Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

The Commencement Ceremony played out much the same way as I had imagined it. Vasili kept his distance, though shallowly complemented himself by smiling as I entered the hall and saying, "Excellent choice of clothing for tonight." I smiled a fake little smile in reply.

Vasili then made a speech about how we would distance ourselves from the Serpiente enemies and the corruptive Cobriana's that would seek to destroy us from within by overthrowing our Tulli Thea. I was appalled by his ignorance, but I kept quiet. He was later appointed as my new Arami and pair bond, and Zane was denounced from the Avian thrown as though he had never existed.

I swallowed hard as Vasili lead me through the crowed of on lookers and diplomatist. Through the crowed I saw the familiar face of Naois Knev, a soldier whom in his title and position ranked as high as Rei did in the royal court, and at one time he was a good friend of Vasili.

Naois Knev was a tall man. He was recognized more for his height then his battle strategies and war heroics. While standing, he towered over Vasili by at least a foot and to me he seemed like a giant. He and I had spoken little in the last few years after Vasili's 'death.' In fact, I knew that Naois held Vasili in much the same regard that I held Rei, and I had nothing but respect for that kind of friendship since it silhouetted mine to Rei's so perfectly.

Vasili could have lead us to him without an upward glance and when we came to him he greeted is in much the same way as any royalty would have been greeted. He bowed accordingly, his face tilted in such a way that it shadowed his profile and made him seem ageless. "It is good to see you this way milady, Danica," he said, taking hold of my hand and kissing my knuckles lightly, his glance testing me to see how much he could get away with.

"May I ask what you mean Commander Knev?" I asked, my voice sweet and flirtatious but my eyes dark and deadly as they met his.

"Well," he began his voice creaky as though he was trying to recover his footing on the side of a steep mountain. "It is good to see you following your true destiny and giving your whole heart to your people." He paused as though waiting for me to speak; when I did not he spoke again: "Forgive me if I've caused you any offense." I smiled. What more could I do other then let it go and pretend that his words hadn't hurt me?

"Naois, it is good to see you again!" Vasili interrupted, embracing his old friend tightly, leaving me off to the side to look on. "Tell me," he began once he let Naois go, "what have you been doing all these years that I've been away?" Vasili and Naois soon got lost in their conversation, each eager to discover their old friend again. I stayed near them for a while, before realizing that I played no part in this conversation. I felt like a fool just standing there and pretending to be interested or involved.

I wandered the large room for a while, searching out a friendly face, but everyone crowded around Vasili, all interested in the long dead ghost that had returned, and my betrayal to them all by marrying Zane went so deep that I had become an outcast. I sighed and continued to wander, but in the end I came back to Vasili and his crowed of doting admirers. I was ignored within them, but truly I did not blame them for it; they themselves had been raised and reared in the same way that I had been - born to hate the Serpiente, just as I was, but never learning that they as a people have more similarities to us then differences. And none of them had ever loved one, not in the way that I loved Zane.

"Danica!" I heard someone yell my name from behind me, I turned just in time to see Rei on the other side of the crowed. He waved his hand trying to get my attention and from the look on his face I knew that he had something important to tell me. "Danica!" He said again as he got closer only this time his voice was smaller and less strained. "Danica, there's something that I have to tell you!"

I opened my mouth to ask what but before I could say a word someone from in the crowed screamed, "Get down!" A host of bodies fell to the floor immediately, some crowding around Vasili to protect him and some crowded around me. Rei shielded me from any danger that had been seen, even though I myself had seen nothing. In the flash of a second I felt Rei push me down and as I fell I heard the wisp of an arrow blur past my sight, and I listened to the scream of agony that followed afterward.

When the second had ended, the chaos remained. Mounted madness accorded everywhere before my eyes. The floor was littered with bodies, some were moving, and some were not. Men, woman, of all ranks and age were affected; it seemed for a moment that no one was spared. I searched the room. Rei was already up and tending to a wounded woman who had a half broken arrow protruding from her left shoulder blade, and I watched as a river of blood flowed down from her back to the ground. Just by looking I counted ten people who were not moving on the floor, the apparent damage from the attack visible to me as arrows hung half way through the flesh of their arms, necks, torsos and back.

