Page 16 of Her Royal Blood

“Take him to his assignment,” my guard instructed and like that, I was freed from solitary and at the mercy of my new best friend or worst enemy depending on who you asked.

We got a good distance from the main building before I asked, “so should I be ready to strike you down? Or stand by your side?”

“What do you think is wiser, proclaiming my fealty to you with my most trusted companions after killing a man for attempting to poison the camp or lying to a guard about duping them to murder you myself? Both serve my purpose, you can hem and haw over it, but I want off of this island, by your side seems like the better deal.” He looked at me and the matter was resolved.

“I don’t give a shit about picking up trash. We need to find out how we can get as many men as possible out of here,” I told him as we made our way into the jungle.

“Getting several men out of here at this moment, isn’t going to happen. There is no way for more than a few of us to cross this landscape and survive. The guards are always out there and the black fanged viper like the one you found at breakfast, is our biggest threat. Their bites are lethal and they’re everywhere. They’re drawn to warmth so will come up on you in the night. A good weapon if you can hook one on a stick, though. Just feed the flesh to whoever you want dead and within a day they’ll be gone. A few of the prisoners have killed guards with them, but it’s risky business.” Hawk kept walking with me as we spoke about our escape.

“So I can get out and then come back with our army, perhaps we can find another way to liberate the men. I won’t get much support from them, if I can’t get them off the island,” I said, wondering how I’d be able to transfer so many prisoners off of Vitoria before Polonius was able to enlist them into the Crypt Claw army.

“As long as you have a plan to get them out and into better lives, they’ll probably hold on, most have been here for years with no escape in sight, this gives them some hope,” Hawk said and by the look on his face, I could see his genuine care for these people.

Beyond the main camp with the central hub and the housing barracks that surrounded it, were the pitaya fields which we could see from the small hill we’d climbed. They’d all been burned and were useless, as not even one Crimson Pitaya plant grew in the vast and barren fields.

“That bastard,” I said under my breath. “Polonius shut down this operation so that Navarrah City had no Crimson Pitaya inventory to manage. I sure hope Aria is able to keep him away from her crops until we can kill him.”

“The fields were scorched a few months ago,” Hawk told me. “All that fruit, all of the magic protection in the husks, everything was destroyed.”

“Queen Aria of Onyx Rah has fields and Polonius just gained power over them.” I couldn’t help but feel the heaviness of defeat.

“Why did Queen Aria marry him? Rumor has it she was to marry you,” Hawk seemed uncomfortable asking. “You don’t have to tell me. I mean Royal and political shit doesn’t really interest me.”

“I am going to marry Aria, but Polonius had her backed against a wall. She would never have chosen it of her own free will but he threatened my life and the lives of her entire kingdom, she had to marry him. She’ll fight back with all she has, she’s tough and strong, but Polonius will stop at nothing to get what he wants and if it means hurting her and those she loves he’ll do it. Despite everything, she’s a good queen and a just sovereign. She’s in a hard place trying to save as many as she can.”

“I don’t envy her,” Hawk said, showing empathy. “When I first came to the island, the men hated me and often tried to murder me as well because of my size. I didn’t fit in. I was the only one who actually survived that room where they first put you. I lasted a week killing every man who tried to murder me and finally I was sent to the general population. After so many men died, they didn’t dare try and kill me again.” We stepped over the rugged terrain as the heavy and oppressive heat stifled the air around us.

“I’m impressed, that is no easy feat. I only had to survive you and an abysmal fool,” I laughed as we continued to climb the rough and rocky land.

“The rest of the men, the ones who didn’t fight me, they either had family members I’d freed from Brahman’s Peak orhad helped get better jobs. They started looking to me as their leader. The men will follow me anywhere. If your troops can get onto the island we’ll stage a coup and over take the guards, but we need boats and back up.”

I could trust Hawk, I had a gut feeling he was our ticket out of Vitoria Island and so I decided to be honest with him.

“If we can get the men and women to fight with my father’s armies, we can overtake Polonius. All we need is to catch him unaware. Just one dagger through the neck, or an arrow to his heart and our nightmare will be over.”

“I’ll get word to the women. Their housing is across the river. There is only one way over the rapids and it’s heavily guarded, but I know a few of the guards. While we are on the island there is no way out. Every water entry point is heavily guarded and no boats can sail without Crypt Claw attacking them. There are a few hiding places but no real means to survive in any of them because of the animals. Not only are the black fangs a problem, but at night we have big cats that prowl for prey. The guards keep them out of our barracks, but they've been known to kill a prisoner or two,” Hawk cautioned as sweat started dripping down his temples.

He must have been so used to the oppressive heat, he didn’t bother to wipe it away.

Moving the vines and dense foliage away from us as we walked, I could see by how heavily vegetated the area was. Stepping on something lethal or being caught by a predator could be easily done.

“Do you have to use the flesh of the black fanged viper? Or is there another way to extract the snake’s poison?” I asked as we both carefully made the steep climb to the top of a small jutting hill just outside of the men’s camp. “It would be good to use as a weapon if we could get it.”

“They can be boiled and the venom will infuse with the water. But they’re so toxic, just eating their flesh will kill you. Since it’s hard to get near the fires, we’ve usually just had a prisoner in the mess hall put the snake bits in the guard’s pot. Kills a few of them off, but it’s indiscriminate.” Hawk stopped for a moment to assess the land and our location. “Okay. You can see the river down there? It goes to the ocean, but the farther from the camps it flows the faster the water rages. There is no way to survive the rapids, too many rocks and waterfalls.”

“So we can’t escape on the water. We wouldn’t be able to swim to Navarrah City anyway. What about cargo ships?” I asked, thinking we could stow aboard one of them.

“All run by Crypt Claw. Polonius has total control of this island. Shit! Fuck!!!” Hawk screamed. “Redveign, you’ve been bit. Fuck, goddamn it. Weren’t you looking? We were just talking about the damn things. Damn it, if you fucking die on me.”

I looked down and attached to my ankle was a black fanged viper. After a momentary delay, pain like none I’d ever known bloomed through my body and I crumbled to the ground.

Chapter 7

Aria

I was dragged out of the Eagle’s Nest bar where I’d taken refuge as soon as I arrived in Navarrah City and didn’t dare scream as I didn’t want to be seen or recognized.

“Let go of me,” I protested under my breath when I was dragged into an alley and pressed against a wall.

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