Chapter 4 The first clash

She wasn't surprised to see that the intruder was from the Pelagios family. She was however surprised that the family member happened to be the one marrying her.

Historically, both houses have tried to kill the other heir to the throne, as expected. In recent years, the practice had dwindled because they always got caught and it wasn't worth it just to have another person from the opposing family sharing the throne. Each person thought they could escape the goddess' instructions, choosing a bride or husband for themselves and staging coups to overthrow the reigning monarchs then. Each time, they were struck dead the moment the crown touched their heads. Once they learned not to use that route, they still couldn't obtain any power because the army refused to obey their commands. The kingdom had settled into a certain sort of peace, warring houses had to share the throne and they had to accept it if they wanted the kingdom to stay whole.

Military coups were useless since one of the chosen monarchs of each generation always possessed the blessing of the land which gave them an unfair advantage on the battlefield, amongst other strengths. The late king had died in battle with a neighbouring kingdom but only after singlehandedly, taking the lives of the commander and a third of the foot soldiers. The blessing of the land was uncommon and most rulers manifested theirs in different ways, taking over the kingdom with just military power was quite impossible.

She looked down and studied the face of her partner. Considering she hardly ever attended court, it wasn't surprising that they had never met before. But she had seen him before, a few years ago, when he won his first battle and showed up in court to be rewarded along with his top soldiers.

He stood tall that day, she remembered. He was the kind of man people swooned over, both men and women vied for his attention over different things. With his black hair that was so dark, it reminded her of the night sky. A nice smile, she thought, remembering the day in the throne room once again. Beautiful eyes she noted, seeing as that was the part of his face that she had been acquainted with the most.

"You lasted longer than I expected." He said and of course, he just had to have a beautiful voice to boot. Low and velvety, nothing like the gravelly tone he used on her a few minutes ago. She supposed if she had met him under better circumstances, she could find it in her to be attracted to him. But most of that goodwill had fizzled out once she remembered he tried to put a sword through her stomach just a few moments ago.

"Did you add a tracking spell to the headdress?" She asked, her suspicions confirmed by his answering grin.

"Quick witted too. You're full of surprises, aren't you?"

"I could say about you. What logical reason do you have for trying to maim your fiancée on your wedding day?"

"I thought it would be fun." He shrugged.

Her eye twitched. The audacity of this man.

"Do you have a secret lover?" She asked after counting down mentally.

"Why? Getting jealous already when we're not hitched yet?"

"I couldn't care less about who you fuck, I'm the one who will become the Queen anyway. I need to understand why you decided to do this."

"I was testing you."

"Testing me?"

"Yes. Think about it. Everytime the trials are announced, there's a list of potential winners due to what the court and public knows about them. You won, despite being a concubine's daughter, despite not getting formal sword training, despite not contributing in court. All the noble houses are still sceptical."

"And you thought putting a blade through my body would help you understand that?"

"I needed to see if you could hold your own."

She scoffed. "So what's the conclusion to your study? Please tell me how I performed on this impromptu test of yours."

He tried to move, then remembered that she had temporily paralysed him.

"Well, judging by your interaction with your family in the hall back then, I doubt you'd excel in court. The Empress had to step in to defend you-"

"She wasn't defending me. All she did was enforce a rule, you can't seriously think she's on my side."

"You can never tell with family, I'm afraid. Bottom line is, you'll get eaten alive if you dont learn to be more strategic when dealing with people who hate your guts."

"Pre-wedding advice. How lovely."

"I am nothing but a giver." He grinned. "In that aspect, Livie-"

"Livie." She interrupted on hearing the nickname.

"Oh we've spoken at several court meetings. We're quite... familiar." He smirked in a way that irritated her even more. Of course, she had to have one of Livia's leftovers. Fucking great.

"Carry on." She waves off his remark with a straight face, determined not to let him get to her.

"But in other aspects, I think you have her beat." He said, surprisingly.

"Really?"

