15.

While a prisoner of the king, Denrich receives a visitor.

15.

 

He was thankful that the royal prison was in a tower instead of underground in a dungeon, but his cell was as bleak as a hole in the ground.    Denrich had been chained around the neck with a thick chain that attached to the wall.   He was able to lie down on the hard board that served as a bed and that was about as much movement as it allowed.   There was no window in the little cell though the reinforced wood door had a small square hole where food was pushed.

He sat in there for several hours, wondering what about his ring would cause such rage from the High King.    He had seemed about ready to kill him until he’d mentioned Mother Julia and that had slightly calmed the king.    But she hadn’t known anything about his ring.

Or had she?

The thought kept crossing his mind and he wondered if somehow he had been given a stolen ring - perhaps one that had belonged to the High King.

“It doesn’t make any sense!”  He said aloud to himself after several hours of thinking.

“Few things make sense here, love,” Came a familiar voice from the door.   He looked up but could only see the dim shadow of someone standing outside of the cell, glancing through the narrow window.

“Xael?”  He asked.

“Love, I leave you for a few hours and look at the trouble you’ve found!”

“You wouldn’t believe all that has happened to me!”  He replied, standing up, but not able to go any closer to the door due to the chain.

“Oh, I have been fully informed of your activity.   I would probably be sharing the cell with you if Reddric knew I was here, but I thought you could use a bit of comfort.”

“I certainly could use that!   When I woke up you weren’t there and I -“

“You thought you’d sneak back to the monks without saying goodbye to me.”

“No, that’s not it at all.   I didn’t know where you were!”

“I had business to attend to.   Had I known that you would do something so stupid as try to sneak out of the palace, I would have not left you by yourself.”

“I wasn’t trying to leave!”  He lied, desperate for her to believe him, “I was trying to find something to eat.”

“Love, don’t lie to me, okay?   It isn’t hard to find a servant who would have brought you breakfast.    Admit it; you were going to try to escape back to St. Wemricshire.”

Denrich hung his head, “I was going to leave you a note, but I was afraid that Reddric might think that you assisted me and get you in trouble.”

“Well, that was sweet of you, but I am offended that you’d slip out on me.    I’m not used to people trying to get away from me, Love.”

“It wasn’t you, Xael; you’ve been extremely kind to me.   It’s this place - I’m not much for cities or royal courts.”

“Obviously!” Xael laughed, her lovely voice seeming so out of place in the dark gloom, “You don’t trust me, do you?”

“Trust you?”  He hesitated.

“I understand, love.    A court w***e is looking out for herself at all times, right?”

“Xael, I don’t know much about you, so how can I trust or mistrust you?”

“A tactful answer, Sheriff, but you have heard plenty about me from all the stories, haven’t you?”

“There are a lot of stories, Xael.”

“So you probably think I left you this morning to go find another lover to seduce, don’t you?”

“I don’t know where you went.”

“No, you really don’t, Love.    Nor do you know what I’ve done this afternoon, after I found out what happened to you.”

“What did you do, then?”

“Shh!   I hear someone coming.   They’re probably bringing you dinner.   I’ve got to get out of here.   I’ll not be able to get back in here tonight, but I’ll see you soon.”

“But-“

“Trust me, Love; you really don’t have many other options left to you!  Goodbye and try to sleep well!”

With that she was gone and a few minutes later a sullen guard slid a tray of food through the window.   Denrich had to stretch to get the tray.

“When you’re done, leave it on the floor and I’ll retrieve it when I bring you breakfast tomorrow.”

“Thanks,”

“Don’t thank me, half-blood; if it had been left up to me, I’d let you starve!”   With a snort of disgust, the guard left, leaving Denrich to eat in the dark.