Keira's Fire

Chapter 21

"How much longer until we can do this?" I was rapidly losing patience with Owen and the path he forced me into. It was bad enough, having to go through with a plan that was so fraught with so many flaws and probable failures, but waiting to implement it was almost worse.

It had been almost a week since I'd been captured and patience was never something I could claim as an attribute. Besides that, I needed to get away from Owen. Under any other circumstance, I wouldn't have been able to stay angry with him, given his personality. Part of me wanted to forgive him and start over since I knew my feelings for him were still there. But like I told him, I'd never be able to forget what he did. Remembering the admittance of his betrayal made it easier to stay angry, but I found myself rationalizing it away at times. Which made me angry with myself.

It would be best to get away from him as soon as possible. This seclusion I was forced into with him was beginning to feel too normal.

"Not too much," he answered from his spot by the fire. "The festival is in a few days. It usually lasts all night. We'll have a good opportunity then."

"I thought you were supposed to be able to get around undetected," I said. "Why does it matter?"

"I can, but things can always go wrong. I prefer to cut the chances of someone important happening by and ruining everything."

I huffed and slumped back in my oversized chair, irritated that I couldn't fault his logic.

"I um...need to tell you something." My eyes narrowed at the sudden nervousness in his voice.

"Keep in mind, I tried to avoid it," he said quickly. "I managed to do it so far, but-"

"Spit it out, Owen." I crossed my arms.

"You have to make an appearance."

"Okay..." I didn't understand why, but it didn't seem like something for him to be worried about. Unless he knew something that would happen to me while I was there.

"It's to, um...make sure that you're... I mean, that I've been able to..."

His stuttering grated on my nerves and I impatiently waited for him to get to the point.

"Control you."

I almost wanted to laugh at the anxious look on his face, but the reason for my apparently mandatory attendance was crystal clear. It was a way to humiliate me. For the captain to be able to see how beaten down I was, and I knew I couldn't refuse.

It was obvious that the only reason the captain allowed Owen his "reward" was to serve as the beginning of whatever atrocities he had planned for me. If Owen didn't appear to be making any progress, or worse, if he couldn't even get me to attend, the captain would probably kill him and take me early. I had to go to this thing, acting submissive and afraid. It would be the biggest test of my life.

"And you have to wear that." He grimaced, pointing to the blue satin gown that hung on a hook near the changing screen. I noticed the dress, of course, but I hadn't gotten anywhere near a dress since I was a child and had no intention of starting now.

But again, I apparently didn't have a choice. Groaning, I dropped my head back against the chair.

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My debut was a banquet for the important officers in the king's army. There was no doubt that the choice was deliberate. It was public enough to thoroughly humiliate me, but private enough that no potentially semi-decent person would be witness to it and think less of their beloved king.

By the tone of some of the comments, I knew that Owen hadn't been lying when he said his death was imminent. They perceived him as something of a jester, clearly enjoying the great joke of the pretense of honor they showed him.