“No, we do not,” En’shea said coldly as Shi’chen struggled to get up from the floor with his hands still trapped behind him. Hi’jan planted his foot on Shi’chen’s shoulder and pushed him back down to the floor again.
“What happened to our Father?” A’bbni asked, painfully aware that his voice cracked on the question.
“He found out too late that he should not have drunk the wine at the Imperial Senate meeting,” En’shea said through that cold smile. “They all did.”
“The… the entire Senate?” A’bbni gasped, feeling his heart sink in his chest, and several tears that he could not hold back wet his dark lashes. Their Father and the six specially-chosen members of the Imperial Senate, representing the various areas of economy in Hanenea’a, made up the governing body of the goblin continent, with the Emperor, or in this case, the Regent, being the final say in all decisions. At least, until En’shea reached the majority age of 20, when he would assume the role of Emperor.
“We are sure you will tell us all about it.” En’shea said before motioning his hand in a dismissive wave. “Take them to The Keep.”
The guards pulled A’bbni up from his knees while another pair of guards wrested Shi’chen from the floor. The guards gave them a shove, and A’bbni almost tripped as they started walking, glancing behind him to ensure that Shi’chen was also there, though he could barely see through the tears that started to spill down his face. The guards marched them down the hallway of their private wing to the main stairs, barely preventing them from falling down them.
Servants and other guards turned as they were walked past, eyes clouded. A few gasped and put their hands to their mouths, but no one moved to help them. A’bbni could not blame them for it. He noticed with a sinking feeling in his stomach that none of the servants were ones that directly attended the twins or the Regent. “Sovereignty,” he said, trying to turn in his cousin’s direction. “What have you done with our servants?” En’shea ignored the question, and A’bbni was rewarded for his inquiry with a shove that tripped him and sent him heavily to his knees on the stone floor, feeling his teeth clack together at the impact.
Shi’chen reflexively tried to move to help his twin, but the guards had their hands on him and jerked him back sharply. “Get your hands off of him!” he snarled, giving another surge under their grip, and one of the guards grabbed him by the top of his hair to still him.
“You will remain silent unless you wish to confess your guilt,” Hi’jan said from where he followed behind them, walking protectively in front of En’shea like something might happen to the young Emperor.
“I have nothing to say to you, Hin-Ve’ssa,” Shi’chen snapped. Hi’jan just laughed.
“I’m all right, Shi’chen,” A’bbni said softly over his shoulder as he got to his feet, the guards at least levering him up a little so he could get his balance again.
They exited the palace through one of the arched doorways, the low sunlight casting long shadows over the stone courtyard. The Keep was a circular tower in the far back corner of the outer edge of the wall that surrounded the palace grounds. The only visible door leading into it was in the courtyard of the palace. It was five stories tall, the tallest building in Er’hadin. It towered above the palace, often casting its long shadow over the entire area. But the most stunning part of it was its location. The Keep was built at the very edge of a stone cliff that fell a thousand feet into a desert canyon – referred to as the Red Canyon – that stretched for several miles in both directions. This made The Keep almost impossible to breach from that side, so it often was used as a stronghold for the Emperor and royal family in the event of conflict. It also could serve as a prison for important political prisoners or prisoners of war, as they would not easily be rescued, with any attack having to go through the palace grounds to reach it. Small windows offered options for archers to fortify it, but otherwise, it was an imposing structure of solid stones.
The only other opening on The Keep was at the back, looking out over the canyon. A large space had been cleared from the stone wall, almost at the top, so that looking out from it, one only saw the sky. Approaching the edge, the stone underfoot was worn smooth at a sharp angle, pointed toward the open wall. When it had been built, this room had been used as a courtroom for those accused of the most heinous crimes. Upon conviction, the condemned would be taken to the edge, referred to as Traitor’s Ledge, and thrown off it, to drop the thousand feet into the canyon below, which was often sardonically referred to by the guards as Traitor’s Landing. As such, rather than being cremated in the traditional goblin funerary practice, the body was left in the canyon to decay and crumble to dust.
Traitor’s Ledge had not been used in the twins’ lifetime; the last they knew, it had been under the reign of their Uncle before En’shea was born, for a convicted murderer brought to the imperial city for sentencing. After the abolishment of slavery, anyone condemned to death had to be condemned by the Emperor. Since then, death sentences had fallen out of fashion, and prisoners convicted of violent crimes were instead condemned to hard labor in the mines or quarries.
The guards shoved them through the single heavy door that led inside The Keep, then up a flight of stone stairs that circled through the tower. A’bbni had no idea how high up they were, as there were very few windows in the stone stairwells, but he estimated it was only the second or third story when the guards went through another heavy, wooden door into a longer corridor lined with several other doors. One of the guards at the front of the group moved to one and pushed it open into a small room. There was a single slitted window on one wall, with a wooden table in the middle of the room and torches flickering in sconces for light, but it was otherwise bare.
Three sets of metal stocks were attached to the wall opposite the window, and the guards pushed them roughly towards them. Shi’chen jerked, trying to get the hands off him, but Hi’jan jabbed his sword into Shi’chen’s side, and Shi’chen stilled, fire in his eyes. If looks could kill, A’bbni did not doubt that Hi’jan would have been nothing but a smoldering pile of ash on the floor.
The guards untied their hands, then pushed their arms up over their heads to cuff them to the wall. A’bbni was oddly grateful the stocks were not any higher, or they would be on their toes. He winced as the metal cuff caught his wrist and locked tight. Shi’chen let out a growl and gave a cursory struggle against the guards as two of them wrestled his arms above his head and locked them in place. Then, satisfied that the twins were not going anywhere, the guards stepped back.
En’shea leaned back against the edge of the wooden table, his hands still tucked into the long sleeves of his imperial robe. Hi’jan stood next to him, looking much too comfortable at the Emperor’s side as he gave Shi’chen a smug grin.
“Now,” En’shea said, as if they were all settled in for a pleasant dinner conversation. “We have questions for you. Are you ready to tell us what you know? Or do we have to work on loosening your tongues?”
A’bbni flinched and tugged at his restraints. “We know nothing of what happened, Your Sovereignty,” he said, trying to keep his voice from wavering.
“Your Father was the head of the rebellion,” En’shea said coolly. “Of course you know.”
“We do not!” Shi’chen insisted, glancing over at A’bbni then back to the crown prince.
“Mm. Well, we will tell you what we know, and then you can fill in the gaps for us,” En’shea said. “Your Father convinced several Senators, and some members of the merchant-nobility, to depose us and install one of you two on the throne instead.”
A’bbni felt his ears droop backward as he realized the gravity of what the Emperor was describing. “We knew nothing of this, Sovereignty,” he said, and Shi’chen’s denial echoed his own.
En’shea laughed and shook his head. “You expect us to believe that you had no idea your Father, the Regent, was planning to overthrow our succession? What sort of fool do you take us for?”
Several choice words came to his mind, but A’bbni kept his mouth closed, and he was thankful that Shi’chen did the same. “You poisoned the entire Senate, even those not opposed to you?” he asked instead.
En’shea ignored the question. “We shall eventually discover all your traitorous associates. You may be able to avoid unnecessary bloodshed if you tell us who they are and what they were planning.”
“We told you. We know nothing about this,” Shi’chen hissed.
En’shea glanced between them, then turned toward the door. “Perhaps we are not making ourselves clear. Bring it in.”
A guard entered with a canvas bag held gingerly in his hands. The bottom of the bag was soaked with blood, and A’bbni felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, sure he already knew what it was. “No…”
