The Mortal Soulbinder (Severed Gods, #1)

Chapter I: Myrella

Myrella

The great hall stretched for what seemed like miles, it's grey-stoned walls trapping it in a silence so thick that it was suffocating. Myrel listened to the silence, conscious of her breath penetrating the air. She stood at the very end of the hall, back pressed against the immense, wooden door which seemed to stretch up to the sky. She had been standing there for a while now, not daring to move forwards. The silence stretched around her and she was frightened the smallest movement would break it, alerting the guards.

Usually, she would be allowed inside the great hall, only if she was accompanied by a Royal guard. But tonight was different. Tonight, the King had called an unexpected Royal Council and no one was permitted to enter the great hall, especially women. Yet here she was, standing amid the hall, alone.

To Myrel's surprise, it had been rather easy to slip past the guards. She was expecting it to be difficult, as her father, the King, had recently appointed four guards to stand in front of her door. Myrel did not know why. To Myrel's dismay, they did not deign to move at Myrel's behest as she had tried everything with her words; persuading them, bribing them and even threatening them. I command you to let me past, I am the King's daughter, you must let me past, her first attempt was, then it turned to I, which her voice cutting like steel - albeit somewhat blunted - to which the guard replied with a slight smirk and a risen eyebrow. Regardless of what she did, it always resulted in a shrug and the shove of the shoulder.

Myrel had always been unlucky with her words, so she turned to other methods. She need only throw a stone against the walls and they would suspiciously follow it. This allowed Myrel to quickly dart past them, climb underneath the wooden gate, jump out of the window, run across the church roof, climb up using the gargoyles for support, jump onto the blacksmith's shop, and sneak inside. Then, when the blacksmith had finished with serving a customer and returned to his anvil, she'd crawl past the kiln, whilst helping herself to a newly forged dirk, roll underneath the gate leading into the garden and quickly dig away the heap of dirt which was hidden underneath the thick cluster of blood grass.

To Myrel's knowledge, she was the only person to know about this tunnel. In fact, she knew about nearly all of the secret tunnel ways and paths running underneath the city like an immense river. However, most of them had been blocked a hundred years ago when they were used frequently by smugglers and spies. That being said, they were fairly easy to get through as strong materials were lacking in those days. Today, however, they were only used by rats and other creatures to scurry away from the city - Myrel included.

Then all Myrel had to do was crawl through the tunnel with the dirk clasped by her teeth and occasionally flick away any rats who dared come close. She knew when she had arrived at the Daggen Keep as she could hear the faint murmurings of Royal members above, filtering through the vents in the floor and cracks in the stone. Their voices flowed like honey on the tongue, but they always made Myrel sneer. They were like poison to her, burning at her ears. She could also hear the thunderous steps of the guards patrolling the walls, walking above with the footsteps of a giant. Sometimes, their footsteps would make the tunnel shake like an angry beast and Myrel would have to scurry ahead so she wouldn't get trapped underneath the falling granite.

Once she had made sure that no guards were near, Myrel would kick at the stone (which she always managed to do as she was the one who placed it there in the first place) and run across the corridor to the looming gate of the Great Hall. The bottom of it was corroded by the years that it has stood to guard the hall, so Myrel was able to wriggle underneath the gap.

It had taken her a lot of effort to get here and now that she was here, she dare not move forwards. All she had to do was run across, open the glass window and climb up onto the roof as that is where she was to look for the signal. But something was telling her to stay, something inside of her, a niggling, peculiar feeling. It was fireflies were in her stomach, whispering secrets that she could not hear, but she knew that they were important.