Free Bellona (Part 1.5 of The Saskia Trilogy) by Aoife Marie Sheridan Page A

help you?” I ask, trying to keep the disdain from my voice, it seems to work as his smile grows, or maybe he knows I don’t like him.
    “You can, Princess, just a few moments of your time.” He shifts his staff to his left hand before he starts walking towards me. “Join me,” he offers me his free arm and I take it. Part of me is curious as to why he has sought me out. “One day you will rule all of Saskia. Its people will rely on you for direction. They will be your people, Bellona.”
    I hold my head a little higher at his words. I can’t wait to rule.
    “Your father has hurt his people deeply.” I feel shocked at Miriam’s words, it is treason, but he doesn’t seem afraid “But you don’t have to.”
    I stop walking. “I would never hurt my people, me and Nierra will be the finest rulers that Saskia has ever seen.” I hold my shoulders back and my head higher, daring him to contradict me. But something in his eyes has my stomach tightening. “But you have already hurt your people.”
    I drop his arm, my heart rate escalating. “You don’t have proof, and who would believe an old man over the future queen?” I hope my questions make him see sense.
    “I am not here to judge you. I am here to help you, Princess.” His words don’t match his expression, he is judging me.
    “How exactly are you going to help me? You can’t undo what I have done. Unless you can raise the dead and that is unlikely.” My heart is racing now, I want him gone.
    “I can set you free, Bellona.” Free; the word has me frozen. What it would mean to be truly free of the deaths that I have caused, they hang around my neck like a rope ready to pull. “You must confess to Nierra what you have done or it will eat away at you, fester and rot.”
    The air catches in my lungs briefly at his madness and then I laugh at the stupidity of his suggestion. I thought maybe he could take my memories away, but to confess and to Nierra, I look into his serious gray eyes and  find myself growing quiet, with panic and dread. “No!” I turn away, not able to be around him or I will hurt him and that is one thing I promised myself I would never do again, I swore I would never hurt another person again.
    “What of your child?” I freeze once again before swallowing the saliva that pools in my mouth. “He grows inside you, for him—tell Nierra the truth—you must.”
    My hand flutters to my stomach and tears roll down my cheeks. No one knows I am with child not even Nierra, I had planned to tell him tonight. “Will he leave me?” I ask, not turning around. I can hear Miriam walk closer to me.
    “This is not about him, Bellona, it is about you and the future of Saskia.”
    I swing around my anger flaring. “How dare you, he is the future king, he is Saskia’s future. So tell me Oracle. Will. He. Leave. Me?”
    “If you don’t tell him, you will die young from your own hand.” Miriam walks away, not answering my question but leaving me feeling cold, my hand once again moves to my stomach where my child grows inside. I would never hurt my child, never.
     
                                              ***
    I sit in the room that has become mine and Nierra’s, feeling terrified. I can’t forget all that Miriam has said, but I know I have to choose my child or Nierra. If I tell Nierra, I live and my child will be safe with me, but I may lose Nierra in the process. If I don’t tell Nierra, I will die and my child will be motherless.
    “You’re looking more beautiful every day.” I look up as Nierra enters the room. My stomach tightens, can I really tell him? I feel as if I am not present in the room, and this doesn’t seem real. As if sensing my turmoil, Nierra sits down beside me, taking my hands. “What is it?” I can see the worry and concern in his face, soon it will turn to disgust. If I tell him about the child first, maybe he won’t take it so badly.
    “I have something I need to tell