CHAPTER 11 #2
Prince Zendryk stood up from his chair and leaned forward on the desk, bracing himself with his arms. His jaw tensed, and his eyes narrowed with intensity.
I challenged him back; I have had enough of this fucking game!
The corner of his mouth rose, and his gaze sharpened at my challenge.
He sat back down and swung his leg over the arm of the chair once again, like he didn’t have a care in the world.
I didn’t back down; I continued staring at him until he spoke again.
“Somehow, you seem to have broken the barrier we have in place. An incantation that prevents mortals from viewing our world. Well, properly viewing our world.” His smile grew larger. “This has never happened before. That is why, along with you, we are also confused.”
Incantation? Mortals? Barriers? There were so many questions swimming around in my head, and I didn’t know what to ask first. They were both staring at me, waiting for my reply.
The next words I said could determine my future.
I worked through what should be asked first; I didn’t want to come across as scared, as I had no clue who or what stood in front of me.
“What is an incantation?” I asked, hoping not to sound stupid, but as the words came out of my mouth, I cringed.
The old man stepped forward, “An incantation …. is a sort of…. magic spell…. I am sure you heard about magic from your storybooks when you were a child.”
When I was a child, which was apparently the least complicated time of my life, my mother used to tell me stories every night before bed.
She would tell me stories of kings and queens, wizards and witches, lost lands and mythical creatures that could fly and breathe fire.
Losing myself in the thoughts of a less complicated time, I shook my head, forcing myself to face the reality now in front of me.
“Yes, I think so. My mother would tell me tales of wizards and witches who could cast spells.”
The old man took another step closer. “Yes… Yes... It is kind of like that… but not really… this is an older… ancient power that only the houses of Drycartha carry now.” He paused, trying to gather the right words. “We shield…. protect…. the mortals from our world… our…life.”
“Why, though?” My impatience and annoyance were growing with every word.
He seemed to be dancing around the subject, trying to still shield me from whatever secret they were hiding. But did I blame them? Before dinner, I was serving them drinks; now I was going to be a keeper of their secrets.
The old man stroked his beard and pulled his eyebrows together, searching for the right words, but the Prince interrupted the old man’s concentration, “Each house has specific powers. The kingdom,” he motioned with his hands, pointing all around us, “is part of the sacred ancient lands that we protect. Hundreds of years ago, the mortals were part of our kingdom, and we lived side by side. That is, until the uprising. The mortals were fearful of our powers and started a war, mortals against immortals. They were no match for our powers, and they fell quickly. Not all mortals perished; the ones who remained struck a bargain, servitude in exchange for their lives. They swore an oath, bound by our powers. We didn’t want to have the same issue, so our ancestors placed an incantation, the barriers, on the mortals.
It closed their eyes to our world, hiding our powers and world from them, erasing all memories of the time when we used to live together.
As generations went on, the stories became nothing but stories.
After the oath was sealed, we separated the mortals from our land, giving them their own domain farther south, only allowing those in servitude to enter the heart of Drycartha. ”
Even though the Prince had answered one of my questions, I now had a million more.
I stood there for a moment, mouth dropped open, before asking, “But why do only certain mortals come here? Why not all mortals? My mother was still in my village; could she not come here?” An image of my mother in her rocking chair flashed through my mind.
“There are too many mortals for each house now as the generations grow. Years ago, there was a gathering, and the King and Queen of each house came together and decided to take only the best and healthiest mortals. As new threats to our land came to light, we couldn’t waste resources on the unhealthy. ” He replied matter-of-factly.
“So you just leave them in their village to die? Do you know what it was like to live there? Having to fight for every piece of food, drop of water, and scrap of clothing?” Anger welled up in my throat, choking me, but I would not cry in front of them.
“It was not my choice; my ancestors before me made these decisions. I do not control any of this.” He said.
I looked at him in disgust, unsure if I wanted to punch him in the face or walk out of the room to get as far away from him as possible.
The Professor spoke, breaking the rising tension in the room. “So, you see, girl… You are not supposed to be able to see the wolves… or anything of our world… it shouldn’t be visible to mortal eyes.”
“But weren’t they just wolves? I have seen hundreds of wolves near my village.” I shifted my gaze to the old man.
“Have you ever seen them that big?” Chuckling, the Prince asked.
Anger and frustration surged inside me. Was he laughing? The world I knew was all a lie, and he was fucking laughing!
“If this is so funny to you, then I should just leave now.” I turned and walked towards the door.
The old man blocked my path. “You cannot leave now. You know too much, and we need to figure out why you could see the wolves.” The Prince rose from his desk and walked to the front of it, leaning back, supporting himself on the edge of it with his powerful arms.
I stormed over to him. “So, you’re just going to keep me here? Like your prisoner? Oh, wait, you already are, and not just me, apparently, your kind has done this for years, all because I was born an inferior mortal to your kind.”
A devilish grin played on his face, and the dimples tugged on something inside my chest, releasing the butterflies from their cage, but I immediately shut that down before I lost track of the issues. Not the fucking time.
“If you want to look at it that way, you can. But right now, you are not permitted to leave until we figure this out. Guard!” He yelled the last word.
A tall, slender guard entered the room, a different one from the one before. Was he mortal? Was he immortal? I had no way of telling them apart.
“Yes, sir?” The guard asked him.
“Please take Ms. Ashwood to one of the spare rooms. I want someone always guarding her door.”
A prisoner. I had gone from a servant to a prisoner. They were going to lock me in a prison cell. I didn’t even do anything wrong… I think. None of this was in my control, but was anything ever in my control? Ever since the day I turned eighteen, I had no say in my life anymore.
“I will provide further details shortly.” He waved him off with his hand.
The guard turned to me, “This way, ma’am.” And he ushered me out of the room, guiding me to my new hell.
We wound our way through turn after turn and climbed multiple staircases.
Any thought of escaping through a window vanished with each step I took, climbing higher.
Once we were on the third floor, we walked to the end of the dimly lit hall.
The stone walls were not as intricate as the other floors; of course, they weren’t. Why decorate for their prisoners?
“This will be your room until further notice.” He pulled out a black iron key and slid it into the lock on the solid wood door.
It made an audible clicking sound as he turned it; the sound bounced off the cold, empty stone hallway, reminding me how alone I was.
He pushed the door open for me, and I walked in.