The Silver Crown

44.

I had not seen Icas Hart since then, and for a long time I had hated him. Then I had admired his cunning. But now...now my family was kneeling at his feet. I just felt tired.

The red ruby around Icas's neck glinted in the sun streaming through the windows. Everyone in the room, including all the black and red clad figures and the king, with a knife still at his throat, turned to look at Icas. It was obvious that he was in charge not because of his appearance, which was identical to the other men, but because of the power rolling off of him in tsunami sized waves.

"How pleasant, a family gathering," Icas said. "So sorry to have interrupted." He didn't sound sorry at all.

He gazed around the room thoughtfully. Most eyes met him defiantly and I was proud, even the children didn't give in so easily.

Icas turned to a group of the black and red attired men and instructed them to open the window. Others were to tie the hands of the prisoners together.

Icas approached me as the last of the hands and feet were being bound. "Apparently it was not so impossible after all," He commented.

I scowled at him. "Just get me to Tobin," I snarled. I turned my back on the priest.

I approached the men who had opened the window. "How are you getting them out of here without being stopped?" I questioned.

"We are on the southeast side of the castle," one of them began, "Which is right above the stables. So we just closed down the stables for the morning. Some more of our men are down there turning away anyone who tries to get through. Then we have a rope with a loop that we are going to use to lower the prisoners down to a wagon that will take them to the cloisters half an hour outside of the city."

"You couldn't just use magic to put the whole castle to sleep?" I asked.

The man looked at me and then looked away angrily. "You understand nothing, wench. Get out of my way," He snapped.

"Haven't been called that in a while," I commented under my breath and sank into a chair a few paces away. I continued to avoid looking over at the bound prisoners on the other side of the room that had used to be my family, but I knew they were looking at me. I felt crushed under the weight of their glares.

After a few more minutes, the first priest was lowered down the three stories to the ground. Then the king and queen were sent. Down on the ground, other Red Priests led the monarchs to a covered wagon and sat them inside with more guards. As more of the royal family was ferried down, they too were seated in the wagon until Icas and I were the only two left to be lowered. The three men doing the lowering were going to sneak out another way. They had a better chance as a smaller group.

I had no fear of heights, but I was frightened that Icas would tell them to drop me from three stories up, as it was a more efficient way to deal with me. Thankfully, he must have decided that I had done enough to earn his trust and I made it safely to the ground. I was ushered into the wagon with Icas following and we set off.

Every eye in the wagon was on me and it was starting to make my skin crawl. I wished that I could disappear, but because I couldn't do that, instead I put my head back and fell asleep. At least that way I could forget that the people that used to love me were imaging every painful to kill me.

~

The wagon bumped to a stop a long while later and I jumped out first. I was surprised to see that the cloisters were located in the royal forest a little ways off the main road. The last time I had been kept within the walls and had not been allowed to see the outside. Now I saw that a large wall surrounded the whole building. There was an iron gate with a stone gatehouse built into the right wall. Three priests occupied the gatehouse.