her restrain their impetus as faithful advisers from beyond.
"Dear mother, beloved father. If there is any fault in me, please forgive the feelings that I harbor in my heart" – Repeating to herself that as if it were a mantra to suggest herself, Elena reached the coffin where her father's body rested. Positioning himself on the left side, while Rafael occupied the right to mount the honor guard. When both princes were in their respective places, the minister began the liturgy in honor of the deceased monarch.
At least four hours passed in the midst of prayers and funeral songs, offering their prayers the sons of the monarch prostrate on their knees.
While Rafael had arranged for a servant to give her a cushion to prostrate herself on the floor, Elena had spent the entire liturgy with her knees level with the cold marble floor. Making his joints swell to the point of reflecting the pain on his face.
When the ritual was finally over and it was time to stand up to leave the chapel and give way to the honors from the people, Elena could not get up without the help of her maids. Shaking his legs to the point of staggering more than once.
"Sister, let me take you to your chambers. I see that you are so afflicted that you cannot support yourself properly" – Giving a false appearance of filial love, Rafael took the princess and carried her walking down the central aisle before the gazes of the nobles.
"How much the king must love his sister that even sharing the same sorrow, takes strength from weakness to carry her and carry her burdens too" - The adorned viper flattery of the nobles, was an insult to the princess who could barely hide her anger .
- "Not even at your father's funeral can you behave at the height of what a king should be?" - Speaking that insult in a low voice, Elena squeezed her brother's neck. Who kept walking without flinching, just pronouncing a sentence that completely chilled the heart of the princess.
"I've never had a virgin slave" - With that sentence, Rafael threatened Elena to curb her behavior. Anything was bearable if he could scold his brother; but threatening to hurt Julia was something he didn't dare provoke.
Being a slave, Julia had lost all recognition or rights as a human being according to the laws of the kingdom. It subjects its life or death, and even transfer of property, to the hands of whoever owned it.
For Rafael, being able to control both Julia and her sister was like killing two birds with one stone. While the girl's will had been lost thanks to the enslavement mark , Elena would not be able to move freely under her brother's gaze. Who had already cut off any possibility of uprising with it, as well as gained control of the nobles who secretly supported his sister.
Arriving at the main door of Elena's bedroom, Rafael signaled his maids to make way for him without getting in his way. Looking out of the corner of their eyes with some fear, the maids hesitated for a moment causing the monarch's anger.
"Guards, take these insolent women into custody and behead them this very instant!"
-"Nope! I beg you, brother. Forgive them just this once. I beg you" – For the first time in all the years they had been living together, Rafael had heard a plea coming from lips he considered arrogant. Looking into her eyes, he felt that the pain and anguish reflected in them was the product of his intimidation. But he was far from knowing that that pain was the burden for the fate of his only love.
"As you wish, dear sister. I am a benevolent ruler and I don't want it to be said that I am indolent towards my family" – Gloating in his attitude, Rafael ordered the guards to sheathe their swords again. Changing his order of execution to a more moderate disciplinary act.
The maids were taken to the punishment cells designed to discipline the servants, forbidden to eat for a week and barely receive a little water to subsist. Despite the harshness of that punishment, for Elena it was preferable to losing her life at that moment.
"Well, why have you personally brought me to my room brother?" - Closing the door with a bolt, Rafael pushed Elena knocking her to the ground, while rudely stepping on one of her knees making her scream in pain.
"Where is the arrogant woman who could put a dagger to my neck? Has this bobcat's fangs fallen off and he can't help but mumble like a little stray cat purring? It is good to see that you know the position you are in, but before the public you must maintain your dignity as Princess Elena.
You know, the punishment on the servants of the ducal house of Valera has not yet been decided. I think that this is a topic that I cannot put off too long; but with the days of national mourning that will come with the funeral of our father, I will give you the opportunity to decide how I am going to proceed" – With a cold look and a heavy tone of voice for anyone who came to hear him directly, that statement between lines it was a sign that he was thinking of involving Elena in his shady plans.
-"What do you mean brother, you know very well that Julia exonerated them of treason by taking the life of her own father. What do you mean by punishing them?
-"Betrayal is one thing, but hiding the fact that Andrés, the only son of Duke Rogelio was a woman, is a very serious crime for which they cannot deliver their punishment.
There are only two possibilities sister, either the duke's family was so meticulous to hide the truth even from the staff who served them day and night, or they acted in collusion to deliberately lie to the crown." – Since her birth, Julia had been under the care of her mother at the estate, but it was true that several of the closest servants knew the secret that the young lady kept.
That fact could not be overlooked, which meant only two paths for Elena to decide: In the first, Julia, being the only survivor of the ducal house, would be sentenced to corporal punishment that implied being physically mutilated. His tongue and eyes would be gouged out as part of the punishment for lying to the crown.
In the other, the servants who had knowledge of the Valera family's secret would be taken to the executioner to be beheaded and their heads displayed on the walls of the royal capital.
"Why? Tell me why are you doing this to us? What harm did Julia and I do to you, Rafael? How can you have such a black heart and stain the memory of our mother with your actions?
