Cassandra

Chapter Twelve

Cassandra POV 

“That’s a girl”, his laugh echoing in my ears shattering me again and again. 

He holds my hair and pulls me up, making me look at him, I am screaming from the pain, but he won’t leave my hair, I could feel the roots breaking and the blood pumping in my head. My head is throbbing with pain now, but he won’t stop. 

“Look at her chest”, I see eyes over me now, everyone is looking at my body like they are some scavengers waiting for its prey to be weak or numb. 

I could feel his finger tough my collar bone and I shiver, it’s moving down and down, suddenly it is over my tummy and he punches it hard 

I double over with pain, I am crying but it is not audible over the cheers and laughter

“Cassandra”, I recognize the voice, its Daddy. I look up with my burning eyes which are filled with tears now and I see a blurry figure in front of me. I could feel him standing and looking at me. 

“I also thought, you would be my bravest son”, I could hear the resentment in his voice and it makes my heartache. 

There is a sudden noise of the band passing through the fields, and I look up, there are beating the drums. My cries, sob, pain are all getting buried under the noise. it is getting loud and loud every second. 

And I open my eyes. 

The room is filled with the fresh light coming from the open window. I could feel a headache coming any second now since I wasn’t able to sleep properly last night. The dream is still haunting me and my body is covered with sweat. 

I get up from the bed and move towards the window. 

The cold air makes my body shiver, I close my eyes again to be immersed in the beauty of nature when I hear the sounds again. 

They must have started to cook breakfast now 

I couldn’t miss today’s practice, but I won’t be going early now, till I am not ready for him 

He has started to give me nightmares which I had never seen before, never in my life, I had such a scary and sad dream. It is still repeating itself again and again, not the very same thing I saw first but parts of it. 

I look at the open window and sigh. 

I don’t know what is troubling me but I wasn’t able to close the window last night. I have always kept it close when I was at the palace even when I was in the attic but here last night I wasn’t able to. I couldn’t understand the change but every time I thought about it, I thought I won’t be able to breathe, which is absurd. 

I gather my clothes for today which is a red blouse and black pants along with the rag and rose-scented oil. My hair is messed up from yesterday and I am in not a state to wash them. 

I quickly take a bath and sneak into the kitchen. 

I could see a plate is ready for me and kept at the side by Grace who is busy making another delicious breakfast. I take a deep breath and take in the aroma of the kitchen. It might be noisy in the morning but it gives me the advantage of sneaking at any time I want. 

“Good Morning Grace”, I put on my best smile which comes on its own when I see her, she reminds me of Maira a lot and I miss her. 

“You look really beautiful today Dear”, I could see her face brightened up when she looked at me. She seems more cheerful and more engaged now that I am here. 

“So this is for me, I guess?”, she nods and busies herself again with preparing the food. I quickly take the plate and sit under the stand completely hidden from any prying eyes. 

I must say whatever she cooks is amazing, I find it hard to not lick my fingers, it is wasn’t for my mother who scolded my every time I did that, I would have been able to 

I clean the plate, which is what I can help her with and put it asides notice that she is really engaged in the preparation of food today and I could see a frown on her face, which I don’t like at all. 

She winces once and twice but continues to do so. She is turning back and looking at the door again and again. 

“Grace?”, I whisper to her not wanting to startle her in her panic mood. 

“Everything alright?”, she smiles at me but it doesn’t reach her face. Before I could ask more, I hear some noises outside and it alerts me. 

Maybe I should start getting ready now 

I bid her farewell and leave for my chambers. I am placing my usual sword when I feel a piece of paper in my pocket. 

I scream when the realization hits me 

It’s the day of our first duel 

Oh my god, what I am going to do? How did I forget it completely? Maybe because I missed the practice yesterday and none of my so-called allies reminded me 

What I am going to do? What I am going to do?

I can’t go in the field with this tiny sword and I have never held a bigger one in my life 

“Louis’s sword…yes…I could take it for today…it shouldn’t be that hard…..it is our third day”, I am muttering to myself when I hear the noise is getting louder. 

I open my bag and take it out. It feels pretty heavy, but it is beautiful. I always get mesmerized by looking at it. He must have made Daddy happy since he got awarded this. As I lift it, I could feel my hands getting slippery. 

Maybe I am too nervous, maybe I shouldn’t think about it a lot 

I pick up the sword and start moving towards the ground, I could feel the atmosphere is different today, the crowd is excited. There are groups gathered at some distance of 4-5 people who are busy in one or other activities. Some are displaying their skills, while others are displaying their sword. Some have already started to play with each other while a group is just standing talking by themselves. 

As I make my way into the crowd, I could feel their energy radiating, I could see them smiling, laughing, I feel the rush, the energy, the wits, the movements, everything drawing me towards one conclusion only. I belong here. I belong in the battleground. 

It makes me happy, it fills my body with the excitement that I have never felt before, it gives me a rush, that I could do this for my complete life. 

I observe the swords in the field. I know a little about them, not very well and I am regretting never opening a book to read about it at the palace. 

One of the swords catches my eyes and the beholder is someone who hates my guts. 

Edward

I pity the one who would be against him 

I see everyone goes silent when the Teacher comes up on the stand. He looks at Edward and smiles and my face frowns. 

Why did he even like him? 

“I hope that you all have kept your words and not opened the paper as I asked”, I could hear few whispers and feel like I am suddenly being watched, as I turn to see who is looking, several faces turn back. 

“Now, go ahead and open the papers”, my hands are suddenly shivering to know who is it. It is not like I would know the skills of my opponent, neither will they know mine but still I don’t feel it is fair. 

“In Battleground, you won’t know who you are going to face and what they would be good at. It might happen that till you are involved in thinking how to defense, they had cut your throats”, he says it like he doesn’t have any emotions while I could hear people gasp. They are scared just like me, they are young just like me, and it is new for all of them, just like me. 

Then why should I fear, why should I make myself nervous and lose this chance. I know a few tricks and I feel like I could do it. 

I take out the paper from my pocket and open it only to drop it from my hand the very second. 

“It looks like you know now”, I freeze on my spot hearing his voice. 

Edward