Ileus: The Dark Prince

Etaya leaned forward and smashed the paper on the table in front of her. She exhaled heavily and through her clenched teeth said, "We are going to attack Draoidh. Ready the army. We will depart tomorrow morning!" 

"The fae army would need a reason to attack Draoidh," said Yion with dead calm. "They won't attack blindly."

"Then give them a fucking reason!" said Aed Ruad. "I want to see that bitch Anastasia and—" he clasped his hands tightly together and rubbed them. 

Yion tilted his head to look at the family of three. What strange people they were… "They are tired of the same reason we give them—to increase our presence in the Lore, or to win more kingdoms. We have had plenty of wars under your name prince, but now they are tired." 

"What do you mean tired?" Aed Ruad pounded the table with his fist. "An army has to be ready at all times and it has to act upon the orders from the royals. Do you mean to say that there is mutiny among the soldiers?? He narrowed his eyes. "In that case you are responsible for the unrest!" 

Yion's face didn't budge from the stone-cold expressions he was wearing since the beginning of the meeting. "There is no mutiny at the moment prince," he replied as if talking to a dumb man. "But the fae army is not dumb. They will ask the reason and I have run out of reasons to tell them as to why we are going to attack Draoidh!" 

"Then tell them that Adrianna has abducted Anastasia!" Aed Ruad retorted. 

Yion wanted to roll his eyes out of exasperation, but he ended up narrowing them. 

"We can't say that to them, Aed Ruad," Etaya interrupted. "All they know at present is that Anastasia doesn't come out much from the palace and that she is visiting other fae kingdoms." 

"How long are you going to keep this a secret, Mother?" Aed Ruad hissed. 

"Till we can! Damn it!" she snapped. "Till we get that bitch back to the kingdom. Till we marry her with you." 

Yion crossed his hands across his chest. "Anastasia was married to Ileus in Evindal. How do you propose to break that marriage, it beats me?" 

"It's none of your concern, Yion. You just prepare the army and we are going to attack Draoidh with full force!" Etaya said angrily. There was no other option left. 

"There is one thing I would like to point out," Iona said in a low voice. 

Seraph, who had gone to float behind his wife, stilled. "What could the dark witch possibly say?" he said as if mocking her. "Are you scared of leading the attack? Or are you ashamed of it?" 

Iona ignored him. "How will the entire fae army attack? They are not corporeal outside Vilinski." She wanted to show how weak they were. 

Etaya looked at her with her cold green eyes and said, "You don't have to bother about that. Just keep your freaking Diumbe ready with you and wait for our orders." Usually Etaya didn't speak to her in this tone, but today she was being extra sarcastic, extra rude and extra bold. And this was all because of her Master. She just lowered her head and then nodded. "I shall wait for your orders then," she said and got up from her place. 

As she left the room, she could feel Seraph walking towards her but the doors closed and he didn't come out. Seraph and Etaya were waiting to sacrifice her. Now that her mother had said she didn't need her, her importance had reduced. Putting her in the forefront was a strategy that they thought would work. Iona scoffed. 

She walked back to her room with a mixture of anxiety and anticipation. Those emotions were her constant companions these days. If her calculations were correct, they would take a week to reach Draoidh. And then— They would be traveling a lot and then the army would get tired. 

That night she strolled out of her room and inadvertently went to the study again. However, she stopped in between at one of the training arenas where she saw Yion and his Second in Command, Ráild. They were walking towards the courtyard. Iona kept herself in the shadows of the corridors as she stalked them. Because of her strong sense of hearing, she could easily hear what they were talking about even from this distance. 

"Where will Etaya pay the soldiers from?" asked Ráild. "They demand last time's wages too." 

Yion walked with his hand clasped at the back. His stone-cold face was now marked with too much worry. He looked up at the dense gray skies. Soft snow swirled around them. It would fall on their head or shoulders and instead of settling, it would slip down. "I don't know," he shrugged with a long exhale. "She said that she wants soldiers to march to Draoidh and that too tomorrow before dawn. Haven't you as yet informed the divisions about Etaya's decision?" 

"I have," Ráild replied. "But soldiers aren't exactly trusting her. I really can't say how many are going to go with her." 

Iona couldn't understand how a woman who controlled Vilinski never paid her soldiers. This was the weirdest thing. 

"You should have gone to the Tagarth to arrange more funds," Ráild said. 

"How can I do that?" said Yion as if it wasn't his responsibility. "Etaya should go there and ask for funds." 

"Gods!" Ráild rubbed his hands over his face and looked up at the sky. "The fae king was too sharp for his own good. No one could have imagined that he had most of his funds deposited with the Tagarth kingdom. Those bastards have frozen the money and refuse to give it to Etaya saying any amount would need the king's signatures." 

Yion let out a laugh. "That was the smartest thing he did!" 

To say that Iona was shocked was an understatement. She froze in her place when she heard that most of Vilinski's funds were in Tagarth. This only meant that Etaya was short of money, very short of it. How was she running this huge empire? Was she imposing heavy taxes on her people? Also, Tagarth was one of the neighboring fae kingdoms, which only bowed to the fae King Ian Lachlan. Even if Etaya must have gone on his behalf to collect funds, they would have declined her request. And then Etaya wouldn't have pursued the matter at all. 

Once the two men were out of the courtyard, Iona went back to her room. The whole night she was unable to sleep because the next morning she was going to enter chaos. She twisted and turned on her bed. There were a thousand unresolved questions in her mind. Everything just seemed like one big void… 

She was supposed to lead the army, so she got up early and dressed in a light gray tunic with gray slacks and light armor. The Diumbe were lurking on the outside waiting for her command. While a maid was dressed helping her sheath weapons in her belt, she heard commotion outside. Outside she saw the guards running towards the courtyard. "What wrong?" she asked a soldier. 

She froze at his answer.