Category: Queen's Thief
Rating: M
Couples: (at least mention of) Canon ones
Warnings: AU, potentially smut, Character death
Chapter: 7
Copyright: Characters & places © By Megan Whalen Turner, Plot & OC´s © by me
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He should have know… by all the gods, he should have known. But he hadn't and now they were all paying the price for it. He should have realized that after months of not even looking at any of the girls like that, the fact that he now laid with one would be construed as 'favouritism'.
And being that he was very, very much under the attention of the Mede Emperor, he should definitely have foreseen that it would not be pretty.
"And now, the Flight of the Barbarian Queen!"
To be entirely fair, he had not ever considered that they'd field an elephant in a gladiator-match… certainly not against only one gladiator.
Behind him, the girl he had so graciously introduced to adult matters was crying. He thanked the gods she at least wasn't screaming, because that would have been distracting. Of course, considering he was facing down an elephant…
Worse, he saw the look on the elephant-driver's face; it was the kind that would have had him arrest the man and throw him into a deep part of the prison if he were still a guard.
"Oh gods..." He was going to drive the elephant against the girl first of all, wasn't he? "I hate Medes so much..." Aside from Kamet… who was Setran, now that he thought about it. He groaned, clutching his sword in one hand. Oh, this would not go well for him at all. How does one fight an elephant in single-combat!? Especially if one does not want the girl behind him to be trampled.
His eyes widened in realization when he noticed that the elephant was dragging one leg. That certainly explained why the animal had ended up here instead of on a battle-field or something like that.
As if to compensate for the handicap, the head swung more in that direction.
"Oh no..." His king was rubbing off on him. He'd never live that one down, assuming if he even survived this. "Eugenides, God of Thieves… if I served your namesake well and if that has earned me some favour… Please, please, please let this work!"
It was a desperate plan, would probably even be desperate by human-Eugenides' standards, but it was about the only way that would not result in him and the girl dead by elephant.
His leg screamed in pain when he jumped onto the tusk of the crippled side, using the upward swing to get high enough to attempt to grab at the driver. The man screamed when he instead of his beast was suddenly face to face with the gladiator, even as the elephant's trunk wrapped around said gladiator's middle. Clinging to the driver with one hand, the other – holding his sword – drove the naked iron as hard as he could in the animal's neck.
Yes, it was indeed a desperate and completely idiotic idea. The trumpeting roar reverberated in his body and deafened him in equal measure. Rearing on its' hind-legs, the grey beast teetered on the edge… and started falling. And because one side had a human hanging on it, of course it was that side.
Attolia's Guard Captain felt something break in his arm when he landed on it, pain brightening the world to a new intensity. Gods, he was just not getting a break these days… not counting the bone-break right now.
Groaning, he struggled to his feet, everything hurting. "If I ever get near an altar of yours, I owe you one." Clinging to his arm, clutching it to his chest, he turned to the fresh carcass. He owed the god a large one, that was for certain.
When he closed in, the driver fled as quickly as he could, terrified on the fuming Attolian. Letting go of his broken arm, he pulled at the embedded sword, adrenaline fuelling him.
"Attolia!" He had to be a bloodied mess, but by the gods, he was not going to let them insult her like this. He managed one step towards the imperial box before collapsing, legs folding like a baby's underneath him. Whatever came next, it was very much worth it.
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"I wish we could have helped." Eddis looked to the south, where Attolia was hidden beyond the horizon. She and Sounis had been forced to leave their fellow monarchs to see to their own lands – even if the country of Eddis was slowly emptying.
"Like how?" Her husband joined her at the window, gently wrapping her in his arms. Both were taking a short break at her castle before moving on to his. "We cannot return what they lost..." Gen his father, Irene her guard-captain… Gen and Helen a large part of their family… The dead could not be brought back to life.
"Still." She swallowed, pressing herself against him. "You did not see Irene when we realized that Teleus was unaccounted for. The only time I saw her be worse was when she thought she'd lost Gen." She pulled his arms closer around her. "It… it was like she lost her uncle, instead of just a guard-captain. He was family almost..."
"We could not have staid." Not so much because no one wanted that, but because both of them really needed to return to their own countries. They had delayed for nearly half a year already so that their child would be born in Attolia, under the watchful eyes of Galen and Petrus both.
As if hearing her father's thoughts move to her, the babe in the crib in the corner started fusing with that slow build they were quickly learning meant she was about to start wailing at full volume… which was a lot.