Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 31

Fear bit in her bones as the darkness cloaked her, and she could only imagine being a prisoner here for years on end. She would have gone insane, and a pit formed in her stomach as she thought of her mother suffering this.

She ran to the door and stood on her tiptoes to look out the grate. She wanted to yell at Bastian, but she saw he was looking over to her right at the door to the dungeon. The voices from before had come into the dungeon, and now they'd stopped as they took in Bastian from out of Cole's line of sight.

"Your Highness, did you find the officer? I went to get some help, so I didn't see." Cole recognized the young soldier's voice.

"Yes, he was right here guarding it for you," Bastian said. "I sent him back to his post after figuring out what had happened. There was a miscommunication, but I cleared it up now. You aren't in any more trouble."

She heard an audible sigh of relief from the young soldier, who most likely was now in the process of forgetting about this ordeal. If things didn't quite match up, he didn't seem to mind as long as he was not the one being blamed for it. However, another voice joined in, and it was not one that was as easily swayed as the young soldier's.

"Did you not also receive the message that someone had been using banned practices at the time this officer was around?" the new person hissed out. A shiver trickled down Cole's spine like cold sweat, and her fingers clenched tight enough to hurt. It was the voice of the black cloaked man who had talked to the king about the mysterious cave.

Bastian didn't reply for a moment, and Cole could see the tension in his jaw line. He stared at the man that Cole couldn't see. 

"I advise you to not talk about royal matters around those who aren't part of the circle," Bastian replied, his voice becoming hard and slightly detached. It was the voice Cole knew the best from him. The one he put on for everyone else. The voice of King Thijs' son.

"I can send him away," the cloaked man said.

"No. I told you what happened, and it's your duty to not question what I say," Bastian said, moving forward and out of Cole's line of sight. She held her breath, now unable to see anything of what was going on. She had to trust her ears.

"As you wish, your highness. But the Crystal does not lie... unlike the fallible beings that crawl this earth."

"I'd advise you to stop talking now, before I use the position given to me in my father's absence from the palace. An execution would be so messy, and I'm really not in the mood."

A small pause followed, and then a scraping sound as the door to the dungeon was pulled open.

"As you wish, your highness," the cloaked man said.

Footsteps faded into the distance, and then Bastian's voice spoke again. "I trust you will keep your mouth tightly sealed about everything you see here," he said. "Like I said, I'm not in the mood for an execution, but if you test my trust then I will see to it that the ancient punishments are brought back just for you."

The young soldier squeaked out some semblance of acknowledgment, and then Bastian made his way back to Cole's prison cell. He opened the door with a torch in his hand, nearly blinding Cole with the sudden harsh light after her pitch black solitude. She hissed and shielded her eyes, but he didn't care and snatched her arm. Wrenching her out of the cell and into the hall, he dragged her after him despite her watering eyes and faltering steps.