Neverquest – Part 112

Characters: Gena, Roxanne, Queen Isabella, Lucilla

Location: The bell tower in the castle of Felwinter

Time: Day 5 – 2:18 AM

Roxanne kicked open the door of the bell tower, carrying Queen Isabella on one shoulder and Lucilla on the other. Grunting from the long climb up a corkscrew of stairs, she laid their bodies on the floor as gently as babies and stepped back. Sweat stained her glittering black armor. Running a hand through her brow, she waited for Gena to enter the tower and shut the door.

“Just look at this,” Gena said, holding up the stumps that were her wrists. “How am I supposed to rule the kingdom now?”

Roxanne said nothing.

Scowling, Gena looked down at Lucilla and raised her foot. “This is all your fault, you holy bitch.” Slamming her heel into Lucilla’s side, she rolled her over and began bashing the Paladin’s face into the wall. “Bleed, you little bitch. Let me watch you bleed.”

“Gena.”

“What?”

“Leave her alone.”

Gena’s foot hovered in the air for a moment, inches away from Lucilla’s cheek. “Why, Roxy? Look what she did to me. Just look at me!” Again, she held out her stumped wrists. “It’s going to take a lot more than a Cleric to fix these.”

“It wouldn’t have happened if you had listened to me. You try to change too much. You can’t just leave things the way they are.”

Gena looked up. “What are you saying, Roxy?”

“I’m saying you got what you deserved. We all have.”

“No… No, Roxy, we have yet to receive all the wonders we rightfully deserve.” She slowly lowered her arms. “When this is over, then you’ll see. You’ll see, Roxy, and you’ll thank me for the sacrifices I made for you.”

“What have you made for me, Gena? What have you done that I’ve wanted?”

“I stood up when you wouldn’t. And you stood by me, the way I knew you would.” She jerked her head towards Isabella’s limp body. “Look at our handiwork, Roxy. This was our doing. And it’s nothing you can back away from now. Your hands are soiled with the blood of the innocent.”

“She’s not dead.”

“She will be. And then you’ll have the world, Roxy. You and me.” She smiled, but it wasn’t returned. “…Someday, Roxy, I hope you’ll understand. I do this for you.”

“You don’t do anything for anybody but yourself. I know, Gena, because I’m the same way. We’re selfish and we don’t care about each other, so let’s stop playing this game. We’re not fooling each other.”

“…Alright. Fine, Roxy. Have it your way. It won’t matter because we got what we need.” She looked down. “Isn’t that right, Bella? You’re in our hands now.”

“Wake her up.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Wake her up.”

Gena’s brow narrowed in the middle, but she licked her lower lip and nodded. “As you wish, Roxy.” Closing her eyes, she chanted a few foreign words and a strange blue light began to seep from her lips like the breaths of an elegy. With the sound of winter on its needled air, the cold light circled Isabella’s face and she breathed it in. At first, there was nothing. Then her little finger curled. Her body stirred. Like fireflies frozen in time, she saw the music in her dreams and found herself slowly waking from a dark, forgotten slumber.

“What…?”

“Welcome to your execution, princess. We wouldn’t want to start without you.”

Isabella blinked her eyes to see Gena standing over her, grinning. “Gena… What are you…?” She shook her head and tried to sit up, but her muscles were numb. They broke under her touch.

“Don’t bother. A princess like you shouldn’t have to lift a finger. And you never will again.” Bending down, she put her wrist under Isabella’s chin and lifted her up as high as she would go. “You just let me and Roxy worry about it for now on, okay?”

“You won’t get out of this castle alive.”

“Oh? And who is going to stop us?” She put her spare wrist to her lips, repressing a gasp. “Oh, no. You don’t suppose Lucilla will stop us, do you? Captain of the Paladins, Holy Sissy of the World—what will we do? Surely she will destroy us all.” Then she turned her head to the side—turning Isabella’s head as well—and they looked down on the once mighty Paladin from where she lay sprawled on the floor.  “Oh, dear me, how could I forget? We already mopped the floor with her ass.”

“Lucilla…” Isabella whispered. Then her eyes went cold and she crinkled her nose in disgust. “Tell her she’s fired.”

Gena laughed.  “Oh, Bella, you can tell her yourself. In fact, you can tell her anything your microscopic heart desires because you’ll both be dead by morning. You have until then to repent for all your sins, for all the people you’ve stepped on. Now it’s our turn to live comfortably.”

“Excuse me,” Roxanne said, towering over Gena and Isabella. “That’s not what we agreed upon. You said we would let her live if she stepped down. That was the deal. That’s what’s going down here.”

“You’re not in charge, Roxy.”

“That’s right,” Isabella said. “I am. I wear the crown and you will listen to me like the peasants you were born to be. Now, get on your knees.”

“Shut up!” Gena snapped. “You’re in no position to talk to me like that.”

