The Broken Kingdoms of Osvolta (Kingdoms of Osvolta #1)

82. A Threata Promise?

Chapter eighty-two

A Threat or a Promise?

T he moon and stars were hiding. A whisper of a voice. One that was warm, not cold. Gentle, not eerie, slipped into the slumbering mind of the Princess of Torrelin.

Rise.

Open your eyes and rise.

The princess’s eyelids flickered; her fingers twitched.

There are things at play in this world that you don’t yet know.

Rise and stop the fall.

Rise and save us all.

Green eyes flew open to a dark room lit by a single blue flamed sconce. A red-haired woman slumbered on the chaise at the foot of the bed.

“Say that again.” Her voice croaked, slicing through the quiet, causing the woman’s head to fly up. Her own eyes were wide and blinking, mouth slack in utter disbelief. She pulled the blanket tighter around herself; rubbing the sleep from her eyes to see that the princess was indeed staring at her from the head of the bed.

“You’re awake,” Teris whispered.

“Say it again.” Solveig repeated, harsher now.

“Say what?”

“Don’t play games, I heard a voice.”

“A voice?” Teris parroted, “There have been many voices, a cacophony over the past week that could have, should have, woken you but didn’t. There was no voice tonight, it is just you and I here and both of us were sleeping.”

“I know what I heard!” Solveig insisted, growing agitated.

“Perhaps,” Teris stood, “but it was not me, I swear it. I have no reason to lie.”

“Teris,” Solveig whispered, eyes guarded as she took her in.

Teris beamed a gentle smile, taking a seat on the edge of the bed, clasping the princess’s icy hands in hers. “It is a blessing to see you awake ma’am, how are you?”

Her voice, her words, seemed genuine, but Solveig knew, deep down, that this woman had every reason to lie, especially now. Still, she played along.

“I feel as though I have been run over by a fully loaded carriage, pounded into the ground by the horses’ hooves.” She pulled her hand free. “Why are you here, Teris?”

“It’s my job, ma’am.”

Solveig scoffed, trying to push her way out of the bed, struggling against her aching limbs and weakened heart.

“You should rest,” Teris rushed, standing to help her lay back down, “the healers pulled you back from the brink of death.” Solveig flinched away from her reach. Hurt flashed across Teris’s face.

“Don’t touch me.”

“Ma’am?” Teris asked, taking a step back, confusion in her eyes.

“Do you think me blind?” Solveig questioned, wincing against the pain as she shifted her position. “That perhaps I am unaware of what goes on both within and without these walls?”

“Your Highness, I don’t…”

“Silence!” Solveig commanded. “My brother never had a female servant, at least not by your name, that little piece of information I learned early on. I have kept a close eye on you ever since.” Teris took another step back, closer to the door now. Solveig stood on shaking legs; an arm wrapped around her stomach as she grimaced through the pain.

“Tell me Teris, do you often slink off to the backwater taverns for a drink in the witching hours or was that meeting with the prince an accident? That pouch he gave you sure weighed you down on the journey home.”

“I…” Teris stood completely still, only her eyes moved, flicking toward the door, judging her distance from escape.

“I have no desire for excuses. The next words out of your mouth better be the truth.”

Teris bit back harsher words she longed to say, her eyes frosting over, the red of her hair somehow glowed brighter, fiercer.

“You’re still a pawn.” She shook her head, dropping the blanket as she reached for her wrists; easily removing the false cuffs encrusted in red gems that lay there. She dropped them to the ground with a thud before turning to leave.

“I did not dismiss you,” Solveig ordered, still staring at the discarded cuffs in shock.

“And I will not stand here and wait for you to send me to the gallows.”

“How do you know the prince?”

“I cannot answer that.”

“Your life may depend on it.”

“I swore my life to the secrecy of my kingdom—I will take my last breath before I reveal her to you.”

“You are from Elithiend then?”

“Surely that much is obvious?”

Solveig shrugged. “There was always the possibility that you were a rebel, eager to earn coin as a spy.”

“Elithiend is my home. They sent me here for a purpose that you may infer until the crow’s sound, but I shall never confirm it. So, either arrest me and lock me up beside my prince. Or let me go so I may never have to wash the stench of this place from my soul again.”

“The prince?” Solveig whispered, her turn to be confused now.

“Did you not know?” Teris sneered, shaking her head, “and I thought you knew it all, Princess.”

A shard of pain scorched through the princess’s mind; she stumbled forward for a moment as the cold eerie voice of The Oracle pierced her skull once more.

“Your brother has a visitor in the castle. In the places so deep and dark, even the stars can’t find it.”

The prince was the captive in the dungeons of High Tower Castle. The Oracle had threatened her life, pushed her to the brink, all for this moment.

Teris laughed, looking the weakened princess up and down with disdain. “Not quite fearsome these days, are you, Solveig?” she sneered. “It seems you have a decision to make.”

“And that would be?”

“Free the prince and condemn yourself or send him to the gallows as one of your traitors risking a war you’re not ready for.”

“Is that a threat?”

“No, Solveig.” Teris sighed. “It was a promise.” She stalked from the room on a gust of wind as the sconce blew out at the door, leaving the princess in the same hellish dark as the prince.