Page 6 of The Dragon King's Curse
We were immediately marched across the grounds toward a stone building. A large iron wall enclosed the building. Two guards stood out front. This must be the prison.
My stomach clenched tight as we were ushered inside. We entered to find two more guards standing in front of a wall made of iron bars. They glowed with a pale light. Fae magick.
At one guard’s command, the bars slid open in the middle, wide enough for a person to walk through. We were all pushed through one by one into the large room beyond. Rather than individual cells, we were all held in one large cell together.
There were already a few people inside. Two humans and a fae. One of the humans appeared to be dead or pretty close to it.
Miranda seemed to have found her courage. Spinning around to face the fae warriors who’d brought us here, she hissed, “The Elven King will have your heads for this. You’ve captured his daughter, and he will not allow such an insult against him to go unpunished. Let us leave now if you hope to avoid certain death.”
The black-eyed fae regarded her with blatant amusement. He huffed out a laugh. “Trust me. I count on the Elf King finding out that we have his daughter. I welcome his response.”
One of the vampires made a vain attempt at escaping. He shoved past me, trying to squeeze through the bars as they closed. A guard holding a heavy club smacked him over the head with it, shoving him backwards. He fell to the floor in our cell, blood streaming from his forehead.
We were trapped. There was no way out. A quick glance about the cell showed me a very bleak scene. Oil lanterns hung from the ceiling allowed me to see that a few stained and worn mattresses had been shoved against the walls. Metal pots for doing one’s business sat in one corner. Their stench reached me, making me recoil in disgust.
There were no windows. No way out other than the way we’d entered. The current occupants of the cell barely acknowledged our arrival. They were in rough shape. Near death. Was that what the coming days had in store for the rest of us as well?
“Keep the trouble to a minimum if you wish to be fed.” A guard on the other side of the bars leered at Miranda and me. “The king will want to see you soon. I’d advise you to be on your best behavior. There is no shortage of punishment here.”
Miranda took hold of my arm, pulling me as far away from the others as possible. We pressed against the stone wall where we could see everyone else. It would be no good to let that vampire sneak up on us.
“Everything will be okay, Your Grace. Somehow, we’ll get out of here. As long as I’m alive, I won’t let any of these nasty bastards lay a hand on you.” She shot a scowl at our fellow prisoners, and then toward the guards standing near the entry.
I understood that Miranda felt it was her duty to protect me after what had happened to our companions. I didn’t blame her for any of it. We had all known the risks we took when we came out here.
“Please, call me Feryn. You know I hate titles and such. I am no greater than any of my fellow men and women. We’re in this together. We’ll take care of each other.” I gave her hand a warm squeeze, noting how much it shook in my grasp. Perhaps that was my hand shaking. We were both overcome with fear.
The two of us sat on the dusty floor with our backs to the wall. I had no doubt that my father would wage war when he discovered that I’d been imprisoned. If anything, he would lead a team of our strongest elves to rescue me.
Shortly after our arrival, the guards opened the door and tossed in a few trays of food. They threw a freshly killed pig to the vampires. A basin of water against the opposite wall from the chamber pots was for drinking while another smaller basin was for cleansing ourselves. I recoiled at the thought of sharing bath water with the other prisoners.
The food they had tossed inside held no appeal. Meat that was several days old with wilted vegetables and stale bread. The elven did not consume meat. We ate that which grew in the earth. Perhaps if we were here long enough, I would eat some of the bread and aged vegetables. I didn’t want to starve to death.
The prisoners who’d been here when we arrived didn’t seem to have such qualms about the food. They greedily helped themselves to the tray, stuffing anything they got their hands on in their mouths. The vampires didn’t seem too interested in the pigs they’d been given. Instead, they eyed the rest of us. Would the guards allow them to feed on us? I hoped not. We had no weapons or magick to defend ourselves.
Eventually, my throat grew dry, and I began to cough. I cupped my hands together and drank from the water basin. The water didn’t have the same sparkle and life to it that the water in my realm possessed. Everything that belonged to the fae felt tainted with their darkness.
As the hours passed, I grew increasingly fatigued. Miranda and I took turns dozing off. One of us would attempt to sleep, propped uncomfortably against the wall, while the other kept watch. The vampires lurked on the opposite side of the room, their continuous glances making us uneasy.
The loud clank of metal roused me. The guards were opening the door. One of them pointed at Miranda and me.
“You two,” he barked. “The King wishes to speak with you. Hurry up. He doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
An impending sense of doom settled in to steal my breath. Doing my best to don a mask of courage, I shoved to my feet and stepped forward. Miranda was at my side, ready to play her role as my protector. Something told me we were both in need of protection.
Without a word to the guards, I followed them from the cell, trying not to react as they roughly shoved us out the door of the prison building. The sky above was overcast. I had no way of knowing what time of day it was. As connected to nature as I was in my own realm, everything here felt different. I heard the whispers of the trees and the air, yet they seemed rife with unrest.
The lengthy trek from the prison to the castle took several long minutes. We were ushered in through a side entry, a small door used for the delivery of goods. From there we were taken down a lengthy hall, through a sitting room filled with lavish furniture, and into the throne room.
Dozens of cushioned seats lined each side of the room. They were currently empty of occupants. At the far end of the room, steps covered in red velvet led up to the platform where the king’s throne sat. A fancy blue chair with gold accents.
The king himself, Atlas Rein, sat on his throne. He wore a long blue robe and a golden crown atop his head. Long black hair fell past his shoulders. His wings were somehow even darker. Piercing blue eyes found us, watching intently as the guards ushered us closer.
Next to him sat a younger man, illicitly handsome. More than likely his son, Lyre Rein. Word of his brutality had travelledfar and wide, reaching my realm. The cold, hard glint in his gray eyes immediately turned my fear to panic.
His black hair was much shorter than his father’s, swept back like he’d haphazardly shoved his hand through it as a means of combing and styling. A gray shirt and silk pants covered his muscular frame. He too had deep ebony wings. The way his icy stare travelled over me made my knees weak.
I couldn’t help but notice that the Queen’s throne was empty. Nobody outside the Shadow Realm knew what had happened to her. Although many of us believed she’d met her end at her husband’s hand. The Reins were not good men.
