When the worst moment passed and her broken sobs faded into trembling breaths, Ashared wiped her tears with his thumb, he said, “Never again, Lannahi. Whoever raises their hand against you will suffer a hundredfold even if it should end in the destruction of the Continent. Make me your Knight, and I will make sure that anyone who thinks of hurting you will know my vengeance.”
She stared at him, full of conflicting emotions again. Knight loyalty was every Ruler’s dream, but the vision of Ashared fighting for her in the arena didn’t appeal to her.
“You aren’t yet in control of your power and you are already making threats?”
It was an attempt to relieve the tension, but her trembling voice spoiled it completely.
Ashared moved his hand from her face to the back of her neck. “You saved me, Lannahi,” he murmured, brushing her lips with his. “You made me stronger. Now let me protect what is dear to me with the power you have given me.”
“It wasn’t me who gave you this power,” she whispered, her pulse quickening.
“Then you can’t refuse me.”
Ashared strengthened the pressure on her neck and slid his tongue into her mouth. His tender resolve began to melt her resistance. Thoughts escaped her head one by one…
They were interrupted by banging on the door.
Ashared let go of Lannahi, his face twisted in bemusement. “Your touch stirred too much emotion in me,” he explained when she gave him a puzzled look.
When Lannahi understood the implication of his words, she reflexively looked down, expecting to see cracks in the floor.
“Don’t worry,” he added. “The guards are well-trained. They have already suppressed the vibrations.”
She looked at him hesitantly. “We can’t touch then?” She couldn’t quite hide her disappointment.
Ashared chuckled. “We can,” he said. He took her hand and placed a kiss on it. “Just not too intensely. Not yet.”
He turned her hand palm up and began to brush her wrist with his lips but then suddenly froze in a way that Lannahi had learned to recognize as a moment he fought his animal nature. He let go of her hand even before another knock on the door sounded.
“Today, let’s just talk,” he said with a faint smile. When Lannahi pulled away with a laugh and sat down in a chair beside the bed, he added, “You can also sing if you want.”
She looked at him with a mixture of amusement and tenderness. “I’d better not.”
“Why?”
“I don’t have control of my power either.”
Chapter 33
A month later…
“Welcome to the ninth Royal Sabbath of the year,” the Master of Ceremony said. “If you haven’t heard the news, you must have noticed that the Black Arena has relocated. Arbiter Bastet will now inform you about the circumstances that prompted the authorities of Blacktower to designate this new meeting place fifty rainbows away from the city.”
“On the seventh day of this month, a Royal Duel occurred between Lannahi, Queen of Goldfrost, and Challenger Nihhal,” Bastet began. “Due to suspicion that the Challenger had used an enchantment on his opponent before the fight began, Arbiter Nimmat interrupted the Duel. Nihhal refused to submit to questioning and immediately challenged Sarkal, King of Goldenshadows, to a duel, threatening to attack his kingdom if he refused. The Queen of Goldfrost attempted to attack her opponent who in revenge inflicted a mortal wound on swordmaster Ashared. Due to the intervention of Arbiter Nimmat, Nihhal was neutralized, but because of the emotional outburst on the part of the Queen of Goldfrost, she lost control of her power and awoken the dormant powers of the mentioned swordmaster which led to an uncontrollable tremor that destroyed the Black Arena building.”
Lannahi suppressed a bitter smile. So many months plagued with fear was encapsulated in just a few short sentences.
“Due to the earth elementals present, the danger was defused, but due to the scale of possible damage, the event was deemed by the Arbiter Council to be a violation of the Cardinal Rule,” Bastet continued. “After testimony from all parties, the Black Tower Court declared Nihhal’s actions to be a Declaration of War, and since he was the main reason that caused Ashared and Lannahi to lose control of their powers, responsibility for violating the Cardinal Rule was also placed on Nihhal. Recognizing the extenuating circumstances, including the lack of intention to cause a catastrophe and the relatively small scale of the actual damage, the Court decided not to apply the Extreme Penalty and instead sentenced Nihhal to life in the Dark Prison.”
Although the audience remained silent, many shifted with unease. It had been a long time since someone was subjected to Extreme Penalty. Exile to another world to be a slave of a human… This possibility instilled fear in even the bravest fae.
Lannahi too felt a knot in her stomach. She didn’t know if she was more troubled by the thought that if Ashared didn’t have latent powers, Nihhal would now be free, or by the sympathy she felt for who she once thought Nihhal was—the charming man she’d spent so many hours with, the man he could have become if he chosen to. The Dark Prison was in fact a Trail, and life in it, a slow death. How long would it be before the ubiquitous darkness drove Nihhal insane? Days? Months? Rarely anyone endured years…
It would have been better to have died in a duel.
“It was discovered that this case bore information regarding another conducted by the Arbiters,” Bastet continued after a dramatic pause. “Nihhal testified under enchantment that he collaborated with Ulmet, a wanted pathfinder who violated the Arbiter Oath by manipulating the Royal Game with the mercenary army he amassed. Nihhal met him through Baruh, known until recently as the King of Sunhorn, whom the Arbiter Council, having learned of the manipulation, stripped of his title and conferred on his lands the status of Free Territory. Unfortunately, the Peacekeepers have not been able to locate Ulmet’s whereabouts, so I appeal to anyone who knows any information about him to contact the Arbiters or Peacekeepers as soon as possible.”
The remnants of sympathy that Lannahi had for Nihhal evaporated. The “mercenaries” Bastet mentioned consisted of the fae kidnapped as children and raised in isolation to become blindly loyal soldiers. If Nihhal planned to conquer Sarkal’s kingdom with the intent of using these warriors, his hatred was already on the verge of madness.
