(A/N) : this is also available on my wattpad under the same u/n.
Anxious thoughts came crowding into my mind, no one is on my side here. I needed an ally who can keep taps on tagon, preferably someone already on his side. I tapped my feet under the table, raking my brain for answers. Who would be willing to betray tagon and join my side? The first name that flashed in my mind was none other than “saya". I sighed, saya is no better than tagon, they're tarred with the same brush, after all he's “the devil's spawn". I can't trust saya, he never takes sides unless there's something in it for him, he's always running after his own benefits. He didn’t hesitate to kidnap my people as hostages before, and he'd do it again if given the chance. I can't look at him without attributing his cruelty and apathy to eunseom. Oh eunseom, I wish you were here. I choked back a sob, now is not the time to drown in a stream of my own sorrows, I need to pull myself together and think rationally.
I walked into the balcony, getting some fresh air might help me gather my thoughts. I tightened my hands around the icy railing, allowing the coldness to chill my bones. The cool of the morning numbed my face to the point where I lost sense in it. I flitted my gaze skywards, in hope to get an answer from our great mother “the great white wolf".
“Who could be my ally?” as expected the sky didn’t open up and eject out a messenger carrying an answer. Disappointed, I squeezed my eyes shut. I knew that joining hands with taealha wasn’t an option either. Tagon might be oblivious to this, but taealha’s abilities makes me regard her as an even bigger threat than him. She's crafty and sharp, and not someone you can mess with.
Shivery and demoralised, I peeled my numb hands off the railing , in order to withdraw to my chamber. My gaze strayed downward, and fell on the figure of a man heading towards the temple entrance. I rejoiced seeing the face of the man who'd make an ideal ally, just the person I have been looking for. He's almost the only person who could possibly challenge tagon's authority. With the daekan's under his command, he is a fearless, and a highly respected warrior by the people. How come he never crossed my mind?
“YANGCHA!!!” not a second was wasted towards putting my plan into motion. Yangcha bulldozed in at my call “inform mubaek that I want to see him immediately” with a slight bow of his head, “tagon's spy" was gone. I grubbed for a brush, and a small pouch containing some lip paint in a small jar, and daubed it on my lips, to add a touch of life to my pale complexion. I had made up my mind, and the gentle knock on the door made me even more resolute “COME IN"
The barrel-chested, tangle-haired warrior raised a hand in greeting and bowed, always from a safe distance away “tanya niruha, you asked for me?” I can’t believe I’m about to do this, I plucked up my courage and pointed to the chair right across from me “you might want to sit down for this, I’m about to ask you to make a very tough decision”
He just stood by the door fixing me with an unblinking stare, did I overdo it with the lip paint? He finally broke the silence “I’ll be well niruha, but you have something on your teeth" oh great!!! I picked up my ornate mirror, and turned my back to him, wiping the pink smudge from my teeth. He politely waited until I was done. I presumed my authoritative aura again “what I wanted to tell you is, I’m going to strike tagon, but I’m going to an ally"
“And you want me to be that ally?” he finished off my sentence “yes, I have a plan, but I can't do it without your help, I need you"
“I need to hear your plan first, what do you have in mind?” I filled him in on my plan, and he listened intently to my every word. “We need to be chary if we don’t want tagon to find out about our plan, if we meet up too often, that'll raise his suspicions”
He stroked his beard “and what do you propose? I'm listening” I forced the words out of my mouth in a half-whisper “marry me!?”
“pardon???” “we should get married to join our powers, and dismiss any doubts in tagon" he smiled like he’d just heard a really funny joke, I knew he wouldn’t take my words seriously. I continued “isn't that what you people do here, marry for power or wealth. Asa mot and tagon did it, so why can't we?”
“Isn't it more suspicious if I marry you out of the blue?” he remarked. “Listen, I’m not asking you to love me, I’m just proposing it for the sake of our cause. I know you don't tagon to be a king either, if he seizes all power, he's going to wreak havoc in the union. As you may already know, he doesn’t trust me either. He has planted yangcha to spy on me, he'll get rid of me when I’m no longer valuable to him"
I took his hands in mine “I need to protect my people, so please think about it until tomorrow, and if you agree, meet me in front of tagon's residence"
Next afternoon right after I had my lunch and the maid cleared the table, a knock sounded on my door. I opened it and found myself face-to-face with mubaek “what are you doing here?”
