Page 46 of Vows of Sacrifice

They nodded in agreement.

“In gratitude, serve my wife faithfully. And if I ever learn that you are spying on us, on my lady or me, for your king or the Isamane, I will kill you with my own hands. It will be slow. Painful. Incredibly unpleasant.”

“But . . .” protested the brunette. “In case you are right, the king will certainly want to kill us too if we don’t obey him. Whatever we do, we’ll die!”

She wasn’t wrong. I thought for a moment and said:

“Fair enough. But only report things of no consequence, and above all, confide in me every word you repeat to them. I want to know everything. Everything. Now go to bed, shoo!”

“Yes, Lord Dovah,” they chorused.

I watched them run off down the castle corridor while, on the other side of the door, Elendur ravaged everything in his room. He hadn’t gotten any better with age; if anything, he’d gotten worse. I let out a sigh.

7

ASHANA

I already knew that venturing into the barely lit corridors of the castle was a bad idea. Nevertheless, I couldn’t wait for Dovah to return. I felt like a caged bird in that room! I was suffocating and a feeling of anguish oppressed me violently.

Despite the muggy conditions, I put on one of my wool hooded coats to hide my easily recognizable hair. I didn’t want the local servants to identify me and report my escapade. After a deep breath, I set off. The corridors were empty, and only the crackle of torches broke the silence that reigned.

Since I had refused to take any Muvarian attendants with me, I had no choice but to face the solitude. So be it. For me, Osacan was a hostile land, especially for people from my country. So, the least I could do here was to protect the people I loved, mainly by not forcing them to live in exile, far from family and friends.

It was easier to find my way back to the entrance than I thought. In no time at all, and without meeting a soul, I found myself near the royal throne outside.

I hesitated to approach it. It was so gigantic! Suddenly, I once again spotted the red stone embedded in the back of the carved armchair, the one the colour of blood. The same shade as my hair. This detail struck me and made my heart beat a little faster.

Then, something incredible happened. The jewel began to glow. Worse: it now appeared to be lit from within, like a light! From then on, the entire area around the royal seat was bathed in a bloody glow. “Magic is everywhere,” Dovah liked to say. Even if, in theory, I believed him, seeing it with my eyes made my blood to catch fire in the network of my veins. Without really thinking about it, I moved towards the hypnotic glow. I was almost there! My fingers could nearly touch the ruby!

Suddenly, I heard a male voice, and I recognized it as that of King Elendur. I immediately hid behind a pillar, fearing gripping my stomach.

“Sire, do you need assistance?”

It was a member of the royal guard. I desperately wanted to tilt my head so I could observe him in secret, but the thought of getting caught held me back. I took a deep breath and tried to take a single look. It was indeed the king!

“No,” Elendur replied curtly.

He seemed to be in a foul mood. His facial features were contorted in a furious grimace that marred his handsome features. I hid again, taking the time to control my anxiety about being discovered, then crouched down further.

Elendur inserted strange steel claws into each of his fingers before bringing them closer to the stone, which no longer glowed.

This discovery shocked me. Why did the ruby no longer emit its reddish light?

“If you think you’ve got the upper hand on me, Dovah, you are sorely mistaken,” said the king, with a frightening sneer on his lips.

But what was he talking about? Then, with an expression of unfeigned pain, he unhooked the precious ruby from the stone throne. What was he going to do with it? What was it really? Why had he placed it on the throne, and above all, why was he taking it away?

All these questions jostled in my head to the point of making me dizzy. Suddenly, as if he’d sensed my presence, he turned sharply in my direction. I immediately pressed myself against the pillar, even holding my breath in fear lest it be audible.

“Your Majesty? Is everything alright?” inquired one of the guards.

“Mm. I thought that . . . But no. Let’s go.”

I waited. I waited until I was sure I’d stopped hearing the sound of their footsteps. I waited until I was sure it wasn’t a trap to test his intuition about the presence of an intruder. I waited a long time, trembling and drenched in sweat from my coat, which could protect me from the cold of Muvaria, but not from the heavy, suffocating heat of Osacan.

What should I do? Go back to my room? Yes, of course, that was the wisest decision . . . But it didn’t solve the problem of knowing where my husband had gone, and what he was doing at night to return stained with blood and with eyes as red and luminous as the precious stone on the throne.

My mind stopped on that thought.

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