Chapter 173

The King turned right back around and walked over to the guard at the end who seemed to be in charge. At least he seemed to have the most colorful ribbons on his chest. Amaris looked around, but there was no one to help her. She reached down and grabbed Lyle under his arm and heaved. She had not realized how heavy he was. She pulled him up with everything that she had. She felt like a weight lifter getting her legs under her to heave both her weight and Lyle's to a standing position. Once in a standing position she found that he was heavy, and seemed to be in some sort of stupor, whether from the beatings he recieved, lack of food, or for some other reason she was not sure. She looked around at the surrounding guards, and saw Anna. Anna looked around at the guards at the walls and nodded her head to Amaris as they locked eyes. Amaris took a tentative step toward Anna, and then another. Amaris took a quick look at the King who had his back to her and was unaware of what she was doing. She took one step at a time until she got to Anna. Two of the surrounding soldiers side stepped to help take Lyle's weight with quiet murmurs of "We've got him. Don't worry." Amaris handed Lyle off and walked back to the dais just in time for the King to turn and walk back. The two vampires seemed to have given up and walked back to their group with sour looks on their faces. Amaris looked at the other four standing in front of the dais. Adam had a red face and looked furious, while Sveta looked like a child who had just had her fun spoiled. Glancing down the line to Jason and his mate Amaris could see looks of relief clear on their faces as they still continued to stare off over everyones heads. Amaris wondered if they were really her by their own will, or if they were being forced. Amaris' was forced to look back at the King as he moved in front of her. "Now that we have that little piece of unpleasantness out of the way, shall we move on the more important things?" The King motioned to the guards. They began to move away from the walls and close in around the prisoners. They were all pushed back away from the dais and split in half into two groups. Amaris saw that since Anna was helping hold up Lyle the guards had separated her and Taji who looked as if he was awake finally. Anna seemed to have noticed this too and asked one of the other soldiers to help hold Lyle up so she could go over to check on Taji. After the soldier ducked under Lyle's arm in her place Anna tried to cross over to the other group. The guards barred her from moving to the other group. Marco, Christos, Alexis, and Andreas were all on that side and saw that they would not let Anna move over to help with Taji and instead them walked over within the group to help him. Nicholas, Giorgos, and Nikos all came to stand near Anna. They too were being barred from moving to the other group. They were trying not to make too much noise about trying to get by so they did not attract attention. Amaris felt an arm go around her shoulders again and was lassoed back to the dais with the King. He brought Amaris up to the throne with him. Before he sat down the side door behind the vampires opened again and two men came in carrying a lage chair. It was not as large and grand as the throne the King now stood in front of, but it was definately larger and more ornate than most chairs. They placed the chair to the left of the throne and stepped back behind the dais. The King turned and sat in his chairand then waved a hand for Amaris to sit. Amaris hesitated. "Sit down my dear. We have a long night ahead of us. You don't want to tire yourself out too soon!" Amaris inched back and sat in the chair proffered by the King. If he wanted to play foolish games all night, fine. That would give her more time to figure out a way to get everyone out of here. Amaris noticed that Adam and Sveta had gone to stand to the King's right side, while Jason and the King's other daughter had moved to her left side. Jason was standing right next to her. She now wondered about the look that Jason had given his twin. Did Jason really betray his brother and twin? Somehow Amaris could not believe it. She had seen the two of them together, and from what she saw, she did not think that Jason would ever willingly betray his family and definately not his twin. Amaris wanted to be able to talk to him, but knew there was no way that she would get a private conversation right now. "The guards have done a marvelous job of splitting up the prisoners. Now let bring in a few more guards and create a circle in the center." The King stood again in his excitement waving his arms. Jason reached down and nudged Amaris out of her seat to a standing position. She stood and gave Jason a questioning look. As he quickly moved his glance away from her, he gave the slightest nod of his head in the direction of the King. Amaris turned and looked at the King. He was now directing the men that walked in from the door at the far end of the room. "Splendid!" The King shouts with a little clap of his hands. He turns to face Amaris with a look of excitement on his face. He reaches out and forcefully takes one of her hands. "My dear I have a special treat in honor of finding our queen at last. We are going to have our own private games!"