Chapter 112: Chapter 112- Captive
"I lost a father and a brother. I lost my place in the castle to none other than Lilith. I am hurting just as you are," Thalia said, her tears beginning to spill down her cheeks.
Thalia thought it deeply unfair that her mother could only see what she herself had lost, as though Thalia’s grief counted for nothing at all.
Athena shook her head, in no mood for Thalia’s tears. "I did an awful job raising you if you are so eager to cry at every turn. You are so loud that if they weren’t following you before, they would hear you now."
Athena pressed her fingers to her temple, thinking of where to send Thalia. "You can’t stay here. Wait," she said, a detail arriving too late. "How did you get here? You didn’t travel alone."
"I didn’t. A castle guard helped me find you. The one Father placed at Lilith’s side to spy on her. He poisoned Lilith to get me out of the dungeon. I have been promising him a reward to keep him loyal to me," Thalia answered, though her mother’s coldness still stung her more than she wanted to show.
"I don’t trust that man," Athena said, moving towards the door with the brisk certainty of someone whose mind was already made up. "You should have known better than to travel with him."
"What was I to do? If not for him, I would still be rotting inside that dungeon. I couldn’t kill him and travel alone. I’ve never killed anyone," Thalia reminded her mother.
Athena walked to the door, wanting to confirm that the guard was still present. "We must imprison him."
"I told him that he would be rewarded-"
"You fool!" Athena exclaimed. She shook her head because Thalia was still too young to understand the weight of what she had just done. "I am not going to let anyone who stood at her side stand at ours. He could try to kill us in our sleep."
"Then why would he poison Lilith and flee the castle? It would have served him better to remain at her side. I heard the guards running through the corridors in a panic about Lilith being poisoned, so I know it was no lie. His only mistake was not killing all the doctors before she could be saved," said Thalia.
Thalia followed her mother, who didn’t slow down or look back. She found herself wondering whether it had been worth travelling so far to reach her mother, only to receive a welcome like this. She didn’t matter because she wasn’t a son.
"She could support me. She could make me the queen," Thalia thought.
Thalia kept the thought to herself, knowing exactly what the answer would be. No one would support a princess taking the throne without a man standing beside her. That was simply the way things were, and no amount of grief was going to change it.
Athena returned to the front door and found guards moving about as though searching for someone. "Where is the man who brought my daughter here?"
"He has gone missing," the butler said.
"He said he wanted to leave to cover our tracks in case we were being followed. And considering you want to imprison him, I quite understand why he left," said Thalia.
Athena stopped walking. She turned slowly and came back towards Thalia with a stillness in her face that was far more dangerous than shouting. She raised her hand and struck Thalia across the cheek without hesitation. "You were better off staying inside the dungeon rather than leading someone here to expose where we are. You should have died instead of my son."
Thalia’s hand flew to her cheek, her eyes wide.
Thalia had spent her whole life standing at her mother’s side, watching as she struck servants and issued orders. She had always told herself it was simply how things were.
"I am your child too," Thalia said, her voice breaking quietly on the words. "You are all I had left, and I came to you. I’m sorry that I am not a son for you to use, but I am still your child. None of this is my fault. You are only thinking of what you have lost, and ignoring everything I had to face."
"Bring that man back here for me to see him, and place the princess in a chamber. She is not to leave without my permission-"
"Mother!" Thalia cried.
"She is not to have any visitors without my permission," Athena said, speaking over her as though she hadn’t heard a sound. "You will stay put until I have decided how you can be of some use."
"You’re going to try to marry me off," Thalia said, realising her mother’s plot.
"You’re a princess. When your family needs you to marry for the sake of saving us, you do it. It is how you repay us for how you were spoiled growing up. Take her out of my sight. And do not let my son know that she is here," Athena said, already walking away to find the marchioness.
Thalia took a step back as guards began moving towards her. "Do not touch me. Mother! Mother!" she cried out for a woman who had already stopped listening.
The guards closed in and took hold of Thalia to stop her from running after her mother. They steered her firmly towards a chamber that would hold her until Athena decided she had a purpose again.
Meanwhile, Solomon rode hard away from the manor, trying to put distance between himself and the guards who had been sent after him. He couldn’t die before getting word of the queen’s location back to Lilith.
Whatever happened to him after that was a separate matter. This task would be completed.
Solomon glanced back over his shoulder, catching the distant sound of voices calling out his position. They were closer than he would have liked.
During the time he had spent with Thalia, he had been watching the land carefully, committing to memory every turn and cover that might one day serve as a way out.
Solomon continued, following the route he had mapped in silence and in secret, threading through the trees to shake the guards from his trail so that a message could be sent back to the castle.
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