I don't know what you guys will think of how I made Celaena, she's a bit hardhearted/careless in this chapter. What do you think?
Everyone looked up. Little Celaena sat casually on one of the ceiling arches chomping on an apple. She wore a tunic of dark cream with delicate gold thread embroidery. Her leather trousers were moulded to her slim legs and her knee high boots were polished to a blinding shine. A white cloak was clasped around her shoulders and it hung down in balanced folds.
"Heard you were looking for me," she said calmly. Celaena wore a slight half grin but her eyes were hard and serious. Her lustrous gold hair was unbound and it tumbled haphazardly down her back.
The king bared his teeth into a smile. "So the pampered princess finally gifts us with her presence, does she?"
Celaena shrugged. "I was busy," she said simply.
"Is that all you have as an explanation?" the Adarlan king demanded. "You missed the execution of your brother and sister. Do you not care at all?"
She gave another shrug. "Sometimes it's better to not care about things that you have no control over." The king was getting annoyed.
"Why don't you come down and we can talk eye to eye." Celaena cocked her head to the side.
"It's fine. I am pretty comfortable up here." She took another bite of the apple.
"As your King-"he began, but Celaena cut him off.
"You are not my king. No one rules over me. I govern myself," Celaena snapped without thinking. The king raised his eyebrows and looked toward King Nikolai. She smiled thinly. "That's my father. I see you've introduced yourself quite well." Celaena eyed the shackles in distaste. To her surprise, the king began to laugh.
"You have a considerable mouth. If your sister was anything like you she probably won't have fallen for my son." Celaena smiled icily.
"I wouldn't fall for any Havilliard, as handsome as they might be," she said pausing to give Sage an approving onceover. The king stared at her questioning. Celaena shrugged sheepishly. "What can I say? I am a girl at heart. One who likes pretty things, including people."
The king blinked at her, surprised. "You are only eight. You do realize that right?" His tone made it certain that he didn't regard her highly for this piece of information. Celaena grinned slyly.
"When you are the crown princess and have been getting marriage proposals for the last five years, you end up thinking a lot about the qualifications of your suitors, do you not? Age doesn't seem to really make a difference with my many admirers." The king cocked his head.
"Was Sage one of them?" Celaena gave him a confused look. "Was Sage one of your admirers?" he put a special emphasis on the last word. She smirked.
"Would you have liked him to be?" she purred. " Although," she added, waving a careless hand toward Sage's dead body, "I can't say I care much for dead suitors. They smell horrible." Celaena wrinkled her nose and took a bite of apple. She dropped the core down near the king's boots. He leaped back with a sound of revulsion. Celaena stifled a laugh. The king glared up at her.
"This is not funny. We have made enough small talk. You better come down, now." Celaena's eyes narrowed.
"Oh, I do, do I? How about a straightforward answer? No." The king's eyes flashed and he shook his head half smiling.
"You are bold, I'll give you that."
"They call me Briar Rose for a reason you know. Pretty but sharp." Celaena drawled.
The king tilted his head. "Indeed." He went silent for a moment. "I'll tell you what. I won't kill you yet. I'll give you until the morning." Celaena's brows rose.
"To what do I own this gift?" The king didn't answer but walked to the doors.
"You and your parents have till morning," he repeated. "My guards will escort you to your rooms after you reminisce. After all," the King of Adarlan smirked, "we wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable."
He stalked forward; his soldiers falling in step behind him. Two guards were posted outside the hall but the rest of the entourage vanished from view. After she deemed it safe, Celaena slammed soundlessly to the marble floor in a crouched position, her white cloak swirling around her. She locked the throne room doors hastily and turned to face her parents. Celaena seethed furiously into the silence.
"I am so sorry, little Star," Nikolai said finally into the crackling, angry silence. She turned on him so fast he flinched.
"Oh, sorry, are you," Celaena said mockingly. "You can tell that to all the subjects you just gave up on."
"Isensta," Leyana began.