"Your skill with the sword is miles better than Livie's, she can hardly handle a tiny knife but you handled yourself well. Even though you had to use tricks to do that."

"The battlefield is not the training ground. The enemy isn't going to keep you alive just because you fought traditionally." She repeated the same words she learnt from her father, the first and one of the few times she had ever sparred with him.

"Very true, which leads me to my next point. You're intelligent, quite unlike your brother. It's obvious in the way you speak and how observant you are. And if we're talking about the beauty department," He paused to rake his eyes all over her body. She frowned when he took too long to settle back on her eyes. "I think you have Livie beat in that department as well." He finished with a sharp grin.

"Flattery after trying to kill me, you really do know how to work your way into a woman's heart." She placed a hand over her heart and faked a smile. She opened her mouth to ask more questions when the door of the room opened and there stood her favourite person in the world.

Ophelia. Her half sister. And judging by her frantic look, she wasn't too happy with her.

"There you are! It's almost time for the ceremony to start, what are you doing here? Why aren't you wearing your wedding robes? She asked question after question as she walked briskly to where Analeigh stood over Leonidas.

"They were getting in my way." She shrugged, stepping away from the man on the floor. It was then Ophelia looked down to see who it was.

"Leigh!" She gasped. "What is your fiancé doing on the floor?!"

"Enjoying the view." Analeigh answered, pulling out a vial from her inside her robes and moving to feed the liquid inside to him. He tried to struggle at first until she held his face between her fingers and forced it down his throat.

"You should be able to move in a few minutes. Don't be late, darling or I'll really kill you this time." She tapped his face and stood up, pulling her sister out of the room.

****

"Let me get this straight."

"Oh no, take all the time you want, it's not like I'm supposed to be out in the main hall for my marriage in twenty minutes."

Ophelia shot her a contemptuous glare and Analeigh knew she has to shut up. Her gorgeous big sister was a softie on many levels, so p.issing her off deliberately was never a good thing.

"Your fiancé tried to kill you."

"Yes."

"The man you're about to swear unwavering loyalty and devotion to in about..." She paused to think. "sixteen minutes tried to kill you?"

"Yes."

"He dressed as a guard just to spy on you and proceeded to nearly stab you in the chest."

"Yes, you know I'm starting to feel like a fool. Repeating the same thing over and over again." Her voice came off as bored but inside she kept thinking about it.

"This doesn't make any sense. I know our houses hate each other but we've made our peace with the joint rule centuries ago. If the assassination attempt came from one of our siblings, I'd find it easier to believe."

Analeigh snorted. "Well, isn't our family beautiful."

"But this man has nothing to do with it. Why try to kill you? And from what you said, he wasn't really serious with it. What do you think he's planning?"

"According to him, he has connections with Livia. Maybe he's hoping to get her competition out of the way. And who knows? Maybe he finds me offensive."

Ophelia shook her head.

"If he's even half as smart as people say he is, he wouldn't risk getting himself and his conspirators beheaded just to put an undeserving person on the throne."

Analeigh hummed but said nothing.

"And since when are you so self deprecating?" Ophelia frowned, placing her hands on her sister's shoulders.

"Admitting that it's possible he doesn't like me isn't self-depreciating. Goddess knows what he thinks about me, considering I was almost invisible in court barely a month ago." Analeigh rolled her eyes.

"And you?" Ophelia asked.

Analeigh hummed questioningly.

"What do you think of him?"

"What do I think of him?"

"Yes. What do you think of him?"

"We met just a few minutes ago and he tried to get rid of me throughout. You can say I don't have the warmest feelings towards him right now." Analeigh replied.

"Aside from that, what do you think of his looks, his personality?"

Analeigh glared at her. "Is there a reason you're trying to play matchmaker with a man that nearly took your sister's life?"

"You said it wasn't serious." Ophelia retorted.

"It's the principle of things!" Analeigh shot back. She geared up to lecture her sister about the situation of things when the sound of the instruments finally started. The sound she had been waiting for.

It was time to get married.