Chapter 7

“I see you still are not going to speak with me.” Xenos said idly as he took a sip of wine from the ornate cup before him.

I said nothing in response, instead continuing to pick at the food I had barely touched. I wanted to accuse him of poisoning it, but I knew that it had less to 
do with the food and more to do with the company as to why my stomach was in knots. I had not been far from his sight for three days and he seemed 
content with the arrangement. I had thought I would surely have been killed by now, but instead the treatment had radically changed. I had been allowed 
to return to my acolyte duties within the sanctuaries, the clothes laid out for me had changed in texture and I knew they were of richer quality.

Xenos, however, had not changed. He looked at me over the piece of bread he was eating and his eyes were possessive. I wanted to scream that I was 
no man's slave, but I knew it was not true. What would he do, I pondered, if I were to do something highly rebellious?

“I will need your help in the deliberation chambers today.” He said as he put the food back upon the plate, rubbing his fingers together to rid them of 
crumbs. “You will fold the maps as I finish with them, and should I require it, you may entertain my guests.” The words held a chord of promise that 
made my blood run cold. He laughed at me. “At least I can still get a rise out of you, even when you don't talk. Your eyes, my dear, are so very 
expressive.” He grabbed my chin in his hand and I jerked my face violently from his grip.

“Also, Cynara is not a suitable name for you any longer.” He said as he stood up, rubbing his hands together. “Since you are not talking I think I should 
call you something that might at least amuse me.” He tilted my face up again and this time the grip demanded nothing less than my full attention. 
“Euphemia.” He said and then he laughed.

Euphemia. To speak. It was just the kind of humor I was beginning to become familiarized with over the last three days in the tyrant's company. 

“If you do not acknowledge the name when it is called, I will have you thrashed within an inch of your life. Must we truly ruin more of that perfect skin 
because you are so stubborn?” His eyes were deadly serious even though a smile quirked his lips.

I nodded and he released me, leaving me to adjust my jaw and wince in the aftermath of pain. “It is your time in the sanctuary.” He told me as though 
the conversation that had just transpired was nothing out of the ordinary. “I suggest you do your job well. Desedira has been informed that you are to 
be carefully watched should you decide to do anything…stupid.”


~*~

Another week found me in the same predicament. Dinners with the tyrant had become strange. He stared at me as though he found something there 
of interest, and the flash I saw within his eyes unnerved me. Hate blazed in those dark eyes, much as he must have seen the same emotion within my 
own crystal gaze. But, there was something else, something far darker and it seemed…hungry. Hungry for me or hungry for something I represented. 
Whatever it stood for, it made my soul quake in fear. When my new name fell from his lips it was sweet like honey and it whispered of dark things 
shared by lovers in the hush of night. It was a sound of possession. I belonged to him, and each day the knowledge sank further and deeper.

“He's mending some sort of broken heart, you know.” Emilia told me as she helped me into my evening robe. New things had been added to my 
wardrobe. There was a heavy golden linked piece that went over my head and fell over my shoulders. It was Xenos's insignia that blazed in silver 
from the center of it. Gold bands were placed around my arms and try as I might I was never able to remove them. 

“Broken heart? How can such a monster have a broken heart when he has no heart at all.” I responded with a shake of my head as she fastened 
the heavy shoulder plate at the back.

“All men who are so dark have some secret weakness.” Emilia continued idly as she began to brush my hair. “Hasn't it always been so? The sweet 
boy becomes the horrible man because something was stolen from him once.”

“I think you use your imagination too freely.” I told the girl as I stared into the burning fire. But it was not the fire I saw. His face haunted me, called 
to me in nightmares and in idle moments as I lit the inner candles of the altar.

“Mark my words, miss.” The young woman said. “He's nursing something. That is why he seeks power so violently.”

Perhaps she was right, but I did not want to think kindly of the man who had murdered my entire family. He was a monster, and I did not need my 
thoughts swayed to a kinder point of view. I brushed her busy hands away and stood. “I am going to go to the central garden.” I told her.

“I will come with you.” Emilia said as she straightened, brushing her skirts smooth.

“I would rather walk alone, Emilia.” I told her.

She gave me an apologetic smile. “Xenos does not want you left alone until he is certain you are not going to attempt anything.”

