Chapter 17: Chapter 17

• • • • Eve Elite's POV • • • •

"Eveeeeee." Maryline calls and goes to every corner of the house, searching for me in vain. She runs to the guards, to the kitchen and everyone claims not to have seen me since we came back or seen me leave.

"OMG!" Maryline rushes back into the fortress.

"I told you that she wasn't ready, I'm sure she ran away because the idea of that marriage scares her, but she couldn't tell you in your face," she yells at Edmonton.

"I should have seen this coming, how could I be this foolish." she blames herself.

"You worry too much. I'm sure she's somewhere around playing." he gets up from his seat and then walks out of his office with Maryline following behind.

He walks at an average pace to the backyard of the fortress, where I use to seek comfort when my dad was alive.

"Eve, Eve" he calls in vain and he begins to worry. He hurries to guard "Why are you all paid for?" he asked more of a threat "Why can't I find the princess, why is it that no one knows her whereabouts, especially at this time of the night?." He yells at them, they stood quiet.

"I want to see her in this palace before Daybreak, two men should go in search of her and it's either you come back with the princess or you will die." he sends some of the troopers to the forest, and they leave immediately.

"What are you still doing here, instead of going in search of her," Maryline yells at Edmonton. "You don't give me orders." he walks away.

She runs to him, obstructing his path.

"Do you realise she might be in danger.?" she yells. "I'm as worried as you are but I have work to do here. I'm sure that she is fine." he shoves her off.

"Which work is more important than Eve, you are supposed to be worried sick and in search of the soon-to-be queen as you wanted. But why do I feel you don't give a damn?" she shouts as she watches him leave. "Watch your tongue, woman." with that said, he leaves for his office.

It was so dark that they can't see well. So after a few minutes of walking, they had to find a place and camp for the night, hopefully, tomorrow things will be clearer. Some troopers didn't want to camp, scared for their life, especially after what Edmonton said.

Edmonton is the shy-looking type, quiet but at the same time very strict, the type who always means his words. "If we walk in the forest, with no direction and vision, we might be attacked and killed so it's the same." a trooper said.

After listening to their arguments their commander concluded, "Tomorrow is another day, let's rest tonight, we will continue tomorrow."

They ended up camping. They gathered wood for the fire to keep them warm for the night...

.

.

The next day,

Very early Adams leaves the palace without taking a morning breakfast with his family. He has something to deal with in the human world urgently.

"Why is the effect this small?" he asked Jack as soon as he reaches the Karat gate on his horse.

"Sir your dad asked some of the troopers to return home," he answers.

"And he told me nothing about this.?" Adams' bitter. "Take care of my horse, I will be back soon." with that said he leaves passing through a small door attached to the big gate.

Once he trans to the human world, he removes the grasses covering his car, changes into a nice fitting suit and drives to his office.

.

.

"Why is this table empty?." the king yells as he takes his seat to eat his breakfast and he doesn't see anyone on the table. "Where the hell is my son?" he yells.

"He left very early this morning my king and he asked us not to disturb you with the information," he replies with his trembling voice.

Then the king grips him by the throat "And you decided to follow his instructions instead of mine." he presses and the maid cries "I'm sorry my king."

"Be sorry for yourself." he carelessly flings him on the cold floor. "Get out!" he shouts and he immediately runs outside. "You come here?" he called for the other maid and she pours out the wine for him.

A man enters the king's presence, and bows.

"My king we have two vagabonds from the Solis kingdom who tried to get into our kingdoms without any permission, they have been held in the dungeons.

"I told those idiots to stay in their country until the marriage." he frowns hard.

"What should we do of them?" Ishee ask. "Kill them." the king instructs without any mercy.

"My King, killing them might jeopardise your plans. If people of their clan get to know about this, the marriage might be postponed or worst cancelled."

"They might as they might not!." the king insists.

"It's a careless risk, which is not worth taking. I suggest you organise an audience with them and understand their motive for sneaking into our Kingdom and to know if others are planning to do the same act."

