Chapter 29
Bethel and I ate our morning meal alone in the Warwick family rooms until Torgrin arrived with a king’s guard escort for our visit to the queen.
Dim torchlight flickered on the cold moss-covered stones as we descended worn, narrow stairs to the dungeon. The air was damp, carrying the musty scent of neglect, and heavy wooden doors loomed over us as we reached the bottom.
The guard took an oversized key from a ring attached to his waist and used it on the iron lock. The doors opened into a torchlit room, where several soldiers sat around a rickety table playing a game. Across the room was another locked door.
How would Cillian and the others get past the soldiers, let alone unlock these doors?
When the guard opened the second door, the smell of human misery overwhelmed us. The gloomy tunnel felt like a passageway leading to the underworld. Several solid-iron doors to the left and right were all that broke up the monotony of the long, dark tunnel.
The king’s guard led us to the end, where an older lady dressed in white sat. A long veil covered her hair, and she wore a mantle bearing the queen’s emblem: a fist holding a sword circled by a rising sun, a lightning bolt and a tree. It was the first time I’d seen it in Capita.
My heart hammered against my ribs as I looked at the insignia and thought of Iain. He must have served here at the castle, I was sure of it.
‘Move,’ the king’s guard ordered the woman.
The lady in white had been embroidering something using a small lantern for light. She stood stiffly and shuffled away from the door. Torgrin moved her chair and placed it on the other side so she could sit back down. She nodded in thanks and watched us curiously from her seat.
Did she serve the queen? What could she do for Queen Yaris, sitting here in near darkness, surrounded by the accumulated stench from every cell we passed?
The king’s guard opened a small sliding window on the cell door.
After a quick look inside, he opened it with a key from the ring at his waist. Torgrin entered, followed by Bethel, who was holding her sleeve over her nose.
I was last to enter the small space, and I jumped when the cell door behind me closed with an ominous bang.
A lone figure sat in the corner on a narrow cot, with a long black veil covering her face.
The cell was sparse; the only other furniture was a chair and a full chamber pot.
We stood shoulder to shoulder before the frayed woman.
The walls behind her were coated with slimy mildew, adding to the dank and putrid air trapped inside the windowless stone coffin.
Torgrin nudged Bethel, who scowled at him over her hand clutching her nose. ‘Hello, Aunt Yaris. It’s me, Bethel. I’m here to check that you are doing well?’
Doing well? Bethel was an utter fool.
‘Also, Captain Torgrin has brought you a message from Father.’
The queen was silent. Nobody had heard Queen Yaris speak in two decades. Lord Warwick told us she could communicate by hand gestures or writing like Webber. But she did not respond to Bethel.
‘Well, that will be all then,’ Bethel announced. ‘I shall leave you, and perhaps the king will allow you to attend my wedding!’ Bethel sniffed, then gagged. ‘Open the door,’ she ordered, looking green.
Torgrin and I shared a look of disbelief. How could she be so cold to her dead mother’s sister? After the cell door closed behind Bethel, Torgrin spoke to the silent queen. Her black veil still covered her face, and she remained motionless.
‘Lord Warwick has asked me to give you this letter. He wants you to understand that it is for your eyes only – you must destroy it as soon as you’ve read it.’ The figure on the bed did not respond to Torgrin’s words or take the sealed envelope he held out to her.
I moved closer to her, wondering how I could help this poor woman. ‘We want to free you, Queen Yaris,’ I whispered, hoping the king’s guard couldn’t hear me through the door.
Queen Yaris turned her head towards me. I took this as encouragement. ‘Will you please read Lord Warwick’s letter?’ I pleaded softly. I held my breath, hoping she would respond.
Queen Yaris raised her veil with her pale, thin hands, revealing the firm chin and full lips I had seen in her portrait. When she reached her nose, she paused. The queen inhaled shakily before she removed her veil completely, exposing the rest of her face.
Her eyes were gone. We looked into empty eye sockets covered in freshly charred skin. Her hair had been shorn, leaving an uneven golden fuzz over her soft scalp. She showed no outward sign of the pain she must surely be in.
Torgrin’s grimace reflected the horror I was feeling. He swallowed and reached out to squeeze my icy fingers.
I moved towards the bed and grasped her dry, papery hands resting in her lap. Looking into the charred mess of her empty eye sockets made me sick. This was the cruellest thing I had ever seen. ‘I’m so sorry this happened to you.’
She startled at my touch. Recovering quickly, she moved her hands up and over my shoulders, seeking my face as if trying to see me through touch.
The queen began struggling to speak, but her words were nothing more than garbled sounds.
My heart ached at the way she held me, so I made soothing noises, trying to calm her distress.
She stroked my hair and pulled me into an embrace against her frail chest.
‘Hey, no touching!’ came the guard’s words from the window in the door. I ignored him and continued to let the distraught queen hold me and stroke my hair as if I were a child.
With a bang, the guard opened the cell door and pulled at my shoulders, dragging me away from the queen. Torgrin stepped in and pushed the guard so hard that he hit the cell wall, smacking the back of his head against the slimy stone, leaving him slightly dazed.
‘Stay back,’ he growled at the guard, who slumped against the wall. Torgrin spun back to me. ‘We have to go, Caris.’
‘We will get you out of here,’ I whispered in the queen’s ear. I don’t know why I did it, but I kissed her gently on the cheek.
