Kingdom Chronicles: Awakening

Chapter 1.1 - Imprisoned

Mara paced back and forth, her chains dragging behind her, screeching across the stone floor. The sound grated on Mara's nerves, reminding her of when her tutor drug his pointing stick across the lecture board whenever Mara spoke out of turn.

She continued to pace, and that sound continued to take her back to the last time she had questioned her tutor's logic. He'd told Mara and her sister, Amelia, that they had to learn how to rule a kingdom by analyzing how kings and queens ruled before them, starting with their father. Mara had merely pointed out that her father shouldn't be a model to follow since thieves and murderers ruled half of their villages. Her tutor didn't like that for some reason though. He threw down his stick and stormed out, muttering something about never again teaching "know it all" teenagers. Amelia had simply glared at Mara, never saying a word. She didn't have to though. Mara could read every single meaning behind that look, the look that said, "How could you drive out another one? Father is going to kill us, and I won't take the blame for this again."

Mara wrung her hands together as her mind dwelt on her sister's face and unspoken accusations. Amelia was younger but had still always thought herself better than Mara, the perfect child. A laugh escaped Mara's lips and echoed back and forth across her four-foot-wide cell. Amelia was the opposite of perfect. She was a murderer, yet Mara was the one sentenced to rot away in a cell, forgotten about by the rest of the kingdoms.

Her father thought he was doing her a service by sending her to the Forgotten Prison hidden within their kingdom. He probably thought she would thank him for sparing her life, but she owed him no such thing.

Vengeance was the only debt she had with him.

Mara's focus was brought back to the darkness that surrounded her when the incessant splash of water drops hitting the stone floor resumed. She stepped back to the far-right corner of her cell and looked up at the earthworm sized hole in the ceiling where the water came from. She reached out with both of her hands, straining against the irons chains around her wrists, and cupped them under the hole. She waited as one drop of water after another collected in her hands. The time passed agonizingly slow as each droplet marked five more seconds gone by. After five minutes, she had only enough water collected for a half a sip. It was murky with dark specs in it, but it was the only water she had. Mara closed her eyes and slurped up the tiny puddle of water in her hands. It was far from princess-like, but she wouldn't let this cell take her like it had every resident before her.

The cool water was a relief to her cracked lips and parched throat, but Mara's stomach growled in protest. It couldn't live on muddied water alone. Mara sat down to conserve her energy, and the cold stones underneath her and behind her back set a shiver up her spine.

"Elias!" she shouted.

Mara paused and listened, but no sounds came from the other side of the solid iron cell door.

"Elias! Your hand will suffer if it's late bringing me dinner again!"

No response.

No footsteps.

Only the continued, consistent dripping of water in the corner of her cell.

Mara leaned her head up against the wall and sighed. The sound of water drops landing on stone and iron chains scrapping across stone was nearly enough on their own for Mara to want to seek revenge against her sister and father for putting her in such a wretched place.

The hand-sized window in the cell door slid open, and Mara could faintly see the outline of a head backlit by a single torch somewhere on the other side.

"It's about time, Elias! I'm starving!" said Mara. "Look." She held up her arm and pointed to the gap between her wrist and the shackles. "If you keep this up, I'll be able to slide right out and finally deliver on my promise to your hands again."