Her Stolen Grace Ch 02

Thank you so much for returning to the series for Chapter 2! I will reiterate, once again, that the buildups will be slow and if that is not to your taste, my work probably won't be for you. This chapter ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated just because I got so caught up on building the world behind the story, creating characters, and conjuring political intrigue. I have a terrible habit of getting lost in the details. Hopefully you all don't mind :)

Thanks again for supporting and stopping by; I hope you enjoy!

**********

Three days. Amora waited three days before she began planning her next escape. The last attempt took nearly a month to plan and she was already behind. It had become increasingly apparent to her that the freedoms that had allowed her to execute her previous escape were becoming a thing of the past.

The King had not dined with her since their last encounter. In fact, Amora had not seen him in Nightwall since, not even in passing. Vareena seemed to have disappeared as well, although Amora was not as curious as to

her

whereabouts. After two days of incessant pestering, Isabel had finally revealed to her that she suspected the King had left the country.

Good

. Amora thought. This gave her time to think and

plan.

Although, she hadn't much idle time to do either recently.

Since her arrival in Jodell, Amora had felt her place at Nightwall was somewhat unconventional. In most respects she was a handmaiden, just like Isabel or Vareena. When high lords visited the castle, she waited on their wives and daughters just like the rest of the staff. She changed linens, dressed them, and even emptied their chamber pots. This was nothing new to her; she'd been a servant nearly all her life. The difference between Amora and her fellow handmaidens was that she, too, was waited on.

It had been a rather strange turn of events for her, as she'd never been on the receiving end of this dynamic. She remembered the day the King had introduced Isabel and Vareena to her, instructing them that they'd be tending to her between their normal duties. It came as a shock to all three of them and made Amora uncomfortable. She was used to blending into the background when it came to servantry. Suddenly the King had made her a

person

, not just a servant. She felt underserving of this newfound status, even if it was limited to the confines of the castle.

The King's undiscernible motives also made her increasingly suspicious. He was kind enough to her, but she'd heard of his cold and calculating demeanor. He was known to easily resort to trickery and violence, as evident by his conquests of the smaller countries of the continent, including her native Relan. Her abduction served as further evidence of this. Though, she had not seen the extent of his deviousness, nor been on the receiving end of it, she thought it best she not find out.

No matter how she was being treated, she was a prisoner. Brought to a strange, rogue country for unknown reasons. Part of her, however, was filled with uncertainty. It was not as if she was being treated badly. She saw more meals in Jodell than she'd ever seen in Relan. She slept in a proper bed and was bathed at least once a day. Outside of her continued duties as a handmaiden, she was treated almost like royalty. If she left, she didn't know where she would find another meal. Besides, where would she go? She couldn't go back to Relan, she had no one and it was a part of the empire now.

The only thing that strengthened her wavering resolve was the memory of her capture. She remembered the unspeakable violence that had taken the life of so many within the castle where she'd resided. Violence that almost took her own life. The Jodellians were a contemptible, ruthless people. No amount of kindness could offset the bloodshed she'd seen spilled by them at the command of their King.

**********

Six months ago, Amora had been a servant in another royal household, in her native country of Relan. Castle Lowan sat on the coast of the Aried sea and was the oldest, most beautiful fortress in Relan. Amora had been born to a servant mother, Emilise, who like her had donned the same copper curls and grey eyes, and had also been a handmaid. Her father had died months before she was born; white fever, her mother had told her.

When Amora was six, rumors had circulated throughout the kingdom that the Queen Adèle had suddenly taken ill. She would not eat or drink, see her husband nor her two sons, and would wail and scream hysterically, her cries echoing throughout the night. King Geric, to save them both embarrassment, shut her in. Only allowing the Restor a handful of people to attend to her. After a couple of months, it had appeared the illness had passed. She began to leave her rooms and interact with the people again. However, it was short lived. One night, Amora's mother and two other servants were attending to the Queen in her rooms when a fit of madness befell her, and she attacked her handmaids. One managed to escape and call for help, but the other two were not so fortunate. Amora's mother and the other servant were already dead by the time the King arrived with a small guard.

