Light In Your Eyes[Thorin Love Story]Book One

~ Chapter Seventeen ~

It's been weeks since the wedding. The King came into his room and turned his gaze over to the locked up woman. Marena was propped up against the back of the cell, passed out from exhaustion. Her braids were already starting to fall out of place, she was barely eating, her face was even more paler than ever. The king was only giving her enough food to keep her from starving. He enjoyed seeing her struggle. Ketrak walked over to the door of the cell and hit the side of it with his boot. The woman jolted awake, frightened by the sudden loud noise echoing in her ears. She moved the strands of hair out of her face.

" It's time to get up, you have a lot of work to do my pet." Ketrak snickered. Marena rubbed her face.

" I'm not your pet." Marena said in a weak voice. Ketrak pulled out keys from his pocket and unlocked the cage. He leaned in and pulled the woman out.

" If you want this to stop. All you need to do, is give me an heir." Marena shoved him away from her and glared at him in disgust.

" I would rather die, than have you touch me, you greedy, pathetic ingrate." Marena sneered. Ketrak was enraged by this and lifted his hand, and struck her across the face and she felt the sting on her cheek and fell to the ground. Her hand went up to her face as she gasped.

" You do not talk to me that way." Ketrak roared at her. The two of them glared into each other. " You'll have to give me an heir sooner or later." Ketrak demanded.

" I will not have my people be ruled by anyone of your blood." She retorted, getting back up from the ground. He took a few steps closer to her.

" Their our people now, if you have forgotten." He reminded her, showing his ring. " Now we have wasted enough time. You have chores to complete before your dinner." Ketrak pressed. His door opened and hit the wall. Marena was in a fragile state as it was, that any sudden loud noises caused her to jump. A few dwarf maids came into the room, to begin their tasks.

Marena went with the two maids, happy to escape the presence of Ketrak, but the long days of this was weakening her, and not properly eating or sleeping, she didn't know how much more of this she could take. Marena shook the thought from her head, their was no way she was going to give into Ketrak's demand for an heir, just to end her suffering, she wouldn't do it.

The maids led her to the kitchen and she got on her hands and knees and started scrubbing the floors. For hours she scrubbed the floors of different rooms. A particular dwarf woman had been watching her for hours as they worked and noticed she was breathing heavily. The sweat was coming down her face, exhaustion had already kicked in.

" Your highness you need to eat and rest. Go, I wont tell anyone." The dwarf woman insisted. Marena tried to picture where she's seen this woman before and why she was being so kind to her.

" I-I can't, if Ketrak finds out, he'll do worse to you than me." Marena pressed as she continued to scrub harder. The maid reached over and took the brush from the young queen.

" You are our queen, ma'am. Your exhausted and you haven't eaten. Don't worry about us. This is not your duty. Your duty is to lead us." The dwarf woman reminded her. Marena looked at the woman with tiring eyes, shaking her head.

" No. It's too late. Lord Darklen already has his guards assimilated into the Kingdom. He's already convinced my people to follow him and if they don't, he eliminates them." Marena explained in a sad voice, filled with a little bit of fear. So many of her people were suffering because of her action. If she tried anything else, more would just die.

" His son, wasn't the one you wanted to marry, was he?" The dwarf asked her. Marena nodded, they were interrupted when they heard heavy footsteps coming into the area.

" Get back to work!" A guard yelled. Marena took her brush and got back to scrubbing as the dwarf maid glared at the guard and got up.

" She is your queen! She is sick and exhausted, why won't any of you see it!" The maid yelled at the guard, when he knocked her to the ground, for speaking and the maid struggled to get back up.

" Leave her alone!" Marena yelled as she ran at the guard, that was about to punish the maid and the guard shoved Marena into the wall and she hit her head against the stone wall and she fell to the ground, letting out a harsh grunt. Her hand flew up to her head as she felt the cut and the fresh blood that was not coming from it.

" Get back to work all of you. Now!" The guard shouted and he left the room. Marena panted heavily, something was not right, she had been feeling off for so long. As she struggled to get up from the ground, Marena used the ledge to pull herself up, when she found it hard suddenly to see things clearly.

" Your highness? Are you alright?" The maid asked her in a weary voice and noticed she was having a hard time keeping her eye open. Marena was about to say something when she collapsed back on the ground.

[Hearts and comments are very much appreciated! :) hope your all enjoying the story!]