The General and the Princess

Chapter 46 || Alleyni

Things were gray, like when snow fell so heavily that the outside world seemed surreal. Her head pounded. Her mind sounded like a war drum. Someone carried her over their shoulder, her head nodding with every thundering step. Where was she? Why was her vision clouded and spotted? With great effort, Alleyni opened her eyes and lifted her head, but she could see very little except for gray, stone walls. Then she remembered.

The skull-shattering kick in her ribs from Vinrys. Her head cracking against the stone floor of the castle. Her vision becoming black. Now, Vinrys's guards were returning her to her cell. No. No, she could not go back.

With little care for the broken ribs and immense pain, Alleyni screamed and thrashed with herculean strength in the arms of the guard, kicking her arms and legs with as much power as she could. For a moment, the guards were so surprised that they dropped her to the ground. Alleyni tried to crawl forward as far away from them as possible. She looked to the right and saw only the wall. She looked to the left and saw a cell with a young man in it. She felt a hand grab her shirt at the scruff of her neck, but before they kicked her into unconsciousness again, she reached for the bar to the cell and the young man looked up at her through dirt and blood.

Evyn.

"Evyn!" She yelled at her friend frantically before the guards silenced her again.

_____

Minutes or hours later, Alleyni woke up on the floor of her cell. She tried to sit up at first, forgetting her injuries, but collapsed at the ache in her ribs and stomach. She reached to her pounding head and found her hair matted in blood and dirt. She traced her ribs and could feel where several of the ribs must have broken when Vinrys kicked her. Her stomach was covered in a splotchy black bruise, and as she drew in a deep breath, she shuddered and coughed as the air filled her lungs, the coughs so painful that tears came unwanted to her eyes. She used her arms to prop herself against the wall, and as she opened her mouth to draw in a rasping breath, she tasted tangy copper and reached up to wipe the blood from her face. As her mind sharpened despite the excruciating headache, the pain grew more acute as well. Her ribs ached at every breath or movement, the knot at the back of her neck sent shocks of pain into her head, and she could feel bruises forming everywhere Vinrys's boot had met her body. Something inside her told her that she should cry, she should respond to the pain, but she felt disconnected from it. The pain seemed like the beat of a drum inside of her, reminding her that she was still alive, for better or for worse.

What could she possibly do? She could barely breathe, much less escape. She could not pray for time to pass, for that would only draw her closer to her impending demise at Vinrys's hands. As Alleyni tried to reconstruct all that had occurred, another headache pierced her consciousness. She asked herself again, where am I? Every time a headache overtook her, she had to remind herself what had happened over and over again.

It was like reliving the same nightmare but never being able to awaken. Her thoughts jumped to her family—Ghael, whose hunger for power had stranded him in a mire of his own making. Lyssa, whose greed and arrogance had transformed her into the accomplice of a crime she had never desired, all for the sake of her own gratification. Luiz, whose very soul was chasing corruption at the price of his sister's life and the independence of their kingdom. She thought of Corrina and wished she could be sitting with her aunt at the seashore instead of choking breath into her lungs in a prison cell in what used to be her own castle. She thought of Evyn, stranded somewhere in a cell, just like her; she could only imagine how he was being punished simply for being her friend. She thought of Kyald and then tried not to think of him, but he was always there, lingering in the back of her mind, the leitmotif to her suffering. The deepest pain was always from him, cutting sharper than any fractured rib. She thought of him and Azi escaping into the wilderness together and she wondered if her imprisonment would have delayed them. She wondered if Kyald would even care. She thought of Varyn and his two selves and she wondered which was real. She thought of how she had hurt him even though he was one of the last people in the world she trusted. Alleyni wondered if she would ever see any of these people again.

She thought about how each of the people she knew and loved or hated had tried to manipulate her and use her and create her into the one dimensional being they wanted her to be. Her family had tried to make her into the obedient yet alluring princess; Corrina had tried to recruit her in the political war against Vinrys; Kyald had tried to tame her into the perfect queen; even Evyn had tried to calm her down, force her to listen to reason. Only Varyn had never tried to tame her, to turn her into someone she was not—for that, she could almost love him. She wondered who she would be if she were free of their influence. Would she be as noble as she always claimed, as she had always wanted to be? Alleyni tried to think of a time when she had truly been noble, when she had truly cared for her people and her family more than herself, and she could count few instances. However, when she thought of her own selfishness, there were endless memories. How she had manipulated the most powerful man in the world. How she had invited him into her kingdom and allowed him to take control. How she had tried to have everything.

Varyn's words returned to her. You think you can have everything. She remembered the way she had hated him for saying that, how she had rebuked him and turned on him, but she realized he was right; he had always been right, about everything. About her, about her family, he had even seen through Kyald. Leaning against the cell wall, she wondered if this was what she deserved. Alleyni had been selfish and manipulative and impulsive and thoughtless. Perhaps she was reaping the seeds she had sown. The pain was almost a comfort that assuaged her own guilt, and it threatened her very consciousness.

_____

While she faded into unconsciousness, time passed—whether weeks, days, hours, or minutes, she could hardly tell.

When she heard footsteps coming down the hall, her heart tried to rebel from her chest and she remembered again, in excruciating detail, the assault of the guards in the hallway. The glint of the man's ravenous eyes, the grasping feel of their hands on her body, the scent of cheap liquor, and the feeling of being completely out of control. No. Not again. I'd rather have Luiz cut off my fingers one by one.

She tried to hide herself in the corner of her cell, but it was so miniscule that there was no place to go and moving incurred so much pain she nearly fell unconscious. The footsteps grew closer and the torch cast shadows on the dank stone walls. She tried to focus her gaze through the narrow bars, but her headaches and pain made it too difficult to focus on anything. Sharp flashes invaded her vision and pain seared up her neck and into her skull as she tried to see the guards who were coming for her. The steps grew closer. They were right outside her cell and she heard the jingle of keys against each other, thrust into the keyhole rapidly. She could see a form but could tell nothing else.

When the door opened and the man stood in the doorway, she heard herself scream and threw herself against the wall. For a moment, all went black.

~~~~~

Sorry for the short chapter today, but guess what? There are only two more chapters in this book! I plan to start publishing the new book in the next few weeks, so be sure to check my profile so you don't die when I leave you on a cliffhanger!

~ Hannah