Page 14 of Kingdom of Rot & Ruin
I couldn’t respond. I tried, but the aching hole in my heart at my mother’s disappearance (because she wasn’t dead!) had me locked in fear.
“Your mother kept you hidden well enough. I’ll grant her that. For the privilege she was given, she did respect my wishes in that way. Shame what happened.”
I burned and itched to demand to know.
“Look at you now.”
My lip was bleeding, I belatedly realized. The Fireguard had hit me so hard it had cracked.
“I have my heir now, thanks to you. Born five years ago when we saw the fruits of our labor. I should thank you. We didn’t want to bother until we knew it was safe.”
None of that made sense to me. Why did I matter when it came to the royal prince?
She bent down with her hands on her knees, like a kind woman about to offer a sweet.
Or a poisoned apple, like from one of my mother's stories.
Spit in her face, a vicious voice said in my head.
I was scared, and in shock. I’d seen my mother’s dead, poisoned body marinating in its own filth while the room had been stripped down of everything of worth and that inferred thatshewas not of any worth.
I spit on the queen as forcefully as I could.
“She was your friend! And you killed her!” I screamed.
The look of pure horror on her face as my spit hit her cheek and dripped down her jaw was almost worth it.
Almost.
WHAM.
A Fireguard hit me from behind with a spear over my head, dropping me like a stack of books. Then fists, feet, and who knew what else joined in as the Fireguards beat me, all with the queen laughing maniacally in front of me.
I wasn’t sure how long it lasted; it could have been seconds or hours for as bad as the pain was.
A throat cleared from behind us, and I cried harder with relief as the pummeling stopped. I was bleeding from … everywhere; it felt like.
“What?” the queen snapped.
“I … was looking for my missing charge. I see he is … here.”
Vession.
My breaths came in choked gasps, my lungs aching horrifically as I tried to just breathe in and out. Had they killed me? Would I die?
My left eye was already swelling shut, but at least the marble floor was a cool balm against my forehead as I lay on the ground, bleeding. My eyes closed.
“Perhaps I might have your help?” Vession remarked to someone.
I didn’t care who. I was dead anyway, wasn’t I?
Arms slid under my body far too carefully, lifting me gently, but a whimper of pain still escaped my lips.
“The infirmary?”
“No, she’ll have already barred us from it. My quarters.”
Fingers gripped under my knees and back tightly, air shifting the hair on my face as I moved through the air, carried in someone’s arms. The sound of leather boots on the marble corridor was soft and oddly soothing.