"Fine. Avoid interrupting my breakfast," he warns and the man walks out.

After his breakfast.

"Bring them."

And we were brought before the king.

"Children,?" the king whispered in dismay. "So you made me bother because of these thwarts?" he frowns

"Give them fifty strikes in public, and throw them out of this kingdom. I hope it serves as an example to intruders." "Now, Get them out," he exclaims.

When we are about to leave Matilda whispers aloud "Tell them, Eve, tell them you are the princes of the Solis clan."

I first hesitate then I say "My King, I'm Princess Eve of the Solis clan." "and I'm the king of kings, I role over all the kingdoms. Hahahaha oh please. Now take her out of my sight." he says in sarcasm.

The guards immediately carry us back to the nasty cell. I felt like an idiot, he didn't even pause for a second to give a thought to what I said.

"My King everything is ready for the punishment."

"Is my son back already?". "He isn't back yet, hopefully, he will be back soon."

"I Hate this double life he lives, very soon a time will come when he will have to choose," he whispers aloud. "Leave my presence."

We are taken out of our cell to the huge crowd, screaming and shouting. They are eager to watch us suffer as if it was just fun to them as if they loved seeing people being punished.

"I don't want to die!" I cried.

"You won't die. You will be beaten and humiliated in public, for the first time in your life." she pathetically says "OMG! I can believe this is happening to me. I told you this wasn't a good idea but you insisted." she cries blaming me as if it will make a difference.

"I didn't force you either! I didn't force you to come with me in the first place. I intended to help you but now, you are taunting me for that. Thank you." I lament "I will never help anyone in my life again." I cry shamelessly.

"I'm sorry, I get like this when I'm frustrated, I don't reason before I open my mouth. We can't be fighting now, not when we are about to receive fifty strikes on our naked bodies. To think I've always kept my nudity for my husband, all my plans are gone in vain." Matilda gets dramatic.

"We need to find a way out of this, I don't know how but we have to." I cry helplessly.

"You were our only way out of this, but no one seems to know you, even your soon-to-be father-in-law doesn't even know what you look like. Wow!" she cries

"Same as I didn't know what he looked like before this incident." "Let's call this trip helpful then, at least. You know how he looks and how wicked he is."

"Move!" the men brutally push us to climb on it, the crowd surrounds us and as we mount the stage, they tie us to a long piece of wood in the middle of the stain, facing each other with the wood in-between us.

"It's time to make our last prayers to the moon goddess." she reminds.

One guard moves towards the King worried "My King should we undress them?" "No don't, they are still very young and they haven't commented a mortal crime!". "Okay, my king" he bows.

He rushes back and whispers to the others what the king had responded. They seem disappointed.

"Let the punishment begin!" the king orders.

"At the count of one to three, start striking... Let's count together." We close our eyes when they start the countdown. "3,2, and... 1... "

~ The crowd happily scream as they are given their first stroke and in unison shout, "1!". ~

Matilda screams in pain as she closes her eyes and tears quickly slide down her cheeks, princess, o can't hold on again, I rather give up and closes her eyes, Matilda, Matilda, I try to wake her up, all in vain, I even try calling the attention of the guard, but as we are given the next struck,

Matilda opens her eyes even wider than her mouth and screams, "Why can't I just faint", I watch all this drama forgetting my pain, I start laughing, "Do unconscious people suddenly become conscious.?" But the pain I receive from the torments exceeds my fun moment.

As they carry on with the beatings, I feel my buttocks have doubled by two, haven't felt my buttocks big and numb for a long time. I suffer and scream in agony, but couldn't hear my cry because it faded in the noisy crowd.

As I open my eyes, I see Adams talking to his father, they are ready to give the next stroke.

Adams seats next to his father without giving attention to the action going on before him, he didn't even jerk his head to look at the culprits.

"Adams!" Matilda screams as soon as her eyes see Adams, she surprisingly called "Adams" and couldn't feel the pain. For a second, she forgot about her agony as she sees a sign of hope.

Unfortunately, the attempt to get his attention is overshadowed by the screaming crowd...