Kapitel 21: Betrayal
Celeste
Rough hands shoved Celeste down the narrow stone corridor, flickering torchlight casting wild shadows that danced mockingly against the damp walls. Fear's icy grip squeezed her racing heart as she staggered ahead. She glimpsed Caspian's imposing frame two paces behind, similarly flanked by armed guards. His face was carved from indifferent stone despite the venomous glares boring into his broad back.
How had Malachor found them. Had she been foolish to trust an assassin? She cursed her confidence in discerning allies from enemies. And now they would both pay the price for plotting ill against the dangerous Queen Oriana.
The rough-hewn passage opened suddenly into Oriana's cavernous throne room with its elaborate gilded boxes housing the noble elite. Skulls of those who had crossed the volatile queen lined the walls in silent warning.
Oriana sprawled leisurely upon her ebony throne inlaid with veins of blood-red rubies. The queen's ravishing beauty and youth belied her centuries of cunning rule. Oriana's scarlet smile held no warmth as they were forced to their knees on the icy floor before her.
"My dear Celestria," Oriana purred, poison in honeyed tones. "Imagine my surprise when my loyal watcher informed me he had uncovered your secret scheming against my crown."
"Whatever claims the Commander has made your highness are utter lies!" Celeste kept her voice steady through sheer force of will. If only she could reach the secret inner pocket of her cloak where a final weapon lay.
Oriana laughed, high and brittle. "And yet Fortune favored me with proof of your deceit before irreparable damage was done." The smile dropped from her face as she motioned to a guard in the back. "Bring her," she commanded.
A moment later, Melonie was pulled to stand in front of the dais, her spindly frame trembling as she darted an anxious glance at Caspian before studying the stones in front of her feet again.
"Tell us, my pet," Oriana purred to the terrified girl, her melodious tone belying the malice glinting in her emerald eyes. "What exactly did you see these two traitors doing?"
Melonie stood silently as all in the throne room watched her, the courtiers' jewels and silks rustling softly in sinister anticipation.
"Speak!" Malachor demanded next to her, his scarred face twisted in a menacing scowl.
The girl flinched as if struck and stammered out her meek reply, voice barely above a whisper.
"I-I saw them put something in your f-favorite goblet, my Queen. I was polishing the cup when they came."
Oriana leaned forward, a cruel smile playing about her ruby lips. "And what exactly was put in my cup, little mouse? Be specific now."
Melonie swallowed convulsively, darting nervous glances between Oriana and Caspian.
"It was a purple liquid, your Grace. Lord Caspian took a vial from the lady's cloak and tapped some into the glass." She pointed a trembling finger at Celeste. "Then they left quickly when guards approached. He threatened me to keep me silent, b-b-but, Commander Malachor bid me tell you."
Murmured outrage rippled around the room at this damning news. Oriana's gaze lingered on the cowering servant for a moment more before slowly sliding over to where Caspian and I waited on our knees in front of her. She snapped long, elegant fingers and another liveried attendant came forward hastily, Celeste's glittering goblet held carefully with both white-gloved hands as if bearing a deadly viper.
Oriana grasped the jeweled stem and brought the chalice under her nose, sniffing delicately. Her delicate upturned nose wrinkled in dismay.
"Tell me, Caspian," she continued, sharpened malice glinting stronger behind her steady voice as she turned towards her kneeling assassin. "How ever did you obtain access to such a rare and lethal poison, I wonder...unless the Fae wench assisted your plot?"
Caspian lifted his hooded emerald eyes to meet Oriana's probing stare while I sought wildly within their depths for some hint of his intended strategy. But his handsome face remained smooth and untroubled as polished onyx.
"In pursuit of protecting your sovereign interests, I employed any means necessary, Highness," he intoned, his tone respectful. Though still kneeling, his posture was relaxed and confident, showing none of Melonie's quivering fear. "The woman believed I reciprocated her...romantic intentions during her espionage. But gaining her misplaced trust merely granted me greater opportunity to uncover the depths of Fae sabotage and infiltration you have long suspected within court."
The rings on Oriana's graceful hand flashed blood-red as she waved away his explanation impatiently.
"Yes, yes, of course, my darling. Well done on smoking out the viper." Her cutting glare turned back to me, sending prickling dread down my spine that surely betrayed my best try at a calm façade.
