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Chapter Nine

The moment the minotaur slammed the door behind him, her weapons in his hands, Althea collapsed onto the small arm chair located in front of a large window in the Castle Nirole guest quarters. She was certain it was only one of many, but the room was enormous. It was highly decorated and dominated by an enormous iron chandelier. Deep emerald drapes emblazoned with the seal of Nirole skirted the window. Unfortunately, the view from the window revealed that she was at least four stories above the ground. There was no way she would be able to flee through the window with her leg in the condition that it was in. Her grey eyes narrowed and took in the sight of the ruined sutures and the blood still oozing out. She needed to get the bleeding under control.

The princess hissed and winced as she bent the leg to untie and remove the first boot, reasoning that she needed to take advantage of the privacy she had while she had it. If she had any hope of getting to Hazel and salvaging this mess, she needed a functional leg. By the time the second boot came off, the blonde was biting her lip so hard from the pain that it, too, had begun to bleed. She reached for her switchblade to cut an opening into her leggings—but then remembered she was weaponless. Even her magic didn't seem to work here.

The door to the guest quarters slammed open in the next instant and the princess startled like a timid rabbit. Furious at this simple fact, she glared at the sight of the armor-covered Murderer Queen and the emerald stag behind her as they approached, the door again swinging shut behind them. The beast's silvery eyes seemed to bore into Althea's and she couldn't place the emotion she saw there. Whatever it was, it made her shiver—something that didn't happen to her often.

"Remove your clothing," ordered the queen on her approach, gesturing to the princess' leg.

So struck was she by the odd request that Althea was quite literally frozen and unable to move.

"Are you deaf, girl?"

The stag's voice snapped her from her confusion, and she stood painfully so she could begin to drop the armored plating from her shoulders and midsection.

"Normally one would at least have dinner first," she commented with a coolness to her voice she hadn't known she was capable of.

The queen stepped forward, snatching the armor in Althea's hands and tossing it aside, making an offended sort of snort as she did so.

"Don't flatter yourself princess. I'll only need access to the bottom half. The rest of your uninspiring figure need not be exposed to uninterested eyes."

The rush of mortification that crossed Althea's being was not only entirely unexpected, but confusing. Why had she said that at all? Why was she even talking to this woman at all? Why wasn't she trying to use her magic to find a way out? The stag in the room was intimidating, but Althea was certain she could have handled him—if her magic worked.

"Unless you'd prefer to continue bleeding out, Princess, you will remove your lower coverings at once." Then, as an apparent afterthought, "Your humiliation, delightful as it may be to witness, is unwarranted. I should have been more specific."

Althea's mind was spinning as she managed to make herself undo her empty utility belt. Of all the things she had assumed the Murderer Queen to be, reasonable was not among the items on that list. It had thrown her a bit, and she wasn't sure what to do with the information. She opted to focus instead on the task that had been presented for her, but instead of removing the leggings entirely, she managed to remove only the legging on her injured side. As she sat back down on the chair, the queen approached and crouched in front of her. Althea could see the stag tense and appear to stop himself from moving to follow her, and the eerie silver eyes found hers again. The princess' brow furrowed. She'd assumed the queen would have her own forms of protection, but even as a Link Althea wasn't certain the woman could draw the kind of loyalty from her Guard she had witnessed thus far. It was another note of confusion in this song of uncertainty.