Impulse (22 page)

While we walked, I wondered just what these ‘great things' were, exactly.

The trail of people behind us stretched on, endlessly, and grew thicker by the second as more civilians joined.

‘Robbie doesn't know that Damir's in his house,' I said in a voice low enough only for Marko and Jonathan to hear.

Marko didn't speak, but gave a quick nod to acknowledge my words. He was in full king-mode and very aware of the massive crowd behind us. This was his moment to reveal
the truth about his brother, once and for all, and I could tell he was anxious about the crowd's reaction. He had his head held high and his body rigid; but when he glanced at me briefly, I saw the pain in his eyes. I saw, too, the almost unnoticeable tremble in his hands when he seized the hilts of his daggers and whipped them out, a short while later, as we approached Robbie's cottage.

My stomach knotted into a twist. Robbie's cottage looked too quaint and peaceful to be harbouring a man as sick as Damir.

Were Lauren and Robbie safe? Had Damir fled? I went to step towards the front door, but Marko and Jonathan both moved to block my path.

Marko knocked on the door, then stepped back and shouted, ‘Damir!' in a roar so loud that I jumped.

The crowd behind us
oooohed
annoyingly.

Seconds later, the door opened and out stepped Damir, followed by Lauren—holding hands.

‘Arrest him!' Marko shouted, glaring at the guards behind him. ‘For the murder of Svetla Miro and the attempted murder of Anne Faulkner.'

The crowd remained silent, as though holding their breaths.

Several guards stepped forward, their daggers unsheathed, but they paused, mid-step, seeing Sylvia's icy glare.

Marko snorted and shook his head. ‘Then I'll arrest him myself.'

He charged forward and Jonathan followed suit, but Damir drew Lauren into his arms and started to kiss her on the mouth.

Marko and Jonathan skidded to a halt.

‘Out of the way, Lauren, I don't want you to get hurt. Go stand with Miranda,' said Marko, his eyes trained
murderously on Damir, who was still kissing Lauren but had his eyes open and fixed on his brother.

They finally drew apart and I stared at Lauren, who looked dazed and drunk from the kiss, pleading to her with my eyes, and hands, to come join me. But she shook her head, resting it against Damir's bulky shoulder.

The crowds behind us started to murmur and, when I saw Sylvia walking over to stand beside Damir, I saw why.

‘Quiet. Damir has an announcement to make.'

Damir stared into Lauren's eyes, and she beamed like a flower beneath the sun's rays.

Before my eyes, Marko seemed to wilt. His broad shoulders turned inward and his chest caved, so that he seemed to lose a couple of inches from his six-foot height. He turned and scanned the crowd, then shook his head a couple of times before directing his gaze upward, to the black ocean-sky above us, his lids fluttering closed as he muttered something to himself. He knew what Damir was going to announce, and so did I.

‘Damir has something he wishes to tell the people of Marin,' said Sylvia, with a Mona Lisa smile.

The skin on the back of my neck crawled and my palms began to sweat.

Lauren blushed when she met my gaze, something she rarely did—only when she felt guilty about something. Her blue eyes glimmered with tears as she mouthed an apology.

Whispers travelled through the crowd as Damir's hands slid down to rub my sister's belly, like he owned it.

‘Marko,' I said, after doing some quick calculations in my head. ‘Whatever he says, it can't be true.'

Marko ignored me, his muscles hard like iron, bristling beneath my touch.

‘Spit it out, then,' he said, glaring at his older brother.

Jonathan's fists bulged around the hilts of his daggers, so hard that his knuckles showed white through his skin.

Damir drew in a deep breath that swelled his barrel chest and made Lauren and Sylvia look like dainty dolls beside him.

Several people from deep in the crowd booed and hissed, which made me feel slightly better for Marko. But most said nothing and instead watched Damir with transfixed gazes and baited breath, like they were staring at a god.

‘People of Marin,' Damir said, in a booming voice that carried across the city as though he were on loudspeaker. ‘I have great news. News you have been waiting years to hear.' He looked at Marko pointedly. ‘Twenty years in fact.'

Marko remained statue-like and listened.

‘Lauren Sun is with child—my child.' He looked to the many eyes of the crowd, like a ringmaster working a circus arena, and grinned devilishly. ‘Marin's child!'

