Ileus: The Dark Prince

This time Ileus managed to enter the memory that Dmitri had suppressed very deep inside. And the shock of pain flared in his eyes. He couldn't believe how much Dmitri had suffered because of this incident. He opened the door of the memory and found him instructing little Iona to not leave the carriage. After that Dmitri had leapt out of the carriage to be with his mother. There was nothing that was untoward in the carriage. When he entered the cell, he gazed at all the places, at the chaos that Dmitri could see around them, but not a piece of evidence that could lead him to Iona's abductor. She had closed the door as soon as Dmitri had left. Every time he would visit the memory, that was the only scene he would see. There was nothing in the carriage. In the last he was about to come out of his cell, when he decided to just take a look on the outside, when Dmitri had leapt out of the cell. 

Ileus looked at the carriage from the outside and could hear his ragged breaths and moans of those injured, screeches and shouts and cries of the attack. And then he came upon something strange. From the corner of his eye, he saw a black swirl of smoke rising beneath the carriage. It swirled and glided like inky mucus on the surface and then slithered inside the door. It was impossible for Ileus to go in the carriage because that's where Dmitri's memories ended. He went close to the smoky swirl and saw it again and again to understand what it was and when he understood, his eyes widened with shock. 

Ileus shot out of Dmitri's cell. His breath was ragged. 

"What is it, Ileus?" asked Adrianna, as she massaged Dmitri's head. 

"Mother, there was—" 

--- 

It had been a week since the last time Anastasia felt this strange sensation of eating cucumber and tomatoes. She loved the smell of night blooming roses and had asked the gardeners to add more of night blooming flowers to the garden in the east wing. According to Ileus she was smelling different and even he was baffled as hell. "Are you my mate still?" he asked as he sniffed her one day just after taking a bath and she was sitting on his lap with a towel wrapped. 

"I think I will have to look at other men to verify that part," said Adrianna with her hands on her hips. 

He narrowed his eyes and then spanked her on her hips. "Only if you want them to be killed in cold blood." 

She squealed and tried to get up from there, but he had grasped her waist tightly to lock her in his arms. "You are not going anywhere," he growled. He kissed her on her shoulder and said, "Let's break the fast." 

Anastasia had started with her mission to start a new order and she was keeping very busy. She would have meetings upon meetings with people to get hold of the right people. She wanted to make it absolutely right. After Tamara's position was dismissed, there were wide protests from the nobility, but when the queen had completely dissolved the order, she had to give answers to the council members. None could answer her question about Tamara's abuse of power and how despite being the High Priestess, she used necromancer magic. 

"How is your work going, sweetheart?" asked Ileus as he drank pineapple juice from his crystal glass. 

"Very exhaustive!" she said as she took yet another plate of cherry tomato salad. "I want to go to Silver Vales also. I want citizens of both the kingdoms to work together for this cause and I know that I won't find dedicated people amongst the nobles." 

"That's a very biased statement, Ana," he replied, tilting his head. "If you won't take anyone from the strata of society, they will feel that the Crown Princess is revolting against them. There is no harm in taking them in confidence. I am sure you will find relevant people. Why don't you ask Isidorus to help you? He may look very old, but that man is shrewd like a snake. And you— you are like a sheep in the herd of wolves. You are like a little dove. You have to learn to be crafty, love." 

She shook her head. "I am not naive!" Suddenly she felt like puking. Bile rushed to her throat. She started coughing. 

Ileus jumped up and reached her. He stroked her back, scared as hell. "What is it, Ana?" he asked. 

"Ah nothing!" she dismissed it and then gulped down a glass of water. 

Ileus looked at her strangely and then pulled her back in his lap. He pressed his face against her chest. "Don't fall ill…" She was also smelling strange. It was as if her smell was mixed with yet another smell. 

She threaded her fingers in his damp hair. "I am not unwell, Aly."

"Should we go to the healers?" he asked, his voice muffled. 

"No!" she chuckled. "I am fine. I think I coughed because I was talking while eating." 

"I am sorry, baby," he said as he looked up in her sapphire eyes. 

She smacked his forearm lightly. "Stop mollycoddling me!" 

He just rested his face against her chest and took a deep breath. Was she… pregnant? "Nah!" he shuddered.

---

It was late afternoon when Ileus sat with his father again. He wanted to revisit the memory and extract it from his head.

"Why do you want to do that, Aly?" asked Adrianna exasperatedly. "Dmitri is already so tortured because of this. I don't want him to get into any trouble. You have already seen what was there on the inside. What else is there?" 

"I want to extract the memory, Mother," he said. 

"What?" Dmitri said loudly. "I won't allow it." 

"Since I wasn't there, I want to use that strand of memory to go back in time."

"How?" asked Adrianna with her brows drawn together. 

"I will create the time funnel and then try to fuse this strand in it to take me to the time when kidnapping took place. It's just an experiment. I know it sounds ridiculous, but we are really short on time…" 

It didn't take much time for Ileus to extract the memory and trap it in a vial he had brought. Feeling very sleepy, Dmitri had gone to bed. "It's a small after effect. He will recover…" Adrianna's voice was full of sadness. "He blamed himself for Iona's kidnapping and hasn't yet overcome the shock. The shock and despair were multiplied hundred times over when we came to know that she is the— the—" Adrianna's throat choked. "She is the dark witch…" 

Ileus gathered his mother in his arms. "I am so sorry, Mother. Iona chose the wrong side. She gave into the dark forces…" 

"Sometimes I wonder if she had a choice…" 

Adrianna walked out to the breezeway with him as they left Dmitri tucked under a blanket. "Whatever you do now, be careful. Going back in time is fine, but don't tamper with the events, okay?" 

"Yes, I understand." 

"Last time you mentioned that there was something slithering on the carriage's wall on the downside. What do you think it was?"