The Goddess Skull: Chapter Two

There was not enough time.

No, there was surely not enough time, and not enough people on her side, and, oh, the sky was so dark, and-

“Maristella!” a voice yelled. Mari snarled.

She could not get caught.

Mari swerved around a corner, wheezing as dust floated up from where her feet hit the ground, and ran. Two steps at a time, she ascended the southern terrace and raced for the tower. The night was dark, and surely she would cut her feet, but-

“Mari!” the same voice yet again cut through the quiet. She panted and kept running, but this voice had made her startle.

She had stolen another one of those, those things from her father’s study. And now, the most skilled of his guard was after her.

This was an infuriatingly horrible plan.

Her plan was simple; steal the mysterious object discreetly, make her way to the terrace, and deliver the thing through the prison door of the tower. But clearly, she was not quiet enough. If only her father had taught her how to be a warrior as well as a lady.

She scaled the last few stairs. The door was but ten feet from her face. Just a little longer, she could slip the object through the door, and-

“Aha!” Mari cursed as someone took hold of her arms. The thing slipped free of her grasp, and she cried out as it hit the floor with a dull thud.

“Unhand me, you scoundrel!” She cried out, thrashing aimlessly, as if she were nothing but a toddler. The guard behind her chortled, his cold, steel armor scratching almost painfully at her back.

“That won’t do, My Lady,” the man smirked, spinning her, nearly stepping on the thing. “You know you aren’t meant to enter the Southern Tower.”

“I’m not allowed into my own blasted home?!” she snarled. She aimlessly pushed against the guard’s chest. No, she couldn’t cry right now, but the wetness in her eyes tempted her, and suddenly, she burst into tears against his chest. She heard him take in a stiff breath before guiding her back down the staircase.

“This is all too much over a simple book, My Lady.”

She sniffled. He sighed.

“What is a book?” she whispered.

“A book? How… how do you not know what a book is?”

She tilted her head. Her father never taught her anything.

“Well? Will you tell me what it is?”

She looked up at the guard, at his worn, brown eyes, and saw his sympathy. He did not like having to do this. To capture her and drag her back to her room over and over again. She worried her lip.

“Let me go,” she said softly.

He ignored her. “A book is a long number of pages bound together with a ribbon and wood. And usually, there’s a title.”

“A title?” she said wondrously. “Like Lady or Lord?”

He sighed and ran a hand down his face. “May I leave now?”

“No,” he snarled. He grabbed her arm, quite forcefully, and ignored her yelps as he dragged her back towards the west wing. “You will stay in your bedroom until your father bids you to dinner. Do you understand, My Lady?”

“If I say yes, will you let me go?”

“Off to your room it is, then.”

Mari snapped. With a shrill cry, she elbowed the guard, with just enough force to startle him, and slid the thing- a book, he called it- through the door of the southern tower. She then ran.

“My Lady!” the guard called, panted as he ran after her. “Mari!”

She ignored him and jumped off the last few steps, skidding to a halt. Two more floors, and she would make it to her bedroom just in time for her father to find her-

Her father stood right in front of her.

No. No. No, this couldn’t be happening. She still had ten minutes until dinner. She still had time to change, to rub the dirt of her face, to clean her bruised feet-

“Maristella,” her father said softly. His voice was cracked and shattered. His furrowed brows were a thousand shades of silver, all of which reminded her of dull jewelry that lost itself to time.

Was that shame she saw in his eyes?

She paused. Gripped her braid. And- all of a sudden- she wished the guard were there, for he felt much more akin to a father in her eyes than her own flesh and blood. Her father’s gaze made her cripple. His touch made her faint. She wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and die whenever she saw him.

But she mustn’t. There was too much she needed to save. Two hearts she had to keep beating.

She swallowed, fixed her feet, and stood tall. Her heart beat so quickly, she was sure it would burst.

“Yes, father?”

He paused and adjusted the burgundy robe draped across his short, weathered body.

“You visited your mother.”

“I did no such thing,” Mari snarled. Sure, she had attempted. But attempting something and doing something were two very different things in her mind. “I merely took a stroll on the terrace.”

“A stroll that led you straight to your mother’s tower?!” The old man’s voice suddenly boomed, and all at once, Mari crippled to the floor. Many people in her land possessed enhancements- more speed, more sight, more time. Her father possessed sound. It was quite an advantage, considering that yelling made his daughter cry.

“Father, please-” ringing in her ears began to grow.

“NO! I will not tolerate you seeing that heathen you call mother-”

“Father-”

The ringing grew louder. She tuned him out.

Her eardrum burst.

With a cry, Mari was cradled by the guard from before. He pressed a cloth to her bloodied ear, murmured something unintelligible.

“Stupid girl,” her father snarled. “We had dinner with the king tonight…”

The King? Mari thought of the fragments of memory she had of the man. He was but a boy, a year or so younger than her, and she’d heard pressure from the navy council demanded he take a wife. He had been traveling for months across the Notche, in search of someone to trade with. If he’d come back, it would only be because of the desperate need for a…

Oh.

Oh no.

“Father!” Mari cried, thrashing against the guard’s chest yet again. “I’m not marrying the boy king! I will not fall into the same fate as my mother!”

“You don’t have a mother,” he said softly.

“And I don’t want to be courted!”

“You will wed him,” her father said softly. “And bring our family honor.”

Mari pushed past the tiredness, past the guard, and ran.