Inionri and her guards entered the Amazon’s throne room. Echrad had been scanning the area, looking for any sign of Kaiserin’s mind, and haven’t found anything yet. They needed the leader of the Amazons to tell them where she was.
“Greetings Imperialists, to what do we owe the honor of your visit?” Alkaia asked.
“Greetings, Queen Alkaia. You know why we are here. We are looking for someone and we know you have her.” Inionri wasn’t afraid of the Amazons, she was going to get back her cousin no matter what.
“You’re late, she is no longer with us.”
“What do you mean? What did you do to her?” Inionri felt cold, if they had hurt her, they were going to pay.
“We did nothing to her,” Molpadia said. “I’m more interested in knowing what did you do to her. After meeting with the leader of the Predators she was convinced you were going to come after her, she decided to go so she wouldn’t have to see you.”
“You lie, Kaiserin would never run away, especially not from us, we are her friends,” Ratri said.
“And yet, she left.” Alkaia could see how mad the Imperialists were, she knew they wouldn’t go until they had what they wanted.
“I think is time for you to open your eyes and see that she is not the same person you knew,” Polemusa said. “She has been working for us for two years now, she told us everything we needed to know, and then left. Go look for her with your enemies…”
“Polemusa, stop!” Bremusa said. “Don’t make them believe something that is not true. You know Kaiserin came to us for protection, but she never betrayed her Clan.”
“What side are you on?” Polemusa complained.
“I know what you are doing, you want to poison them against Kaiserin, but I won’t let you. Kaiserin has a choice of coming back to us or going back to her people, if she returns to her Clan, I don’t want them to punish her for something she didn’t do.” Bremusa said.
“What do you mean she came to you for protection? Protection from whom?” Inionri asked.
“I don’t know.” Alkaia admitted. “Kaiserin helped us a lot in our war against the Militaries, but Bremusa’s words are true, one of the conditions for her help was that she wouldn’t give us any information that could help us against you. She never betrayed her former Clan.”
“It never occurred to me that she would betray us.” Inionri said. “I was thinking that maybe she had been kidnaped and forced to work for you.”
“She came to us out of her own free will,” Alkaia said, “I don’t care if you believe us or not. I received you as a gesture of good will, and I have answered your questions, but my patience is running out. All you need to know is that Kaiserin is no longer with my Clan, she left a few days ago and I don’t know where she is nor if she is coming back.”
“You’re lying.” Echrad said. “You know more than you are telling us.”
“How dare you?! Who do you think you are to question my words?” Alkaia was mad, no matter that Echrad was right, they had no right to question her in her own house.
“We have been looking for Kaiserin for a long time, and we will do whatever we need to do to find her.” Inionri said. “We won’t leave until you tell us where is she.”
“She is not here, that much is true.” Molpadia said. “All I know is that she went to see an old friend of hers.”
“Melchizedek?” Echrad caught the name from one the advisors’ mind.
“The Light one?” Inionri asked. She remembered her cousin talking about the exiled prince that ruled the Shadow Kingdom.
“Yes,” Alkaia confirmed, “that’s the name of the person she was going to meet. Kaiserin is on her way to the Shadow Kingdom, she left my territory days ago, and I would appreciate if you follow her example and leave, before my patience runs out and you are no longer welcome.”
“We’ll leave, but if we found out that you were lying to us, I will come back, and I will bring an army with me. If you did anything to hurt my Kaiserin all the fury of the Empire will fall on you.”
“Get out of here!” Alkaia gestured to her guards and they took the Imperialists out of the room. Alkaia knew that she shouldn’t fight them, she was in a dangerous situation, she was at war and couldn’t spare more people to fight back the Empire, but she couldn’t let them question her power.
Inionri and her people left the place, they had to go back to the Empire. If what the Amazons said was true, then they needed to move fast. Kaiserin had a few days of advantage, they needed to hurry if they wanted to find her.
Kaiserin Novel 