A Dance Of Crowns & Thrones | Book I

Chapter 136 | Beyond The Wall

The trio of Isis, Xero, and Madison emerged like a storm within the darkened realm, their arrival causing a stir in the otherwise still environment. Hidden from view, a woman with narrow brown eyes observed the scene from behind a wall, her gaze sharp and calculating.

Their presence was soon felt in the grand chambers of what served as the Sorceress's current throne room. Isis and Xero were no strangers to this place, having been seen wandering its prison-like corridors since the beginning of the war, their notoriety preceding them.

The observer involuntarily drew in a deeper breath than intended within the confined space between the walls. An insatiable curiosity fueled her desire to comprehend the unfolding commotion sparked by the appearance of the two malevolent henchmen.

Distraught and disoriented in her new surroundings, the newcomer unleashed screams directed at both of them. Her cries conveyed the sheer terror of finding herself in this unexpected place, a place nobody anticipates. The piercing screams revealed the profound fear gripping the captive girl within Isis's hold.

The observer took a deep breath, attempting to rein in the fear coursing through her bones. Spying on the Sorceress was always fraught with danger, and the last thing she wanted was to be caught spying again. Inhaling once more behind the narrow, claustrophobic, dusty, and decayed walls, she observed as the raven-haired woman was forcefully thrown to the ground.

Isis let out a sinister laugh as the girl's knees hit the filthy marble floor with a crunch. With a malevolent gesture, she summoned two crystals from the girl's chest, making them pulsate ominously in the room. The eerie sound of laughter echoed, not from just one or two, but from a multitude of creatures that filled the decaying throne room.

"You got what you wanted," Madison gasped, watching the two crystals hover before her. "There are the crystals, Isis!" The woman hidden within the walls tilted her head, noting the defiant tone in the girl's voice.

She wondered if the outside world had finally come to know of the Sorceress. After all these years, had they become aware of the madness that had festered among them for the last fifteen years, embodied by that dreadful woman?

The newcomers brown eyes scanned the throne room, finally resting on the man sitting on the throne, idly tapping his fingers. Her gaze then shifted to a dirtied woman in chains, shackled to the floor. Her current state was a far cry from her former self, now reduced to a skeletal-like, mangled figure after years under the powerful witch's control. She was a mere shadow of the woman she once had been, forcibly restrained at the foot of the throne stairs.

The observer noticed the girl's attention had also turned to the imprisoned woman. "Ezra?" she exclaimed, horrified to see her in chains, a fate all too familiar to many of them.

"Ah yes!" Isis giggled, looking over to the woman who cowered at the sound of her voice. "She's become a tad boring over the years. She used to be so much fun." She pouted. "You would love her daughter, though—feisty little thing."

The observer's fists clenched tightly, the realization dawning on her that the Sorceress had been using her mother's name as a means of diversion. If only the world beyond the barrier knew the truth—that the Sorceress had kept them hostage and bound. Ezra was as much a pawn and victim as any of them who remained trapped in this dark realm.

What the observer desperately wanted the world to know, to shout from the rooftops, was that by focusing attention on Ezra, the Sorceress cunningly diverted attention away from her true objective: hunting down the grown child who possessed the crystal they desperately sought. This particular crystal had been resonating with increasing intensity for months, a signal they could not ignore.