“How do we free her then?”
The warrior princess only shrugged. She turned away from them and began walking back towards the city gates. “You’re a mage. I’m sure you know what to do.”
Chapter Twenty Four
The sun was an hour away from setting when Haedria finally gave Loren a chance to rest. The princess sat on a cot in the dungeons, thrown there while the queen attended to other matters. The blue and gold surcoat she wore, bearing the sigil of her kingdom, had been ripped off of her. Her trousers, chainmail, leathers, everything had been taken from her. Except the dragon pendant.
She sat in the dark, clutching the pendant with a shaking hand. There were burns all over her body, healed numerous times only to be burned again. The queen had been thorough.
“She refuses to obey me.” Haedria’s voice sounded from down the hall, the entrance to the dungeons. “I’ve poured so much of my power into her, and yet, nothing.”
“What have you been trying to get from her, sister?” Seraphis answered.
The queen sighed. “The dragon of Aldoran. Our birthright, sister. Under the full influence of my power, she was able to say the words to call him. But nothing happened.”
“Does she not have the pendant?”
“She does, she does. But the pendant and its dormant magic do not respond. Under my control, what the princess says are merely words. Hollow words. It will not call the dragon.”
“Why not take the pendant from her?”
“While it’s magic does answer to me, sister, the dragon does not.” Haedria sighed. “It seems that the dragon knows when Loren is not in control.”
In her cell, Loren sat with her back against a wall. She curled up, hugging her knees to her chest. Her breath heaved with sobs, and her grip tightened around the small silver dragon. It’s golden eyes caught what little light streamed into her cell.
Loren tried to stifle a sob. The sound of the Red Sisters faded, their footsteps moving farther away from her cell and leaving her in the dimness of their dungeon. She sat, frozen in fear, listening to the silence till the ringing began in her ears, and she knew she was alone. The tears fell down her cheeks as her chest heaved with sobs, the sound escaping her, tearing through her in a torrent. She was alone, in her enemy’s home, and she walked right into it.
Her hand gripped her pendant tightly, letting the dragon’s wings and tail bite into the skin of her palm. There was no way out of this darkness. Her only company was the rats she heard running across the stones, and the Red Sisters. Her worst fears had come to pass. She had led her friends to their deaths. If she called to Lind, if she called for the dragon to help her, the Red Sisters would capture him, and even worse suffering would befall the world.
The princess curled up against the cold stones of her cell. Her cries rang in her ears, echoing down the hall. She clawed at her shoulders, sore and tender from their burns, holding herself in a futile attempt at comfort. Behind the sounds of her own cries, she heard another voice. It was Kae, screaming in her memory, screaming her name. For her. And now the huntress was gone. The princess had seen Seraphis storm out of the throne room with purpose, saw the swords hanging at her belt.
Loren screamed, clutching her pendant. She screamed till her throat burned from the effort, till her voice cracked, till she tasted blood. She would never see the huntress again. She would never wake up to Kae’s serene, sleeping face lying an inch from her’s. She would never walk through a forest, hand in hand, blissfully at peace. She would never tell her, to Kae’s face, the word that stilled in her throat from her nerves, the one word that burned in her heart now that she would never have the chance to say it.
“Kae…” Loren whispered to the darkness once her energy was spent. All there was left in her heart was a tired silence, and pools of tears. “Kae, I...”
Her voice echoed back to her, just as hollow as her own voice, pathetic in her ears. The princess sighed, leaning back onto the wall and letting the cool stones soothe her burned body. The familiar feeling for the silver dragon pendant in her hand grew less of a comforting touch in her hand as her chest rose and fell with her shuddering breathes. Reaching around her neck, Loren fumbled with burned fingers for the clasp of the chain. It came undone after a while, and the princess closed the clasp and folded the chain in her hands with great respect, before screaming and hurling the pendant into the opposite wall.
The dragon bounced off the stone, clattering to a stop a foot away from the princess. Its golden eyes glittered in the dim light. Loren’s heartbroken sob rang in her ears, and she curled in on herself, her forehead pressed to her knees.
She heard a shuffle down the hall and looked up, suddenly wondering how much time had passed. The princess wiped at her tears and stayed as silent as she could, clamping a hand over her mouth. Loren heard footsteps on the stone, approaching slowly. She curled up farther into the corner and making herself small and trying to hide
