“I apologize for my outburst, my lords,” she said, lifting her chin the way her mother always did. “But I am glad you agree that these remaining members of the King’s Guard should be questioned. I want whoever was behind this slaughter of my family brought to justice.”
It was the truth. Not the entire truth, but enough that she could say it with absolute conviction. Her father was dead. Her oldest brother cut down. She wanted vengeance against those who took their lives. Killing those who tried to defend them made little sense to her. Oath or no oath.
“My mother is out of her mind with grief,” she continued. “We must not act in haste or out of anger.”
Elder Cestrum pursed his thin lips together as he smoothed the white hair on his chin. “Captain Monteros,” he called.
The longtime captain of the castle’s guardsmen stepped forward.
“Seize these members of the King’s Guard and have them taken to the North Tower. And have your men place King Ulron and Prince Micah’s bodies in the chapel. Women will be sent to prepare them for the funeral.”
Captain Monteros bowed slightly and said, “Yes, my lord.” He glanced at several of his men, who immediately took the surviving members of the King’s Guard into custody. The King’s Guardsman who spoke of why they still lived looked at her, then at Elder Ulrich, then back at her and held her gaze with a fierce intensity as he passed. As if he were trying to tell her something.
“Princess Carys.” Chief Elder Cestrum turned to her, and she knew before he said the words what was coming. She’d known what would happen when she’d grabbed the sword. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been down this road before. Although it had been years since the last time.
With a bow Elder Cestrum explained, “You are to be reprimanded for threatening your mother’s life and defying the will of the Queen. However, the Council has decided that in deference to your sorrow, you are to be given the option of submitting to your punishment now or waiting until tomorrow when you have had a chance to come to terms with your loss.”
“I shall go now,” she said. As much as she wanted to check on her brother, there was little she could do for him. Her punishment tonight would keep the focus on her instead of allowing people to speculate on the absence of Andreus.
“Are you sure, Your Highness?” Elder Ulrich asked as several guardsmen lifted her father and brother’s bodies off the ground and began to carry them inside the castle.
Everything inside her stopped for a second. Tears began to build as the tangible reminder of her loss cut a fresh wound in her heart.
When the bodies disappeared inside the gate, she turned back to Elder Ulrich.
“I’m already in pain, my lord.” She focused on the one blue eye that stared at her with great concern and the mangled, white-scarred slit of the other that could never close and yet would never again see. “Nothing more terrible can happen to me today.”
Elder Ulrich sighed. “As you wish, Princess.”
“Guards!” Chief Elder Cestrum clapped his hands. Two members of the guard appeared next to him. “Please escort Princess Carys to the North Tower. Captain Monteros will meet you there as soon as he can so we can all put this part of the night behind us.”
As if that would ever be possible.
“Very well.” She didn’t wait for the guards before walking through the crowd of court members who continued to watch the drama. A few smirked as she passed. Some whispered to each other, no doubt about other times she’d walked this path and had screamed for her mother to come to her aid. After all, Carys had been doing what her mother instructed. She’d been helping her brother.
Distraction was always a good solution. The first few times when she’d dumped soup on Lord Nigel’s lap, or when she’d tripped Micah’s best friend Garret and he’d plunged headfirst into a fountain, people had laughed and blamed her youth. When she was twelve, her father said he couldn’t expect the Lords of Eden or any of the subjects to adhere to the virtues of the kingdom if his own daughter couldn’t.
“Clearly you need a lesson to serve as a reminder of what happens when you turn from the light. This is done not out of malice but out of love.”
Love.
Was it love to insist your daughter be flogged while two members of the King’s Guard held her down?
Yes. In a strange way it was. The world was safer when people believed justice was the same for the powerless and those in power. It was a lesson her father wanted her to learn. He’d hoped after the first instance she’d never be flogged again.
“Sorry, Father,” she whispered as they reached the entrance of the North Tower. The slighter of the two guards fumbled with the door then stepped to the side to allow her to enter first.
Torches lit the inside of the tower. The kingdom did not waste the power needed for the safety of the walls on those who had turned from the light. The first floor was used for questioning and was where the Council of Elders held trials for common thieves, poachers, and those who had defaulted on their taxes. Carys sat in one of the chairs used by the Council and watched the shadows cast by the torches shift on the stone walls. Her two guards stood at the door, neither willing to look at her.
She clasped and unclasped her hands. Then Carys rubbed them on her lap as her stomach clenched. The seconds crawled as she watched the door, waiting for Captain Monteros to arrive and mete out the punishment
Everything inside her jittered and she thought about the bottle of the Tears of Midnight she’d left in her room. She hadn’t thought her visit to the city would take long so she hadn’t brought it with her. But it had been hours since she’d taken the much-needed sip of the drink her mother had given to her after the first time she’d been brought to this terrifyingly stark room. If only this tower had been the one swept up into the wind tunnel that struck years ago instead of the tower to the south.
But unlike the men in the cells upstairs, she’d made the choice to come here by standing for Andreus. And she’d leave once the punishment had been given.
The muscles in her legs twitched and her stomach cramped. Nerves? Need? Both?
She stood and looked around the room, feeling as if she was going to jump out of her skin. The walls seemed as if they were closing in. She needed to move.
Spotting the stairs, she said, “I’m going to go upstairs and talk to my father’s men. Let me know when Captain Monteros arrives.” The two guards glanced at each other and Carys started up the steps before they could debate whether she was supposed to remain on the first floor.
The first floor smelled of musty fabric and dirt and mold. That was bad. The floor above it was worse. Sweat. Urine. Rotting hay.
“Where are my father’s men?” she asked the guardsmen flanking the steps.