She won but would there be a war?
Or would they retreat?
"Your highness." The prime minister called as she stepped up the last stair of the podium.
She took her time before turning to him.
"Have you made a choice?" She asked, feigning nonchalance.
"If I speak, it means I am giving up on my life and my family's but if I do not I will be giving up on my family's as I know you would rather watch me wallow in misery than give me an easy death." He stopped to take a deep breath, he could feel all eyes on him, even those of whom he was about to betray.
Yvonne watched quietly, her father's fear annoying her yet she knew he had every reason to be afraid. If the prime minister rats them out to Aveedah in front of all these kings, they will loose every support they were banking on, they will become outcasts and it will be only a matter of time before they are banished from their own kingdom or even the world.
She had to make the choice for them.
If only they had not become greedy and they had chose to simply cutting the hand off, now the head is on the verge of falling too.
She watched as the prime minister patted his daughter's head and stood up.
"I choose to leave my daughter as a hero your highness, I just want you to promise me my family, my daughter will live long enough to pass my story to her children."
Aveedah watched him keenly before she replied.
"You have my word."
Yvonne threw all caution away as she made a decision, not that they have much of a choice.
It is either they helplessly wait or they take action and take the whole court unawares.
"Your highness, I apologize for the lie I told earlier, it was planned as a last resort to turn the kings against you, the people I work for ..."
Suddenly, the prime minister dropped, blood gushing from his now cut open neck. The horrible sight was too shocking for any of them to process. The whole hall had gone quiet for a moment and the spell had only broken when the knife that had executed the deed returned to Yvonne's waiting hands and she had rushed to grab the confused daughter of the prime minister and held her hostage.
Sudden screams erupted and the maids scampered for their lives, the mother of the little girl crying hysterically, her eyes darting from her husband to her daughter, wives of the kings held their husbands in utter terror, Eric and Keevah rushed to protect Aveedah and the guards to protect the guests and most importantly their Queen.
Kebarah and Simon covered Yvonne, their weapons out and their own guards protecting them.
"How dare you use a weapon in her highness's palace?" Keevah asked as he signaled Eric to take charge while he approached Yvonne.
"Surrender now and your family shall be spared." He continued.
Yvonne laughed crazily before she replied.
"You must take me for a fool lowly wizard. Tell your cowardly queen hiding behind her bodyguard, I will not hesitate to slit the girl's neck if she does not grant my request."
Aveedah spoke quietly to Eric and reluctantly he moved aside.
"You murdered my subject in my presence, your actions have confirmed your identity as his accomplice and you think you can strike a bargain? Yvonne, even if I am forced to let you go right now, know that I will not rest until your cold, lifeless body drops on my feet."
Yvonne tightened her grip on the helpless girl making her cry harder, she smiled wickedly as she watched Aveedah's painful gaze.
Aveedah may be powerful and wise but she is soft at heart and real power resides in the he who has control over his heart.
"That will only happen if I do not have your head first." She replied and the infuriated guards rushed to attack, some preparing to wield their gift.
Her own defenders also readied themselves to fight but Aveedah instructed the guards to stand down.
"What are you thinking, wielding fire and water in an enclosed space?"
"Every guard, irrespective of your rank should stand down, We will settle this within ourselves, right Yvonne, Kebarah, Simon?" She asked, a small smile on her face.
"My princess, you know as well as I do, you have to allow us return to our kingdoms, you do not want a war between regions now do you?" Kebarah informed mockingly.
"She who does not know that is the coward holding a child hostage." She snapped back
"Release the girl." She Instructed, looking at Yvonne.
"Promise to let us go back to our kingdoms safely first, without anyone on your order or any other person's order in this room tailing us." She replied, her eyes darting for a second to the other kings.
"Who said I or any of us will do that?"
"Lift the knife off her throat and we will talk." Aveedah ordered, her eyes on the knife.