It was said that King Geric had tried to reason with his Queen. Calmly talk her into putting down the bloody knife she'd held firmly in her hand. But the Queen was too far gone into her lunacy, eyes wide and spewing nonsensical words. Geric had tried to approach her, hoping that she would remember him in her haze of madness, but he also was not spared her wrath. Adèle attacked the King, slashing his face with her knife.

Immediately following the events of that night, the Queen had been temporarily locked away. King Geric did not leave his own quarters for a week; the castle and kingdom felt the silent pain that the King bore for his Queen. Amora remembered how eerily quiet the halls of the castle had been following these events. Save for her own cries after she'd received a spanking from Fiori, for bothering her about where her mother had gone and why she hadn't returned. At the time, Amora had not quite understood the concept of death.

After a week, the King finally emerged from his chambers. Things progressed quickly after that. The most shocking of them all, was that he ordered the Queen Adèle be put to death - by beheading. Yes, the Queen had been mad, but she attacked the King and that was the ultimate treason. Half the Kingdom crowded the capital for the Queen's beheading, everyone hoping that at the last minute the King would offer her clemency. However, Geric did not attend his wife's execution in his apparent grief, and shut himself in once again.

Of all the things that happened the day of the Queen's death, the one thing Amora could recall most vividly was not when the executioner took Adèle's head, nor when the crowd erupted in a mix of cries and shouts. No, the thing that remained with Amora was the moment before the execution.

The sierè had prayed and asked the Queen if she had any final words she wanted to submit to the gods to clear her conscience. Adèle never responded. She simply stared despondently out into the crowd, scanning it as if to take note of all the people in attendance. Amora was with Fiori standing with the other castle staff. Finally, Adèle's eyes had landed on, what Amora perceived to be, herself. The Queen's eyes never left hers right up until the moment the executioner's axe lopped her head off.

Adèle had become immortalized as The Mad Queen. Geric had done nothing to dispel the slanderous talk of his late queen. Instead, withdrawing himself and becoming more invested in solidifying Relan as a political power. Relan was a small kingdom in comparison to most. It bordered the sea of the western part of the continent and was known for its exports of fish and rare spices.

Amora would often look out to the Aried Sea from the castle windows, wanting one day to smell and feel the spay of the saltwater against her skin. Emilise had told Amora of the alluring beauty of the open sea, her father having taken her mother on an expedition once. How Amora longed to board one of those magnificent ships, to look up and see the great white sails billowing in the wind above her.

King Geric eventually remarried to Maria; a foreign princess from Bhoriva, another small kingdom neighboring to the south. This move giving Relan another maritime ally; allowing its naval power to increase. Jodell was in the process of establishing itself as an empire. Rumors spread that William the Conqueror had his eye on the South, wanting to claim Relan for its access to the sea.

At the time it seemed like a distant threat, far from Amora's mind. She'd had no care for kings, empires, nor wars. As William took two kingdoms to the West, it seemed his focus lied elsewhere, and Relan knew an era of relative peace. Geric, instead, focused his attention to the impending threats across the sea, namely piracy.

Fiori had taken over the burden of raising Amora, never treating her like a daughter, but more like a pain in her side. By eleven, Amora was practically raising herself; she could sew and clean, and was working as a handmaid in the castle with girls five to six years her senior. It never once bothered her as Amora learned very quickly that she would always be the only one looking out for herself. That very year Fiori gave birth to a son, tasking Amora with taking care of her child so she could continue her duties as headmaiden to the new Queen.

This was, perhaps, the first time Amora fell in love. The very first time Amora held the newborn, Kenneth, she felt almost a maternal connection to him that she could not explain. Time only strengthened that bond as she looked after him every day. Perhaps it was because she'd been an orphan so young with no real familial attachments, that made her care for Ken so. No matter, she loved him like he was her own little brother, and he loved her. She was his sister in all but name and blood. She'd taught him to count, fed him, clothed him, even found a way to bribe the princes' martial instructor, Talen, into giving the boy (and her) secret lessons in marksmanship and swordsmanship.

