The Source (Creasan #1)

Chapter 2

Sound slowly started to register in Thea's ears, though it was muffled and incoherent. Thea's head buzzed uncomfortably and her throat ached. Her head lolled to the side as she slowly awoke and she opened her eyes to black.

Or not black exactly. Some light filtered through, but it was meager. Thea realized there was a pouch over her head. She reached up to take it off, but her hands had been tied behind her back. She was sat on a wooden chair and she shifted in it to try to make out if her feet had been bound as well.

"She stirs, sire," said a deep voice.

She recognized the sound around her now as laughing and chattering. The clink of plates. The squelching of food being torn. It was the sound of a feast in full swing.

The pouch was ripped off her head and Thea squinted into the flood of light, though it wasn't especially bright light. Candles were the only source of illumination. It must have been night. Thea wondered how long she'd been out, how many hours she'd been entirely at their mercy.

A man moved to stand in front of her and she craned her head to meet the eyes of King Favian. He wasn't exactly elderly, though he wasn't young either. A silver beard framed his face but his red hair stood out like a flame on his head. Wrinkles creased his forehead, yet there were no other lines decorating his face. Young and old at once. It was curious how Thea could loath a man so deeply whom she'd never met. Though she had good reason to.

Thea could see a white cloth wrapped around his shoulder where her arrow had struck him. She felt a deep sense of satisfaction at being able to wound him.

King Favian smiled widely at her. "Allow me to be the first to welcome you to my home. I am King Favian of the Kingdom of Creasan. Might I ask your name?"

Thea just stared back at him. She knew he was going to ask for information on The Source, and she would give him nothing. Not even a twitch of her lips.

The king chuckled and looked at something above her head. "Why do all women resort to the silent treatment?"

Raucous laughter erupted behind her, and Thea had to clench her fists to keep from retorting. She hated to be made fun, especially when it came from such a pathetic creature.

"Right, then, I suppose I ought to name you myself. I will call you...May."

"You will not," Thea spat before she could stop herself. Quiet was not her strong suit.

"Oh ho!" the king exclaimed in surprised glee. "So she does speak. But if you will not tell me your name, fair maiden, how might address you?"

Bugger it, she was going to speak. "You won't. You will let me go."

"Will I?" The king crouched so he was eye level with her, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "And why, exactly, would I do that?"

"Because if you don't, I will rip your throat out with my teeth," she hissed.

The king's brows flew up and gasps were drawn from behind her. "My, a feisty little thing, aren't you?"

Thea clenched her jaw so tightly she was sure she'd caused some permanent damage to her teeth.

"Right, well, I apologize, but that isn't going to happen. You and your comrades are the first real link we've had to The Source since their inception, and I am not going to waste it. Now, you can either cooperate, in which case you will be heavily rewarded." He turned her chair, so she could see the feast behind her.

Two large wooden tables stretched down either side of the dining hall, people crowded around every inch of it, including Prince Fendrel and Queen Ana. Not one bit of the surface was not adorned with delicious food, and Thea's stomach almost growled on principle. She had never seen a spread so extravagant and so wonderful. She'd been living off stale bread and squishy beans since she could remember. She often thought meals like this were things of legend; she didn't even know someone who'd had ham, let alone turkey and beef. Yet there sat a full pig to the right and a large plate of beef to her left.