The Queen of Darkness - Signed Paperback

I could hardly believe we'd finally made it to Inahan. After pirates, monsters, and a surprise visit from Tiernan, the capital city was a wonderful sight to behold.

But even in this safe harbor there are secrets that can tear the three of us apart.

Queen Lobelia has us arrested and before I know it, I'm summoned to her throne to complete a task for her. One I can't refuse if I ever want to see my friends alive again.

There's something hidden below the castle... something the Queen doesn't want the world to see.

One
Dusk watched as Lex's blue eyes lost their luster and his gaze fell away, his head tilting to the floor in shame. His mind was reeling. What Rafael had said couldn't be true, right? Lex wasn't a noble of the de Ronja family. It wasn't possible. Lex had known from day one where Dusk had come from, and he would’ve told him. After all, Lex had claimed to be in love with him. But if Lex had hidden the truth, what else was he hiding? Was he another manipulator like Yarick? Did he actually love Dusk at all, or was it some strange ploy to use him and the crystal? Lex had told him not to use the crystal, though. Was that a lie, too? Dusk felt his head begin to throb as the endless questions stormed his brain. He didn't know what to do.
"Time to go," Rafael sneered, his silver circlet catching the torchlight. "Make your choice. Give up and your friends live. Cast a wisp of magic, and we'll kill them before you can blink."
Dusk glanced up at Tara, who shook her head vigorously at him while she fought her bonds. He thought for a brief moment before holding his hands out, wrists pressed together with his fingers curled in. He sighed heavily, letting his shoulders fall, giving a defeated nod.
Two soldiers stepped forward, forcing metal manacles around his wrists, connected by a heavy chain. Dusk didn’t resist. Not because he didn’t want to, but because he felt as if all the life had been sucked out of him suddenly. Finding out Lex had been lying to him for months and keeping secrets made him feel like a fool. It was like Yarick’s betrayal all over again. Even though he knew Lex wasn’t selling him off to a maniac, he might as well have for how hurt and betrayed Dusk felt in his heart.
“Well, this was easier than I expected,” Rafael quipped, heading towards the door, his straight, dark hair swaying as he walked. “They said you three were dangerous, but I guess that’s not the case after all.”
He went to step through the door when another soldier in a dark blue tunic raced around the corner and collided with him head-on. The pair of them crashed to the floor in a heap. There was much swearing and apologizing as they both got back to their feet. Rafael looked as if he was about to explode.
“What’s the meaning of this!?” the commander roared, throwing his arms up at his subordinate.
“Sir! It--It’s K-Kingraven!” He paused, glancing from side to side nervously. “S-she’s escaped!” the man stuttered, wincing as he delivered the message.
“You fucking fools!” Rafael pushed the man out of the way, throwing him to the ground once again before he darted around the corner and down the hall, his footsteps fading away.
The men turned about, looking at one another as if waiting for someone to give an order. When none came, they stayed where they were. Dusk kept his eyes trained on the floor. He knew better than to look the soldiers in the eyes. It was just like back at the mines. Knowing they were war criminals now, he didn’t want to take any chances of being beaten before they were most likely executed. He couldn’t imagine that the queen would allow Tara to live at the very least. The more he thought about it, the choice Rafael had given him hadn’t been much of a choice at all. It was either die now or die later. But for the moment, he couldn’t find the will to care with thoughts of Lex filling his head.
A few minutes later, the commander came back, out of breath and thoroughly annoyed. “Get these prisoners to my ship and be sure not to damage them for now.” He glanced at Dusk. “The queen wants them alive. We’ll come back for Kingraven later.”
Dusk met his gaze, confused as to why they weren’t being taken to a chopping block immediately. What could the queen possibly want with them? However, his curiosity faded quickly as they were marched out of the room, down the stairs, and out into the abandoned streets. There was still an hour or two before dawn and all the lanterns had been doused. The roads stood silent and bereft of life. Soldiers’ footsteps were the only noise as the three of them were marched southwest towards the docks at the far end of the port. It wasn’t a long journey and Dusk was too lost in his thoughts to notice much of it. Before he knew it, he was being forced up a gangplank onto a large and well-decorated ship. He didn’t get much of a chance to look around as he was ushered belowdecks and taken to a small room. Just before he was pushed inside, he saw Tara and Lex being taken to another part of the ship entirely.
Rafael turned to him with a malicious grin. “Can’t have you planning anything now, can I?” He spat on the ground in front of Dusk, a vulgar gesture from a man dressed in such rich armor. “Don’t get any funny ideas. The moment you try anything, your friends are done for. Understood?”
Dusk nodded weakly and took a step back, his hands still bound tightly in front of him, the cold metal digging into his skin. It was a familiar feeling that came with a sense of hopeless comfort.
“Good. Now stay here and keep quiet.”
