The Fragile Tower - Book 1 of the No.1 magical fantasy series

The Fragile Tower Chapter 20 - The Empty Room

Grace tried to ask Ruidic where they were going, but he wouldn't even look at her. He kept his head down, and where she had hoped that he might be sympathetic, he seemed to be furious instead. She began to be a little afraid of that fury as she saw that his hands were squeezed into fists. When she caught a glimpse of his eyes, they were boiling storm-clouds. She stopped asking him questions.

They travelled downwards on the winds, and Grace imagined a Dungeon where there were soldiers waiting to obey orders. Her heart was pounding again. They couldn't just kill an innocent girl, could they? She was only fifteen, and she hadn't done anything to harm them, though if they could read her mind somehow perhaps that would be enough to condemn her.

She had to do something. She had to think. How could she get out of this, aside from just running? And she didn't think running would do her much good; not against the sort of power she knew Ruidic must be able to wield.

They stopped before she had come up with anything at all. They had only come a few floors down, after all. The fear she felt seemed to be stopping any thoughts from forming, and it stepped up as Ruidic walked off the disc of the intention wind and into a prettily decorated corridor.

But her eyes were working, and as he went ahead of her she saw that his belt had a loop through it in which rested a small, carved stick of wood.

For a moment she wasn't quite sure why she was staring at it, and then, slowly, her mind began to grind into movement and she realised that it was a wand. It was just like the staff, but smaller, and she was willing to bet that it was made of rowan-wood.

Ruidic turned for a moment, that fury still in his eyes.

"Come on!" he snapped, and she took a few stumbling steps to catch up.

As he turned away again, her eyes were on that wand. How could she take it? At the speed he was moving, it was difficult to keep up, never mind to slip it out of his belt.

And then he was slowing, stopping. Through an archway Grace saw another door, but it was a beautiful, carved door set with jewels and metal details. A dungeon shouldn't be beautiful, and yet Grace had a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. Somehow she knew that there was something awful behind there.

"You don't want any harm to come to me. I'm sure you don't." she said, urgently.

Ruidic made a noise of disgust and went to move forwards.

"You loved Ma, didn't you?"

He froze, and Grace stepped towards him, her heart hammering. She took his arm with her left hand and with her right, she slid the wand out of his belt.

"You did, didn't you? And she knew about me before she left."

He said nothing for a long time. She let go of his arm, and with shaking hands slipped the wand into the waist-band of the baggy trousers. She tugged the top down over it and wondered if he would be able to see the outline of it.

"So did I," he said, eventually. "I knew. But the Queen promised you'd be allowed to grow up normally, like the two of us."

Grace's mind was fractured. Half of it was consumed with worry about the wand. The other half was trying to accept that she had been right. She was Ruidic's daughter, and it was a sickening thought, even though she had begun to suspect that he wasn't as hard and awful as she had first thought.

"I don't think Ma believed her."

Ruidic turned around, and his eyes were stormy, writhing things again. "No, and she was right. And I should have left you with her. But it's too late to regret that."