A Crown Of Blades(ARTK, Book 3)

Chapter 19-20

Anor 17th, 3330 A.G.

    The sound of her screams made tears run down Christine's cheeks. They'd both known this was a possibility, but neither could have expected to be put in the same dungeon room. At least the other way, they wouldn't have to watch each other's facial expressions.

And because Christine had grown quite attached, she felt a responsibility to take care of Roese. In this moment she felt as if she'd failed.

Their torturers finally took the hot sword away from her leg, and Christine couldn't tell which tears were from her actual emotions or the smell in such a small room.

Once the Fulke's had suspected them there were no use in denying it. They'd stood their grounds, both gotten slapped in the face- and here they were.

Christine had never been down here. She never wanted to again; even through the burning flesh she caught hints of rotting and moldy walls. Water pooled in a corner of the room( she weren't sure where that could be coming from, there were no underground rivers or lakes they knew of that were close enough), a mouse scurried along the edge of their cell, and their were some brown goopy substance coated on the bottom of Christine's nice red dress.

She wouldn't dare to question what it was.

"Please!" Christine finally yelled. "Stop this! She's never lead anything! I brought her into it!"

Their torturers took a step back and glanced at one another. They hated this just as much as she did, but their lord had given a command and they didn't wish to be next.

"She may not be innocent, that is true- but she's as close as either of us will ever get." Christine pleaded. "Any punishment they've doled out for her I will take ten times over-"

"Shut up." Roese snapped. "No she will not. She will take none of my punishments, and I will take all of hers."

"You will do no such thing-"

"Will the both of you shut up?" The young soldier commanded, rubbing his temple. "I can't think."

He opened his mouth like he were going to say something more , but then he were leaving- the other soldier following behind with a confused expression. Christine sighed. If she could keep the branding irons, the knives and oddly shaped torture devices of a purpose she couldn't begin to guess away from Roese- she'd be happy. If she could convince them to let Roese out of here, even better.

She was more resilient than these people knew. Whether Roese wished for her to or not, she could take a lot-

"Will you stop doing that?" Roese interrupted. "I don't know where you got this idea that I'm breakable, but it needs to end. I can take care of myself.... And you, if you'd allow it."

Christine were too stubborn to agree, too stubborn to say anything at all.

Roese's mind wandered to the very moment that'd landed them in this situation. She'd laid eyes on his face a few times before making her agreement, even started to feel something for Hernaise the meeting before that one- but once the words came tumbling out she weren't sure her heart could take it.

  "You are... extraordinary." He'd said with a slight shake of his head, tears in his eyes. It were a rare occurrence to see a man like him cry, and at the time she hadn't understood- but she did now. She'd told him something she didn't believe to be a big deal, something about one of the Fulke's trade agreements that she couldn't remember now and he'd wiped away the single tear that escaped. "Roese I will not lie to you as... as so many have done in your life. I-"