Legacy

Chapter 6

Chapter 1 Jamie

“You know the more you itch it, the worse it is going to be,” Moraine said, not looking up from the thread she was slowly pulling from her dress.

Jamie gave his beard one last vicious scratch before dropping his hand to the filthy hay. “I am going to rip this thing off my face if I have it for much longer.” He groaned, tilting his head back. There was nothing he could do about the month of beard growth. He didn’t dare complain when the guards were near. He was sure they had too much fun threatening to give him a close shave.

“No, you won’t. That is what you said two days ago. And the week before that.”

Jamie glared at the Queen. She held his gaze for a second before she rolled her eyes. “What—what were you going to say?”

She shook her head. “It isn’t helpful. We just have been in this cell too long.” She leaned against the wall, staring at the stone ceiling high above them. “The both of us are getting crabby. It is better if I just say nothing.” She rolled a matted lock of her red hair between her fingers before picking the knots apart.

“I am sorry to complain about my personal hygiene in a cell after a month.”

The queen scoffed. “You and I both know it’s not that. Not entirely. A good part of it is the flea bites. They are flaring up again. Mine are too,” she said, pulling up her sleeve to reveal the red, swollen bumps on her arm. “If you keep itching, you are going to make them bleed again, and then you are going to get more bites.”

Jamie looked down and saw a small bright red smear on his hand. “Too late.” He quickly rubbed the blood off on his pants and pressed the pad of his thumb against the still itchy spot on his chin. “Goddess, we need to get out of here.”

“Something will come up. We will figure a way out,” Moraine said, and not for the first time Jamie wondered who she said it for. Did she say it in the hopes that she could convince herself of the fact or because she truly believed it and wanted Jamie to believe it too?

Jamie got up and moved to the door. His knees creaked and popped as he stood. The only thing he could do was sit or lie in the same positions in damp hay. It didn’t matter how old he was. Anyone would creak and pop if left in these conditions.

“You know this room used to be a nice little hide away from the court.” The Queen sighed.

Jamie nodded. “So you’ve said.” He leaned against the wall next to the door and peered sidelong through the small window, hoping to make out which guard was on duty.

“I got a chair specially ordered from Gradatia with the softest weave and plushest goose down.” She pointed up to the empty torch brackets. “I had the option to light a few torches, but I rarely did. I liked the dark, the quiet. I didn’t have questions coming from every side…” she trailed off. “It’s far too quiet now,” she said almost wistfully.

Jamie leaned against the door, careful not to knock it in the frame. The guard on duty was a little way down the hall; it looked like he was adjusting a torch on the wall. He turned and made their way back toward the cell.

“It looks like Kane is on today,” Jamie said, quickly stepping away from the door. He paused before shifting their food tray to the small door in the wall. The cracked china rattled on the bent tray. Moraine shook her head again and sat back. “What? It can’t hurt to try. Maybe he will find it somewhere in his black heart to be generous for once.” Jamie highly doubted that based on the last few interactions, but they needed food.

Moraine scoffed at the idea, but didn’t discourage it. As Moraine had explained in one of her many stories, before she had turned this room into an office, a place for her to escape the complexities of court, it had been a cell. Chima used it to keep powerful enemies close. The former Queen had installed a small cabinet in the wall with a door both within the cell and outside in the corridor, allowing for passing food or other such items without having to access the cell. The door creaked as Jamie closed it, leaving the empty tray within.

“Are my little tower prisoners hungry? Isn’t that just so sad?” Kane chittered.

Jamie quickly moved away from the door and took his seat at the wall, as far from it as he could.

Kane stepped up to the door and smacked the top. The sound it created was loud, the door bouncing in the frame in booming thuds that echoed in the small, empty room.

Jamie startled at the noise. Kane had woken them this way more than once, sending Jamie’s heart racing in this chest. He watched the door warily. One of these times, the door is going to come off the hinges.

One of these times, the door is going to come off the hinges. “Isn’t that just too damn bad?” Kane whipped the tray out of the cabinet and launched it down the hall where it ricocheted off the wall to the sound of shattering of dishes and metal bouncing.

Moraine sighed, no doubt wondering how there could be any dishes left in the castle with the way they had been treating her things for the last month.