“I came to escort you” I couldn’t help but smile when he held the door for me, then joined me by walking side by side all the way to tagon's residence. Our high status granted us access to the residence without raising any suspicious, and we paced the corridors awaiting tagon's arrival. I glared at yangcha who was still on our tail, and complained loud enough for him to hear “does he have nothing better to do, why is he still following us? I swear it he'd follow me to the bathroom if he could” Mubaek shook his head in laughter “he's just doing what tagon ordered him to, don't give him a hard time"
Quirking an eyebrow in yangcha's direction,I lowered my voice to a whisper “see, that's precisely why I proposed marriage as a solution, or else yangcha won't leave us alone"
With downcast eyes, he asked again “are you positive you’re making the right choice? You're still young I don't want you to regret making a rash decision later on"
I rubbed my hands together muttering “I won't"
“They're coming, think quick, how are you going to cause a scene?” he urgently demanded, I remembered what I told him yesterday about “causing a scene” To make our story more believable.
“By doing this, they'll believe we're in love" I inched closer to him, cupping his face in my hands, and despite his shell-shocked expression, I planted a kiss on his lips. His undesirous body language soon turned submissive as he played along with my ruse. Our efforts paid off when taealha’s titter rang loud enough to startle me and break our kiss. I feigned innocence like I had just been caught by my parents, doing something that I shouldn’t be doing “the high priestess and the brutish old warrior, who would’ve thought?!” She observed still giggling.
“so you two want to get married?” Tagon sought an answer from his position at the head of the long table in his work room.
I nodded “that's true" upon hearing my confirmation, saya dropped a book with a thud. I completely ignored him when he dusted it off, and gave a half-hearted apology.
Tagon did a steeple with his hand, seemingly noticing saya's reaction to the news “you know tanya, if you wanted to get married, the best candidate for you would be my son, after all you’re friends and of the same age" he gestured to saya in the far corner of the room. I gave saya a sideways glance, his expression was unreadable, marry the devil's spawn? No thanks.
“I'm into older men" I blurted out “and we're in love with each other” mubaek entwinedour hands and squeezed them, he tried his best to sound convincing, but I could tell he was cringing from embarrassment.
“I'm so envious of you two" taealha said under her breath, downing a glass, and pouring another. Tagon clapped his hands on the table, and stood up “will then it's settled, you have my blessing. Saya, you're in charge of the wedding preparations. A high priestess must have a grand wedding. I'll trust you with it son"
Saya merely nodded unwillingly. Tagon walked over to mubaek and hugged him with a broad smile “congratulations my old friend, you're finally getting married, it's right about time"
Saya wasn't pleased about any of this, I should watch him closely, in case he tries to sabotage the wedding.
I spent the following days preparing for the wedding, amid a flurry of activity, and a shower of congratulations, and wishes for a happy life from the people, the wahans, and the daekans. I saw my father when we went to the fortress of fire to ask for his blessing. He seemed particularly pleased with my match and welcomed him by heaping praises, and speaking highly of him. But when he mentioned my mother, I broke. I wish she was here with me at this time, it's a tough thing for a girl to get married without having her mother around, fussing about with the dress and the preparations.
Just a day before the wedding, I realized I was right about saya's intention in sabotaging my marriage. I was in my chamber getting my gown measurements for the last time, just in case something needs to be fixed before tomorrow. Saya loitered about not helping with anything in particular, all he did was make my blood boil. I was done with my gown, and sat before two large boxes of jewellery at my disposal, to choose from. I took a pair of dangly earrings, with a green precious stone in the centre. I was about to try it on, when saya handed me another pair of silver and sapphire blue earrings “this would go better with your gown" I tried it on and it looked perfect, he really has an eye for these stuff.
