Page 37 of The Time Of Queens

I actually jerked back a step, as it took my mind confused moments to understand what he meant.

“You speak of the maid?” I asked incredulously.

“Yes of course… wait, you mean to say it is not her?” he asked, frowning.

“No, it is…” I couldn’t seem to finish that sentence, as I didn’t know why, but it felt like a betrayal on my part.

“Dominic?” The sound of my name made me grit my teeth and I turned away from him as I forced myself to say,

“No, it is not the maid.”

“I see, well in that case, I look forward to seeing more of her.”

“What do you mean?!” I snapped, whipping back around to face him, as if a tightly kept spring had been released.

“When Pip and Adam accompany me back to Germany, of course, for they do not intend to stay at Witley Court for long… unless I am mistaken?” Lucius asked, making me suddenly want to punch my fist into another door.

My actions earlier must have seemed quite shocking to her. Yet the more I thought on it, the more I now questioned why she had seemingly taken my brutish manner with so little resistance. Anyone else would have screamed the house down.

But then, even I could see that the girl was not like most other women… the bruises on her knuckles were a testament to that. Just the thought of what could have happened to her made me sick to my stomach. After the dream I’d had of her being beaten by the cook, I had never felt dread like it. Nor had I ever experienced the shock I felt when I found the very last thing I expected.

She had been beating the woman bloody.

I had even been calling her name, but she had been too lost to her rage to hear me. The very reason why the second I touched her, she had taken a swing at me. Granting me no choice at the time but to capture her small fist and engulf its entirety in my hand.

I found myself looking down at my hand as if seeing it there once more, astonished to know that something so small could have done so much damage.

Of course, I had seen that she had also been struck which was no doubt what had ignited her rage. But then I had also seen what the cook had planned for her in the way of a whip when being chained to the wall. Which was why it was no wonder I then wished I had let Kiera break something more than her nose. However, the moment I had spotted the blood on her knuckles, I had winced as I knew it didn’t solely belong to the cook.

As for the cretin, after Keira had left the bloody scene, it had taken everything in me not to snap the bitch’s neck the second she started making her excuses. For nothing could save her the fate of my wrath after she laid her hands on my girl…

Fuck, but what was I saying!

She wasn’t my girl.

Despite this, I also knew that I would be damned if I allowed her to become someone else’s either! I decided that she was going nowhere. Not until I…damn it, but I didn’t know.I only knew that I couldn’t let her go, not yet. Hence why I told Lucius,

“She will not be leaving this house. Now, did you find the seal?” I asked, getting back to the reason he was here now, ignoring the annoying smirk I could see playing at the corner of his lips.

“But of course, for when have you known me to fail in a mission?” He then nodded to the wall where I had a secret compartment built into the panelling. Which meant that Lucius had already been in here and done the honours of hiding the artifact. One that had been lost for over a thousand years and many thought had been destroyed.

I had been charged by its creator to find it and bring it back to him. For all on my council knew what would happen should we fail in its retrieval and allowed the artifact to get into the wrong hands. More specifically, hands that belonged to the Demon God of Chaos and War known as Chiyou.

Once a legendary king who was said to have godly power to control the elements. A descent of the Flame Emperor. And ever since his death and rise into the demonic power he had gained, he had wanted to get his hands on the Heirloom Seal of the Realm.

The Seal was created in 221 BC, shortly after Qin Shi Huang unified China and established the Qin dynasty. China's first imperial dynasty at that. The Seal of the Realm served as asymbol throughout the land that the one who possesses it, ruled all of China. It was thought to be a physical symbol of the Mandate of Heaven, despite its true, more hellish, origins.

It’s true creator was King Yanluo, the God of Death and ruler of the underworld known as Diyu. He was recognised as the overseer to the Ten Kings of Hell, better known as his judges. However, something that nobody expected happened, for the Seal was made as a symbol of not just the right to rule, but doing so without greed for power or gluttony for gold. The King of Diyu was, after all, the ruler of Judges, and he took the judgement of his souls very seriously.

The Seal encompassed the very balance between good and evil, and judgement of China's first imperial dynasty. However, when the dynasty was changing hands to a new emperor, a particular enraged empress dowager was not ready to hand over the Seal to a new ruler. In anger, she threw the Seal on the ground, chipping one corner. Later, Wang Mang, the new ruler, ordered the corner to be restored with gold. But gold was the very thing the Seal did not stand for.

As a result, it ended up turning it into something evil, and malevolent. It became the reason for boundless wars to be waged and caused endless deaths on the battlefield. It fed from the greed of Kings, encompassing corruption, and becoming more powerful with each passing Emperor who owned it. Until one known as Chiyou discovered its power after he was turned into the Demon God of Chaos. He knew it was the only weapon he would need to take a new throne.

That of the Underworld Diyu.

Which was where Lucius and I came into play, as after some time of searching, we had finally discovered a location where it may be hidden.

Li Congke, the Last Emperor of Later Tang dynasty of China turned out to be the key to this discovery. Although, therewas much speculation around Li Congke being recognised as a legitimate Emperor. For he was the adoptive son of Li Siyuan, Emperor Mingzong, and was someone who took the throne after overthrowing Emperor Mingzong's biological son, Li Conghou.

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