Page 124 of To Kill a King

The officer jerked them from his belt and cursed as they clattered to the ground. Biting his lips, he picked them up and set the jangling latchkeys in her hands.

She stared at the iron lock. “Which one opens this door?”

The guards’ faces went pale. “This one, Your Majesty?”

Aliya fixed him with a hard glare to mask the churning in her gut. “Did I stutter, Warden?”

With a trembling hand, the guard selected one key and held it up. Excellent. Though based on their reaction, maybe it was best to wait to open it until she determined what a shadow dragon was.

“Unlock the other doors in this wing.”

The man blinked at her.

“Now, Warden.”

“But Your Majesty. The prisoners.”

“Do you think the two of you and I can’t handle,” she glanced behind her, counting, “five convicts on our own?”

“Of course not, Your Majesty.” The officer reclaimed the keys and went down the hallway, unlocking each of the doors as he sent inscrutable glances her way over his shoulder. “Shall we escort them up to The Chamber for you?”

Aliya repressed a shudder.

“Your Majesty?” They both studied her with keen eyes.

Valek. She shouldn’t have reacted to their offer like she had. She wasn’t as skilled an actress as she’d hoped. She had to salvage this, or they’d all be dead.

“One moment.” She dragged the prisoner closest to her out of his cell and threw him against the wall. She drew back her fist to punch the unfortunate man in the gut but froze when she looked into his sunken eyes.

She couldn’t add to his suffering.

And the warden doubtless noticed her hesitation. The game was up.

Aliya turned to the two guards, now with their hands on their blades for a quick draw. She pulled a small kernel of magic and conjured a screen of fire behind them. The officers screamed and jumped forward. The whites of their eyes stood out in the dim lighting.

She tugged on another thread of power and lit a fireball over her hand. “No, no, gentlemen. None of that today. Go ahead and drop those swords on the ground for me.”

The two weapons clanked at her feet. She nodded toward the open cell. “Inside, please.”

“Who are you?” the younger one asked as they crossed the threshold.

She grabbed the lock, melted it and sealed the door closed. They would escape eventually, when the next shift found them.

Glaring at the two wardens behind the bars of the door, she hissed, “Throw the keys out here.”

The older one cursed at her.

She threw a fireball at him.

He screamed, the two of them slapping his arm until the flames went out. “Fire in a cell? With all this straw around?”

She glanced at the moldy, rotten floor covering. “That won’t make decent kindling. I’d worry more about angering me than a bit of sparks in wet hay.” She conjured a larger fireball. “Now, keys, please.”

The ring of keys flew through the bars to land at her feet.

Aliya picked them up and turned to the prisoner she’d freed, cowering against the wall. “Can you use a sword?”

He stared at her with round eyes, frozen.