Rafael slammed the door shut and Dusk heard the lock loudly click shut. The commander began barking orders and soon heavy boots came hurrying to stand just outside the door. Dusk glanced around the small room. There was nothing but an empty crate, a chamberpot, and dust strewn across the floor. The room was bereft of any decoration as if it had been an old storage closet. If his hands hadn’t been bound, he could have touched the walls with his outspread arms. Instead, he walked to the wall and leaned his back against it, sliding down to the floor and letting his head fall between his knees. It didn’t really matter where he was anymore. He knew that no matter what he did, his friends would die, and he didn’t have the will to rescue them. Not after finding out that Lex had lied to him. He felt defeated, and this time, he wasn’t sure if he was going to pull out of it.
It wasn’t long before a commotion topside signaled the ship’s departure from Greencoast Port. A moment later, it began to rock back and forth gently as it headed out into the open ocean. Dusk wasn’t sure how far Calendia was from the port, but the way the others had talked about it, he figured it couldn’t be too far. Time passed quietly as he sat on the cold floor, wondering what was coming next. More than once, he removed the dragon scale with the thought of trying to get himself out of the cabin but quickly replaced it after hearing the feet shifting outside the door. A moment later, a small peephole in the center of the door slid open, showing a set of eyes on the other side peering down at him. Dusk kept his head hung low and did his best not to move. After a few seconds, the wood flicked back into place.
It continued on like that for some time until finally, there were shouts heard above, and the boat thunked against something hard on the port side. Within moments, footsteps were coming down the hall and the door was unlocked and opened. Instead of Rafael, it was another soldier of the Sapphire Knights dressed in the same dark blue cloak. A smaller and more plain silver circlet rested on his short-cropped hair. He seemed young despite a clear air of leadership over the other knights.
“Bring him up. He’s to be taken to the tower cells,” the young man ordered to the others. “The other two are to go to the dungeon and wait there until further notice.”
One of the knights walked over and yanked Dusk up roughly by his manacles, causing him to yelp in pain.
“Be careful!” the commander cried. “Queen Lobelia wants him undamaged! See to it that he gets a meal and a washbasin. We don’t want him to offend Her Majesty’s delicate sensibilities.”
The last line seemed to come with the tiniest hint of sarcasm, but the knights nodded before leading Dusk out of the room with a little less force. The younger man followed them above but stayed on deck to shout orders at the crew that was rolling up the sails and readying the ship to stay docked.
As he was led down the gangplank, Dusk looked up as the sun crested over the western horizon. In front of him was a city made of shining white stone stained gold and pink by the sunrise. The streets were cobbled, and all the buildings had fine tile roofs, some stained white in places from the gulls perched on them. He saw a few more flying in lazy circles, crying out far above the rooftops. In the center of the city was a smooth wall made of the same white stone. Inside was a grand castle full of arches, buttresses, and swirling shapes that seemed impossible, given the rigidness of the building materials. Windows full of stained glass reflected the sunlight back, flashing as they stepped onto the dock and turned toward the city. On either side of the castle rose two massive white towers that ended in a conical turret roof covered in the same rusty brown tiles.
Dusk had never seen anything so impressive in his life. In the far reaches of his memory, there were quick flashes of the castle in Eblesal. It was nothing more than gray stone, rigid architecture, and functionality. But the Inahandrian castle was a work of art and wonder. The longer Dusk stared, the more he determined it couldn’t have been built by mundane means. The swirling stone curled into delicate vine-like patterns as if it had grown out of the ground itself instead of being constructed piece by piece. It was obvious that the castle had existed long before the fall of Alamond and the end of the dragons. It was even possible the dragons had conjured it up themselves. None of the history he’d consumed in Emerald Deep had mentioned the castle in Calendia, but he could only assume it had been constructed in a similar manner to the Crystal Gate.
“Eyes forward!” one of the guards grunted, giving Dusk a hard shove.
Dusk dropped his head back down but kept flicking upwards to catch glances at the marvel that rose up before him. The walk to the castle was longer than it looked, and with each passing footstep, the towers grew to new, seemingly impossible heights. When they finally passed through the gate surrounding the royal grounds, he could no longer see the tops of the towers without craning his neck back. Not wanting to risk another warning, he didn’t look.
The guards led him down the main path to a large white cobblestone circle surrounding a massive garden full of raised stone beds. Green stalks were already pushing up out of the soil and some of the smaller ones had burst into purple and white blooms. There were a few people milling about the grounds, some of them tending to the plants, others obviously servants, but it still seemed too early in the morning for the aristocracy to be out and about. A giant arched door with delicate iron filigree across its surface barred their way into the castle, but the soldiers leading him paid no mind. Instead, they turned him abruptly to the left and towards a smaller door hidden out of sight on the other side of a carved pillar. Once inside, the guards pulled him to a halt.