Kane turned back to the door and scowled down at them. Jamie became very aware of his hands laying in the hay at his sides and did his best not to move. Do I look like I am hiding something? I am just sitting here. He doesn’t think I am up to something, right? Jamie’s gaze drifted from the door. Don’t move too fast. He will think you’re scared and jumpy. Don’t move too slowly. He will be suspicious. Kane made a sort of huffing sound, as if annoyed that the two cellmates had done nothing wrong. He smacked the door once more before stepping away and continued to patrol the hall.

Do I look like I am hiding something? I am just sitting here. He doesn’t think I am up to something, right?Don’t move too fast. He will think you’re scared and jumpy. Don’t move too slowly. He will be suspicious.Jamie dug around in the pile until he found one of the remaining bits of stiff hay and dug at the dirt between the grout lines on the walls. The scratching sound on the stone made his skin crawl, but he would rather deal with that than boredom, or the questioning thoughts of his daughters. It was something he did to pass the time when he grew tired of counting the stones in the walls, but there weren’t many bits of hay he could use anymore. Most of it had gone soggy, mildewed with age. He coughed, his chest aching with the force of it. Moraine looked sad. Damn her Elven blood. He swallowed the bit of phlegm and went back to picking at the wall. The Dark Ones hadn’t given them any more hay. Why should they? They were prisoners. They don’t care about me. They just want the girls. He looked to the corner where they had piled the hay that was clearly molding. Soon they wouldn’t have anything to sleep on that hadn’t been touched by mildew. Once again, looking at the hay made Jamie think of the prisoners down below. How are they fairing? How many people had gotten sick? Are they getting food? Has anyone died? Did they hurt them after the others escaped? “Do you think they are going to move us back down there?” Jamie asked, tossing the bit of hay away.

Damn her Elven bloodThey don’t care about me. They just want the girls.How are they fairing? How many people had gotten sick? Are they getting food? Has anyone died? Did they hurt them after the others escaped?Moraine stood with a groan and moved to the door, probably to check for Kane.

Or she is stalling.

Or she is stallingShe paced the room before continuing. “If I were them, I wouldn’t allow a move until we were at the very end of our rope. I would let those below continually question and hope we were okay and then bring us down there when we are absolutely broken.”

Jamie sat back and watched the queen pace back and forth for a few moments. “You can be awfully cruel, you know that, right?”

She shrugged. “Yes, I can be. I avoid being like that. But it is smart to know what your enemy is like. You must think like your enemy to defeat them. That is how we got into this mess. Lack of knowledge, if only we had known the scope of their power.” She paused. “My sister was like that. She did the same thing when she took control from my father.” Moraine lifted her sleeve and scratched at a bite marring her pristine skin. They both stared at the small streak of red before she hid it behind her sleeve. The light blue fabric was dotted with red. “They want to use us as leverage, which is why we have gotten through this relatively unscathed. We must not have been as much of a threat as the other kingdoms before they fell.” She scoffed.

“To what purpose? Why keep us locked up?”

She stopped. “Well, you are obviously leverage for your daughters. They are going to keep you, use you as a tool. It has already happened once,” she said, pointing at the nearly healed line down the side of Jamie’s face.

He nodded, the memory of the pain of the blade slicing through his skin, and the look of panic on Shauna’s face through the black Magick portal, trying to answer the questions posed to her. The queen rubbed at a dirt spot on the back of her hand. “I don’t know why I am still alive. If the information Alexis has been bringing us is true, then I am the last Elven monarch ‘standing’,” she said, wrapping air quotes around the word. “Why not just take me out? It would make it that much harder to unite the kingdoms and the races.” She paced the room again, lost in thought.

Jamie thought about that for a moment. With all five kingdoms collapsed but not entirely under the Dark Ones’ control, all were vulnerable. They would need someone or something to unite all to succeed. “Do you think they are trying to keep you from doing that? Like, keep people from rallying behind you?”

The Elvin queen laughed, but there was no mirth in it. “Oh, my friend, you give me too much credit. I am not a good queen. I have barely held Cabineral together. I am not the one to rally behind.”

She went to the wall and peered up at the arrow slightly high on the wall. The only access to the outside world.

“Do you think my girls could do it? Maybe the Frituals together or Taytra and her Rebellion?”

Moraine looked down at Jamie, her face unreadable. “I don’t know,” she breathed.