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CHAPTER 9
Afew days later Ilay on my bed, hands folded behind my head, a discarded book beside me.
Arthur had not said I could not move freely about the castle and he had not said I had to move within the castle surrounded by guards.
Nevertheless, I was trying to keep the peace and so hadn’t left the castle in days. Yet, unsurprisingly, I had quickly realized that my room was not one of the places I wished to be.
My tower room had transformed from a sanctuary to a space where I now constantly felt trapped. I was diligent about keeping the door locked, but it felt futile. Florian must have acquired a key. Either that or he had bribed a servant to open my door at his request.
He had managed to drug my medicine without anyone being the wiser. Despite Arthur’s concern that I might be murdered outside the castle walls, I deeply doubted I was particularly well-protected within them. At least, not when it came to insidious threats like the one his closest advisor and best friend’s son represented.
I had taken to pushing a large armchair and a heavy trunk in front of the door each night before I climbed into bed. But that was not enough to make me feel truly safe.
Some nights I lay in bed and wondered if I should have given Kairos Draven more of the answers he wanted.
But what exactly could a Royal Guard have done with the knowledge? No, Florian was too close to Agravaine and Agravaine was too close to Arthur for me to feel safe telling even Sir Ector about what was happening. I didn’t want others to face repercussions for trying to help me. That would make things much worse.
Which was why I had not dared to mention to anyone that Florian had threatened to try to make me his wife.
Nor had I returned to ask Arthur about Lord Agravaine’s request.
I had decided I did not want to know. Was I pulling the hood over my eyes once more? Maybe. But I had also concluded that Florian’s petition was most likely to be refused.
Because if there was one thing that would make Arthur say “no” to his most trusted advisor it was the prospect of his elder sister and the former heir to the throne being permitted to bear children of her own to the son of a powerful family.
No, Arthur wanted me safe and conveniently locked up in the temple. I had never done anything to harm him or his prospects before this–in the past quite the opposite–and that was how I was sure we both wanted things to stay.
I needed to let myself believe Arthur retained at least a small measure of affection for me–and for Kaye. And that he wished us no harm.
As long as we stayed out of his way.
I was only too willing to do that. Especially now.
No matter which way I inspected things, my future did not look especially appealing at the moment.
I had less than a year of freedom left. And I was trapped in the castle with Florian hunting me like a trapped fox. If I left, I risked incurring Arthur’s wrath. Or being hunted by some new predator, like the men in the alley.
One could say the bright side was that I would soon find refuge in the temple.
But oddly enough, the prospect of becoming a celibate acolyte cloistered away in the Temple of the Three did not bring me great comfort.
In my heart, I supposed I had always held out the hope of something more.
Somethingelse.
Anything else.
It was a vague and fruitless hope, but it remained nonetheless. Though it was growing foggier and foggier by the day.
A rap at the door sent me leaping to my feet with my heart pounding.
When the beating had slowed slightly, I crossed to the door. There was an armchair pushed in front of it that I would have to move. If I chose to open it.
