Anya

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Six

   Anya waited in the closet for a few more minutes before stepping out of the closet. She knew that the coast was clear for her to leave so she started speed walking down the corridors of the palace to make sure that there were no more delays.

   Coming to the door that lead down to the dungeons, Anya recognised the guard who was stood outside of the door, a stern look on his face.

   She would remember his face anywhere, he was the one who had called her all those names while she was hidden and waiting for Darya to meet with her. She smirked, this was going to be easier than she thought.

   "Guard?" Anya spoke up, keeping her blue eyes trained on his face.

      "Yes Princess Anya?" he replied, his face was kept forward.

      She leaned in close to him, "Okay, so I am going to go down those stairs and I am going to bring back with me Dimitri, the new prisoner and I am going to take him into a safe room so that I can speak to him." She told him and stepped backwards.

   He shook his head, "I cannot let you do that," he replied. "It is against the rules that your father and grandfather have set."

   Again, she leaned in towards him, her voice was now barely above a whisper. "You see, you don't have a choice in the matter. When I was in the Zafiro faction, I noticed you walk past me while I was hiding and I heard plenty of nasty words leave your mouth about me... so unless you do not want sacking and humiliated I would seriously do as I say now."

   His eyes widened at her words, she was a pretty princess who looked like she would not cause any harm! He wanted to deny it but he knew that it would not make any difference. When the hell did she grow a back bone? It wasn't right!

   Sulking, he nodded his head; there was nothing else he could do. "Okay your highness, I am sorry if I offended you." He apologised but Anya was having none of it. If he didn't believe it then he wouldn't have said it.

   Feeling more powerful than in a long time, she opened the door and stepped down the stone stairs to the dungeon. She had only ever been down here once before, she was about twenty years old at the time and she hated it.

   All she could smell was urine, just like last time. When she was down here last, the prisoners had yelled disgusting words and phrases at her and she didn't like it at all, she could only sympathise with them when she didn't want to do that because they were the ones who were behaving inappropriately. Her father had banned her from ever going down there again until she was at least the first in line to the throne so she supposed she was about to break another of her father's rules.

   She needed to speak to Dimitri, there was no other way around it.

      The guard which was already down here balked at Anya. "What? -" He started but was cut off by Anya.

   "You are needed upstairs, I would speak to your colleague about what is happening," She advised. He didn't seem to be moving so she glared at him and that got his legs working fast enough to climb the steps in under five seconds.

     She turned to face the cells, five of the cells were full but the three in the first cells were asleep. She noticed Dimitri talking to the older man in the cell next to him and smiled, at least he had someone he could get along with so he wouldn't be bored.

   She came to stand outside of his cell, but he had noticed her as soon as she stepped into the room.

      "Dimitri?" She spoke barely above a whisper as she grabbed hold of one metal rod to bring herself closer. He stood up and placed his hand on the rod next to hers so that their knuckles were just grazing each other's. The warmth spread around Anya immediately, keeping the smile on her face.