A ripple of unease passes through the crowd.
"So she ran into the Forbidden Forest of Astefar."
Gasps echo through the stands.
Even Rhianelle's knights feel a chill at those words. The Forbidden Forest is a place of legend and terror. Few who enter ever return.
"Not many can survive the wilderness of that cursed place," Blaire continues, her voice growing harder. "But she did. For years, the villagers hunted her like an animal. They lured her with food when she was starving, set traps. The villagers tried every cruel trick they could devise. But they could never catch her."
I have seen flashes in Rhianelle's memories. Fragments of nightmares. A small child alone and hunted, surviving in one of the most dangerous places in the known world.
"When her uncle came to visit, she would emerge from hiding," Blaire's voice cracks slightly with emotion. "Not for herself, but to protect the villagers from his wrath. She told him they were treating her well. That she was happy and safe. She lied to save the lives of people who had tried to destroy her."
Rainer has gone very still beside me. His face shows pain and the recognition of truth.
"This went on for hundreds of years," Blaire declares. "A little girl, starved and scared and alone."
More people have stopped fleeing, drawn back by her words. Some have begun to help us press against the barrier. Even the proud Aldarelfs are helping.
"Yes, Rhianelle is merely sixty-nine years old. It's true that the nine hundred years are temple years," Blaire says calmly. "But she didn't spend those years in some comfortable sanctuary of a temple. She spent them in Astefar. The Forbidden Forest. The domain of the Un."
The crowd gasps.
"The Forgotten Gods," someone whispers.
"You say she's too young," Blaire's voice rises with passion. "That she has no experience of the outside world. But she spentnine hundred years surviving in a place where the Forgotten Gods still walk. Where most cannot last even a day."
I feel the barrier beneath my hands begin to warm. More elves add their strength to ours. Dozens, then hundreds, pouring their magic into breaking the prison that holds their queen.
"One day, they finally caught her," Blaire's voice turns hard as steel. "Trapped her leg in a bear trap meant for wild boars."
My hands freeze against the barrier.
The limp.
Rhianelle's left leg. The subtle hitch in her stride that I've traced with my fingers in the dark, wondering what battle had marked her. Which enemy had dared.
It wasn't a fucking enemy.
It was a trap meant for animals, set by the people who were supposed to protect her. My vision blurs red at the edges. The beast inside me howls for blood. I press harder against the barrier, channeling rage into breaking through to her.
"And then..." she falters, fury cracking through her words. "Then they sold her."
Someone in the stands makes a sound of horror.
"The villagers shipped her, me, and other village girls to a brothel in Tiamat."
Even those who had been calling for Rhianelle's removal look horrified now.
"I starved myself before their ship sailed," Blaire continues, her voice steady despite the weight of it. "I thinned my wrists and ankles until I could slip their shackles. I stole a wild Noctral and rode it across half the continent to find her uncle."
Her gaze lifts to Rainer. "He came to her rescue. Tell them what you found."
Rainer's throat works before sound emerges.
"The villagers were already dead," he says hoarsely. "Every bone in their bodies shattered, crumpled like paper. The entire settlement burned to ash."
A tremor runs through the stands.
