Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 120974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
I feel my cheeks get hot—I know what he’s implying. He’s not wrong, of course, but I’ll be damned if I let him call me a slut—however sly he wants to be about it—when he and my brother have been conspiring to take the throne.
“They’re both lying!” I say to Sir Horace. “Please, just listen to me. Look—the Healing Draught—I brought it here in this bottle, given to me by the Sorceress herself.”
I hold up the pale blue glass bottle, but the Head Healer promptly plucks it out of my hand.
“Ah, that’s where that went to. Now how did you ever get hold of my best medicine bottle, Princess? I fear you’ve become quite a little thief,” he says, smirking. “Poor thing,” he says to Sir Horace. “I do fear her adventures with the beast have addled her brains.”
“Yes, it’s quite shocking,” my brother remarks. “Could you please escort her out of here and to her rooms, Sir Horace?”
“Well…I suppose I must.” And to my horror, the Captain of the Guard steps up and takes me by the arm.
“No, wait—you’re making a mistake!” I exclaim.
“Indeed, I fear you are,” the Head Healer says, which confuses me. But he quickly goes on. “Alas, Your Majesty, I feel she might do herself harm if she is left alone in her rooms,” he says, nodding at me. “Perhaps it would be best to put her someplace dark and quiet to calm her mind. Someplace she might be restrained to keep her from hurting herself.”
“Someplace dark and quiet where she may be restrained. Hmm…I know!” My brother snaps his fingers, as though an excellent idea has just come to him. “The dungeon! Sir Horace, have the goodness to escort the Princess down to the dungeon and chain her safely so she cannot hurt herself.”
“What?” My voice comes out as a strangled whisper. “No, you can’t do this to me!” I protest, staring at the Captain of the Guard. “You can’t—”
But he’s already dragging me away from my sleeping mother’s bedside and out the door.
The horror of what’s happening is only overshadowed by fear for my mother. She’s better now, but still so vulnerable—lying there asleep with the two men who plotted to murder her standing by her bedside.
“Wait, listen to me—just listen!” I beg Sir Horace as he drags me down the hall, one hand clamped tight around my upper arm as the other guards dutifully follow. “Please listen—my mother is in danger. I don’t care what you do to me, but she must be kept safe!”
He pauses for a moment, his stern face a mask of indecision and confusion.
“As the Captain of her Guard, you’re sworn to protect her,” I remind him. “I healed her from the wasting illness, but nothing can protect her from an enemy’s blade. The least you can do is to post a guard by her bed until she’s returned to full health and can rule again!”
I’m taking a chance here—what if he’s in on the plot? But I don’t think he is—the tone in his voice when he praised the One Goddess for my mother’s recovery rang true in my ears.
At last he gives a short, jerky nod and turns back to the guards who are following him.
“You—Leonitis and Henry—go back to the Queen’s bedside. Stand watch on her and don’t let anyone send you away,” he adds. “And say nothing about any of this—one word from a single one of you and all your tongues will be cut out!”
The guards pale but the two he nodded at turn and march back to my mother’s bedroom.
I breathe a sigh of relief.
“Thank you,” I say to Sir Horace. “Thank you for believing me.”
“I never said I believed you,” he snaps and starts dragging me down the corridor again.
“What?” I’m stupefied. “But…but you put a guard on my mother when I asked you to!”
“Because it’s my sworn duty to keep her safe and until we get to the bottom of this, that’s exactly what I’ll do,” he says. “But for now, you’ve got to be put someplace where you can’t hurt yourself.”
“I’m not going to hurt myself!” I exclaim, but we are already back down the stairs and heading for the dungeon. “Please, let me go! I need to get back to my mother!” I beg.
“Her Majesty will be safe enough,” Sir Horace says firmly. “And so will you, once you’re locked up.”
I look around for anyone who might help me…but the Nobles we’ve been passing are simply staring at me as though I’ve grown a second head. No one lifts a finger to help or says a single word of protest as the Captain of the Guard drags me through the doorway and down to the dungeon below.
76
IRENA
“There, you’ll be safe here,” Sir Horace says as he finishes locking the heavy iron manacles around my wrists.