My eyes stopped and lowered when from across the room I saw Vasili. His arched frame bent and kneeling over the still body of his old friend Naois Knev. A single arrow stood erect from his chest and the circle of torn material around the wound blood soaked and wrinkled. Vasili clutched his hands tightly to Naois chest, as if the pressure that he put upon it would revive the dead man. I could tell by Vasili's blank stare that he, too, had been struck with a wound, though his was nothing physical. I watched as he clutched tighter to his friend, the skin of his hands tainted with the sour liquid of blood.

The hours passed slowly after that. When all of the surrounding lands and the entire Keep searched for our attackers and nothing was found, Rei finally allowed me to go back to my room. I was escorted by a host of guards who were all instructed to watch out for me until told otherwise by Rei himself. Once I was in my room, I couldn't hold still, my muscles ached with fiery pain from stress and my head was throbbing. I couldn't get the image of Vasili out of my head. Never in all of the years of knowing him had I seen his emotions so exposed. Never had he revealed himself in such a way.

How could this have happened? I wondered as I paced across the floor. The two guards staking out the balcony caught my eyes. I was well protected, but still I felt frightened. There was no doubt in my mind that Adelina was behind this attack. The crossbow plunged arrows reeked of her cruel justice and I remember that Zane's mother had been murdered in the same way. Was I the target? Or Vasili? Or the both of us? How had she known that the ceremony was tonight? No doubt her spies were everywhere inside the Keep. But how? And why? How could anyone want this terrible war to continue?

I sat on the bed to try and calm myself and my thoughts strayed to the idea of Adelina's spies all around me. That had to be how this attack was conceived. In my mind I saw the faces of every servant, soldier, and diplomat that I had seen since returning, but the only face that stood out was the face of the little girl who had delivered the green dress to me earlier. Her hair and features were dark, much more like the features of the Serpiente's then the Avian's, and it was not just her looks, I had also noticed that when she spoke to me she seemed like she was hiding something.

My heart stopped, if she was a spy for Adelina, and Vasili had not given me the dress then it came from...

Without another thought I tore the dress off, my clutched fingers easily tarring away the velvet. When the dress was free from me I threw it as hard as I could into the corner of the room. Then, turning I searched the room and found the white Lily that had also been with the dress, it was still on the table where I had left it. I quickly picked it up and destroyed it; silky petals braking easily away from the stem and I dropped what was left of it onto the dress that lied crumpled in the corner.

I moved away and back over to the bed to retrieve my nightgown. Hastily I pulled it over my head, covering my exposed body. I sat on the bed trembling for a moment. It was happening again, everything was happening again. I could see my whole life played out before my eyes. Sculpted and memorized as though I'd already lived it. I saw myself becoming my mother, cold and hard after bearing three children and watching them all die before I too became consumed within the fires of hate. I saw my hands covered in blood after a long battle, Avian and Serpiente alike and I felt the sting and crackle of foreign death as it interacted with my own. I saw my home becoming a prison, its cell large but confining just the same. I saw a life filled with regret and doubt, but I could not see Zane.

Then, in the front of my minds eye I saw Vasili, taking everything that he wanted from me and when I had become a shell of hate as he had become he left me to wither within my grief alone. The seeds of hate had been sown into me as a child and now in this life that stood before me they were growing and I saw it plague my family for centuries to come.

The creaks of the floorboard squeaking tore me from my premonitions, and I looked toward the door as it opened slowly. My heart hoped for Rei, but it was Vasili who stood at the other side. His lowered face and blood soaked clothing telling the story of the night and its epilogue nothing but a plot of sadness and death. I stood up from the bed, my bare feet curling slightly against the chill of the floor. "What will happen?" I asked, truly I did not know, and my question went deeper. What happened after I left? Where is Rei? How many people were killed? Who were the victims? My eyes asked all of these questions but Vasili's blank look forbid me from seeking them.