"Don't you dare ever mention mother!" - Raising his voice with great fury as he clenched his fists hitting the furniture in the room, Rafael was dismayed by the fact that he even mentioned the late Queen Beatrix.
Inside her heart, there was a deep wound that the years could not heal, Elena often thinking that the sudden death of her mother and the difference in the way her father treated them was the cause of her brother becoming so sinister
Trying to keep his temper, Rafael turned around to leave his sister's room, while holding on firmly to the door frame, his fingers clenching to the point of slightly cracking the lacquer that covered the wood.
"You have only one week to decide sister, if by that time you have not made a decision, I will apply the punishment to everyone without exception" - Closing the door furiously, the rumble on the wall knocked down a family painting that was hanging in the room .
It was a small painting, so discreet that it often went unnoticed by those who used to enter the room. In it, the image of Queen Beatrix holding two children while smiling candidly, was Elena's last memory of the time when she and her brother truly seemed like family.
"My lord and god, tell me what should I do?" – Holding him while her tears fell on the painting, Elena sobbed in the silence of the huge room. Meditating on the bitter decision he should make about it.
The hours passed and the first day of the king's funeral had come to an end; the sun that had reigned imposingly over the horizon, gave way to the cold night and with it the late rain that continued until the dawn of the second day.
Inside the rudimentary room for servants of the palace, Julia lay on a blanket on the cold stone floor, feeling as if every part of her body was going to come off.
"Wake up slave! Today it's your turn to clean the stables and carry the fodder for the steeds. Hurry up and move!" – Gertrude, the head maid in charge of the palace employees. A woman in her fifties with a bad temper and little tolerance for ineptitude, she projected onto Julia the contempt she felt for the nobles.
Considering how relaxed they lived their lives compared to commoners, he had in Julia his perfect valve to release the frustrations of living in the palace.
"Yes ma'am, as you order" - Responding obediently, Julia looked at the whip in the maiden's hand, knowing that delaying or making mistakes would mean receiving the whipping on her back as happened the day before in the corridor of the king's chambers .
The marks of the blows remained fresh on his back, covered by a thin cloth under his clothes, seeking to avoid the curious looks that could reproach him for his appearance in the corridors.
Dutifully after eating a piece of stale rye bread and some sour goat's milk, Julia moved straight to the stables to grab the rakes and start picking up dirt from the stalls.
The foul odor that was accentuated by the heat caused by the sun evaporating the rainwater, entered through his nostrils, making him vomit the very meager breakfast that he had consumed just a couple of minutes ago.
Wiping the dirt from her mouth with the sleeves of her clothes, Julia continued moving the buckets of dirt to the septic tank that was shaded by a couple of live oaks. Dizzy from hunger and fatigue, she nearly fell into the foul-smelling filth at the bottom of the well. Being arrested on the spot by Lieutenant Alfonso, who could barely hold him at the risk of being dragged with her due to the weight of the buckets.
"Moron! What are you looking to die anyway? – Looking at her more carefully, Alfonso noticed the cracked lips and the pale tone in her gums; remembering that same countenance that he saw on the battlefields, when the soldiers were about to die of starvation.
"!Arthur! Damn Arthur, come right away!" – Screaming like crazy possessed, Alfonso called his squire, who left everything he was doing to run to meet his lord.
-"Sir Alfonso, what is happening?"
-"Bring me quickly the first-aid kit from my mount's bag and get water with honey and a little salt! Quick, I have no time to lose!" – Alerted by the tone with which his master approached him, Arturo ran out in search of the things that the lieutenant had requested.
The faithful squire had been with Alfonso for more than four years, accompanying him in the countryside, fighting in combat to the sound of clashing metals and the sulfurous smell of gunpowder mixing with the iron smell of spilled blood.
Sir Alfonso was for him, he was a man who could maintain his composure even in the worst situations they had experienced on the war front. Just seeing him so distraught when holding that slave in his arms, did not allow him to understand his master's attitude.
"Who is that slave for my lord to be in such a state?" – Arturo continued to think about that doubt to himself, turning it over several times, while he returned with the belongings that had been requested.
Mixing the water with the honey and the salt, Alfonso shook the jar where that fluid was found until it formed a homogeneous mixture. Taking a small glass tube of ammonium salts from his medicine cabinet, he passed the mouthpiece close to Julia's nose, who briefly came out of her lethargy to see the lieutenant's confused face.
-"Alfonso! What happened?"
-"Don't talk and just drink this! Keep your head down and don't try to get up yet" – Holding her neck gently, Alfonso slowly gave Julia a drink of the concoction he had prepared. That solution was commonly used by soldiers at the front, when they had faced the immense heat produced by the leather and metal of their armor.
The lieutenant had seen even men as big as bulls collapse from dehydration, many times dying instantly from heart attacks. Julia was not only malnourished, but her body showed clear signs of acute dehydration.
"But what the hell is old Gertrudis thinking by sending someone so weak to such a demanding job? If he didn't know her, it would seem that she was trying to kill you" – Clenching his fist with force to the point of hearing the metal of the armor creak, Alfonso could not control the anger he felt at that moment when contemplating the vulnerability of Julia's state.
