The throne room was beautiful. Cream colored tiles, each with a black diamond in the middle, covered up the floor. The walls were made up of stone and what looked to be diamond pieces, because every time the light hit them they'd sparkle, although windows as tall as I am covered most of the wall. Each window had a deep crimson curtain for it, held back by a silver hook. A golden chandelier on the ceiling, surrounded by tiles of the same crimson color, sparkled just perfectly as the light bounced off of it. The throne looked to be the same color as the curtains, with a golden trim around it.

Women, children, and men were standing up next to the throne. They all looked quite silly to me: the men with their brightly colored capes and turned-up shoes, and the women with their long, hoopy skirts that trailed one the floor. One of the children ran past me giggling. It was a girl, the spitting image of one of the ladies standing up at the throne. It suddenly occurred to me, if that fire had never happened and I had grown up in the upper kingdom, I would have been that girl running by, no cares in the world.

"Lizaveta Tribeka?"

I jumped, startled by the deep voice that called my full name. I didn't think about my next sentence very hard, and I just responded, "Yeah?"

The person on the throne raised his eyebrows. I cringed. It was the king that just spoke to me, who I had answered with a disrespecting 'yeah.'

Vadik, the only guard who was still in the room, elbowed me hard in my ribs. "That's the king, Zara."

I turned to Vadik and smiled a sarcastic smile, picturing my elbow hitting him square in his perfect nose. To his credit, he looked away.

Good. He deserved to be somewhat ashamed.

I looked back up at the king. He was no longer looking at me, but waving the extra people in the room away, his ringed fingers catching the light of any and everything.

"Lizaveta Tribeka," he began again after the people left, "do you know why you have been called here?"

Do I know why I have been called here? Yeah, I know why. I just enjoy standing around for no apparent reason.

Instead of saying what I was thinking, I answered his question the more polite route. "All I know is that your guards told me to come for a matter concerning my brother, Your Majesty," I added the title through gritted teeth, glaring directly at Vadik as I spat those two words.

The king nodded and waved his index and middle finger around in the air, apparently ordering for something to be done. He looked at me and smiled, his lips parting to reveal a set of perfect white teeth. A moment later two guards come in, dragging a person along with them.

The man was shackled, his wrists and ankles bound together by a chain, which was then connected at the end. I was amazed that he didn't just slip through his chains, considering that he looked to be all bones. His head was bent, and his hair and beard were long and black, matted and stringy from his dirtiness.

He wore a green soldier uniform, torn and stained from fighting. When the two guards let go of him, I half expected him to collapse to the floor, but he didn't. He was stronger than he looked. One of the men handed him a wooden cane and he leaned against it. It was only then that I realized that he had a fake leg strapped on. It must have been new, considering that he still needed a walking stick for balance.

The man looked up, and I took a step back. Although his body looked to be one of a forty-year-old, his face, battered and tanned from the sun, was no more than seventeen. His emerald green eyes locked onto mine and I gasped. That was not just a random man that they brought out.

That's my brother.

"Joshua!" I shouted, running to him. As I reached him he dropped his cane and steadied himself. I threw my arms around his neck as he wrapped his around mine.

"Zara." He said my name over and over again, rocking me back and forth every time the word exited his lips. I didn't know how long we stood there, both overcome with emotion, holding on to each other like we would never let go.

"You're alive." That sentence was all I could say.

He's alive. He's here.

Suddenly, Joshua was yanked backward, out of my arms.

"No, stop!" I screamed at the guards as they tore us apart. Another guard grabbed my arm and dragged me to the stairs in front of the throne. I watched, helplessly, as the two guards that brought Joshua in were taking him back again.

"Lizaveta."

The king stood up, walking down to me. He stopped, a good distance away. It was all I could do to not scream at him. Why show me my brother only to yank him back again?

"You are now aware that your brother is alive," he started. "If you do one small, trivial task for me, I will see to it that he remains alive."

My eyes widened. "Are you threatening me?" Anger and disbelief swept through me. I couldn't believe what was going on.

Is the king threatening my family?

King Regol shook his head. "Nyet, young Lizaveta. I am merely suggesting that you do as you are told. You wouldn't want Joshua to end up on the battlefield again, would you?"

He moved closer to me. His graying hair fell in front of his plump face, and his eyes, which gleamed like sapphires, dared me to refuse.

"What would frighten his royal highness so much that he would threaten a family to make a girl do his bidding?" I asked. All sense of self-preservation had flown out the window as soon as he had made his suggestion.

The king frowned. He started to speak, but it was in the language that only the people in the Upper Kingdom spoke. Jumbled of words flew out of his mouth in a quick burst.

I thought a moment, translating. I hadn't used this language since I was eight. Inwardly, I smiled. Apparently, I had flustered him enough for him to forget all formalities. The king stopped himself, glaring at me.

"Nyet, pojalusta prodalzhaityeah!" I called, surprising him.

No, please continue hurling insults at me that you believe I'm too stupid to understand.

He took a deep breath, then he started up again in the language I used most frequently, his thick accent more noticeable than ever.

"There is a monster in the far north who has taken a castle belonging to me. He believes that I am sending a princess to him in order to get the castle back. I have no daughters, only my son, but I have not told him so. I want you to go and stay there, then I want you to kill him." He said it all in a rush of words.

He also wouldn't meet my eyes.

Something nagged at me. He's hiding something.

The king produced a knife from the folds of his clothes, small enough to be concealed in a dress. "I will protect your brother and your father. There will be no more drafters trying to take your father away, and your brother will no longer have to fight in the war. They will be brought to the castle and treated like royalty. You just need to do this small favor."

"And if I die? If this terrible 'beast' finds out I'm not who I say I am, what happens?"

"Nothing. Your family will remain here as guests."

I breathed in. If I didn't take the offer, he would--without a doubt--sentence my brother to death, along with my father. Slowly, I looked at the king and nodded, reaching for the knife. As I was escorted out, I stopped and turned.

"Just one more thing," I called as an afterthought.

It looked like it took all of the king's self-control to not roll his eyes. "Yes?"

"Make sure my father doesn't touch an alcoholic drink."

King Regol paused, then let out a mighty laugh.

"As you wish. Do svedenyeh, Lizaveta."

I nodded. "Goodbye, Your Highness."

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Translations:

*Nyet pojalusta prodalzhaityeah.= No, please continue

** Do svedenyeh, Lizaveta.= Goodbye, Lizaveta.
( do svedenyeh is a formal goodbye)
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This chapter is dedicated to GreggTheGrimReaper, because of his awesome comments (which border on the line of insanity).

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Conversation starter: What do you think is going to happen if Zara gets to the beast's castle?