"The attack was unexpected, but we will strike back fiercely and deadly"

The visions of war flashed before my eyes again, and my open hands stained with blood caused a tear to fall from my eye, I had to stop this. "Unexpected?" I questioned, the tone of my voice almost daring Vasili to elaborate. "Did you think that Adelina would just disappear from our lives, that she would hide away and we'd never have to face her wrath again? Did you think you could escape her retribution?" Vasili, who still stood in front of me, looked frozen, his eyes blank and through them I could see nothing but the dead man inside. "Is that what you thought?" I questioned my voice growing louder and vile against his hidden facade. "You thought that she would just go away and you could rule as Arami without the notion of this war staining your rule. No Arami for centuries has been able to escape it, not even my father, but you thought so." I was taken aback by my own anger but I was not willing to silence myself.

"What other delusions of fancy have you concocted? Do you still see me as that little girl that you knew who had not yet awoken to the world? Let me tell you something Vasili, since it has obviously escaped you and your plotted plane of the future... I'm married, I gave myself to Zane Cobriana, body and soul, and I will always be his, body and soul. I will never feel for you what I feel for him. Never!"

Vasili stood unmoved for a moment, but then within the flash of a second he grabbed hold of my shoulders. His firm fingers diving into my skin as if he wished to climb inside my flesh and live within me. I was left unguarded, and could not stop as he thrust me against the near by wall. His stiff lips covering my mouth in a mad dance that was rougher and colder then I had ever encountered from a man. I had confronted him about his delusions hoping to distance him from me but it had backfired and I was left wishing that I had remained silent.

I tried to push him away, I brought up my arms to pull him from me but my resistance only furthered his resolve to keep me in his control. His hands holding my shoulders back tightened and I felt long welts form from his sharp fingernails.

His lips were still crookedly dancing as he moved his mouth down my neck and chest. I could tell by the force of his lips upon me and the ferocity of which he held me that he had had a burning desire to do this for a long time, and now he was acting on those desires. When my mouth was clear I yelled at him, my voice forceful as I pleaded with him to release me; I feared where his desires might lead and I clenched my fists and throw them at the sides of his face. He was not deterred from my aggression and continued to travel down my body with his lips until he reached the cleavage of my breasts and began kissing them lovingly. His lips and tongue tender and gentle, as though his thirst for me had been quenched yet he still desired me. "Please Vasili!" I begged, hoping that the change of affection toward me meant that he would stop.

He did not stop and his lips continued to travel lower until they reached my belly button and through the thin material that made up my nightgown he kissed my skin. When he continued to go further I let out a blood curtailing scream flopping my body back and forth to try and get away from him. Vasili immediately became alert, as though he had just now woken up from a dream. His eyes wide and questioning as he looked over his arms and realized that he was holding me tightly. He seemed as though he hadn't realized what he was doing and I took his moment of confusion as my opportunity to escape. I thrust his hands away from me, my sloppy movements sending me off balance and I couldn't stop myself, as I slipped and fell back against the wall, letting my body slide down until I was sitting crookedly on the floor.

Vasili stood over me as I clutched my bruised wrists and began to cry; I realized for the first time what had truly happened a moment ago, and what could have happened if I let it continue. As I sobbed, I heard the balcony doors open and the two guards that Rei had posted there burst in, their weapons drawn, thinking that my scream meant that there had been another attack. "GET OUT!" Vasili barked, his face fuming with anger, and the two guards immediately obeyed, shutting the balcony door behind them.

I couldn't breath. I had to force my chest to rise and fall continuously just to get air into my lunges. I had forgotten how. I felt like a small child just awakening to the world and frustrated from the fact that I would have to learn everything that there was to it.

