The Queen Of All Strange Things

26

Never in my life did I even expect to be in prison. And I never actually thought that there were ones for enchanters. Well... it seemed that there were ones in the Imprisonatorium.

The walls were sound proof so that nothing we say can be heard outside and specially charmed so that we can never shift. There was only one air vent so that we might survive and one door which didn't even bulge. But at least, the food was good. I guess I cave Nymphea to thank for that.

'They used to cut their tongues out,' said Andrew in the first day we got stuck here.

I would have gone crazy if I didn't have some company. He didn't make things any better never the less.

The first day I wept, saying that I probably must have been the worst ruler in the history of Sightless. He reassured me saying that there were worse and that he would have made everyone mad at him if he were king.

'No one is going to love you for being queen. There will always be people who hate you,' he said. 'Especially the Council. They would have accepted you only if you were all miss goody-goody and listened to everything they said.'

I guess I was stubborn in my own way during my time of reign.

Then of course, as the red guy said, we were just kids.

We didn't speak much the first day after that. On the second day we played chess with mussels on the two inch by two inch golden tiled floor. These prisons didn't look like prisons at all. I mean, the tiles were weird enough. The walls were painted gold with hieroglyphs all over.

It was a wonder that I could still read them. It turns out it was a spell. I tried to erase some of the letters so that the spell might wear off but they were hard to erase.

After that I started to get nightmares of being executed, so I lost sleep as well.

On the third day, we were both a wreck. Even though there was a clean washroom and fresh clothing, we were still a mess.

'How long will they keep us here?'

'How long has it been outside is the real question,' said Andrew. 'Time runs differently here.'

Great, we might have stayed here to what seemed like three days and maybe in the real world, already three years have passed.

'How much is the prison sentence of deceit?'

'Nothing,' he said blankly. 'Give it up, Amethyst. I doubt we are ever getting out of here.'

'Come-on,' I said. 'It's only been three days. They won't keep us here forever. I think.'

'We are the biggest threat Taramen has,' he said. 'Even if he does proclaim to be a royal descended. He won't let us go easily.'

I bit my lips. 'Well, someone might assassinate him and we might be taken out.'

'Who might do that?'

'You know how politics work,' I said. 'We are pawns. Important pawns. And still kids, so we are supposedly very easy to handle. There will always be a rebellion somewhere and someone waiting to use us to get whatever they want.'

He stared at me for a while. 'Since when were you that philosophical?'

I gave out a laugh. 'I read books, Andrew. And this place is mostly created by stories in books. If that's the way it works in a book that is the way it will work here. The problem is time.'

We were silent for a while.

'I miss my sword,' Andrew finally said.

'I miss my books,' I said. 'And mom. I wonder what happened to her.'