Chapter 24 #2
Sirella turned to look then, seeing what the king had done and shuddering at what she found.
So she sent the rain. A single cloud which poured down over the well, and the king gulped down the rain, praising the moon for her mercy.
But she wasn’t merciful, she was merciless, and she locked him within that cage as the water rose and rose, filling the palace until her bounty spilled over the mountainside while the king was drowned.
The kingdom was washed away and a river ran endlessly down the mountainside, carving its way through the land. And ever since that day, the river had remained there, feeding the earth and making it the perfect place for Osaria to be born, a gift from the moon.
I wasn’t sure if I believed everything within the old stories, but I did believe in the lost gods.
Though it seemed the power they wielded had bordered on cruel, and that particular fable about Sirella was one of the few stories where a god was kind – though why she hadn’t saved the people before the king had murdered them made me question that too.
It was probably exaggerated, changed over the years as the fable passed from mouth to mouth.
Who knew what truth really lay in it, or if there was any left at all?
Zira pushed through a secret door, and I stepped onto the path outside the palace, breathing in the night air as we slipped into one of the gardens and walked side by side, our heads bowed in the usual way of the maids.
I kept stealing glances at the path ahead as we closed in on the gates, my heart drumming out a wild tune in my chest as I took in the row of guards there and the swords at their hips, the powerful men perfectly still, like extensions of the wall they stood before.
As we reached the gate, Zira lifted her chin and took the lead. “The two of us are showing symptoms of sand flu. The doctor ordered us to remove ourselves from the palace grounds if we ever suspected we were ill, so we can seek medical help before we infect anyone else.”
One of the guards looked up at those positioned in a lookout on top of the wall, nodding to him and a beat later a clanking noise sounded and the gate started to open.
I took slow breaths, watching that gap in the gate widen and widen, giving me a glimpse to the path beyond. It was still the palace grounds there, and we’d have to pass one more gate to get out, but it was closer than I’d ever felt to freedom before.
Zira nodded to the men and I did the same before stepping forward to follow, all of them drawing away from us, the threat of sand flu clearly enough to make them cautious.
I was almost through when a voice rang out across the grounds behind me, making my bones turn solid and horror dagger through me.
“Stop them!” Magdor shrieked and I knew it was over before it had even begun.
The guards surrounded us in moments and I was corralled backwards by chest plates and strong arms, pain blossoming in my heart as I caught Zira’s gaze and found her eyes full of apology.
I wanted to banish that look from her face, but I didn’t have a second to speak with her as Magdor arrived and plucked me from the middle of the armed men, her fingers knotting in the material of my sleeve.
“Foolish girl,” she hissed then yanked me away as two guards fell into step behind us. I didn’t fight, didn’t run or scream or beg, because I knew the game was up and causing a scene would only make my punishment worse.
Magdor gripped my arm in a vice as she towed me back into the palace, her billowing navy nightgown whipping around her in the wind.
“How did you know?” I growled, my soul aching over my failure.
“The maid you drugged fell out of your bed and made such a thump that the guards ran in there to protect you. When they saw her face, they reported it straight to me,” she hissed, her nails biting into my arm.
That was it? One fucking mishap and it was all over. I could have gotten out. I was so close to getting out.
I tried to turn back to see Zira, panic blooming in me over what they were going to do with her. But she wasn’t there.
“You think the entire world revolves around you,” Magdor spat as we made it inside and she led me down a deathly quiet corridor where moonlight poured through the arching windows.
“You think that because you are a princess you can do whatever you wish? Well let me tell you your real worth, princess. It is this.” She shoved me against a wall, taking a blade from who knew where as she placed the tip of it against my pelvis.
I stilled, a tremor of fear rolling down my spine as I looked up into her cruel gaze.
“It is the legacy your womb can provide, the heirs you can gift the winning suitor in the pageant. The rest of you will be enjoyed until your looks fade. And they will fade, Austyn. As leaves will surely fall in autumn, your face will droop, your skin will wrinkle and you will be cast aside for someone younger, fresher. So it is in your interest to ensure you remain valuable, and you can do that by being a good mother. By raising the sons and daughters you birth to Kahn.”