I heard the sound of footsteps running down the hall outside and the sound of the desperate knock at the door. Though I was not looking up, I saw Vasili look down at me. His expression was confused and apologetic, but I was too hurt and alone to care. I pushed my head back against the wall and turned it so that my loose hair hid the anguish on my face. Vasili opened the door and quickly got rid of the soldiers who had come after they heard my scream. I listened, desperately wanting to cry out, desperately wanting to run away and be free from all of this, but I couldn't speak. I still felt Vasili on me, his presence against me, his hands over my face, his lips on my skin. This strange and deadly ghost was insane, and I prayed that Rei was amongst the soldiers who had come. He wouldn't stand for Vasili's simple explanations. I knew that he would demanded to see me for himself and if Vasili would not let him then he would camp out behind the door and wait until I immerged.

I swallowed saliva down my closed throat and let out a gasp of anguish as he closed the door and I saw that there were was no Rei there to protect me. Vasili stammered, his walk uneven and forced as he came to me, kneeling down before my half-hidden face and gazing at me with conflicted eyes. He lifted his hand as though to move my hair aside but I threw my own hand up quickly and slapped it away. My eyes giving no sympathy to him for the deeds that he had done to me. He looked down; I could see a host of emotions on his face and within his eyes, a strange contrast to the blank look that he had entered the room with.

Without a word Vasili stood up and without an upward glance toward me headed for the door and quickly left through it.

I sighed, allowing myself to break down within the swell of fear and pain that I was feeling. Tears fell from my eyes uncontrollable until the act of my crying made me physically ill. After sitting against the wall for what seemed like hours, I pulled myself up. My body was blank and limp against the shell of my doubtful mind. I caught my reflection in the mirror and saw for the first time what he had done to me. My nightgown was torn at the sleeves and breast area, small clumps of my hair were missing and within my hands were clumps of his. Finger marks looked like small black and blue tattoos against my skin, marking my neck and shoulders as well as my wrists and arms. I watched as my lips began to quiver through the glass as I saw myself and didn't recognize it. I said nothing. I made no noise. I picked up a small comb that rested near the mirror and threw it as hard as I could into the reflection. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the guards on the balcony stir and look in through the curtains to check on me. I composed myself and slowly staggered toward the window that they looked through, and with the my outstretched hand I pulled the curtains shut, feeling the relief of being hidden if not safely inside my room.

Once I knew that I was concealed and that no one, even if they wanted to and were under orders to do so could watch me, I went to the wardrobe and pulled out another nightgown of the same style. Even with the nightgown on I felt exposed, as though every part of my body needed to be hidden, even my face, if I had had anything to cover it with I would have. I just wanted to dig a hole and never come out. Let the earth heal me like in the ancient stories and myths where great heroes go into the earth and the sky and return again stronger and more heroic then when they left.

I felt naked, and self conscious, so to cover up I pulled a long cape from the corner and tied the material together at the neck and let it hang over my body like a blanket, covering every part of me from my neck down to my toes.

Clutching the cape around me I sauntered over to the bed and pulled all of the covers over me as I desperately tried to find peace within the dream world. My mind reached out, hoping to connect with Zane, wherever he was.

During the dark night I felt a cold wind crawl across my face. The chill of it waking me up from whatever dream I had escaped into, though my mind was so closed off that I couldn't remember it. I lifted my face up, my sleep-ridden eyes trying to search the source of the cold out.

I quickly noticed that the balcony doors were open and the long white curtains blowing slightly in the drafty breeze. I waited a moment but I did not see the two guards that I had left there when I had fallen asleep. I scanned the room, but I could not see them anywhere. Exhausted and confused I let my head drop back onto the pillow below it and I had just prepared myself to get up and close the doors when I heard the sound of movement as if someone had moved quickly and their clothes had brushed up against the other. "Hello?" I whispered, my body alert to any danger that might come my way, and my fists clenched incase it was Vasili who had come back.

I jumped when a figure suddenly appeared before me, as though forming from the wind itself. The figure cupped a hand around my cheek softly, and through the darkness his identity was revealed to me. It was Zane...