each limb falling from his tall frame to become just a pile of rubble at his broken feet.
"VISCA COSTA LUNA!"
The last thing she saw was King Fiore's decapitated head, rolling rolling rolling to a stop at her feet, stone grey eyes smiling back up at her.
And then her world turned black.
Author's Note: Kudos to anyone who can guess what language and culture I'm deriving from! I put in some endnotes for translation purposes and such, if you guys wanted to know. I thought it would be stronger to use the language they would be speaking for as much as I could. I did a lot of research, (but most of it I just pulled out of my butt) so for the most part my usage should be correct...:P But this is fiction, after all, so nothing has to be perfect Lols!
[1] Native form of currency
[2] "Purgatory will have your souls to burn for all eternity!"
[3] "I'm sorry…"
[4] Brother
[5] "It is time."
[6] Sweetheart
[7] "Citizens of Costa Luna! Welcome!"
[8] "Bid farwell to your precious Princess Rosalinda!"
[9] "Long Live Costa Luna!"