"It was a mistake. It happened once, then twice, and more times till it became a habit. It was a secret that would have cost him his position if people were to find out, especially his wife. It had to happen."
Belladonna was not moved by her tears but she was shocked by the truth. Truly, such a secret would have cost the now-dead Village Head his position, since his wife's family had been the one with the royal blood to begin with, and he had simply married into it.
But this still didn't make sense!
"If you were already pregnant, why did you have to do all that?" She took a step forward but halted immediately when she felt like her head had swayed on her neck along with that step she had taken. You wouldn't have been qualified for the Choosing Ritual. You would be with child and a woman with child cannot take part in the ritual."
"I had to save my reputation! If by keeping my mouth shut, I save the Village's Head's reputation what about mine? People will call me names if I can not provide the name of my child's father."
"Is that why you ruined his life? For your reputation!"
Her anger rose, not because of whatever Lytio meant to her in the past, but just the fact that he was a person of his own. Even if he had been a complete stranger to her, the truth remained the truth.
This was too much.
They had ruined his life.
"Mother said it was the best." Aniya frowned, holding back her tears as much as she could. "Would you have liked it for your own sister to be called a slut?! A harlot?! All those degrading names?!"
The tears streamed down her cheeks now, she couldn't hold them back anymore.
"Besides, you did not lose anything. Lytio would have been a terrible husband to you." She shrugged. "He had been good to me at the beginning but after Arlo's early birth, he changed. He became terrible, he never hit me but there are worse things a man can do than hitting a woman."
All what she had said, went straight to the garbage. Belladonna didn't care about that. She cared about the facts of what had happened, not her sister's delusional assumptions.
"Does he know? That the son isn't his?"
"Maybe." She shrugged, pulling her silky hair from Arlo small fist. "But he will never say it. Not clearly. I have a secret of his too." She added with a smug look.
"What is it?"
"Lytio slew his father." She said quietly, a silent struggle to justify everything she had done to him. "He was drunk. Found us sitting together and talking and he killed him. Knife in his hand and blood on his white garment "
Belladonna chuckled at the show of her desperation.
"Did he actually do that?"
Aniya's breathing accelerated and she looked at everywhere but at her.
"Tell me Any, did he do that?"
She bit her lips, sucking in a shaky breath.
"He was asking too much from me even after I had married his son." Her eyebrows scrunched up as she continued.
"He told me that he loved me. I think I loved him too."
Belladonna felt sick to her stomach at that statement.
"Being with him was wonderful. He loved me!" She declared in a breath and her voice dropped to a near whisper. "No one has ever loved me like that before, so we continued. One night, a month after giving birth to Arlo, Lytio had caught us together. He said nothing and he left, went straight to the tavern."
Feeling weak by her confession, she sank into the dressing chair, Belladonna's gaze followed her.
"His father decided to tell the people about us before Lytio would get the chance. I begged him not to. What would people say when they find out? They will shame me. But he was adamant. So I told Mother to talk to him and she had tried but it got violent." She shut her eyes, biting back a hiss at the memory.
"She murdered him."
Belladonna clenched her fists, before folding her arms in front of her like sort of shield.
"So we framed Lytio and made him believe he was the one."
She stood up, walked closer and held Belladonna's arm.
"Don't pity him. He is not as innocent as you may think. He planned it all. The poison was all a plan to get close to you. It was never Mayti or Kuftan, it was all him. Basti told me. Lytio is a crazy man."
She cupped Aniya's face inbetween her palms. "You did all that because mother told you to, right?"
Aniya smiled.
"Mother is wise and everything she does always has great results. Even forcing you to attend the ritual. Please just let Lytio die. Our lives would be perfect without him in it."
"No. My life will be perfect without you and mother's schemes in it."
"Mother is wise!"
"Have you no brain? Have you no kind of your own?" She dropped her hands from her cheeks, her sight blurry from the angry tears that filled her eyes. "You've ruined someone's life, Aniya. His whole family, for what? Your reputation?!"
"You are my sister!"
There it was. That messy crying.
"You should protect me. You should be by my side. That is what elder sisters do! Why are you not like others?"
Belladonna frowned.
No. She was not doing this again.
"You haven't changed at all."
Belladonna didn't wait to hear the rest of whatever it was she had to say. She staggered past her and spoke to the guard at the door.
"Where is the King?"
"Milady?"
"Where is he?!"
"The Dragon's Den."
Belladonna gritted her teeth.
She might be too late already, yet she would have to try.
She turned away, racing towards the place she remembered to be the dragon's den, ignoring her sister cry for her to do otherwise, behind her.
Lytio was a victim, as much as she was.
He might not be completely innocent but he was still a victim.
Belladonna grabbed one of the torches hung on the wall, and started going down the stairs, going into the darkness, ignoring the loud banging in her head.
Maybe it was pity.
Maybe it was sympathy.
Maybe not being blinded by her emotions made her see things how they really were.
That he had been played just as much as she had been too, maybe even more.
Victims.
Both of them.
It was pity.
She pitied him, and because of that pity, she wanted to save him.
The closer she got, the more she heard the growling of the dragon...
...and the cry of a man in agony.