I admired the glistering jewels in the mirror, when saya's hands slid over my shoulders, kneading them “why do you want to marry that world-weary old man all of a sudden? Do you really love him?” he sneered close to my ears, giving me the shivers. I stood up and moved towards the balcony, taking my time to regain my composure, I answered with my back turned to him “yes, I love him. He has shown me nothing but kindness since I arrived here"
He tightened his arms around my waist “and what about me?” his voice cracked, is he jealous??
“I'm sorry, I don’t feel that way about you" I uttered flatly. When I turned to look him in the face, he was flushed, his lips trembled with the ghost of unspoken words, my words must’ve stung him deeply. He leaned forward, invading all body space, a dark look passed his face “does he feel the same way about you? Knowing you have cursed his brother, his only family, to death?” my hand instinctively flew to slap him across the cheek. His mad laugh echoed through the empty chamber. A moment later the dark look in his eyes softened, and he seemed to be on the verge of tears, when he clutched my hand and rubbed against the red mark on his cheek. When he spoke this time, his speech was frenzied, I realized how desperate he was to stop this marriage “it's not too late to change your mind, marry me instead , we'll take down taealha and tagon, and rule this land as king and queen. I have a better change of succeeding the throne as tagon’s son. What can that lowly warrior of a minority tribe give you that I can't?”
I couldn’t take it anymore, I pushed him away “saya, plea..se please leave, I need to rest, I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow”
I cried myself to sleep that night, part of me felt sorry for saya, and another part longed to be reunited with eunseom again.
My royal blue wedding gown greeted me first thing in the morning, I put it on with the help of four obliging priestesses. It's long sleeves satin sleeves, were veiled with a layer of delicate, thin lace. The lace covered the upper part of the gown, ending around my waist, where the velvety satire flowed all the way to the bottom.
Saya handpicked the fabrics and had it tailored for me. Speaking of saya, he waltzed in while I was busy wearing my jewellery, appearing to be oddly cheerful. He didn’t seem to have a chip in the shoulder about what happened last night. Not to mention the color of his attire matched mine, in fact our entire attires seemed to be designed for a couple. His royal blue attire was matched with a golden brocade giving him a regal look, he was always fashionable, but I couldn’t help but feel he was overdressed for a wedding that wasn’t his.
“you look beautiful” he chirped “and you'll be mine soon" his weren’t moving but I heard the last part loud and clear, because they were his thoughts. My heart lurched, has he done something to the wahans or mubaek?
The abruptness of my movement, knocked my chair over as I stood up “what are you up to?” I spat out.
“Why do you mean?” his fake friendly smile unsettled me. “niruha?” mubaek’s head peeked through the door, I heaved a sigh of relief “yes?” I tried to force a smile.
“It's time" he announced, crossing the room in a couple of strides. Saya looked between us both smirked, and took his leave.
“What's wrong?” he asked once saya was out of our way. “I think saya is up to something, ‘you'll be mine soon’ those were his thoughts. He wants me, I’m worried he'll either try to harm you or my people to get to what he wants. So before we go, I want to cast a protection spell on you”
“a protection spell?” “yes, it's just something my mother used to do when I was a child, I’m not sure if it's effective, but do you mind if I try it?”
“No I don't mind, if it puts your mind at ease" I took both his hands in mine “our great mother asa sin, the great white wolf. I tanya of wahan your direct descendant implore you with a heart rendered heavy with worry to protect this man from all evil that may befall him.
May all swords trained at his neck turn to ash
May all arrows aiming his way lose their path
May all eyes spying on him be cursed blind
May fear be instilled into the hearts of his enemies at his sight
And may all schemes of betrayal against him turn on their schemer
When I call this man my husband I tie his fate to mine" I released his hands, and slipped on my cashmere cloak, the ceremony was about to begin.
We ascended the podium hand in hand, determination burned in our eyes. I raised our interlocked hands above our heads, the crowd roared with shouts of respect and admiration. The people loved me, and now I had mubaek by my side, tagon your reign of chaos is coming to an end, on my hands.
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