We left the dazed guard and rushed past the lady in white who had risen from her chair at the commotion. My heart broke as Queen Yaris’s garbled cries followed us down the corridor.
The door leading back to where the soldiers were sitting and playing games was open, and I could see men in black robes waiting to enter.
Two robed men of the Order were holding a woman between them. There was a sack over her head, and iron shackles enclosed her hands and ankles. As we exited, they hauled the woman past us, chains scraping along the flagstones, her feet dragging limply behind her.
How many women were we leaving behind? We would free the queen, but what of the other innocent women caught up in this madness?
My steps faltered when I saw Bethel waiting for us uneasily next to Merrick.
Merrick’s pale blue eyes narrowed at us, but he said nothing as Torgrin ordered a soldier to open the double iron doors.
We needed to leave before Merrick asked questions – I was painfully aware of the semi-conscious king’s guard we had left behind us.
Once through the door, I looked back to see Merrick entering the cell they had taken the woman in chains into.
My fingers itched as I imagined my Darkness rising and shadows wrapping around his neck.
The door closed, leaving me to wonder what he would do to her.
Was he the one who took the queen’s eyes?
I couldn’t wait to make him pay for every vile thing he had ever done.
?
I didn’t get to speak to Torgrin about what had happened in the dungeon, as I had to rush to prepare for dinner with the king.
King Hared insisted I sit at the main table next to Bethel. Thankfully, no-one tried to engage me in conversation, and once the servants cleared the table, I walked with Bethel and Goodwin to the ballroom, where a handsome courtier immediately asked Bethel to dance.
‘Are you going to let her parade around the room with another man, Goodwin?’ came an icy voice behind me.
My spine stiffened when Merrick came to stand with us. He hadn’t been at the table tonight. Probably too busy in the dungeon, maiming and torturing women.
‘It’s just a dance,’ said Bethel.
‘Then you are just a whore.’ Merrick’s lip curled.
‘Come here,’ Goodwin commanded Bethel as the frightened courtier scurried away.
‘No!’ Bethel stomped her foot.
Goodwin’s hand came out to strike his future wife.
I seized his wrist mid-swing, stopping him before his blow landed on Bethel’s outraged face. My strong fingers wrapped around Goodwin’s arm easily. I glared at the king’s son in warning before throwing his hand back towards him.
A biting hand grabbed my upper arm and yanked me hard. ‘How dare you stop a man from disciplining his wife?’ Merrick bellowed in my face.
‘She’s not his wife yet,’ I said, with a calmness I did not feel. My jaw clenched so hard my molars ached.
Hundreds of eyes were on me while I tried to tug my arm free from his cruel grip. Bile burned the back of my throat at his touch.
‘Get your fucking hands off her,’ came Torgrin’s deadly voice. He had his sword drawn and pointed at Merrick’s protruding gut.
Was he insane? Torgrin had asked me not to risk taking Merrick’s life, and yet here he was, sword drawn in the king’s ballroom.
Merrick squeezed my arm painfully once more before letting me go. Torgrin stepped before me, creating a barrier with his body. His sword remained pointed at his old captain.
‘It is you, Torgrin,’ Merrick said, ignoring the sword. ‘That unique scar of yours is hard to hide,’ Merrick purred.
I shivered with disgust and moved closer to Torgrin’s back. I wanted him to know I was ready for whatever was about to happen.
‘Where’s your pretty friend? The strong one?
You tried to keep him from me too.’ Merrick stepped into the sword, causing it to touch low on his belly.
‘This girl dared to put her hand on the future king. It is my duty to take her to the dungeon and teach her some manners. Of course, you could offer me something more pleasurable. Just like the good old days,’ he whispered suggestively to Torgrin, knowing only we could hear him.
I saw Torgrin’s back stiffen at Merrick’s words. This depraved man had to die for what he did to my mother and for what he did to Torgrin and Atlas when they were only boys.
A commotion at the door to the ballroom caught the corner of my eye.
‘Put your sword down,’ I pleaded quietly behind Torgrin as the king and his guards moved across the room towards us. I heard Merrick grunt as Torgrin pressed his sword into him in warning before withdrawing it from his belly.
‘What is going on here?’ King Hared asked with a tight smile, noting Torgrin’s drawn sword.
‘Just a misunderstanding, Your Majesty,’ Bethel gushed nervously.
‘I will report this incident to Lord Warwick,’ Torgrin ground out, his eyes moving from Merrick to Goodwin.
‘Incident?’ The king’s eyes narrowed at Goodwin in question. Goodwin was busy glaring at me while rubbing his wrist. It seemed nobody wanted to be the one to enlighten the king.
‘Well, if Lady Bethel has declared that there has only been a misunderstanding, then let’s not bring such nonsense to Lord Warwick’s attention,’ the king said smoothly.
‘Now Bethel, how is my dear queen?’ the king asked.
His tone was sad, but I noticed his expression remained unaffected.
‘My advisor here will not let me visit because she could attempt to control my mind with her Curse.’
Control minds? Is that what Merrick told him? Something clicked as I listened to the king’s words. I couldn’t use my ability when my kidnappers put a hood over my head. Is that why they had burned out the queen’s eyes?
I looked at Torgrin to see if he was listening to the king, but he was watching Merrick exit the ballroom.