Chapter Nineteen
The Sentry Captain’s Secret
???
Underground, Dracyg Dominion.
Gedeon.
Bound. Again.
The underground outlaws had not hesitated. All it took was for a teenage servant from the Black Castle to recognise him, and the strongest amongst them were upon him within seconds, binding his hands with rope, stuffing his mouth with cloth.
He had not tried to fight back. Amala screamed, begging them to release him, clawing at their arms as they hauled him into a vacant cell. But none of them listened to the insignificant cries of a child.
Their haste to detain him did not come from maliciousness or cruelty, but fear. Pure, Mother-save-us-from-this-wretched-male fear. Their hands fumbled to bind him, their pupils dilating with all-consuming panic.
Gedeon supposed he could not blame them. He was a walking evil in their eyes, escaped from the illustrious confines of the Black Castle. Every breath he took was a threat to their secret life under the city.
But they did not know he was nothing more than a puppet whose strings had been severed. Left to fend for himself.
His mother had been under the impression that he had betrayed her in his hesitancy. Gedeon knew the opposite to be true.
She had betrayed him. She had forsaken him.
The only place he had ever known was by her side. As her son, as a prince of Zarynth. Without those titles, he became inconsequential. A shell with no purpose, no identity.
Tanwen had seen this coming somehow. She had sensed the turmoil in his heart. Recognised the moral conundrum of a male whose life had never really been his own: Do you share that ambition because that is what you truly believe? Or do you share it because you have never considered another choice?
Of course he had never considered another choice. Why would he have? He had been content in his position of power, had believed wholeheartedly that he lived to exist to aid in his mother’s vision of a united world.
Everything had changed the moment he fired his darkness into the Throne Room to save the fledgling.
The Empress would never welcome him back now.
Sekun’s cunning, venomous voice would be the only one she heard council from now.
Without Gedeon’s own voice of reason guiding her, what lengths would she go to in order to attain what she so desperately wanted?
Leaning his head back against the cool, corrugated wall, he blinked in the all-consuming darkness, and for the first time in his life, he truly did not know what to do.
The bolt clanged on the other side of the thick iron door and it opened, light spilling through and eradicating the black shadows. A woman stepped in, face hidden under a hood. She held a flaming torch in one hand, closing the door behind her with the other.
The torch was hung on a bracket on the wall, then she moved toward him. She pulled the gag from his mouth. ‘Hello, Gedeon.’
He knew that voice.
Sunsi stepped back, folding her arms across her chest. ‘I should have known they would react badly. You won’t find many friends down here,’ she said, pulling her hood back and revealing her usual long auburn braid resting limp over her shoulder.
‘I suppose it will be like normal, then,’ Gedeon said blandly. ‘I never did have many friends.’
‘That fledgling girl would disagree. Apparently she’s been threatening to break the door down and release you herself for the past two days,’ Sunsi said drily.
At least someone remained loyal to him. ‘Is she alright?’
‘Aside from being furious at your imprisonment? Yes. She is very well.’ Sunsi pursed her lips. ‘Why didn’t you do it?’
‘You are asking me why I refused to kill a child?’
‘I’m asking why you refused to kill that child,’ Sunsi said bluntly. ‘I am asking why you did not burn the air city and its people like you were told to. I am asking why you ran from the Throne Room, instead of staying by your mother’s side. You have given up everything. Why?’
You have a great deal of honour in your heart. You must decide who it belongs to: the prince of Zarynth, or the Warden of Fire.
Gedeon blinked away Tanwen’s words once more. ‘I don’t know,’ he said, and the truth of it twisted his gut.
‘Bullshit,’ she said harshly. ‘The whole city is on alert looking for you. There is a bounty for your capture; a hundred gold coins to the man or woman that brings you in alive.’
‘Alive,’ Gedeon repeated. ‘Why alive?’
‘Does it matter?’
He looked at her for a moment, then said with perfect composure, ‘So, this was a trick? I trust you with my life and you pick up the reward? I’ll admit… I thought I meant a little more to you than that.’
Sunsi gave a tight smile. ‘You don’t know me at all, Gedeon.’
