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I couldn’t let it be in vain. I needed to get up, stop feeling sorry for myself, and face the king.
So, I stood on weak feet, my knees threatening to bow from beneath me, and I pushed through it, straightening my back and lifting my chin as I faced the king.
A malicious smile spread across his face while he clapped—slow and calculated as a methodical cackle escaped his too-thin lips.
“Well done, Elowyn. Well done. I admit your tenacity and perseverance far exceeded my expectations. To think I underestimated you. The lengths you were willing to go for your freedom, while admirable, were delusional and futile.”
My heart thumped hard against my ribcage, my entire body going numb.
Futile.
I bit my bottom lip to keep it from quivering, the contents of my stomach threatening to spew onto the ground by my feet. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. I prayed to the stars—wishing there was more to his statement. That I was hearing him wrong. But the harrowing connotation that loomed in the air almost brought me to my knees.
“You see, Elowyn, I own you. The gifts you’ve accepted, the food you’ve eaten. Even your name belongs to me. You are my prisoner. Indebted to me for as long as I find comparable to the kindness I’ve shown you. The mercy,” the king hissed the final words.
Tears streamed from my eyes, drenching my cheeks.
Don’t let them see you falter, Talons’ voice played in my head, and I sniffled, clenching my jaw in defiance. Despite the tears, despite my tremors, I was fuming. Anger oozed out of every pore, and I clenched my fists, taking his insults to the chin.
“I can’t have a disgraced halfling bastard child running around, tainting our bloodline, and consorting with our kind. I refuse to let my court believe I would allow such an abomination to occur.”
“You’re a liar!” I yelled.
The king tipped his head back with laughter. “Ah. Typical small-minded human, your crossbreeding must have stunted your intelligence.”
Prince Bowen turned red as he shook with amusement, not wanting to interrupt his father.
“I never promised you your freedom, Elowyn. Many conclusions can be drawn from implications. It’s your own ignorance and shortsightedness that caused you to end up here.”
With a flick of his wrist, King Harkin commanded the same guards that carried Talon’s lifeless body away to come summon me—to take me to where I’d surely rot.
I watched them from the corner of my eye, noting their every movement as they approached. My sword was too far to even think about putting up a fight, not to mention with whatever magic they possessed, I wouldn’t stand a chance. But I couldn’t surrender without a struggle.
Two guards flanked either side of me, capturing my arms in theirs as they hauled me away. I thrashed, kicking at both of their legs and groins, to no avail.
“You think your court admires you?” I screamed, making sure everyone in the court heard me. “They’re terrified of you! You’re a power-hungry dictator who feeds off those weaker than you. That’s not a king, it’s a coward!”
Even as the distance between the king and me grew, the menacing smirk on his face was hard to miss. He looked around at his adoring court—who all cheered and egged him on—before he willed himself to look back at me. Nothing but distaste in his eyes.
“Coward!” I screamed. “I earned my freedom! I did everything you asked and survived every trial! I proved my worth! You’re a disgrace to this realm!”
He sucked his yellowed teeth. “Ah, that’s the beauty of it all, Elowyn,” King Harkin bellowed. “Just as sin promises judgment, virtue comes with its own punishment.”
The familiar stale air of the dungeon singed my nostrils long before the darkness had consumed me.
I coughed, spitting the dirt from my mouth as I sat up and dusted myself clean. There was too much of it. Between that and bloodstains, I couldn’t tell which was what. My leathers were in tatters, my palms covered in minor cuts from the previous trial. My bones throbbed. My thoughts raced. One of my boots was missing. I couldn’t even fathom when or where I lost it. When Aeron tried to pull me off the mountain? On the way to the cell?
Letting out a sigh, I settled into the same corner I’d grown fond of. The one that gave me the perfect vantage point of whoever came and went. Not that anyone ever did. The dungeons were and always had been deathly quiet, providing no signs of another living soul. To think Talon’s family was down there. It didn’t seem possible. I didn’t know what to believe.
I couldn't even trust myself.
I pushed the heels of my palms into the side of my head to soothe the pounding sensation that ravished my skull when a glimmer caught my attention from the corner of my eye. At first, I thought I imagined it, hallucinating from hunger or apoplexy, but it shimmered again—its shape fully apparent.
A knife.
Its sharp tip was a harrowing reminder of how easily my sword had pierced Talon’s flesh. I cringed, desperate to rid my mind of the image. How would I live with myself?
Wrapping my arms around my knees, I rocked back and forth—my eyes locked on the knife as if it were going to jump up and stab me. In a way, I wished it would. Wherever we went after this, it sounded much more appealing.
