"Release her," the king said.
The trooper let go of her hair.
Two troopers guarded Consecration.
Repentance stood, rubbing her scalp.
"Why?" the king asked, looking at her.
Why? Why indeed? Why was he giving orders and why were the troopers obeying him?
"Why do you think?" the Prince said. "She's proven herself to be vindictive and hot tempered. She's never respected you. Talking back to you. Calling you names at your own table. She thinks nothing of killing you. You are her enemy."
"Me?" She glared at the prince. "It was your plan to kill him." She looked at the king, then. "Your Highness, I found this man in the yak barn. I overheard him talking with a trooper. They were planning to assassinate you upon order of the prince."
The prince chuckled. "She's a sly one, Uncle. And her tongue moves like hot water over the skating pond—all slippery-smooth. You must at least admire her for that."
The king gave him a hard stare. "Yes, well, I'm glad someone finds the night's activity amusing."
"Your Highness," Repentance said. "You cannot believe that I—"
"You sneak into my library in the darkness with an intruder and a pitchfork, and you expect me to believe you meant me no harm?'
"The pitchfork? No! That wasn't—"
"It doesn't take much discernment to see it," the prince said. "And if I'd not seen her from my window, and gotten here first with the troopers, she'd have succeeded in her wicked scheme. That pitchfork would be buried in your chest, my Lord."
"My scheme? Tell him," she said to the assassin. "Tell the king who ordered you to kill him."
"Yes," the prince said. "Do tell us. You will die either way, but you can save your family if you tell the truth here."
"You're threatening him!" She looked at the king. "The prince is threatening his family."
"Child," the assassin said, looking at Repentance. "It's over. We tried. We lost. The king will die another day."
"No!" she screamed. "You're lying! Do you think the prince is going to save you? You coward. Tell the truth."
"Child, it's not honorable to carry on so. Killing the king was an honorable plan." He spat on the carpeted floor in front of the king.
The trooper in front of him backhanded him. Consecration crumpled under the blow.
"Tell the truth!" Repentance yelled.
He pulled himself up slowly, blood dripping from his lip. "He has kept our people captive too long and he deserves to die," he said. Then he looked at Repentance. "But you and I will not be the ones to do the glorious deed."
She shook her head, speechless. He wasn't going to tell.
"Now we know," the prince said. "Lock them up."
The troopers looked to the king.
"We know next to nothing," he said. "Who is this man? How did he get into the palace grounds? How is he connected with Repentance?"
"Uncle, please don't let your fondness for the girl fog your vision."
"I don't see a motive. Why would she kill me? What would she gain by it?"
"I have nothing to gain! I would never kill—"
"But you have a confession from the assassin himself." The prince walked over to Repentance and stared down into her face. "Some people are simply motivated by hate, your Highness. They hate, and you can't train it out of them no matter how hard you try. With every suncloth they wash, their hatred grows."
"You're lying. I don't—"
The Prince slapped her. "How dare you accuse me of lying?"
The sting of the slap brought tears. She swallowed them and glared at the prince with every bit of hatred she had.
He stepped aside. "This one is full of hate."
She looked at the king, "I never—"
The king interrupted. "Your expression gives you away, I'm afraid. You stare at me with such malice." He shook his head sadly. "I've told you before that you need to control your tongue and the expressions on your face. And now they betray your heart toward me. I don't know why you hate me, Repentance. I've been kind to you from the start, and you've repaid me with violence at every turn."
"Not so!" she shouted.
"Take them away," he said to the trooper standing by. "I can't stand to hear another word."
"And I shall inform the swingman," Prince Malficc said.
"No, you shall not. I've not sentenced them." the king said.
"Uncle, surely—"
"No more talk! Leave me, all of you."
Two troopers walked them down a brightly lit stairway. Repentance had never been to the dungeons before. But surely they weren't so horrible. Tigen had told her he played in them. He was not afraid.
The air grew cold as they descended, and an icy fear seeped into her soul. She could die in the dungeons, and no one would know. No one would mourn. She stuck her free hand in the pocket of her work smock and worried her big gray buttons back and forth between her fingers.
"The prince won't let you go," she said to the assassin, her breath coming in white puffs. Maybe it wasn't too late for him to change his mind and tell the truth. "He'll kill you and your family, too. It amuses him to wield his power."
Her trooper gave her arm a savage yank. "Enough noise from you. We don't none of us believe you, so you might as well give it up."
A desk squatted at the bottom of the stairs, but no one manned it.
They walked on, reaching a door on the right, twenty feet past the desk. One trooper rapped with his bare knuckles on the wood.
An overlord man opened the door.
"We've two prisoners for
