Chapter Three
1492 Words
ELARA’S POV
The pens behind the palace were the worst place to work, not that the work was difficult, well every job in this place was difficult.
But because of the smell.
It stuck to everything. Your clothes, your hair, even your skin. No matter how much you tried to wash it off, a piece of it always stayed.
I shoved a pile of dirty hay into the wheelbarrow and wiped my forehead with the back of my wrist.
“Gods,” Mira groaned from the stall beside me. “If I die here, bury me far away from these animals.”
“You won’t die here,” I said.
She glanced at me. “How do you know?”
“Because Mistress Halwen would drag your corpse back to finish the job.”
That made Lysa from the next stall laugh.
“She would too.”
Mira tossed another bundle of hay into the cart. “Sometimes I think she enjoys our suffering.”
“She absolutely does,” I said.
The horses shifted behind the wooden bars, snorting while we worked. One of them kicked the stall wall and Mira jumped in surprise.
“See?” she snapped. “Even the animals hate this place.”
“Animals have better instincts than we do,” Lysa muttered.
I pushed the cart forward a few feet and dumped the hay near the gate.
“Did you hear the bells earlier?” Mira asked suddenly.
Lysa nodded. “The ones near the main hall?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not unusual.”
Mira lowered her voice anyway. “I heard something happened with the ritual.”
I paused what I was doing for a minute and asked. “What about it?”
She leaned closer. “They’re saying the Vessel is missing.”
Lysa straightened immediately. “Missing?”
“That’s what the kitchen servants were whispering.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Lysa said. “The High Priestess chooses the girl herself.”
“Exactly.”
The three of us looked at each other.
For a moment the only sound in the pens was the rustling of hay and the horses breathing in their stalls.
Then Mira shrugged. “Well…not our problem.”
I snorted. “Nothing in this palace is ever our problem until suddenly it is.”
She pointed at me. “Don’t say things like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because it invites trouble.”
“Well trouble doesn’t need invitations,” I said.
Lysa leaned against the stall door. “Still…imagine disappearing on ritual night.”
Mira shivered. “I wouldn’t dare.”
“Maybe she ran away,” Lysa said.
“Run where?” I asked. “The palace gates are guarded.”
“Maybe someone helped her.”
“Or maybe she fainted and they’re panicking for nothing.”
Mira wrinkled her nose. “If I were chosen as Vessel, I’d try to disappear too.”
“You’re too loud a person to disappear,” I said.
She threw a piece of straw at me feigning annoyance, I laughed but before I could respond, the sound of shouting filled the courtyard.
We all stopped.
“Did you hear that?” Mira whispered.
More voices could be heard, and an even louder sound of metal boots.
Then more shouting.
Lysa frowned. “That doesn’t sound good.”
The horses began shifting restlessly in their stalls and a moment later the doors to the pens burst open.
Royal guards rushed inside, with poker expressions and little to no patience.
Every servant in the room froze immediately.
Mira grabbed my arm. “Why are they here?”
I shook my head slowly.
The guards spread out through the pens, their boots crushed the scattered hay underfoot.
For a second I thought they were searching the room.
Then one of them pointed—at me.
“That one.”
I blinked. “Me?”
Two guards were already walking toward me.
“Wait, what did I do?” I asked.
They didn’t answer, instead one of them grabbed my arm like they were catching a chicken by it's wings.
“Hey—wait!”
The second guard seized my other arm and pulled me forward.
“Let go of me!”
Mira stepped forward. “What did she do?”
One of the guards glanced at her briefly before responding.
“She’s the replacement Vessel.”
And I felt my world stop for a damned minute. “The what?”
I could barely make out any words, and suddenly the panic hit me.
“No,” I said immediately. “No. No, please wait you’ve made a mistake.”
The guards started dragging me toward the door. “I didn’t do anything!”
They ignored me and continued moving.
“I’m Wolfless!” I shouted. “You can’t choose me!”
Mira looked horrified. “She’s telling the truth!”
“It doesn’t matter,” the guard snapped.
My mind finally caught up with what was happening—they were taking me to the ritual.
“No!” I twisted violently in their grip. “Let go of me!”
One of the guards increased the tightness of his grip around me. “Walk.”
“I’m not going anywhere!”
I jerked free for half a second and ran, but I didn’t make it past three steps.
A heavy hand slammed into the back of my neck and knocked me straight into the dirt.
Before I could recover, they hauled me upright again.
“You stupid girl,” one guard muttered.
“I’m not the Vessel!” I shouted. “You’re making a mistake!”
“Save it for the High Priestess.”
They dragged me out of the pens while the other servants stared in silence. Mira looked like she was going to cry.
“Tell them!” I yelled at her. “Tell them I didn’t do anything!”
She didn’t move. No one did.
The Royal guards didn’t take orders from servants, as they dragged me all I could see was a blurry view of the courtyard.
Servants stopped and stared as we passed, some whispered, while others looked away.
But what none did was step forward.
“I didn’t do anything!” I shouted again.
One of the guards hit me at the back of my head, which made everything I could see go blurry for some minutes.
“Quiet.”
I gasped in pain, but kept fighting. “I’m Wolfless!”
They didn’t care.
We moved deeper into the palace and the smell of incense drifted through the corridors.
Lighter candles flickered along the walls. The closer we got, the louder the chanting became.
My stomach twisted in fear.
“No,” I whispered.
They dragged me through a pair of tall doors and I had a full view of the ritual chamber.
Moonlight shone through the high windows, lighting up the stone floor.
Some priests stood in a circle around a raised platform carved with symbols I didn’t recognize and at the center of the room stood a woman in dark ceremonial robes.
High Priestess Valla.
The guards shoved me forward. I stumbled and nearly fell.
“This is the replacement,” one of them said.
The chanting stopped and every pair of eyes in the room turned toward me.
I struggled to stand upright.
“There’s been a mistake,” I said quickly. “I’m not supposed to be here.”
Valla didn’t respond immediately, instead she studied me quietly.
Her eyes moved slowly over my face, my clothes, the mud on my hands.
Then she smiled faintly.
“Yes,” she said softly.
“She will do.”
“What?”
The guards grabbed me again before I could react.
“No!” I struggled violently. “You can’t do this!”
They dragged me toward the stone platform.
“I’m Wolfless!” I shouted. “The ritual won’t work!”
No one answered me, soon cold iron cuffs were put around my wrists before I could fully process anything. They pulled my arms out and forced my legs apart, chaining the other ends to the stone platform.
I was laid out like a sacrificial lamb on the platform, I was beyond terrified.
“Stop!” I screamed. “Please stop!”
The priests began lighting more candles around the platform.
One of them dipped a brush into dark ink and started drawing symbols across my arm.
I jerked violently against the chains. “Let me go!”
The metal restraints didn’t move and the chanting started again.
I twisted my head toward Valla.
“Please,” I said desperately almost in tears.“You’re making a mistake.”
She stepped closer to the platform and for a moment I thought she might actually listen to me.
Instead she looked down at me and smiled satisfactorily.
- Writer
