It put me into a mood. And why was I so flustered about this, anyway?
We fell into a companionable silence. Eventually I dozed off, since there wasn’t much else to do.
In my half-hazy state, I heard the heavy tread of boots in the hallway. I instantly came awake. Looking out into the dim torch-lit hallway, I could see two long shadows on the ground. The footsteps stopped right outside our door, and then metal grated on metal as a key turned in the lock.
Taryn and I jumped to our feet, trying to press into the wall.
The cell door swung in and a guard appeared, stepping to the side to allow someone in. The newcomer sniffed in disdain as he looked around our dirty prison, making a pretense of trying to keep his pristine robe from dragging in the dirt. His all-white tunic and breeches were already dusty from the trek down into the dungeons. I had a fleeting, idle moment of sympathy for the servants who would have to clean such an outfit.
Taryn’s fingers dug into my arm as the man turned to appraise us. Contempt dripped from his expression even as the jewels dripping from his body dazzled in the dim light.
It was King Hendon.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“HELLO, FATHER!” I PASTED the sweetest smile I could muster on my face, desperately turning on the charm. “Thank goodness you’ve come to straighten out this misunderstanding. Please don’t punish these men too severely.”
Turning my fake smile on the guard, I expected to see some sort of relieved or scared reaction from him. But instead, there was... nothing. His eyes were completely blank; he wasn’t registering anything that was happening before him. I covered my confusion as I looked back at the king.
Who did not look at all happy to see me.
“Drop the act,” King Hendon hissed. “We both know you’re not my daughter.”
My heart sank. I had assumed he only knew about my journey to find Joichan. Now I knew: he knew everything.
“Dragon spawn.” Hendon practically spat the words at me. “Had I known how faithless your mother was, I would have had her killed long ago.”
My eyes narrowed. Since he knew the truth, there was no point in pretending anymore. “Don’t flatter yourself. She could never have been faithless to you. You never had her heart to begin with.”
The king stiffened, and I realized with surprise I had hit a nerve. “Who needs a silly queen’s love when you can have a whole kingdom?”
He came nearer. Taryn shrank behind me. I wanted to back away, too, but didn’t want to show any fear.
Hendon stopped just in front of me. He was so close I could have spit in his face. Or wrapped my slim hands around his neck. I subtly shifted, readying myself to take action.
“Don’t even think about it.” Hendon toyed with the dark red jewel at his throat. It glowed unnaturally, too bright for the small amount of light in our cell. Its crimson beam fell across Taryn’s eyes.
Suddenly, her fearful fingers on my arm changed to a heavy clamp, effectively holding me in place. Surprised, I tried to pull free, which only made her hold me harder. “Taryn? What are you doing?”
She didn’t answer me.
“Taryn? Taryn!”
But her eyes had the same blank expression as the guard who was blocking the open door.
I eyed Hendon’s ruby pendant. A soulstone. He caught my glance and, with a smug smile, displayed it proudly. “You know what this is, then? Such a handy thing. I don’t know how I ever ruled this cursed kingdom without it.”
“Where did you get that?” I gasped.
“I made it, of course. Using my original soulstone, a lovely little piece of moonstone, to provide the magic to infuse in this one. I had nearly finished transferring all of its dragon magic into my beautiful ruby charm when it was unfortunately stolen from me.”
“Your soulstone? The one you stole from the dragon, you mean.”
He waved his hand, brushing away my accusation. “Mere semantics. The dumb beast didn’t deserve to have power like this at his fingertips.”
Seeing Hendon with a soulstone of his own made me sick. And curious. “So you were able to create one. But why? I thought you hated magic. And you’re not a shapeshifter. Are you?”
“Alas, no, I am not,” Hendon said. “If I was, it might have made things much easier. And magic is abhorrent... too many people have it, but refuse to actually use it to its fullest potential. There are so many things you could do if you had all that knowledge and power. But instead, we teach our children about magic and then place restrictions on its use. Better for them not to have it all.”
“So what do you propose?” I asked somewhat sarcastically. “That no one has any magic at all?”
“I doubt it will even be missed.”
“Magical ability is innate. You can’t just strip people of their inborn abilities. They’ll lose their minds — at best. If you don’t outright kill them.”
“I’ll admit that my first experiments had... less than favorable results. But I was able to get what I needed out of it.” He stroked his ruby soulstone possessively. “From there, I was able to find more, ah, volunteers to help me. Some unfortunately didn’t make it out of the tests with their wits intact. If they made it out at all.”
With a gasp, I realized what he meant by experiments. “The people that kept turning up in the town alley... Sava and her brother.”
“The magic of twins.” Hendon licked his lips as if he was tasting an especially delectable dessert. “Especially potent.”
“All these other people in the cells...?” My vision swam as I turned away, trying not to be sick.
King Hendon shrugged, unconcerned. “The pursuit of knowledge is rarely easy or neat. But failure is an unfortunate necessity.”
“Experimenting with people’s lives is not a necessity.”
“Don’t worry, Princess.” My honorific sounded like a curse word coming from