Talen had been Amora's second love. Though he never expressed anything beyond a friendly interest in her, he remained the object of her affections up until the day he disappeared. He'd taught her how to shoot a bow, ride, and even fight with a short sword. It had been a girlish infatuation, as he was much older than she, but he loved her in his own way as a mentor could love a protégé. Even as the years passed and Amora grew into womanhood, Talen's interest in Amora remained that of friends. This was enough for her.

The year Amora turned seventeen, Talen had suddenly vanished. It was a short-lived scandal, concern for his whereabouts not lasting more than a week. The king had already replaced him with a new instructor for the princes and no one else seemed to care of his disappearance. For two months, Amora would wait for an hour a day at their secret training spot, hoping that he'd return. He never did. She was heartbroken and not simply at the loss of her instructor; Talen had been her only friend aside from Kenneth. After trying for two months, she resolved to let him go and move on.

*

The day the black ships sailed over the horizon of the Aried, Amora would never forget. An armada of Jodellian ships approached Bayrich Cove with frightening speed. It had been a beautiful day in Relan. Not a day you'd expect an enemy invasion. The Relanese navy sailed to meet the Jodellians before they crossed into the cove. The standoff was a terrifyingly impressive sight; the ships of both kingdoms not backing down for five days.

Then came the siege. Geric had been furious with his queen. Part of the alliance with the Bhorivani was their army was to help monitor the southern and western boarders of Relan. However, it seemed that William had snuck his massive army around to the south and had already forced King Frederic of Bhoriva to surrender after a massacre in their capital. With the surrender, came William's access to Relan through the south. With all his military focus on the flotilla, Geric had not prepared for a land invasion; the Jodellian army marching their way straight to the capital unchallenged along the way.

A fortnight passed and both monarchs were unable to come to a resolution. William had come to conquer and Geric was too proud to see that he was overwhelmed. The Jodellian army was three times the size of Geric's, and though it was probable he would have prospered in a sea battle with William, they were far too outnumbered on land. Reports came in from all over the countryside that the Jodellian occupation had spread throughout the whole of the small kingdom. Many of the lords of the Relanese great houses had either been slain or captured.

"We have enough provisions to last us three years!" Geric had proclaimed, unsuccessfully attempting to ease the fears of the inhabitants of the castle. Everyone but Geric remained unconvinced. Poor Queen Maria was inconsolable when finally learning of her father and mother's capture and the deaths of her siblings. The castle become a grim and eerie place to be. All the windows shut, no longer providing the views of the ships at a stand on the sea. No one was permitted to leave or enter. They would ride out the siege, the King had decided for them.

"This castle will not fall."

Amora remembered Geric's declaration.

She

had believed the words of her king. Despite what was whispered among the servants, Fiori, and other men and women of the castle, Amora believed that they would be safe.

The castle did fall. William breached the gates during the middle of the night a month after the initial siege began. As expected, a great battle ensued in the capital. Many men, mostly Relanese, died. Amora remembered where she was when the horns had sounded that the castle was being taken. She was in the middle of making a making a wheat-cake for Kenneth. She'd stolen some extra ingredients from the kitchen, as everything was being rationed, and had been using the fireplace in the servants' quarters to bake it.

When she'd heard the screams echo from the floors below her, her first thought was not to try and escape, but to find Ken. She raced down the stairs against the dozens of staff who were racing upwards to try and escape the Jodellian invaders. Her destination was the Queen's lower quarters. That's where Fiori had been with Ken. As she neared the door she could see the Queensguard locked in a heated battle with Jodellian soldiers. There was no way she'd make it to the door - not alive.

Servant's entrance

, she'd thought. There were secret corridors that ran throughout the apartments of the castle. She sprinted to the common-room of the third floor, grabbing a candlestick that had fallen to the floor. It was heavy in her hands but Amora would make do with it as a weapon until she found a better one. She'd found the door to the entrance to the Queen's quarters. The candles in the entryway were still lit but gave Amora no comfort as she approached the door to the sleeping chambers of the Queen.