"The only question remaining is how painfully we shall end this treacherous spy for her impudence." Oriana's gaze grew distant even as her bloodthirsty smile widened. Behind me, the assembled courtiers shifted in thrilled anticipation like jackals surrounding wounded prey.
I swayed where I knelt on the unforgiving stones, the guard's bruising grip the only anchor remaining as my hopes cratered violently. Though it cost me all my strength, I kept my breathing even through pure force of will. I continued to search Caspian's face intently for any flicker indicating his professed affection over the past months hadn't all been carefully orchestrated lies designed by the spymaster himself to set this lethal trap for me.
Could our shared whispers, moonlit caresses, joined dreams for a free realm existing beyond oppression and fear have merely been games to him? Ice crystallized within my chest under his silent stare, colder even than the ruthless queen now debating how I might be slowly, agonizingly executed.
"She may yet prove useful, my Queen," Caspian spoke suddenly into the eerie pause where only my ragged breathing had echoed a moment before.
Wary interest flickered in Oriana's eyes while my lungs constricted anew. Next to me, I noticed Caspian's fists tighten ever so slightly where they rested upon his thighs.
"You propose, my deadly pet?" Oriana drawled at length, venomously sweet.
My furtive glance caught Caspian's throat working before he answered, all his attention focused on the deadly woman before him.
"With respect, Highness, this spy likely holds intelligence from the Council of Fae Elders which may aid your campaign against them."
He finally lifted his eyes to me, their fluttering darkness failing to reveal whether cold calculation or regret moved him now. Could he have a plan or was he truly betraying me? Could I have been so completely taken in?
"If she can be...persuaded...to share such, you may gain vital momentum seizing the lands from those who have stolen them from you."
The chill in my chest fused into cold fury as Caspian's pretty words of wartime strategy hung in the air between us, masking the true meaning behind "persuasion" in Oriana's hands.
Did he not realize what brutal torments my body and psyche would suffer attempting to extract Fae secrets I would never willingly betray? Or did he simply not care if I lived or died by Oriana's spiteful hand? Being executed outright would have been a kinder fate.
Oriana reclined against the vulpine furs bedecking her throne, tapping one blood-tipped nail against her chin while mulling Caspian's counsel.
"You pose an intriguing suggestion," she finally allowed. "I shall consider how we may apply...pressure on our guest to share her insights into current weaknesses among the Elders."
She flicked her fingers and the guards wrenched Celeste up. "Locate appropriate guest accommodations for the little Fae spy while I contemplate exactly what will be done with her."
Armored hands clamped harder as Celeste thrashed against their steel grip.
"You vowed we would build a free world together!" Though I knew my accusation resounded hollowly through the vaulted chamber, it ripped free from my soul. "Was it all lies between us?"
Caspian's shoulders tensed almost imperceptibly at my raw cry, but he kept his head bowed, refusing to meet my burning eyes even now.
"You plot against monsters yet are the greatest one here," I spat bitterly toward him before the guards could silence me.
Hints of uncertainty wavered along Oriana's lovely brow hearing my cries. But Caspian remained motionless as a statue under my verbal lashing.
The queen flicked an impatient wrist. "Remove her before she spoils my appetite."
Rage melted abruptly into panicked despair as guards dragged me away. Still, I searched desperately for some crack within the icy resolve shielding Caspian's heart. But his eyes stayed hardened emerald shards as my struggling form disappeared down the gloomy corridor.
Clanging metal indicated the dungeon gate where I would be entombed amongst the broken souls and shattered bones of those who defied the queen's despotic rule. Rough stones tore my gown as the guards fastened cruel iron shackles about my wrists ensuring I could use no Fae magic to help in an escape.
Their job done, the silent guards let the heavy door crash shut and the key turned in the lock with a loud snick. Left alone in musty darkness with only spiders and ghosts of the dead, I succumbed to despair weeping for my doomed dreams turned to ash by Caspian's ruthless duplicity. Had it all been for nought then? Every whisper, every caress, every secret hope shared under moonlight's ephemeral glow?
Exhausted fury finally dried my tears as I sank into fetid straw. Gathering my courage around me again, I vowed not to surrender whatever secrets Caspian and his viperous queen sought to mercilessly extract. I was Fae, and a warrior. The would not break me. I would wrap my suffering closely until the chance for vengeance finally, inexorably came. Oriana's last waking sight would be of her own blood spilling beneath my blade next to the man who had betrayed me.
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