Aligning the Forgotten ✓

Chapter 61: Silas

Silas doesn't know how he got here, on his knees, a knapsack over his head. No matter how hard he tries, he can't shake off the strong hands holding him down from escaping. They're everywhere, pressing on his shoulders, kicking him in the shins, and yanking on his arms so he'll comply to their orders.

The last thing he remembers is eating in his chambers, alone. Avalie hadn't been the one to deliver the meal, the first reason Silas should have realized something was wrong, but he had thought nothing about it and dug into the bowl of stew. He can't account for anything after that.

Not anyone pulling the knapsack over his head or tying his hands together with a rope older than the kingdom itself. The fraying, rough edges dig into his wrists and the only way he can tell he's bleeding is from the warm liquid soaking into his palm and sticking against the sleeve of his tunic.

Although he fights, he can't seem to free himself. The people holding him down are too strong; the floor is too cold underneath his knees, and the air is too quiet. Silas wonders where his father is, if he's even in the castle at all after Binx rebelled against him. Things have been tense since then, so much so that Silas ordered Avalie to remain in the servant passageways so she's not a target to one of his father's rampages.

She had protested but obeyed upon listening to Silas make a pledge to her. After this, once the hellacious days in the castle are over, he'll find a better place for her. Somewhere she can call home rather than the cramped, no good corridors down in the servant passageways. It's the least he can do, she has nearly nothing.

All that went out the door the second Silas too a bite of the meal given to him. How had he been so foolish to eat something that Avalie didn't provide? She's the only one that tends to his chambers, he's never seen another servant in the tower, and should have trusted his gut when he looked upon that bowl of stew and realized Avalie was probably too busy to deliver his meals.

Silas releases a cry of pain as one man holding him down kicks him in the shin. It takes multiple to keep down a prince, but he finally gives in, shoulders slouching forward, and huffs a deep breath. Sweat pours down his forehead, dripping into his eyes and down his cheeks. As long as he's been aware, merely the past few minutes, he's fought. Three hundred years of training didn't leave him out to dry as he fought with his legs and tried to take down the moving figures through the tattered knapsack.

His fight ended shortly after. Now he kneels here, on a cold floor, and waits for what is to come next. Is it the rebels? No, it can't be. They barely got Roux out, and if he'd known, he would have been the first to escort them out of the castle, his brother included. But Binx did the right thing, finally, by getting Roux to safety.

Silas is more than happy to know she's safe with Renit, somewhere in the kingdom, hopefully farther than the king can reach. If they don't come for him, if they don't find a way to get him out...Silas will prepare to meet his end. He's done everything he can, he's given Avalie a small shred of happiness in her dim life, gave Hallie the opportunity at a crown, and led his father to believe he was the loyal prince everyone needed.

Behind closed doors, that isn't the case.

The knapsack rips from his head and Silas squints against the bright light of the throne room. The sunlight of the early morning leaks in from the windows and basks itself on the royal emblem in the middle, the one Silas is kneeling on.

The prince squints through the tears, finding two figures standing next to each other on the dais steps. One he recognizes to be his father, his arms crossed over his chest, and the other...Hallie. She looks on somberly, her eyes diverted to the marble floors underneath her slippers. She knots her fists into her pale pink gown, and can't seem to look at the prince kneeling before them.