Marko didn't flinch as the crowd behind us went ballistic—cheering, shouting, gasping and crying.

I reached for his hand, but he brushed me away.

‘Leave me alone, Miranda,' he said, through clenched teeth, his eyes wide as he stared off into space.

‘But I don't want to,' I said, my voice cracking.

‘It's all right, Miranda, I've got him,' said Jonathan. ‘Look.' He nodded to Lauren who stood a metre away, with a silly smile on her rosy lips. ‘Your sister wants a word.'

‘Lauren,' I said, grabbing her hand and dragging her aside so that we could speak in private. ‘You aren't pregnant. You've just missed your cycle. It's what happens here. It happened to me last year. I didn't get my period again until I came back home.'

Lauren shook her head. ‘No, Randy, I'm pregnant. I know my own body. I mean, look how huge my boobs are. And I've got morning sickness, too. I lied about the wine.'

‘But you've only been here just over three weeks. That means…' I paused to calculate some more.

She rubbed her flat belly and grinned. ‘He visited me on my second night, with Sylvia. And yeah, he lied and posed as a guard; but I've forgiven him.' She shrugged. ‘Deep down Damir's a nice guy who just wants to be a good dad. At least he's not like the guys back home who would run a mile if they got a chick knocked up.'

I shook my head.

‘You're pregnant to
Jackson
, Lauren; we both know that.'

Lauren's grin vanished. ‘Don't talk crap, or else…' her words trailed off and she leaned in close, ‘things will get worse for Marko. I mean it, Randy. Damir can have him thrown to the sharks.' She shrugged apologetically. ‘I think he plans to do it anyway. Sorry.'

Everything began to swim around me; the people, the cottage, Lauren's face.

My eyes sought Marko, who stood back-to-back with Jonathan, daggers drawn and ready for the guards who were creeping steadily towards them.

‘Stop it! He's your king!' I shouted to the traitorous guards, and then again to the crowds, but everybody ignored me.

One of the guards shoved me aside and spat in my face before facing the crowds. ‘We follow rules here in Marin!' he said. ‘And the rules, created by our founder Frano Tollin, state that Damir is the true king, as firstborn—'

‘By only two minutes,' added Sylvia, with a smirk, and the stupid crowd tittered.

‘You murdered our father,' Marko spat. He turned to face the crowd. ‘Is this the man you want as your king?'

There were shouts of ‘No!' and ‘Yes!' simultaneously, while I wiped the disgusting spit off my face.

‘But he is to have the first child. Perhaps it's meant to be?' shouted a woman from within the crowd. Others nodded in agreement.

‘It's a sign,' a man shouted.

‘Marko doesn't even wear his crown,' shouted another, and again more heads nodded in agreement.

‘And he hasn't visited the markets to try our produce in months. Maybe it is time for a new king,' said a man whom I recognised as one of the grocers from the markets.

‘That's ridiculous,' I shot back at him. The man pretended he didn't hear me. I turned to face the crowd. ‘I'd rather a king who is too busy looking after his city to try the local produce than a murdering, cruel man who likes to cut women up and toss their bleeding bodies in the alleyways of the Underworld!'

Svetla's brothers lunged at Damir. One managed to punch him in the jaw before they were both wrestled to the ground by guards.

The crowd turned mad as some swore fealty to the new king and others to Marko.

‘Lauren!' I shouted. ‘You can't do this.' I seized her hand and tried to drag her away from Damir, but he severed my grasp and shoved Lauren behind him. ‘She's pregnant with my baby, and if you stress her out I'll…' he paused and licked his lips, ‘well, maybe not kill you; but I'll hurt you plenty.'

‘Don't be stupid; she's my sister,' said Lauren. ‘You wouldn't dare hurt her.' She frowned at Damir and dragged me to the side of the house and away from Marko and Jonathan, who were engaged in battle with Damir's men.

‘Lauren, you have to stop this…stupidity. Damir cut up a girl and threw her in an alleyway like she was rubbish. The man is sick, and has a weird thing for mermaids.' I shuddered. ‘I don't know how you can even stand to kiss him, let alone have sex with the guy!'