“I am merely going to go pick some leaves from the yellow flowers near the southern wall.” I said mildly. “They have a pungent scent that clears the 
mind and chest of all its ailments.”

“I still must insist.” She said and I could tell she wanted to do anything but that in that express moment.

“Alright.” I told her and I exited the room without gazing at her again. I was a prisoner in this place, yes, but not in the dungeon being tortured. I had 
heard stories already in my own short confinement of what happened to those men, women, and even sometimes children who were bound there. As 
a result of this I did not protest too loudly of my treatment. The only bruises that were upon my flesh were those placed by Xenos himself. I preferred 
the marks of the tyrant rather than the talents of someone born and bred to bring pain to body and scream to mouth.

But, it also did not mean that I was going to be any less fervent in my plans to destroy the man. This trip into the garden would be the first of many 
attempts to rid myself of Xenos. The yellow flowered plant was one Ariana had shown me long ago. It was true that the leaves would clear the head 
and chest of congestion and other discomforts, but it was also true that I had always mixed the juice ground from those leaves too strongly. When 
mixed too strongly, an unkind death was certain to be the result. I picked three times the leaves more than needed to make the poison and tucked 
them into a fold of my robe.

I lingered, taking in the setting sun. It seemed that I rarely saw the sun any longer and the stars even less. It made my soul ache to see them enter the 
sky one by one as they awoke from their daily slumber to rule the night. I left before the lion could rise in the sky. I now knew what he represented to 
me, and what had calmed me sometimes as a child and given me fear at others was now a representation of what I sought to overcome. I did not need 
the stars to remind me of it. 

I ground the leaves in my own chambers before I was due to meet with Xenos and others in his deliberation chambers for supper over the maps. Xenos 
kept me close in the deliberations, as though I were some sort of good luck charm, some figure that would grant him the right decisions by my mere 
presence.

He would never survive the liquid I would slip into his glass of wine as I poured it from the bottle to serve with his bread. Three times the required 
amount would be bound to cause a painful end, but he had caused pain to so many. Surely a painful death was due punishment for such a creature.

I carefully poured the liquid into a small vial I had acquired from another of the temple handmaidens and hid it within the folds of my robe. I smoothed 
back my hair and exited my chambers to walk down the ever-dark halls where I knew he would be waiting with the others. I entered quietly and was 
not acknowledged. It was something I was slowly becoming accustomed to. At one time there would have been as many women as men listed amongst 
the soldiers. Now, there were only men whose faces were amongst those gathered.

But one of those faces I remembered.

I could have never forgotten the face of the man who had almost been my spirit of death those years ago when I was stirring the dinner stew outside 
of Ariana's hut. I had never known his name, but his hair still glimmered the same hue of gold, like mine had then before it had been sheared and 
coated with dust from sanctuary incense and oil. And he recognized me. I saw it in his eyes as I walked past him to the table where the platter of 
bread, fruit, and cheese was waiting along with the empty glasses and bottle of wine.

I hid the vial between my fingers and inconspicuously emptied its contents into the glass, hurriedly filling the remainder with dark red wine. I swirled it 
in the glass to be certain the contents mixed successfully, leaving no remainder of odor or flavor. With that I carefully took it and a platter of food to 
where Xenos sat at the head of the deliberation table. I said nothing to him – as I had promised – and sat it down in front of him.

“How gracious of you, Euphemia.” He said in that same dark, intimate voice he had begun to use with me more and more the last few days. He took 
the glass of wine and I was careful to keep all expression from my face as he lifted it to his lips. He gazed at me for the span of a few seconds and then 
he took the glass away from his mouth, giving me a strange look. Then he smiled. 

“Abranius.” He said and the man I had remembered stepped out of the other advisors gathered. He still had the boyish quality about him I had noted 
as a child, but hardship had hardened the flesh around his eyes. Sights no man should ever have to see had most likely left its mark upon his mind. I 
felt my heart grow cold when Xenos handed him the glass. “Have you always been ever loyal to me and the cause?” He asked.

Abranius glanced at me and I knew he harbored the same fear as I when he looked briefly into my eyes. “Of course, sir. All of us have.” A chorus 
of agreement came from the others gathered.

“And you know how I reward loyalty, do you not?” Xenos asked in the same cryptic tones.

