Page 143 of Somber Prince

I rocked on the floor, hugging my knees. My mind drowned in sorrow and helplessness. Horror spread, threatening to tear me apart. Only where would I be if I broke down now? What good would that do to Rha? Or to Elaine, who was still out there somewhere, needing help?

I had to tame the chaos that consumed me from the inside. I wished so badly for some of Rha’s composure.

I slid my palms down my upper arms. Like always, I couldn’t feel the harness or the leilathas by touch. The awareness of them was much deeper, coming from within. It felt like my very being expanded beyond my body, reaching further than ever before.

A black curl of wispy magic filtered between my fingers pressed to my arm over the leilatha opening. I jerked my hand away, and the tendril solidified, growing thicker and longer.

“It’s my son’s magic you’re using,” the queen had said.

I closed my eyes, opened my mind, and…felt him.

Rha’s longing reached out to me eagerly, as if he’d been searching for me in the darkness all along. The connection snapped in place, unbreakable. I felt his worry and his exhaustion. But there was no more pain. There was hope. And it gave me strength, too, as if he were right here with me.

Terror receded, allowing me to function again. I got off the floor and used the small bathroom niche in the room. I washed my face and hands, brushed my teeth, then smoothed and braided my hair the best I could.

My mind turned to more productive thoughts. Not all was lost. Alzali had shown up at the platform for a reason. She feared that Rha would be freed before his execution was over. Her concerns might be valid. After all, Rha was a prince. He had his own army, led by the fierce and loyal General Oskura.

The general might be on her way already. Instead of melting into a puddle of panicky mess on the floor, I had to figure out how to get out of this room. Then maybe I could find a way to let Rha’s army into the city.

Hope was a wonderful thing. It sharpened my mind and gave me a burst of energy. I decided to inspect my room, so I could figure out how to get out of here, when the door suddenly opened.

Two of the queen’s guards stood on the threshold.

“Come, Sweet One,” one of them said.

I backed away from them, cautiously. “Come where?”

“Prince Rha wishes to say goodbye to you.”

That was enough for me to follow them out of the room with no arguments.

My mind reeled from a twister of questions.

“Why does he want to say goodbye? Is he leaving? Where?” I bombarded the guards as they led me down a narrow corridor with walls and a ceiling of roughly hewn rock. My room must be a cell, because this place looked very much like a dungeon cut into the rock below the city.

Worry tormented me anew.

What did they mean “to say goodbye”?

Had the queen changed his sentence from death to exile?

Or had she decided to speed up his execution? Maybe she’d learned about General Oskura moving on Kalmena and, like Alzali, decided not to risk Rha being freed?

As we crossed an underground courtyard, one of the guards finally took pity on me to answer some of my questions.

“Prince Rha is banished from Kalmena,” he said. “But he’s allowed to see you before he leaves. To say goodbye.”

Rha’s life was no longer in danger.

I was afraid to believe. Afraid to breathe in relief.

But I still had to part from him.

Hope and anguish warred in my heart as I hurried up several sets of stairs, trying to catch up with the guards’ long strides.

Eventually, we entered the front hall of the queen’s palace, and I saw him. Rha was standing by the golden entrance gate, flanked by dozens of guards on each side.

I was robbed of breath at the sight of him. He was dressed for a journey across the desert, wearing high boots, a wide silk scarf wound loosely around his neck, and a heavy satchel with provisions on his shoulder.