Lauren narrowed her gaze. ‘You're just jealous because I'm getting all the glory and it looks as though I'll be the one bunking it up in style in Marko's room—the royal room—with Damir.'

‘Marko!' I abandoned Lauren and bolted to the front of the cottage, where Marko and Damir lay on the ground wrestling each other with their bare hands. Several guards, including Jonathan, hovered above them, blades drawn, ready to help their king—whoever that was.

In the end it was Sylvia who bent down and placed a dagger first to Marko's throat and then to Damir's. Both brothers, their breathing laboured, stared up at their sister as though she'd gone insane.

‘Damir, release Marko. Marko, release Damir.'

Marko's eyes were dark and full of hurt as he stared up at the woman who had mothered him since he was a baby—the woman who was now holding a knife to his throat as though he meant nothing to her.

‘Damir, rise up.' He did so, and it suddenly became clear to me that it wasn't Damir who was calling the shots. Sylvia was the one in control.

‘We have a new king!' she announced to the people.

The crowd cheered. However, less than a minute later, several fights broke out. It was then I realised that there were more guards than only Jonathan and Robbie who still sided with Marko, and they weren't going down easily.

After watching on with a sick, amused grin, Damir soon yawned. ‘Leave the wretched and follow me home,' he
ordered his men, and they, along with Lauren, Sylvia and all the other sheep in the city, left us behind.

Silence seeped into the air around us as the cheers and singing began to fade down the hill and away from Robbie's cottage.

Marko, still on the ground, stared up at the sky, his expression frozen in shock. He looked broken, like a branch torn from a tree, snapped and then tossed to the ground.

‘Are you okay?' I groaned at the stupidity of my question. He'd just been stripped of his crown. Of course he wasn't okay.

He continued to stare at the blackness of the Pacific Ocean above us, his breathing laboured and his eyes faraway.

‘What should I do, Marko? Tell me.'

He rolled onto his front and held his head in his hands, his back rising and falling. I didn't know whether to put my arms around him or let him be.

‘Marko!' Jonathan came running from the cottage, his eyes wide.

‘We've found Robbie, and he's hurt!'

M
ARKO SCRAMBLED TO
his feet and ran to the cottage, bursting through the door. I followed close behind him.

Tears came to my eyes when I spotted Robbie.

Lily, her long, wispy hair hanging over her face like a golden veil, was bent over, untying the ropes that bound Robbie to the chair.

His head was hanging forward, and blood dripped down his cheek and trailed down his neck—from his ear. Bile rose to my throat, but I swallowed it down, along with all the bitterness I felt for my sister right now. How could she allow this to happen to Robbie?

Tears distorted my vision, and I wiped them away. It appeared as though Robbie had been beaten across the side of his head several times, so hard that his right ear was almost unrecognisable. This is what Damir must have done to Marko when he was little. Beat him so hard that he'd lost all hearing in one ear.

‘Rob?' Marko knelt down in front of Robbie and tenderly raised his chin so that he could meet his eyes.

Robbie raised his head, but said nothing and kept his eyes on the floor.

I took a cloth, dipped it in a jug of water and handed it to Marko, who, with a gentle hand, pressed it against Robbie's wounds. Robbie gasped and jerked away, his muscular arms straining against the ropes, which still bound him across his upper chest.

‘Here, I'll do it,' said Lily, and Marko handed her the cloth before he withdrew a dagger from his side and proceeded to cut the rest of the ropes. When they fell away, I helped Marko remove them, tossing them into a pile beneath the dining table.

Though he was now unbound, Robbie's posture remained rigid, from his jaw down to his feet.

‘He used his boots,' Robbie said suddenly, his voice low and gravelly. ‘I had two daggers; he had no weapons, and he still won.'

Marko crouched down beside Robbie again.

‘But you can't see well, Rob; Damir is the lesser man for fighting—' He stopped, his cheeks flushing.

‘For fighting a blind man; yes, I get it.' Robbie snorted and brought a hand to his face, his fingers slowly inching towards his ruined ear. ‘And now I've got another handicap.' He winced at the pain, the corners of his eyes tearing up. ‘What's next? Maybe I'll fall and smash my nose and lose my sense of smell.'

Marko sighed and stared at Robbie with shining eyes.