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“No, I know enough of that. I’ve been to Tierasia once myself.”
My attention snapped to his face. When and how? He even knew the name of the land I hailed from. “How?”
“I followed Randsin’s call for help. Found myself falling up a hole instead of down. An odd trip, to say the least. But I sought the voice that kept calling in my head until I found him fleeing for his life. From your queen. My question is why now? Nearly seven years later?”
He really did know it all. No doubt Randsin and him had lengthy discussions about it. I leaned back into my hands.
“After I helped Randsin escape, a witch—a relation to the one who had announced the prophecy that he had fulfilled—bound the portals closed. It wasn’t until Queen Atarah found her and tortured her for months on end that the spell was undone, and she sent me through.”
“What of this token you say Randsin has?”
“He hasn’t told you?”
“Randsin is a private man who keeps a lot of secrets. The weight of them, I’m sure, is a hefty price to pay.” King Windre folded his hands in his lap.
I could still smell Red’s blood in the air. It was weird how the roles had switched so quickly. She was free from the cell, and here I was, locked up with nowhere to run. The tears that had welled in my eyes finally dropped over the edge as I blinked. I wiped at them quickly. I was better than that.
“If that token gets into the wrong hands, like Queen Atarah’s, and she finds its other half, the worlds will not be the same. The owner of both halves will have more power than any other being on this planet, powers to rival that of the gods. What would someone so evil do? I shudder to think.”
“So the question remains,” he smiled.I couldn’t help but gawk at his smile. There was nothing joyful about this. Perhaps I was wrong, and he was deranged and sick.“What am I going to do with you?” he continued.
Suddenly, I didn’t want to die. I never really did. Logic told me that they would likely kill me and I wanted to be prepared for that, to meet my fate like a man, but I certainly didn’t want to die if another option presented itself. Was this what it was like to be Red? Was this something else we seemed to have in common? It felt like it.
“If I don’t go back, she will send another.” In truth, it had always been between me and Barthalow, but I had subtly suggested it be me. Barthalow was savage and would cut his way through this world. If I went, as I had, I could undermine her at every step. For the most part, it had worked, up till now.
“When does she expect your return?” He crossed his legs in front of him, propping his elbows on the edge of his knees and resting his head in his palms.
I squinted at him but otherwise ignored his odd behavior. “Not long. Last we spoke she said if I was not successful, and soon, she would send another. He won't be trying to fight her commands as I do. Barthalow is loyal and wholly evil, like her.”
“So, what do you think I should do?”
“I think you should let me live.”
“Okay.” King Windre nodded. He pushed himself off the floor and dusted his billowing pant legs.
“Okay?” I looked up. He had to be fucking with me.
“You’ll have to understand though, that I’ll need to keep you down here. I can’t have you running off with Randsin in the middle of the night.” He gave me a flashing smile that was so beyond different from the sly, wicked ones he had given me before. “My sincerest apologies for the poor living conditions. You understand, right?”
I nodded but truly, I didn’t get it at all. He turned his back to head upstairs, but I scooted myself forward, drawing his attention again.
“What will happen to Red?”
His robes gathered dirt from where he had sat and along the edges that trailed the floor. He dusted them further as he spoke. “Hattie will take care of her. I can promise you that. She’ll be given something that will give her her powers back, and she’ll heal quickly after that.”
“You don’t break Nymphs here, do you?”
His smile grew wider, slightly crooked and his eyes sparkled with something mischievous. “No, I do not.”
“Are you not afraid I’ll convey that message back to Ottack?”
“Should I be? I thought you worked for that queen back in Tierasia?”
I pursed my lips. Even though Princess Maggie bothered me, there was some odd sense of loyalty to her that I felt, even now. Some weird connection from trying to help her get out from under her father's nose, free from her own oppressor, that made me think she’d like to hear this news.
“Either way,” King Windre waved his hand before I could respond, “you’ll be down here with no way to communicate with the outside world. I don’t know what you know about our war, but Ottack isn’t the good guy; you don’t want to be on his side. It’s the losing side.”
“I’m not on his side.”