They stared at each other, and it was as though all intimacy between them had never existed. Outside of those black walls, away from the silky sheets of his bedchamber, she was a stranger. Someone he was beginning to realise he had never truly seen.
‘Where am I?’ Gedeon said, shifting a little.
‘Haven’t you realised what this place is by now?’
‘I have a hunch.’
Those hazel eyes bore into his as she bit the inside of her lip, as though deciding something. She crouched before him. ‘I took a gamble in allowing you to come down here. When you refused to kill Amala, you proved that you are not the male that everyone believes you to be.’
‘I refused to kill a child. I proved nothing.’
‘And was it worth it?’
He held her too-knowing glare. ‘That remains to be seen. Am I to stay bound and confined to this room for the rest of my life? We fae have long lives- I fear it will be a rather miserable existence.’
‘That also remains to be seen,’ Sunsi clipped back, but then her expression softened with sadness.
Earnest, almost. ‘Those that dwell down here are good people, Gedeon. Your people. They hide underground because it is safer than living up there under the Empress’ rule.
I need to know that my trust in you is not misplaced. ’
‘What are you asking of me, exactly?’ probed Gedeon, though he had a growing suspicion he already knew the answer.
‘Are you hungry?’
That certainly had not been the response he expected. Hunger had not bothered him at all these past two days, but even as the thought arose, his stomach, empty and suddenly awake, growled expectantly. ‘I could eat,’ he admitted.
Sunsi whipped a dagger from her hip and sliced the rope from his wrists. Severed, it fell to the ground. He flexed his fingers, feeling some of his replenished magic respond with a comforting tingle, though he made no move to wield it.
As he followed her from the room, she said over her shoulder, ‘Refrain from using magic. They need to see that you are not a threat.’
‘Couldn’t if I wanted to,’ was Gedeon’s stiff reply.
She stopped to look at him and said sharply, ‘What do you mean?’
To admit vulnerability may have been foolish, but he sensed no real threat from Sunsi, despite the precarious situation she had him in.
‘When we were escaping Phaenon, Sekun hit me with something. Some sort of curse… I have not been able to wield any magic without the accompaniment of pain ever since.’
‘But you used magic to escape the Throne Room,’ Sunsi said, eyebrows knitting together.
‘I did.’
A strange look crossed her freckle flecked face, her hazel eyes searching his with mild curiosity as she gave an ambiguous ‘hmm’, and said no more on the matter.
Gedeon had never mingled with the likes of Dracyg’s common people. A potential failure on his part as a prince of Zarynth, and evident in the faces of those who glared at him as he and Sunsi walked into the echoing hall.
‘As you were,’ Sunsi said with authority. Most resumed their conversations, though Gedeon was sure the previous topics had been forgotten, many still craning their necks to get a good look at him.
Dishes of simple stews and steamed grains sat atop long tables on the left side of the hall. The smell was surprisingly mouthwatering, though with a stomach as empty as his, he supposed anything would have been appealing.
‘We are spoiled by your culinary talents, Laori,’ Sunsi called kindly to the middle-aged blonde woman who appeared to be single handedly managing the kitchen, refilling empty pots and restocking clean bowls, the apron over her body spattered with food.
With deft hands and a quick appreciative smile at Sunsi’s compliment, Laori passed them both a bowl. She refused to even look at Gedeon.
They continued down the line, and Gedeon mimicked Sunsi in filling his bowl with everything Laori had on offer.
‘Laori was a student of alchemy at the city college,’ she told him in a quiet voice.
‘Her sister, also a student, was conscripted to join the Empress’ legions for her exceptional talents as a healer.
She refused and they killed her for it. Laori ran before they could come after her too, for her skill in poisons and potions, and she’s been here at the Base ever since. That was twenty-five years ago.’
Laori did not look up from the pot of stew she was busy stirring, but Gedeon was sure she heard every word.
Bowl filled to the brim, and mouth now salivating with the promise of the hot food in his hands, he followed Sunsi to the furthermost vacant table from the entrance.
It was not quite the decadent, hearty food he was used to eating as a member of the royal family, but the taste on his tongue was by no means unpleasant. In fact, it took a surprising amount of willpower not to shovel it down as fast as he could.