AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He faces me, his jaw feathering. “I have to tread carefully.” He returns to scanning the rock walls.
What does that even mean? “Why? You are the one person with enough power to do something about him.”
Daimis closes the distance to me in two strides. His face is both handsome and severe with the blue light on one side and darkness on the other. “Since you’ve got it all figured out, let me ask you something.”
I motion my hand in a rolling motion as if to say, go on, ask.
“When you saw the prisoners, it upset you, right?” he asks.
“Yes, of course.”
“Then why didn’t you do something about it? You’re the one who went up against shadow demons and lived. Surely you could have done something to help those poor people.”
My arm drops to my side. “What did you expect me to do? Go up against the Regent and the entire Steel Guard? That’s a death sentence.”
He looks at me pointedly. “Exactly.”
Understanding sweeps over me. “You have no real power yet. The Regent has his own guards that only answer to him.”
“Yes, and he has the ears of all the nobility in Thaaryn, each of whom has their own armies. He’s been working on those relationships for years. I only just got back. I have no doubt that if he saw me as a threat, he would find a way to turn them all against me. Or he might dispatch an assassin, and I might not live to reach my throne.”
“That’s what you meant by we’re all in chains,” I say recalling a previous conversation we had.
“I have to be careful. But don’t think for one second that means I’m doing nothing.” He winks and goes back to searching the cave walls. “And when I’m crowned king in just a few short weeks, changes will be made. Changes that the Regent will legally have no say in.”
I stand there and watch Daimis with a new understanding. Perhaps he’s in just as much danger as I am, maybe even more. But he’s down here defying the Regent anyway. Not outright, but in the only way he can, for now.
“Here,” he says. “I found the entrance.”
I join him and notice a jagged crack in the wall. You can only detect the opening from a non-direct angle. We have to duck down and squeeze through the small opening. The cave on the other side is completely dark, the only light being the blue shining in from the cracked opening. I spot a sconce with an unlit torch across the way. I retrieve it and Daimis unties his flint from his belt. After a few tries, the torch lights catch flame.
“I never knew there were unused caves down here,” I say. “How did you learn about this?”
“Read it in an old book written by a long-dead explorer of this region.”
I stare at him. “So, you didn’t even know if that book was fiction before you decided to take us down here? You’re crazier than I am.” I shake my head. “It’s amazing you’re still alive.”
He just smiles proudly.
We walk in silence for several minutes, though Daimis keeps glancing at me like he wants to say something.
Finally, he lets out a breath. “You’ll hurt him,” he blurts.
I jerk my head up.Kellan. I’m about to protest and tell him to mind his own damn business, but hesitate because wasn’t hurting Kellan exactly what I was worried about? And if I’m really honest with myself, this is the first time I’ve thought about Kellan since leaving the castle. I sigh. “I know.” Because really, how else will a relationship with Kellan end? He is the Regent’s son, and I am an outcast, a magic user, and I will leave him and this place as soon as I am able. “I don’t want to,” I stammer. I don’t know how to explain to Daimis that I think a part of me needs Kellan, that I need someone good to help me stave off the evil inside of me. But I can’t say that without giving away who I am. “I’m going to try my hardest not to.”
“You don’t have to explain,” he says.
I wrap my arms around myself, feeling colder. “Do you hate me?”
He watches me with those intense eyes that seem to see too much. “To hate you would be to hate myself. None of us can change what we are. The truth is, I’ll end up hurting him too.”
As I wonder what he means by that, we round a corner and come to a dead end.Great. We came all this way for nothing?
“Did your book say anything about this?” I gesture to the wall, annoyed.
Without a word, Daimis hands me the torch and crouches down. He uses his fingers to wipe and dig away at a natural boulder in the wall. He gives me a cocky grin and pushes the boulder inward. The stone easily slides until there’s an opening big enough for us to crawl through. My jaw drops, and Daimis’s smile widens. “Books are full of useful knowledge.”
Dimmed light shines through the opening from the other side.
