Read Lore of the Underlings: Episode 8 ~ The Trial for Free Online Page B

overheard. Mother and father
were secretly giddy.
    “ Wife, I have a scheme today.”
    “ Husband, you must have read my mind.”
    “ Our chump’s come in.”
    “ We just need to scam him.”
    “ And leave this lowlife lot behind.”
    “ I’m thinking a con job should do the
trick.”
    “ A shell game…”
    “ Or hoax…”
    “ Like pig-in-a-poke.”
    “ Classic.”
    “ Then we sneak up the social ladder.”
    “ And break into high society.”
    “ Slick!”
    “ First class, here we come at last!”
    “ But that’s not even the best part, sweetheart,
compared to the bride price we’ll exact.”
    They laughed.
    Then father turned serious fast. “It better be
major, we’re losing cheap labor — no matter which minor, more or
less…”
    “ Well, speaking of less, that’s all we’ll get
unless we go take care of business. We’ve got to strike while the
ironwood’s hot and seal the deal before he’s not.”
    “ Right you are as usual wife! I propose we close
this ruse by making a daughter he can’t refuse…”
    What happened next I do not know. We waited for
word, a sentence.
    “ Xoxo!”
    My name became the kiss of death. The hug of a
newborn ugliness. I swear I heard a prison door. And just like that
my life was over.
    Qoqo offered herself instead, but they didn’t buy
it. She protested.
    “ Mother! Father! Don’t be misled. Fardy’s thirty
and a bubble-head. Blows on his drug horn all day long.”
    “ Silence girl! The deal is done.”
    Lord Plymix beamed and made the announcement. “So
shall our clans be joined as one!” His face was flush with success
and wine. “The wedding will be on Moonday morn.”
    I turned to my parents and begged them to listen.
“But Treygyn,” I cried, “is my one true…”
    “ Who?”
    “ Treygyn. Treygyn Yin.”
    “ Yin?!”
    “ You stay away from him!”
    “ Him and the rest of his oily clan.”
    “ But…”
    “ We’ve got a blood feud brewing against
them.”
    Suddenly I felt light-headed, woozy. Someone said,
“Look how she swoons for her groom…”
    Boom.
    I woke on the floor of my room.
     
    Diary, wherefore am I me? To be wed or not to be… A
winter of honor but discontent, or glorious summer with this son of
Yin…
     
    Treygyn hung on her every word. Heads shook.
Folk bowed. Freebird cooed.
    Ho-man flashed the stranger a cliff note,
just for a sense of the suspense. “Miss must dis her parents’
pride or kiss her star-crossed guy goodbye.” John Cap already
knew the plot.
    “Is that the last of this epic?” asked Fyryx.
“I’d hate to miss the tragic ending. The smoking gun. Any clue to
who done it.”
    Qoqo looked ready to lie then sighed. “No,
there’s more sir.”
    Xoxo whimpered.
     
    Lune 22nd, Mid Summer’s Evil ~ Unhappy birthday to
me, dear diary. Now you can be my obituary…
     
    Her sister’s words left Qoqo speechless.
Dumbstruck. Choked up. In distress.
    “Start spreading the news girl,” Fyryx
pressed.
    “Sir?”
    “I’m taking over as journalist.” And he
grabbed at her, nabbing the cub writer’s notebook. “This just in —
let’s read all about it…”
    The story, however, took a twist. It bit him
on the fingertips.
    “Guard! We have a hostile witness!”
    Xoxo stepped forward. “Wait! I’ll
confess…”
    Uncomfortable silence followed her offer
while Fyryx rubbed his reddened hand and shook the bee-sharp sting
from his fingers. “Now we’re talking,” the justice smirked.
    He chucked the book and the thing took off.
It flew like a foo bird back to its owner.
    She steadied herself on the mother shell.
Then Xoxo told what she had to tell.
    “When I woke on the morning of Mid Summer’s
Eve, the Revels were already underway. I could hear happy noise
through my window pane. So I hid from the day and prayed for
rain.
    “By noon my friends had heard the news and
came to find the rumors true. They sat at my bedside, Lay-Hay and
Val, as if I lay dying. We cried for a while. But once our