“Kahn has not won the pageant,” I snarled. “He has not won my hand.”
“Not yet,” she agreed, a conniving smile twisting her lips then she jabbed the knife into me a little harder, making me flinch.
“But he will. And you will be much happier in life if you accept what must be done for the good of the kingdom, instead of being a selfish brat who only thinks of herself. Do you know what would become of you outside of this palace, Austyn?”
“I’d find freedom out there,” I said passionately, knowing it to my core. “Any life would be better than this one.”
She shook her head at me, a mocking laugh rolling from her lips as she lowered the knife at last. “You would not last a day outside these walls. There are men far more villainous than my son waiting out there to claim the warmth of pretty flesh like yours. And even if you somehow managed to avoid them, what then? You could not stay in the city, so where would you go? Would you do the impossible and try to cross the Lyrian Desert? Or head south to the kingdom of Berion to become some farmer’s wife?
And you think you would not be recognised?
If the human traffickers didn’t find you first on your travels, then it would be foreign soldiers or blood traders.
You would either end up sold back to your father or sold to a far worse fate.
There are many rich men in these lands who would pay to have you at their mercy, who would take from you until you were a shell of yourself.
Is that what you want? To leave the safety of your home only to find yourself in a cage far worse than any fate you can imagine awaits you here?
You’re not thinking clearly, Austyn. You are and always will be an ignorant girl who knows nothing of the real world.
But I would have thought you were smart enough to know that your fate here is the best you will ever be offered.
And what a privilege it is to be gifted such a fate. ”
She gazed down her nose at me, seeming disappointed and perhaps even pitying of me. It made my bones rattle with rage. I wanted to rip that look right off of her face with nothing but my fingernails, but the ring of truth in her words had me standing there and doing nothing instead.
Perhaps I was ungrateful of my position in the world.
I didn’t know the taste of hunger or the struggle of poverty.
Thousands of people in the city probably looked to this palace and dreamed of what it would be like not to have the burden of finding food before sundown, of not knowing when another coin would enter their pocket.
And I was here taking it all for granted, wishing I could trade places with them just so that I could know freedom.
But what if freedom was pain? What if it was starvation and suffering in a life I didn’t know how to navigate?
Magdor stroked my cheek through the material over my face and my gaze sunk slowly to the floor. “There now, take a deep breath. We all must play our part. I have burdens too, my dear. But we must be grateful that our burdens are not as heavy as those of others, mustn’t we?”
I twisted my head out of her touch and she clucked her tongue, backing up a step as she let out a long and weary sigh.
“Your maids will receive ten lashes for their involvement in tonight’s plot and will be docked three weeks of pay,” she said lightly and my head snapped up.
“No,” I commanded. “I forced Zira to help me. I threatened her with a blade. And I tricked Jacinda into drinking that sleeping draft so I could take her clothes. They’re not to blame. They’ve done nothing wrong.”
“They should be thankful they are keeping their heads. If they were not bound to do your bidding, I would be less lenient. But rules are rules.” She turned her back on me, sweeping away with her robe whipping out behind her as she turned a corner. “Take the princess back to her quarters!”
Two guards closed in on me a moment later and I was escorted back to my rooms. The second I stepped inside, the firm click of a lock snapped against my ears behind me and the deepest feeling of failure swept over me.
The lump in my throat wouldn’t give way and I realised my hands were clenched so hard against my palms that my nails were nearly drawing blood.
I let out a scream that pitched through the entire palace, and I hoped every single person within its walls could feel the pain in it, I hoped they knew that their princess was a prisoner and I would be partaking in the pageant unwillingly at every stage of it.
My shackles were invisible, but I felt them growing tighter around my wrists as that scream ripped out of me and I wished the walls would crack and the whole palace would fall.