The Princess's Servant

72. The Interrogation

Below the tallest spire in the Wardian palace was a storage room, and below that was a guarded armory, and below that was a small round room with a floor of dirt. This small room was so buried beneath the earth that no natural light could reach it, and the room had to be lit entirely by candle and lantern. This was largely considered a good thing, since the contents of the room were so horrific that to view them in full daylight would surely cause even those with the strongest stomachs to pass out on the spot.

This room was the Maddening Room, so-called because no guard could stand watch over it for more than a few weeks without going mad. The screams and sights and smells that came out of that small space were the type to follow you home and to haunt your waking and sleeping moments. It was in this room that Sybil sat, bound to a splintery chair, with the scent of freshly disemboweled intestines baking in the damp hot air. 

"Holden was right about 'dramatic,'" she said. "I thought this was supposed to be a little chat."

Thomas ignored her. He stood across from her, looking her up and down in a way that Sybil knew meant that he wanted to end her. She wondered if he would, even after everything his brother had done to save her life. She wondered what would happen to Lailoy.

The sizing-up stopped. He stared at her with a burning hatred that seemed to promise physical manifestation: a beating, perhaps, or just plain stabbing. But then, after a lifetime of glaring, Thomas smirked.

"You probably think you got lucky," he said.

Sybil didn't say anything. She had gotten lucky. If Holden had been just a few seconds later, she would have hanged.

"Do you know what we do to people like you here in Ward?"

"'People like me?'" Sybil racked her brain. "You mean Lailoyans," she completed.

"I mean women," Thomas said. He paced the bloodied floor with pondering steps.

Sybil did not speak.

"I've heard," the emperor said with a relaxed tone, "that marriage is sacred where you come from. That you view it as the union of two beating hearts. That it's about love. Commitment. Trust."

He wasn't wrong, Sybil thought. Those were the Lailoyan ideals.

"In Ward," Thomas stopped pacing, "marriage is little more than a legal function. It is a binding agreement that transfers the ownership of one woman to one man. Our wedding certificates even look remarkably similar to the paperwork we use for trading livestock. Do you understand what I am telling you?"

"Yes," Sybil said.

"You married my brother." He said that like an accusation. "Here, in Ward. That makes you his property, no matter what arrangement you enjoyed before. My brother may have spared you from death, Princess, but in your new life you will be forced to live as a doting and obedient wife. And if you do not..." Some dark joy crept on to the prince's face.

"If I don't?" Sybil asked. 

"My brother can divorce you," he half shrugged.

Sybil waited a beat for the follow up 'and you'll be made to live in a nunnery,' or something to that effect. But Thomas stood silent.

"Okay..." She allowed. "That sounds lovely. I think divorce is a very good idea for the both of us."

"As do I," Thomas nodded. "Of course, once he inevitably leaves you, your ownership reverts back to the State. The State being me, of course. And then you and everything that you've ever loved will be burn like dry weeds piled from the fields."

"Ah," Sybil said. There was the catch. "So your plan is: wait for Holden to divorce me and then destroy me and Lailoy."

"Not as dull as you appear."

"One problem," Sybil said, and Thomas waited. "I don't think Holden would leave me to such a fate after risking so much to spare me from it."

Thomas nodded. "That is what you'd think, isn't it? But you don't know him as well as I. Time will teach my brother what we both already know is truth: you're an unchanging monster incapable of loving him or anyone else. Once he understands that the woman he's long yearned for truly and absolutely wants nothing to do with him, he will be devastated. And then you'll disappear. And he will not ask after you." Thomas turned from her. "A clean and fateful solution to a very sticky predicament."

"Right," Sybil said. "Except one other small problem."

He turned a little towards her.

"I've shown your brother from day one my feelings towards him. There's nothing more for time to teach him."

Thomas chuckled. "Dear Sybil, perhaps you are dull. You and I can see plainly the monster that you are. Holden, on the other hand, still sees the woman he wishes you were. The woman he wants you to be. But as time weathers all fair paintings, so too does it weather our good opinion. I am certain that by winter's greeting, he will wisen to your true nature."

"You call me a monster, yet you look forward to the destruction of your little brother's heart."

"Everything I do for Holden is done out of love. What's your excuse?"

Sybil had nothing to say to that.

"The official wedding ceremony will be tomorrow. Be on your best behavior," he said, and he left the little room.

Sybil sat as attendants unbound her and could only feel apprehension for the future if his words rang true.

A/N please vote!