Moon Flowers (Book 1 of the Flower Trilogy) #Wattys2016 #Featured

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN -- HALIA

HALIA'S POV

"Watch out and make no noise," Siegfried said.

I stared as he placed his hands on the cell door and removed it. It seemed so easy, for a moment I wondered if we had really been prisoners all along.

"Go!" he said again, beckoning for us to leave the room and walk out into the great hall.

Aras grabbed my hand, firmly, as if she would not let me out of her sight again. It had been hard for her to wonder every day if I was still alive, or where I was at. I hadn't realized before how selfish I had been. I could have at least tried to give her a sign of life, while I was with Phi in the fortress.

I heard the pillywiggings speak as they flew near me. Their voices sounded like chiming bells. It was not the first time they had seen the great hall—the first time being at Phi's wedding with the Evil King, but they were still stunned by its grandeur and splendour.

Every place we looked, our eyes met with sparkles of gold. Its furnitures, long tables and benches, and incredibly high ceilings. Even the furs hanging off the wall seemed to have been mixed with threads of gold.

They're skins of magical creatures, I thought, shivering in horror.

I hadn't noticed them before. I had been too focus to find the books hidden under the Evil King's massive throne the first time, and on Phi the second time. The third time, well, I was out.

"Shh," Ryn said.

I glanced around the room. Only a few thralls were there, sitting and staring at the emptiness before them. I could almost smell their fetid breath from when I stood. The stench of human, which, even as mindless, they could not shake off.

I sighed with relief. The pillywiggings hadn't disturbed them, and I took care to avoid their gaze.

My eyes lingered on one of the women who sat near a large wooden post. I recognized her. Frida. The servant Phi and I had freed.

Has she returned under Wotan's control?

Just as I wondered that, she lifted her head in my direction and I saw her eyes deep. Full of sorrows.

I sighed with relief. She is still herself.

I didn't want that another one of my victories be reduced to nothing by the Evil King. He had already taken the happiness I'd felt when I arrived to this new world and twisted it into something evil.

He did the same with my love for Phi. My friendship. So beautiful it was. I now wondered if it would ever recover. When she would look at me, she would always remember those dark times.

Our union will always be a symbol of that.

At least, Frida was not destroyed. I waved at her discretely and beckoned for her to follow us.

She glanced around, worried that some of her peers would see, raised herself back on her feet, and joined the ranks behind me.

Aras gave me a quizzical look. I gestured I would explain later.

"You are the one who knows the fortress best," Siegfried said to Domovoy. "We only have a few number of weapons in our homes, and we do not know if the Evil King took them away from us in our absence."

The hairy creature nodded, understanding what the king was asking of him, and led us to the armory where Wotan kept his and his servants' weapons.

There were swords, axes, hammers, morning stars, lances, forks, as well as different kinds of bows and arrows.

"The weapons are centuries old," explained Domovoy. "They are the weapons the humans were using before they fell under the Evil King's influence."