Realm Drifter: Cruel King

~Chapter Thirty-Three~

I could feel my arms shaking, anger rising as stepped closer. 

"Orders from whom?" I spat, fury now coating every fibre of my being. 

A thumping came at the door. The guards have arrived. We were out of time. 

"No!" I screamed as Nila sprinted towards the balcony, smashing through the glass and wood with incredible strength. 

The guards immediately slammed open the door, glancing at me and towards the balcony. Just in time to see Nila jump off the edge. 

She was gone. 

~

 I was being interrogated. 

"Who was that?" Mother Edna shouted as she slammed her hand onto the hard wooden table creating a harsh bang. 

I was brought into a darkened, windowless room, two candles dimly lighting the room, just enough to see each other, but not enough to see the walls. 

Once I had been brought it, I was strapped in, my hands bound with leather to the centre of the table, where a thick wooden beam rose and spread into a 'T' shape. 

"As I said, I don't know. She claimed she was a maid." My answers were blunt and informationless. 

"Voices were heard! Who was she?- Where you trying to escape? Tell me now!" She demanded, her heavy frame hunched over the table as she interrogated me. 

"I told her I didn't need my room cleaned and she ignored me."

"You didn't have a maid assigned to your room at that time!" 

"I was locked in my room, how was I meant to know that?"

"There were voices arguing. A maid walking by heard it and reported it."

"She was cleaning and I wanted to be left alone. We argued." All my answers were blunt, the same person who trained me to fight, to sneak, steal, and to lie, was the same person I was now being interrogated for. 

How had things come to this?

If you don't tell me the truth you'll be punished, 30 lashes to the feet and hands." She threatened, but she held nothing over me but more torture, and I had already dealt with the worst they could inflict. 

"I said; She claimed she was a maid. I invited her in. She started cleaning. What else can I tell you?" I sighed, rolling my eyes before blowing a piece of hair out of my face." 

"If you are to be a future Queen, you will act as such. If you do not submit I will be forced to bring in the cane." She was angry, spit flying out of her mouth as she shouted, spit landing beneath my eye. 

I grunted in disgusted, unable to move my hands to move it away. 

"Do it." I snarled in anger, "I've been through worse." 

"One last time. Tell me what she was doing in your room. One doesn't run if they have no reason to run." Her lip curled; eyebrows scrunched as she glared furiously down at me. Her words coated in fury as she shook in frustration. 

"She wanted air."

"That is it- Guards!" She hollered, "Get the King." 

The minor victory fueled my ego as I sat up straighter, my lip curling into a keen smirk as I tilted my head up at her. My eyes swimming in mischief. 

"Just you wait." 

This sparked me as odd, my cockiness simmering as I attempted to read her body language. What could the King do? Starve me, beat me, trap me, force me to kill people. 

What else could they throw at me? 

~