"No." Celaena snapped raising a hand, as if to block the words. "You knew. You both knew the attack was going to take place today, and you sent me to Aunt Pagiel with the blank oh so important letter fully knowing that everyone was going to die." She shook her head. "You made sure I wouldn't be here when the this," she waved a hand over the hall, "happened."
"Is it so bad to want to protect your child from danger?" Leyana asked softly, defeated.
Celaena laughed then, harsh and cold. "How delightful. I'm an only child now, am I?" She smiled. It was a broken jagged thing. "What about Brigan? Fain? What happened to Anastaji? Are they not your kin? Your children? I am only one of four, mother. When did you decide that one child was worth more than the others?" The queen's face crumbled and the fallen king hissed out a breath.
"Isensta!" Nikolai said sharply. "Have some respect for your mother!" Celaena shifted her gaze to him, eyes glistening with anguish.
"Fain was only five, father! He has barely lived at all. Brigan was about to graduate from Mage Academy, as one of the their best and brightest. And Ana? Ana is a kinslayer." Celaena spat out the last words with venom. Nikolai opened his mouth, then closed it.
"Can't say anything to that, can you," she choked back a sob. "You out of all people should know about Seer Ana's betrayal. She opened the palace gates for Adarlan at her lover's command. She caused the deaths of everyone in the castle. And for what? So she and Sage could be together. Ana had most to gain from this invasion anyway. If Adarlan had won and conquered Terrasen, the king would have eventually died and passed the throne off to Prince Sage. And you know that Sage would have married Ana. It's obvious. Ana would have become queen of both Adarlan and Terrasen."
"You would say that about your own sister, Star?" Leyana challenged. "Ana is your elder."
"I wouldn't have to say it if it weren't true." Celaena straightened her eyes holding Leyana's. "I warned her. Sage works for his father. He is his father's son. Why should Ana trust him?" Celaena shook her head. "But she didn't listen. She was too love-struck to do anything but stare at the ceiling and moon over his pretty green eyes. Even at the last moment when everything was falling apart she chose him over us. Nobody decided for her. And as if destroying Terrasen was not enough, she had to lead the Adarlan forces to Uncle Aspen's summer estate. Aunt Teresa; your own sister, Uncle Aspen and your beloved niece, Daray were slaughtered in their beds!"
"I know that," the queen snapped. Celaena cocked a brow.
"Do you really? Because I don't think you understand very well. If I was here when this happened Terrasen might have had a chance against Adarlan, that I know you comprehended."
"You are merely eight, Isensta, and a little girl at that." Nikolai sighed. "You won't understand war."
"Oh, I understand very well. I may be a little eight year old girl but I am a little eight year old girl with smarts. You can't deny that. Not when I have finished all my studies before the age of seven. You even slotted me into the King's Council on my eighth birthday. So don't say I don't understand war, father. It is not a complex subject to grasp. Not when you are me."
"I know you are intelligent but-"
"There are no buts, father. You and mother made a bad decision with sending me to Aunt Pagiel but we can't change that now. Death is on our doorstep." Celaena slumped down to the floor. "Or actually make that, just right outside the hall."
Nikolai tried to smile, but failed miserably. "You were always a bit brazen." Celaena's lips curved up slightly.
"Only a bit?"
The king relented."Fine. Maybe a lot."
There was a peaceful silence.
Then, the doors opened with a crash. Celaena turned around serenely, her cloak fluttering with her graceful movement while Nikolai and Leyana clambered to their feet, shackles clanking. Their expressions were carefully composed.
Seven guards strode in, mail and armor clanking ominously. "You are to come with us," the grave tone of the captain sparking a vague hint of fear into Celaena's eyes. But she only inclined her head, a practiced elegant movement that hinted of court trained charisma. She lifted her head slightly while her demure gaze remained trained to the marble, an artificially submissive expression painted on her face.
"Are my parents coming as well?" she asked in a timid voice. The guards exchanged glances.
"Your parents may come too if they please." The captain said.
"We do please." Nikolai said flatly.
"Fine," the Captain sighed irritably. The soldiers took their places at either side of the royals. Two reached for Celaena but she held her ground resolutely.
