บท 187: An Oath to Himself

The shadows were thick in the room, jittery in the single candlelight that dimly lit everything around. They lurked under the table and chair, skulking between the bed and the window and on Faith's face as she looked at him with her big coal-black eyes.

"I'm guessing you're exhausted after two days of riding, so I'll be quick," he said. "When I was very young, my parents died, and your father took me out of Sofron and handed me over to the royal barracks."

A distant owl called out into the night. To those tucked in bed, the gentle sounds caressed their ears, but to Andrew, they acted only to irritate and remind him of his wakefulness and that he was no more than a princess-pleaser for the night.

"A few weeks after I arrived at the Golden Draconian Palace, we were under siege. The lords of Sundac gathered against the Crown. I was too young to fight, so the soldiers left me inside the sleeping quarters."