"I demand you let me out of here!" I scream, but my voice falls on deaf ears. The Klestian soldiers walk away like I am silent, leaving me in the dark cell... alone. "You'll pay for his, you hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Princess Penelope," someone responds, his voice echoing down the hallway. The familiar voice sends a chill down my spine.
"General Taire?"
Sure enough, the form of my most trusted general appears in the lantern light. The armor is almost a welcoming sight.
"Please tell me that you are not in on this," I beg.
Taire looks behind me before saying, "No. Klestia has occupied Sanfellios with little to no resistance though. Everyone sees them as allies. Now, to justify you being put a jail, they're saying that you're unstable with loss and shock."
"I may look like it right now," I grumble.
"Josephine will fix you up again when she finds you," he says. "Speaking of, where us the poor woman?"
"I left her back in Klestia with her husband," I tell him. "Needless to say, I am having some regrets."
"Hindsight is always better," Taire sighs. "Right now, let us focus on getting you out."
"Aren't there guards down here?"
"At the door to the jail three flights of stairs up, yes. Why would they need one down here?"
"In case someone breaks out."
"The escapee would probably wear himself out before he even got out because of the stairs. Plus, no windows. Lucky for you, I grew up in the castle and gained the full trust of your father, which got me the whole map of the castle, including the secret passages."
"Taire, you're a genius!" I exclaim.
"I know," he says and he pulls out a rusty key from his pocket. "But one has to be smart to get his princess out of nearly every situation she gets herself in."
"I don't mean to," I say.
"I would be worried if you did mean to," he replies.
"Just get me out of here. It stinks, it is dark, there is no actual bed, and why is it moist down here?"
"Don't ask a question you do not want to know the answer to," he warns.
"Fair enough," I agree.
Taire slips the key into the lock and gives it a hard turn. The cell door opens with a small creaking, but nothing noticeable. I follow General Taire to the far wall. Placing a hand on a brick with my family symbol on it, he presses inward and turns it, triggering several mechanisms within the wall. The stones slide open to reveal and even darker passageway, but Taire grabs a lantern from off the wall and goes right on in. Swallowing down my fear, I follow closely behind him. He pushes down a lever as soon as I pass by, sealing away any sort of light except that of the lantern. Offering an arm, General Taire looks at me with gentle eyes lit by the soft glow of the flame. Gratefully, I take his arm.
"Klestia is under the control of Aridian Sentorin, a high-ranking former general and the late king's representative. With Prince Forarte gone and his brother and sister missing, Sentorin was given the position," Taire fills me in. "I cannot be too mad at him. He let me live when I returned. I am mad that he is following the path Gravo wants."
"I'm mad that he took my kingdom," I growl. "Why wasn't Delsair told? How dome we never so much as caught wind of it?"
"They didn't want Prince Delsair to know. That's why he was sent back to you," he tells me. "They used his adoration for you against everyone. I can't help but think this was all set up from the very beginning."
YOU ARE READING
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خيال (فانتازيا)What would it feel like to have your reality shattered in an instant? Imagine it just for a moment. Now, say that new reality was something greater than what you once thought possible, like a whole new world has been brought into your eyes like a li...
