The Vixen Trials

Going To Die

"You would have been a magnificent queen"

Keilah

The first round commenced with a loud fanfare. On the raised platform, surrounded by a cheering crowd held back by vigilant palace guards, the Prince with his sword in hand fought the Protectors of the Vixens, one by one, in fights that had ceremonial flourishes and lots of showmanship but no real bite. Until her uncle took the stage.

The Prince, his blonde hair still perfectly tied back, said the ritual words to open the bout: "Lord Rustavan, I desire your niece, Lady Keilah of the House of Lavilyn to become my Vixen." There was something menacing about his tone that had been absent the previous times. 

​Lord Rustavan bowed and gave the required reply, "As her Protector, you must challenge me and win." 

With a sudden roar, the Prince threw himself at Lord Rustavan, attacking him with a ferocity that caused him to take a step or so back and Keilah realised that he meant to fight for real. All the talk she had heard of the hatred the Prince had for her uncle resounded in her mind. How far would the Prince go? And how would her uncle respond. Surely he knew better to do anything other than defend himself. 

 Lord Rustavan regained his footing and shouted, "I can take you, you young pup."

​He'd insulted the Prince! A rush of fear flooded Keilah. He must be planning to kill him for neither the Prince nor the Queen-Priestess would tolerate such open disrespect. As she leaned forward, clutching the sides of her seat, she saw the Prince's eyes fixed with fiery determination as he deftly attempted attacks while her uncle chuckled and parried them with ease. 

Then the Prince in his eagerness to make contact, over reached himself, leaving his right breast exposed. Standing above him, Keilah cried out to warn him.

He checked himself and dodged, but he was too late. Her uncle's blade ripped into his shoulder.

​"First blood," Lord Rustavan smirked, and resumed a fighting stance that carried the conviction of long experience on the battlefield, but the Prince danced back, with a grace that enthralled Keilah. Her uncle leapt forward and the Prince, in a clever move too fast for her to track, shoved his sword into his throat.

Then Keilah was staring down at the pool of blood that sprung from his crumpled body and a strong desire seized her to taste it, but strangers from the crowd raced over and beat her too it. She climbed down from the platform shakily horrified at her longing for the blood. It's not natural or right she thought as she welcomed the arms of Alyssia around her, seeing as if from far away Silsa sobbing in the arms of her stone-faced grandmother. A numbness enveloped her. Lord Rustavan was her kin even if he saw her only as part of his schemes. He was a link to her mother's past and Silsa's father and now he was gone. 

​"Lord Rustavan was responsible for my father's death. I have had my vengeance," the Prince shouted, his sword aloft, to cries of celebration from the crowd.

He continued, ​"And you shall have yours too. Many of you have known loss by the Hattavah." A hissing, ugly sound came from the crowd. "After the second round of the Vixen Trials all those who have been victims of the Hattavah can line up beside the guard tower. You will have your chance for revenge." A wild cheering broke out from the crowd and terror seized Keilah's heart.

​"I want to get in that line," Alyssia said, drawing away from her. 

​Lady Keilah stared at her. 

"I want to say goodbye."

​"It won't be goodbye," Lady Keilah insisted. "We will save him somehow. I have a plan. But do anything you can for him. Stay with him. Hold up the line. Buy him time. And Pipsqueak and Jalen, you must rescue him somehow."