"You are in no place to order me Aveedah, you must not recognize the knife I am holding, it is the special knife of the water wielders, laced with powers to freeze fire. You and I can not imagine the pain this pitiful girl is going through, maybe you should take a look at her father's corpse for better understanding ."
Truly, the prime minister's corps was bringing out vapour. The sight made the audience cringe in horror but his wife lost every sense of judgement.
She stopped crying and stood up.
"You ruthless bitch." She yelled and threw a ball of fire in Yvonne's direction.
Her father managed to tackled it with his own ball of water but that was not enough for him as he pulled out a similar knife to the one his daughter was holding and aimed it at the woman.
Aveedah who had jumped down the stairs quickly dragged the woman, placing her behind her as she prepared herself to hold the knife.
The knife was sent on a mission and it had to taste blood before it goes back to it owner.
But alas! The knife never touched her hand and instead, it returned back to where it came from, slitting it master's throat.
Velaine, only stopped to wink at Aveedah as he rushed to tackle Kebarah's guards and disarmed the men in seconds.
Aveedah followed immediately she caught a hold of herself and ran after a fleeing Yvonne who stubbornly still held the girl. She caught up with her quickly and yanked the girl from her.
She kicked her in the stomach, making her lose hold of the knife and Aveedah picked it up and stabbed her shoulder with it before she slapped her hard, the fire she had intentionally allow lace her hand, leaving huge burn mark on her cheek.
Yvonne yelled In pain as she fell on the floor.
Aveedah yanked her by the hair and made her look at the mess she had caused.
Two bodies lying on the floor and one is her father's.
Velaine held Kebarah in place effortlessly, while their guards laid on the floor moaning in pain.
"What you did was meaningless. I would have never killed a king of the water wielders in my palace when I am not begging for war and unlike the kind of person you are, I do not sneak an attack, I fight head on."
Yvonne screamed in agony as she watched blood slowly gush out from her father's neck while the other kings only gathered around his corpse and without any restraint blasted out a wave of water as hard as she could.
She no longer cared if they all died, they had murdered her father!
The water wielding kings were quick to react as they curtailed the blast.
"You have done Enough, princess Yvonne. Allow me to take over if you wish to mourn your father." King Keane, a water wielding king commanded.
"Your highness, we would have preferred if things turned out differently but now there is no going back. One of our king is dead in your palace and irrespective of what he had done, he is still a king in the region of the water wielders. So I would implore you to yield my request." King Keane stated moving forward.
"I will take my people out in peace, and my people which unfortunately includes Kebarah because though he is an interim King, he is the ruler of the most influential kingdom of the water wielders. I am sure you know the treaty your father had signed with us has unfortunately died along with his highness, king Simon. You may attack and we may attack but I promise you, there will be no attack on you or any of your allies during the three months mourning period of king Simon, if you promise to also allow us and our allies mourn in peace and forgive Yvonne's misdeeds and allow her mourn her father back home." He finished looking at an unperturbed Velaine.
They were asking for Yvonne's crime to be ignored just the way Velaine's will be, for now.
She walked to him, her grip tight on Yvonne's arm as she pulled her along. When she was close enough, she whispered.
"You just got us In a war."
"No, the war would happen anyway, I got us time." He replied a proud smile on his face.
Aveedah resisted the urge to shake her head and stood in front of him facing Solomon's corpse, Yvonne still in her hands.
"May his highness king Solomon rest in peace and long live the new ruler." She said and bowed her head a little and all other occupants of the room joined her.
She could hear Yvonne's shrivelled cries but chose to ignore it.
She had done this to him. Her impulsiveness had.
"You leave tonight and my guard will escort you till you are out of the kingdom for security reasons." And with that, she pushed a now furious Yvonne to Keane and maintained her stance in front of Velaine.
"It is a pity the peace you had tried to maintain would crumble like this. We will not forget your mercy." He replied and pulled Yvonne with him, all the water wielder and their guards following behind him.