Page 59 of Betraying Korth

CHAPTER 26

Neither Curdy nor Odette returned to the prison. I had assumed they wouldn’t, but it was nevertheless a blow to have stark evidence of the side Korth had taken. From the brief snippets of conversation I’d overheard from guards occasionally passing by, it sounded as though Korth planned to marry thetruePrincess Odette.

I didn’t doubt it. My only visitor was Gerta, who brought me a solitary dress for a change of clothing and wouldn’t look me in the eye. I kept my undergarments and slip but shoved the flowing wedding gown I had been wearing back through the bars to her, the pure white soiled to a dull grey color that matched my prison cell. As she gathered the fabric and retreated, I couldn’t help watching the future I had dreamed of fade even faster than Gerta’s profile did. The replacement dress she’d given me looked horribly familiar. It had been washed, but as I felt the scratchy cloth brush against my skin, the memory of handing this same dress to Odette on the voyage to Haven Harbor burst into the forefront of my mind’s eye in full, vivid color. How perfectly fitting.

Ignoring the droplets that splattered against my head from above, I huddled in a corner, arms wrapped around myself, asthe cheerful sounds of wedding preparations filtered in from the barred window. That wedding was never meant to be mine. I couldn’t rid my mind of the conjured image of Korth holding hands with Odette as a minister pronounced them man and wife.

I had failed, simple as that. The risk had always been there, yawning its jaws as it stalked closer towards me, but I had naively and foolishly let myself fall for Korth and forget the danger. Now, I had not only failed the rebellion and all of my country, but I’d also lost the only man I’d ever loved. The ships would be recalled, and all I had to show for my months of effort was a broken heart.

A quiet sob caught in my throat as I buried my eyes into my knees. Odette had won. The horrified expression on Korth’s face when the truth had been revealed haunted me, continually cropping up at the forefront of my mind no matter how firmly I tried to suppress it.

“Whatcha crying for?” the boy in the cell next to me asked. His light, carefree voice made it sound as though he was lounging on a beach while being fanned with palm fronds, not locked in a miserable, dank prison cell.

“Because I am a deceitful, lying fraud,” I answered, my voice ragged.

“Aren’t we all, though?”

I raised my head to stare at him through my puffy, bloodshot eyes. The red-headed boy looked to be about sixteen years old, but his eyes had a mischievous glint in them that hinted at decades of knowledge.

“Are you one as well?” I asked waspishly.

“Sure am. Everyone is, even if they pretend otherwise.” He interlaced his fingers behind his head and reclined back against the wooden bench that served as his makeshift bed. “So what are you in for?”

“Trying to start a war.”

“I presume you failed at that simple little task.”

I glared at the boy, wishing I could muster the energy to slap the knowing smirk off his face. “Such asimple littletask is more difficult than you think, little boy.”

“I doubt it.”

“Enlighten me, then. How would a boy like yourself start a war?”

“Easy. Instead of swapping places with the princess and letting her run free like you did, kill her on the voyage over, then set about pillaging every city you come across.”

I sneered. “You’d be dead on the first raid. Pirates aren’t welcome here, and no ship can stand up to a fully armed city.”

He shook his head. “They wouldn’t expect an attack from a ship running up Ebora’s colors if they thought the princess was coming to marry Prince Korth. Strike swiftly at night, and they wouldn’t have time to prepare an adequate defense. I would set a task force of men to do cosmetic damage to any ships in the harbor while we attacked the armories usually kept near the beacon, then set sail again. In and out within twenty minutes.”

I stared at my fellow prisoner with newfound respect, even if it was twisted and warped. He deserved to be here just as much as I did.

“Why only cosmetic damage?”

He hopped off his bunk and shifted his weight onto one of his feet as he leaned casually against the bars. “With enough damage to force them to delay for a day or two, you ensure that you have adequate time to disappear, but as long as you flew that flag during the attack, word of what Ebora did would spread very quickly. Haven Harbor would have been ready to go to war within a few weeks without you ever needing to marry the prince, and while Ebora’s army was busy defending against Haven Harbor, your rebellion strikes when the king is weakest.” He picked up a small stone from the bottom of his cell, threwit into the air, and caught it again. “Your emotions were your downfall.”

This was no boy. He was a monster…a beast. I stared at him, suddenly glad for the bars that separated us as my mouth hung open. His plan was so brutally elegant. Why hadn’t we thought of that? “So why are you in here?”

He shrugged. “Murder, kidnapping, imprisonment of pixies, theft…take your pick.”

He spoke of it so casually that my stomach turned. At least with my crimes, I had remorse for how low I was forced to stoop. There was no guilt in this prisoner’s voice.

“What’s your name?”

The boy swept his dark green cap from his head and bowed low. “Peter Pan’s the name. Delighted to make your acquaintance. I must say, this beats the solitary confinement I’ve had until now.”

Peter Pan? That was the name of the prisoner whose trial Korth was supposed to attend when he decided to stay and help me instead…the one who should’ve been put to death, but Tess let off with life in prison instead.

No matter. What did I care if I was placed alongside other people whose crimes were just as heinous as my own?

---