Page 134 of Somber Prince

The crowd gasped as their prince fell to his knees. With his arms bound to his torso by the chains, he nearly lost his balance, lurching forward. With a clank, the guards yanked on the chains, keeping him in place.

A cry lodged in my throat. It closed off with pain. I gripped my neck, struggling for each breath.

Holding the sickle in her right hand, Alzali collected Rha’s incapacitated tendrils in her left. She wound them around her wrist and pulled. Rha arched back, tilting his face up. For a moment, it looked like he might see me hiding among the grass on the roof, but the distance was just too great and the light on the plaza too bright for him to spot me in the shadows.

Swinging the sickle through the air, Alzali sliced through Rha’s tendrils, cutting them off at their base. The iron clips fell to the ground from the cut-off ends.

A tortured roar shook Rha’s body.

Instead of blood, black, heavy shadows spread from the wounds on his arms and back. They trickled in rivulets down his skin and dripped like thick inkblots on the pale marble of the plaza.

I stared in horror, unable to comprehend the pain he was going through. Shadow fae’s tendrils weren’t just a physical part of them. They connected to their emotions, to their very soul. Losing them wouldn’t result in just physical pain. The torture he must be enduring was unimaginable.

Rha lurched forward, yanking the chains from the hands of three guards out of six. They scrambled to grab them and pulled to get the prince up to his feet. Half-leading him, half-dragging, they hauled him up the stairs of the platform.

Here, they unwound the chains from around him and spread his arms wide to place his wrists into the manacles of the chains from the poles.

“Poor prince.” A woman on the balcony below me sighed. “I remember him playing on this very plaza when he was little. And now, there he is, destined to die on it.”

“It’s a shame,” a man chimed in. “He would’ve been a great king. The city of Teneris has been thriving under him. It used to be such a swamp filled with low-lifes and starving beggars before he took over.”

“Honestly, death seems too harsh a punishment for losing a few Joy Vessels,” another woman said. “It’s not like he intentionally hurt them.”

“What can I say,” the man grunted, “the nobles obviously want their joy. And now that the last portal has been opened and closed, the Joy Vessels are irreplaceable.”

“Well, what’s done is done,” another man said. “The sun will be up soon. We should shutter the windows and doors.”

There were no shutters to protect Rha on the platform that was too high to stay in the shade during the day.

The prince’s execution wasn’t complete yet. His torture had just begun.

Chapter Thirty-Five

DAWN

Doors were slamming closed all around the plaza. There was no ceiling or shutters over it. The plaza remained exposed to the heat and storms of the day. All doors and windows facing it had to be secured and shuttered.

The moment the people on the balcony below me left, I climbed down to it, then looked for a way to get to the ground. Knocking on the door and asking to use the stairs was out of the question. I didn’t escape the sarai to be put right back in there now. Instead, I climbed over the railing, then down to the balcony below, using the vines and the pillars supporting them.

Once I made it all the way down to the plaza, I hid in the shadows of the vines and watched.

The doors were locked; the windows shuttered. People took planters inside. Some drew thick shrouds over the gates, hedges, and archways to protect them from the sun and sand damage.

Only the prince on top of the platform remained completely unprotected. As the sky lightened over Kalmena, Rha had no cover from the rising sun.

The few guards who remained on the plaza with him hid in the shade of his platform. They propped their weapons against it and lounged on the floor, passing a bag of water between them.

Staying close to the walls, I circled the plaza to get out of the guards’ view. Scanning the windows and balconies, I made sure no one was watching me before sprinting for the platform. I reached its stairs and even jumped onto the first one, when a hand gripped my neck from behind.

“And where do you think you’re going?” A guard spun me around to face him. “A Joy Vessel?” he gasped, his mouth falling open. “What are you doing here?”

“Please,” I croaked. “I have to talk to Prince Rha.”

Rha needed to know I was here. Maybe he’d tell me what I could do to save him.

“Why?”

I decided to bet on his compassion. “I’m from his sarai. I knew him well. I want to say goodbye. Please, just a few minutes.”