“I’m in the highest position in this kingdom. When you look up, I should be the only person you see.”

“Why, you arrogant, little brat. I’m going to enjoy seeing you hang. In fact, I think your whole kingdom will enjoy it. Because this time, when they look up, you are all they’ll see—dangling from the bell tower by your scrawny neck. Then we’ll see what they think about you.” She waved her stumped wrist to Roxanne. “Roxy, fetch me that rope.”

Isabella’s eyes followed Roxanne to a rather long rope that was tied around a hook in the wall. She knew where they were. They were in the bell tower—the one that was constructed at the time of her birth, the one that marked the highest point in the entire city. She had been up here hundreds of times, looking down at the ants that walked her kingdom, and she had lost track of the number of times she had spit at them. It was her favorite sport.

But the tower looked different at night. They were close to the clouds and Bella could feel the cold lashes of air whipping through her bathrobe. She shuddered and tightened the band around her waist.

“My hair is still wet,” she said. “You should’ve let me dry it. What kind of kidnappers aren’t you?”

Roxanne returned with the rope and began to uncoil it. “Nobody asked you to speak. Words can only do harm.”

“Why are you doing this, Roxanne? Why do you trust Gena? She betrayed me. She’ll betray you, too.”

“Gena knows when to shut up.”

“Whatever. It won’t be long before you do each other in.” Under the darkness, she let out a sly smirk. “Don’t be so naïve, you two. You’re not the first to want to be better than me. But let me warn you—you’ll hardly get to sit on my throne before you get to lay in your coffin. I’ll see to it, in this life or the next.”

“Shut up now and you might have a chance to live,” Roxanne said. Forming a noose with the rope, she carefully slid the loop over Isabella’s dripping, soapy head and tightened the knot around the thin of her neck. “I suggest you take that chance. Gena and I aren’t very forgiving people.”

“I can see that.”

Gena stood up. “But she’s right, Bella. It doesn’t have to end like this.”

“Oh, and how would you rather it end? I step down quietly and give you my seat on the throne? Is that your big, bad plan? You want to rule Ellewyn? You want to flaunt your superiority over the lower class? You want to have the world revolve around you for once? Is that what you’re all about?”

Gena’s grin returned. “Not bad for a princess. I would’ve thought this would’ve been beyond your royal comprehension.”

“Oh, if you only knew.”

Yanking on the rope like a leash, Roxanne pulled Isabella to her feet and then to the edge of the doughnut-shaped room. In the center was a great pit with another rope that snaked down at least three hundred feet into the bowels of a very narrow shaft before it touched the bottom. It was used—and had been since Isabella’s birth—to ring the enormous bell that was now dangling over their heads in the shadows of the night.

“If I recall correctly,” Gena said, “it’s your courier’s job to ring this bell every morning at the first light of dawn. Am I right?”

“Yeah, Fallon always—”

“Shut up. I didn’t ask for a life story.”

Isabella’s eyes narrowed.

“Now, it would be a real shame if you happened to have your neck tied to that little dingy thing inside the bell.”

“It’s called a clapper, peasant.”

“Yes, well, I’d imagine you’d have a hard time keeping it from pulling you into the pit. After all, that bell must weigh more than a house.” With a cocky stride, she stepped over the edge of the shaft and peered down, holding her breath. “Oh, my. That’s a long way down. It’s a good thing the rope will break your fall…and your neck.”

“You filthy rat,” Isabella hissed. “You had this planned all along, didn’t you?”

“I know how much you value your ego, so I won’t shoot you down with an answer to that. But I think we both know who has the brains here. After all, you have no one you can trust. It must be so lonely on top.”

“Too bad you’ll never find out.”

Roxanne began tying the other end of the rope into a loop, leaving only enough slack for a little breathing room on Isabella’s part. “We’re offering you the chance to save yourself, Isabella. Just give us what we want and we’ll let you go.”

“Step down?” Isabella mocked. “And you call me arrogant.” She shook her head, flinging soap and water into their eyes. “You two are little, insignificant pieces of fecal matter who aren’t even worthy of wiping over. You want my throne? Tell you what. Get on the ground because you’ll be kissing my ass with glue all over your lips before I’d ever stand for the likes of you. And even then, I’d only step down if your face was under my foot. That’s what you are to me. And I’m not going anywhere.”

Gena nodded, trying not to turn as red as her eyes. “I thought you’d say that.”

Without a word, Roxanne lassoed the bell clapper with the rope and yanked it tight. Isabella stumbled forward a bit. Her bare toes stopped at the edge of the pit and a lone drop of water trickled into the darkness of the shaft. It never made a sound.

“You have six hours, Bella. I do hope you see the light by morning. But if you don’t, I know Fallon will—and then the whole kingdom will look up to see their dear princess hang. But don’t think of it as death. Just think of yourself as the flag of a new rebellion.”