“Yes, sir.” Abranius said with a nod, his jaw visibly clenching and unclenching. I was suddenly riveted on how it made a muscle in his neck jump as 
though it were a creature seeking escape. 

“Then have this glass of wine.” Xenos said. “It is the finest, I can assure you.”

My heart leapt into my throat. I wanted to scream out, to warn the young man, but Xenos's eyes held me prisoner and all I could do was stare into 
those dark fiery depths. “I know.” Those eyes seemed to say to me as they held me. It was only for a few moments, but those few moments were 
enough to distract me from the blond beauty lifting the glass to his lips, swallowing the poisoned fruits of my hand.

“It is indeed the finest.” Abranius said but within a few seconds the expression on his face changed and the color visibly drained, leaving him a 
strange grayish pale hue. “Poison.” He managed to whisper as the glass fell from his hand to shatter against the stone floor.

As he sank to his knees, gripping at his chest and his stomach as though to rip his organs from his flesh Xenos rose from his seat and came to circle 
around the agonizing man. His crimson cape brushed against Abranius's tortured face as the man choked for breath as the poison shut down his 
heart and his lungs.

“And you know how I punish failure, do you not?” Xenos asked in sour tones.

Abranius was unable to make any verbal response, instead clawing at his throat, leaving angry red welts in the wake of his nails.

“I know now of the lie you committed some ten sun revolutions ago.” Xenos said as he watched as Abranius sank until he was prostrate against the 
floor, tugging at the hem of Xenos's cape as though begging for mercy, or for release. “Consider this your reward.”

“No!” The cry broke from my throat before I could stop it and it seemed my movements were not my own as I leapt forward and took Xenos's own 
sword from the sheath at his side. He and more than one other soldier tried to subdue me, but their actions were not successful until after I had driven 
the point of the blade through the man named Abranius's chest. I knew the poison would take its time meandering through his system, that the pain he 
would feel in his last moments would be the most agonizing he had ever felt, devoid of thought or release. I could not allow it. I could not allow the 
man who had once saved my life to die so savagely because my plans had once more gone awry. 

The last look within those clear eyes was gratitude, and it made me sick to my stomach to see it.

The sword was wrenched from my hand and my arms were dragged behind my back. “Shall we kill her, sir?” A soldier even younger than I asked.

“No.” Xenos said and a smile was quirking his lips. “It seems she has helped achieve justice this night.”

My voice was still in my throat again. I wanted to shake my head, to deny what he was saying. But, to do so would have been a lie. I should have 
known that such a simple thing as poison would not have escaped a man who most likely had faced the same threat time and again during his 
horrible career. I had served the tyrant's purposes beautifully, and I began to wonder if it would be better that I threw myself from the cliffs on the 
far side of the island and join my family instead of attempting to avenge them. 

I had killed the man who had saved me. I had destroyed what had once been my only hope.

I was stunned and still when Xenos walked up to me and put an arm around my waist to draw me close to him. I was too shocked to protest, too 
mournful to react to the words he whispered in my ear. “If you are going to try and kill me, little songbird, I suggest you become more clever.”

I did react, however, to what I heard within his voice when he spoke the words. It was desire and the same shone within his eyes as I lifted my face 
to look at him. Something about the look excited me unbidden, and I swallowed hard to distract myself from the tightening low in my body, a bodily 
reaction that made me want to cry out and scream at the loathing it caused within me. I could not react this way, not to him.

His expression became confused and he suddenly released me as though I had grown too warm to the touch. Surely he had seen it and that was 
what made him turn away and run a hand back through his own hair and turn his attention back to his maps as though nothing had happened. He 
paused briefly after unfolding one of the maps of the southern sector. “Get the body out of here.” He told two soldiers and they hurried to follow 
his orders with gusto. There was nothing like the death of a comrade for disobeying an order from years ago to bring a new jump to one's step 
and eagerness to please to their heart.

I was left backing into the corner, but unable to tear my eyes away from the armor-clad form bending over the table. Sickness welled up within me 
at the thoughts that went unbidden through my mind. And yet I watched him, watched him as though some secret would be revealed to me through 
simple observation, as though some understanding, or even perhaps some shred of decency, might shine through and make him less of a monster 
and more of a man within my eyes. 

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