"Arthur! Come with me to the palace! I'm going to pay that damn devious old woman a visit" – With a spark lit in the corner of his eyes, Alfonso looked as if he was going to face the enemy inside the battlefield. Realizing that, the squire preferred to remain silent and reserve any comment on the matter. Since he knew well both the character of his lord and that of the maiden Gertrude.
"Gertrude! Does he want his head to roll on the floor? - Opening the door with a kick while holding Julia in his arms, Alfonso made his way to the rest room of the palace servants. Before the panicked looks of the younger maidens, who screamed fearfully running to stick to the walls.
-"Sir Alfonso! Is it that the battlefield has turned him into a simple beast that does not distinguish forms or manners?
– "And you old lady is so stupid for becoming senile that you don't know when a person is at his limit? Julia almost passed out in the waste pit. I would have died if I wasn't around to catch her."
- "So much scandal on your part just for a simple slave?" - Raising her left eyebrow making a grimace of a sarcastic smile, Mrs. Gertrudis did not show the slightest sign of regret or fear for Sir Alfonso's words.
-"Yes, a simple slave. But have you already forgotten who bears the seal of slavery on his chest? If you want to see her as mere property for being a slave, I agree. But I remind you what the penalty is for embezzling the properties of the royal family" – When Sir Alfonso mentioned the ownership of the slave's property, the head of the maidens experienced a chill that ran down the back of her neck.
She was so caught up in the opportunity to intimidate a disgraced nobleman that she completely forgot that her actions, had she caused Julia's death, would be considered robbery of the crown and her punishment would be to be hanged along with her. his family.
"Sir Alfonso, please forgive me! I beg you, do not bring this matter to His Majesty's ears!" – Falling to her knees holding the cape of the lieutenant's uniform, the woman begged trembling for the mercy of the man-at-arms.
"It is not with me that you should be asking for forgiveness. If you want to remedy your faults, try to take care of her as if your life depended on it. Because the moment I know that something like this has happened again, I myself will take you to the scaffold so that your neck hangs from a rope" – With an empty expression like an angel of death, Sir Alfonso instilled great fear in Gertrudis and the rest of the maidens present, who did not hesitate to agree in unison at the knight's orders.
"Everything is fine now, you should not fear for your life from now on" - Lowering Julia's feet with great care until she was planted on them, Sir Alfonso said goodbye running his hand through his hair as he would with a child little.
The expression on Alfonso's face was calm and equanimous, reflecting in his eyes an air of relief at seeing Julia a little more composed, while the gentleman continued his walk leaving the room.
"Why are you so nice to me? I don't understand" – Julia thought to herself reflecting on the attitude that Sir Alfonso showed towards her since the day of the trial. They never shared a moment as friends, save for the time of sword training as student and pupil.
A sea of doubts swirled in the mind of the young woman, who was taken by the arm by a servant to take her to change clothes and receive some hot food.
"Alfonso, tell me how is she?" – Walking down the main corridor, a woman's voice was heard from the steps of the palace as she descended holding the railing.
- "My lady, what are you doing here?" – Arturo and Alfonso knelt immediately in the presence of Princess Elena, who was alone without the maidens who regularly accompanied her.
"I was on my way to the palace servants' prison to see my maids. I'm afraid that Rafael didn't keep his word and executed them" – Tightly squeezing the railing, Elena closed her eyes while turning her face a little in a tone of guilt.
-"Do not be afraid my lady, an hour ago I sent one of my men to verify that Eunice and Tabata were alive. Although I must say that according to their report, they were beaten in the face in a considerable way "
-"Damn!" – Hitting the railing with her hand, the princess lost her support, feeling her knees buckle due to the lack of strength due to what happened in the chapel the day before. Being taken by Sir Alfonso around the waist, trying to do it with his forearm so that his hands did not touch his body.
– "I appreciate that you still have respect for me as a lady"
- "My lady, how could I see her in another way?" – Being loyal to the princess, Alfonso always remained suspicious of Rafael's behavior; considering him only a monarch in name, without swearing his vow as a knight to him so far.
Smiling at him in a condescending way, Elena took Alfonso's arm and supported herself to go down to the first floor. Staying thoughtful for a moment because the knight was there, when he was not attached to the royal guard post.
-"Did something happen, Sir Alfonso?
-"Nothing that my lady should worry about, it is a matter that has already been resolved as it should be" - With a firm tone in his voice, Alfonso looked at the princess in such a way that she understood what it was about.
-"I ask you to take good care of her"
-"So I will do it for you my lady" - Alfonso was in love with Princess Elena for a long time. Knowing that their love was impossible due to social difference, he was content to be able to win her heart even if it ended in a political marriage. Swearing that he would serve as his personal knight until the end of his days.
But some time later, as he saw her in the distance like the unreachable moon in the sky. I notice how his wife directed her eyes and heart to another man who was none other than Sir Andrew.
Seeing himself defeated without a chance, Sir Alfonso swore to protect the man who gave his mistress the ability to smile again after so many years of mourning.
"I must go my lady" - Kissing the back of the princess's hand with a slight bow, Sir Alfonso waved his cape and continued on his way again to the stables.