He couldn't possibly know.
"You're from the Kingdom of Darkness. Aren't you? A refugee. It makes sense now, how that bitch of an arena master kept you so close, wrapped tight around her finger." My eyes widened in shock.
Morvin smiled knowingly when he confirmed his thoughts after seeing the surprise on my face.
"Don't you dare speak about Fala that way," I spat, my chest heaving up and down. He then stood up and kicked something towards me. The voices in my head immediately quietened. Coming to a dead halt.
The violin.
"Were you going to play your prince a pretty song? A shame he wouldn't be able to hear it." Morvin shared a sympathetic look. I stared at him in disgust, my frustration turning into anger. "You can't possibly believe the prince actually loves you?" I bit the inside of my cheek.No, I do not believe that. Not one bit...Whatever this was between the prince and I, it was desire... desire from the prince's side perhaps. However, my feelings were in a place I did not find safe to admit.
"I see the way you look at him, yearning. As if there would ever be a future between you two. Especially with a refugee from Duvessa? The prince isn't aware of it, is he?" Morvin was now full-blown laughing. Clutching his stomach before him, looking at me as if he had found all the answers. His men were stoned faced with that slight edge of venom biting at me. "Come now. Play me a little song before I sacrifice you." Morvin sobered his laughter into a demeaning smile.
Sacrifice?What in the world is wrong with him?
If the prince was not going to find me, I was going to find a way out myself. But… I needed to buy more time to find a way outwithoutusing that damned violin. Anything but using that. "Why are you doing this?" I asked, hoping he'd take the bait. To let him ramble on what he planned to do with me.
"Because I love rubies." He shrugged and then called the closest man to him, the one with a patch on his eye. He whispered something in his ear and the one-eyed soldier nodded.
"You have an abundance of men here. Protecting you. You can't possibly believe I can take more than ten. Do you believe me to be that strong?" I asked him instead. It was a lie of course, I was confident I could defeat more, but fifty...
"I take precaution. You Duvessan folk are very... unpredictable." Morvin raised an eyebrow at me. I was silenced at that, this means... This means that he has been around other Duvessans. A large screeching sound came from the door far behind the lord. The one-eyed soldier was back, dragging something...someone with him.Dark hair matted, skin so pale it was nearly grey. Limp as if she were a ragdoll being dragged along the floor. He threw her weak naked body against the rough stone floor just before me. She had sickeningly dark blue splotches of bruises painted on her skin. Some of the men snickered and I felt sick to my stomach. Doing my best not toimagine what they had done to this woman and what they could possibly do to me.
They will choke on their own blood before they try,a lone shadow in my mind seethed.
She whimpered quietly and laid still against the floor, her fingers twitching. "What are you doing?" I asked in alarm, moving against the bindings that scratched my skin. At the sound of my voice, the young woman's eyes rose to meet mine. I froze. Time stopped. The air frosted. My blood felt like it had solidified.
She was Duvessan. And she was alive, barely. But alive.
Morvin spoke as if he had been around more.There were more.And that had meant there were survivors. People like me... they were still out there.
I could save her. Time. I just needed time.
My head had swarmed with so many thoughts at once, so many questions and so many wonders. Feelings close to... relief.Hope
"Well, you asked why I was doing this. Better to show you since you are about to meet your maker,"
The woman, I had no idea how she was able to do it in the state she was in. But she reached for me, trying to shield me from the men that threatened us. My heart constricted for her, she was trying to protect me...Me of all people.I cringed internally, I did not deserve her protection. Not for the sins I committed.
"How sweet,"Morvin spoke lowly. "Kill her." A harsh gasp barely escaped me as the one-eyed soldier grabbed the young woman and plunged a blade into her heart. A choked scream got stuck in my throat as I watched the man toss the woman's dead body into the well. Where the fountain shone a bright luminescent red, before changing the drips of blood to a now streaming fountain of it. The moonlight that now kissed the land began to fester, causing blood rubies to encrust into thecrevices and corners of the walls. An image flashed in my head…"Extraction of Blood and Power",the book I had seen in the Lord's study earlier. My bowels had turned upside down and I felt the urge to empty out the contents in my stomach. He was using Duvessan blood to nourish his land. It was why the land was red. It was no damned blessing of the Goddess of Nature. It was the slaughtering of Duvessan lives. It started when they had all fled the land of Darkness, the timelines had all met up. I stared at the woman, whose body had turned a dark grey.
"I truly feel you are going to do well in nourishing this land. Your sacrifice is appreciated," Morvin spoke. And when I heard his voice, it wasn't the shadows that spoke cruel thoughts in my head. It wasn't the little girl in my mind that raged and screamed to be let out. My jaw clenched. My eyes glaring at the dead body that was once alive. Anger was a kind of fire I had always held close to my skin; to see how much pain I could stand before running to the water to cool off. But this time I let the anger fuel me. Coating me in something more than pain. It coated me in blissful satisfaction. "Now, play that little violin of yours. Something sweet to remember your dead friend by, something sorrowful for your own funeral, Morana."
Morvin laughed again. "Goodness, I truly was a fool for not knowing you were from Duvessa. Your name is literally the same as the Old Queen that had reigned many years ago. It's no surprise a poor Duvessan whore of a mother named you that." I breathed harshly as he continued to speak. "It's not easy to find Duvessans, there were plans to substitute them with something else to nourish our lands... but we do a good job of hunting them. I was beginning to worry we would have no one left to sacrifice after that woman there. But when I saw you... it must have been a clear message from the gods. Luck was on my side." His eyes pointedly looked at the violin. "Now play your last song. Perhaps even the pretty song you had wanted to play for your belovedprince." My body was shaking. The heat of my anger had gotten so hot that it had turned to ice. My trembling legs settled, and my shoulders had stopped shaking, becoming stiff. The one-eyed soldier came behind me to cut my binds. Some of the men around seemed to snicker and cheer. A pointed sharp end of a sword dug into the material of the back of my dress. "In case you get any violent thoughts." The one-eyed soldier said against my ear. His rancid breath enveloped me. I was beyond violent thoughts now.
"As you wish." My voice flickered with the light that illuminated in the underground prison. I gently but firmly gripped my violin and stood up. The pain had subsided, and now all I felt was intense fury. I knocked my violin up to my chin and released a breath, placing the bow into its placement. The floor seemed to almost thud in dangerous beats, the scent of magic spreading across.
I played the music then. And gave him a tune, a kind of lyrical sound he'd never forget. Something that would sound so violently melodic, that it would shatter and eat their very bones. I felt lighter, so tingly from power. The moonlight was nearly gone now. And in its place were growling shadows, shadows that did not dance this time. They were too hungry to dance, they were starving. And they needed the blood more than this land needed to sustain its growth. The pointed sword's edge was no longer against my back as I smiled wickedly into the tune.
"What have you done?" Morvin gasped out, unable to believe his very eyes. The sound of metal being drawn out rang through the air and loud shouts echoed through the stone walls.
The ground vibrated and shook with power. "Carnage," I breathed out against my violin and the shadows were pleased. They lunged for their supper that awaited.
Chapter 37
Trade a secret
Music was art.
