Dane sprinted down the grand staircase and through the halls, heading towards the source of the terrifying cries. At his signal, armoured palace guards left their posts and joined him with their weapons drawn. All the while, the screams continued in the distance.
"What's happening?" he asked of a guard beside him.
"We do not know, sire."
The echo of screams took them through the same parts of the palace that Dane had chased Cassie through. As they closed in on the hallway that led out to the courtyard, the source of the screams became clear. A gaggle of maids ran past them, screaming and crying, too occupied in their escape to even notice and pay their respects to the king.
One of the guards in Dane's entourage reached out a metal-clad hand and caught a frantic scullery maid by the arm. "What is it?"
The young girl looked up at the group of them, tears streaming down her cheeks and her lips quivered. "His head... It... It just..." She held her fists to her face and shook her head, unable to render a coherent sentence.
"Speak!" the guard pressed.
Dane, too, laid a gentle hand on her trembling shoulder. "Please. We need to know what we're facing."
She turned her wide, fearful eyes to him and tried, "Mon-monster... It... It took his head off... just like that." Her voice trailed off. Her eyes turned empty, unfocused, then she buried her face in her hands and broke down again.
"Monster?" another guard muttered in a confused tone.
As much as he cared for the girl's wellbeing, this was no situation for dawdling. "Let's go," Dane urged as he continued his way towards the commotion. More and more of his palace staff screamed and scurried from the direction of the courtyard, but he ignored them and they ignored him too.
Then they turned the corner, and at first all they could see were terrified men and women filling the hallway: people hugging each other as they cried; people huddled up in the corners as they screamed into their own hands; people bracing their arms against the walls as they threw up their evening meals.
Dane and his guards picked their way through the panic-stricken mass, until they stopped dead at the sight of the two gruesome, mangled bodies laid at the open doors leading out to the courtyard.
It took a few moments for Dane to register that the bodies were incomplete. The heads had severed from the bodies; one of those heads had rolled over to the opposite wall, and the other was nowhere to be seen. The rest of the bodies weren't pretty either, what with their guts spilling and limbs twisted into unnatural angles. The stench of death and piss hung in the air, together with a hint of something he couldn't quite place, something dark and ancient and rotting from the inside.
Bile rose in his throat, and Dane resisted the bodily urge to double over and throw up. Around him, half the guards gagged whilst the other half gave in and barfed, adding to the mess and stench of the hallway.
Frozen on the spot while he sought to understand what could have happened, it wasn't until another flurry of shouts came from out in the courtyard that Dane moved again. He wondered briefly if it was the princes of Ilien and Uviel. Had they refused to wait the three days he requested? Had they declared war whilst he was immersed in blissful lust and romance?
Grabbing the sword of a sickly guard who was still puking out his guts, he dashed out the open doors to the courtyard. Despite the breeze, the smell of rot grew stronger, filling his nostrils and seemingly penetrating his pores.
Armoured men gathered on one side of the courtyard in a tight bunch, their shields and weapons raised. All of a sudden, a loud screech penetrated the night, drowning out the sound of frantic yelling from the men.
YOU ARE READING
Bride to the Cursed: a Snow White retelling
Fantasy[COMPLETED] When a king makes an order, he expects it to be followed. When King Dane divorced his wife, he expected her to get out of his sight and stay out of his sight. Not reappear three months later in his bed, spouting nonsense about being a 'l...