"That will not be necessary. I am perfectly capable of walking on my own, thank you." The guards hesitated looking toward their captain. His gaze caught Celaena's and held. Whatever he had seen in her features gave him pause, but he eventually nodded brusquely. The captain impatiently waited for his soldiers to restrain the royal couple. Not that the royals needed any restraining. The usurped king and queen looked at their daughter emotionlessly, a placid mask firmly in place.
They set off. Past the beautifully carved whitewood doors, the rivers of crimson blood that Celaena nimbly step-sided and the bodies of innocents, the smell of rotting flesh and decay, blood and despair.
Their footsteps echoed through the still palace. The royals didn't blink twice at the carnage even though the pain and sorrow in their faces were plain to see. They stopped at the royal apartments and shoved Leyana and Nikolai in the master's suite.
"Don't try anything," the Captain growled the warning. Celaena opened the door to her own room and shut the door, but not before she caught a glimpse of the Adarlan soldiers that were posted outside her bedroom door .
She heaved a deep breath and sighed, rubbing her hands over her face. Exhaustion, anguish and resignation played a game of tug-of-war over her delicate features.
Celaena stepped into her rooms, a large apartment that consisted of a bedroom with a luxurious adjoining bathing chamber and lavish dressing room. Other rooms include a small dining room, sitting parlor, and training hall. A multitude of sharp weapons were hung on walls with a little antechamber off to the side that stored healing supplies, armor and other equipment and ammunition.
As was the throne room, Celaena's living quarters were dominated by Terrasen colours, cream and gold. Subtle elegance. Her rooms were not a show of wealth and station, more of a understated grandeur. Celaena unclasped her snow white cloak and flung it on a plush caramel velvet armchair. The fabric fluttered down to settle in graceful folds.
She moved toward her balcony and Celaena quickly peeked down. Guards were stationed everywhere. Holding in a sigh, she quietly crawled up the railing, the designs running up and down the masonry giving Celaena a slight ledge in which to push up herself up. She grabbed for a long stretch of knotted ivy a few feet up the wall but it snapped in her grasp.
Celaena wobbled dangerously for a moment before she gave in to gravity. She fell back down to her balcony with a stifled scream and thump. She peered down between the gaps in the banister, her face a few shades paler. None of the guards seemed to have heard and Celaena heaved a silent breath in relief. She looked up and shuddered hugged her knees to her chest.
"You were very, very lucky this time Isensta. Could you be even stupider as to try that a second time? You would have died," she berated herself. "Idiot." Celaena stood up slowly working out the sore spots on her back. She stretched, wincing slightly as she tugged herself higher.
There was a sharp knock at the door. Celaena froze, momentarily panicked, her arms still in the air. She lowered her arms, brows furrowed. Celaena stepped into her apartment foyer, her supple leather boots gliding fluidly on the hard marble floor, with only the smallest of sounds. She cracked open the door cautiously, aquamarine eyes peering from the opening, scanning the person behind it.
"Dinner," said the gruff voice of the soldier before shoving open the door with a strong arm. Celaena stumbled as the large weight pressed her back, but quickly regained her balance. She glared daggers at her rough guard, but took the silver tray. She shut the doors with a sharp backward kick and brought the platter into her bedroom. She set it down on the dresser.
The food sent steam wafting in Celaena's direction but she merely grimaced turning her back on it. Not that it wasn't appetizing. The smoked salmon seasoned with basil and thyme looked absolutely delicious. The vaguely spicy scent of black pepper mingled with the minty, citrusy fragrance of the other herbs to create a masterpiece of aroma. She finally sat down and picked up her fork. The silver glimmered, catching the candlelight.
Celaena gripped the eating utensil hard, her knuckles whitening. She squeezed her eyes shut, shining droplets of salt forming under each lid. The tears overflowed tracing a slow descent over Celaena's pale, angular cheeks. She dropped the fork with a clatter her hands going up to cover her face as she sobbed soundlessly.
Reviews are very, very welcome. :)