Before opening the door, she listened to make sure no one was on the other side. She could hear a distant commotion, causing her to still where she was. There were shouts but they sounded like they were coming from another room.

The dining room

, Amora realized. Slowly she opened the door to the Queen's bedroom. No one was inside, but the room was dark and had been thrown in a massive state of disarray. From the other side of the room, Amora could hear crying, her attention drawn to the door that led to the queen's personal dining room. It was cracked open, as if someone had forgotten to close it all the way. She crept towards it, candlestick in hand.

Amora peered through the small opening, she could see that the men who'd been fighting the Queensguard were successful in their attempt to breach the doors. The men who were sworn to protect the Queen lay dead on the floor. From her vantage point She could see one remaining member of the guard, although badly injured, attempting to continue to defend Maria against four men. The Queen was standing away from the door, on the other side of the room, three of her ladies cowering in the corner with her. None of them were Fiori and Amora did not see Ken.

With a grunt, the last remaining Relanese solider, Ser Peter Coombs, thrusted his sword forward towards his enemies. It was a pitiful sight, as one of his arms appeared to be grossly disfigured and it seemed he lacked the strength to hold his sword properly in the other. As Peter pressed onward, one of the Jodellian men came to meet him, his own swords angled upward intending to pierce his chest. Ser Peter didn't have enough time to change his trajectory, the realization of his mistake apparent on his face. As the Jodellian soldier's sword lanced his chest, he took one last look at the Queen he failed to protect and fell lifelessly to the floor.

Queen Maria's ladies uttered a series of gasps and shrieks as their last remaining line of defense had been broken. Amora heard another gasp directly in front of her, behind the door, and the cry of a child.

Ken!

Amora realized that Fiori and Kenneth were on the other side of the door. Fiori had most likely left the door open, so that she could find an opportunity for her and her son to escape. It seemed that opportunity was not to come as the four men did not lower their weapons despite only being in the presence of women.

One of the soldiers, a stout faced one, pulled out a gold encrusted dagger and pointed it at the Queen. The ladies screamed as they and their monarch tried to back further into a corner. One maid, Beatrice, took a vase and threw it at the approaching soldiers. One of the men ducked to avoid it the moved to grab her by the arm and flung her towards the oncoming group of men. Before anyone else could move, the stout faced soldier stabbed Beatrice in the chest with his dagger and she quickly made her way to the ground, a gurgle of blood exiting her mouth. The stout face man turned back towards the Queen.

"You have two choices: you either come with us, or you die."

Maria looked past him towards the open door, shouts echoing from the battles throughout the castle. Was she going to attempt to escape?

How foolish

, Amora thought from her crouch by the door. The Queen's lingered a bit longer as more shouts seemed to approach the room.

Ah,

Amora understood,

she is waiting for the King or the Kingsguard to come save us

. She could hear the clanging of weapons that echoed outside the room. The guard were probably on their way here. This gave the timid queen some courage.

"W-we will not go with you...ser." The stout faced knight did not appear disappointed. He simply shrugged and pointed to the Queen. Everything was a blur from that point forward. One of the men grabbed the Queen and she writhed against them, her ladies trying to pull her towards them, but it was no use. The two men grabbed the other two ladies and subsequently slit their throats, their screams being drowned in their blood. Maria shrieked in agony as she too was stabbed. Amora realized that she needed to move and began to run towards the servants' entrance when she heard another scream, this time from the door she'd just left.

"Mama!" Ken cried as the door swung open, Fiori making an attempt to run with her son in her arms. Amora turned abruptly, just in time to make eye contact with Fiori, a pleading look in the woman's eyes. However, before she could fully make it into the Queen's sleeping quarters, one of the men grabbed her by the waist, throwing her backwards and causing Ken to fall from her arms backing into the dining room. Amora went to hid behind the bed, hot tears streaming from her eyes as she heard Fiori's howls as she was being dragged back into the dining room. Another scream sounded, and she peered out to see that the door had been partially closed once more. Creeping back over to it, she saw Fiori's feet on the ground, a pool of blood growing slowly beneath her.