The Beloved

THE BELOVED
 
 THE BELOVED
 Grace Salvino
 
 
 Before
 The first recorded death occurred twenty-five years ago when an eight-year-old girl was gathering dryas in the Meyberh fields. Her screams echoed through the nearby mountains until her ten-year-old sister found her, the young girl’s blood flowing through the flowers she was sent to collect. Hunters from the nearby villages speculated on what the killer could have been. Was it a large bear? Some sort of mutated wolf? Or maybe it was a creature from the hells. Hunting parties searched for the unknown beast. But after four unsuccessful months, the cold season came, which meant the hunt was over.
 The kingdom was not in a state that could deal with this right away. King Perilis lll had just passed from pukhak, a terminal disease that caused the stomach to decay. He left his eldest son, Moriak, the crown. Moriak was smart and kind, and most importantly, he was in good health. He was a champion for the Ferihg faith and built churches in the remote parts of Yurden.
 The commoners did not blame King Moriak for the attacks. Why would they? It was not his fault. But the little girl was not the last of the beast’s attacks. Over the next ten years, the beast killed and killed. Named “The Beast of Meyberh,” it had taken over three hundred lives. The beast stalked its prey when darkness took over the day. Girls, boys, men, women, and who or whatever else it could kill, it did.
 Some families would wake up to the smell of blood. Others would not wake up at all. The beast seemed to have a craving for humans, but they couldn’t say the same for many other animals. With the beast living near the mountains, everyone feared for the king’s safety.
 King Moriak set a bounty for eighty thousand darinks. Hunters from all over the Southwest came to Meyberh to try their hand at killing the beast, but none were successful. It took out entire hunting parties. Those who saw it and lived described it as large with patches of thin hair 1
 Evangeline
 “No!” I protested as I lay on my bed, staring blankly at my canopy. “I did not agree to this!”
 “You don’t have a choice, dear,” said my mother. “You are twenty now. As you grow up, you will be forced to do things you do not want to. Oryn will simply be ordained first knight of Princess Evangeline.”
 “Easy for you to say,” I snapped at her. “You are the queen of Myrrine. Your birthright is to stay calm!” 
 My mother was always calm and collected. The only exception was when she was with my sister and me. She could never hold a straight face when it came to us. 
 On the other hand, my mother’s court had noticeably different reactions to the way my sister and I behaved. Most often came during the warm season, staying in our guest apartments or their nearby estates, with only a few months allowed in the cold season. The ladies lounged and gossiped behind their embroidered fans, and the gentlemen whispered between sips of their expensive liquor. Our little outbursts of self-expression made for excellent courtly tattle.
 As we got older, Daphrosa and I put on an act when in the presence of the aristocracy. We sat next to each other with excellent posture, and our hands placed gently on our laps. The tulle of our gowns fluttered as we glided down the great halls, and our loose white furs were groomed and plucked of any dusty trace. But in the privacy of our own chambers, we were as any other sisters would be, which was the very reason I wanted to strangle her as she spoke. 
 “Dearest sister, this is marvelous! A knight! So noble!” She snickered. “You will be envied among all!”
 “Stop it!” I shouted. “Mother, make her stop.”
 Daphrosa threw herself onto my neatly made bed, lying next to me in a pile of pillows. Her devilish grin mocked me for bearing the burden of Oryn and the disgraced Zehr family.
 “Well, my ever-loving sister, if you don’t think he