“You there,” the knight called out to a servant in a gruff voice. “Fetch food and a washbasin for this prisoner. He’ll be kept in one of the tower cells.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll bring it up right away,” the young servant bowed with a hand on her chest, her brown hair bouncing.
Without a word, Dusk was led towards an open archway that immediately became a spiral staircase. Within moments, the knights were panting under their heavy armor and cloaks. Dusk was a little better off, but his legs were still burning badly by the time they finally reached the top of the tower. The stairway came up into a circular room with four doors. Each was standing open and led into a small room that followed the curvature of the outside wall. The knights, still panting, pushed Dusk into one of them and locked the door behind him. Inside the room was a small bed, much nicer than any he’d had at any inn along his journey. On one end, there was a small fireplace with a table and chair. As he sat down on the edge of the bed, he decided it must have been a cell for aristocrats instead of everyday prisoners. He wondered why he’d been brought to such a cushy imprisonment if it could even be called that.
It wasn’t long before the door was pulled open again and two servants stepped in carrying a tray of food and the other, the same girl from before, a washbasin and a bucket of water. They glanced nervously at one another as they stood in the doorway.
“Well!” one of the knights barked. “Get on with it! He needs to eat and be presentable before the queen sees him!”
The door was slammed behind the servants and they both jumped in place, causing a bit of water to splash onto the floor. They looked at one another once more before the first took her tray of food over to the small table and began to build a fire. The other stepped up to Dusk, setting the washbasin on the floor. She eyed him suspiciously before turning her gaze to the basin to fill it with water. She pulled a cloth out of her pocket and dipped it into the water, wringing out the excess before lifting it to Dusk’s arm. She was overly cautious as she slowly began to wipe away the top layer of grime that had built up over their travel through the wilderness of Inahan.
“Thank you,” Dusk muttered. “But I can do it myself if it makes you uncomfortable.”
The girl turned her face up to meet his, fear in her green eyes. She swallowed hard before handing the cloth to him with a shaking hand. Dusk took it from her gently and began to wipe away the dirt, starting with his face. She sat back on her heels, watching him as if he would lash out at her at any moment.
Dusk pulled the cloth away from his face, dipped it back into the water, and wrung it out. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said softly. “What’s your name?”
“No,” the other near the fireplace hissed suddenly, staring at them both. “Don’t talk to him, Priscilla!”
“Priscilla… that’s a pretty name.” He kept his voice gentle and even, as he wiped his face down again. Reaching down to rinse out the cloth, he continued, “I’m sorry you had to carry this all the way up here. I don’t like to be a bother to other people.”
“It-it’s fine… sir,” she replied meekly.
“Are you forced to be here?” he asked, looking down at her wrists for signs of scars.
“N-no, sir.”
“I’m glad to hear it. I used to be a slave, you know,” Dusk continued as he scrubbed, not sure why he felt the need to talk. “I guess I still am technically. I worked in a mine, not in a big place like this.” He focused on the underside of his forearm, pulling away the layer of dirt that covered his faded tattoo. “Can you believe I fell in love with my owner? How stupid, right.” He wasn’t even talking to the girl anymore. He was just letting thoughts spill out of him. “I didn’t know he was, but I should have. He wouldn’t tell me who he was… and we’ve been traveling together for months.” He felt tears threatening at the corners of his eyes. “He saw others lie to me and betray me, but he... he never said anything. Never told me the truth.”
Dusk looked up to see the girl staring at him, wide-eyed with a hint of pity buried deep in her expression.
“But that’s just my luck,” he sighed, turning back to his arm. “I should have known better from the very beginning. A slave doesn’t get a happily ever after, especially one on the run from maniacs, slave drivers, and apparently the nobility as well.” He glanced up once more, seeing the girl’s expression shift at his mention of the queen. “You want to know the worst part?” There was no answer. “Even after all this time of him lying to me, I still love him. Talk about stupid…”
A small, calloused hand came to rest atop his. A single tear ran down his cheek as he looked up at her.
“I’m so lost,” his voice quivered.
“Alright, time for you two to go!” the other knight barked as he threw the door open.
The servant girl gave Dusk one last pitiful glance before she slipped out of the room with her companion. The door was slammed shut again, and he was left with the cloth still in hand. Dropping it into the basin, he leaned back on the bed, resting his bound arms on his chest. The warmth of the fire felt good, but his thoughts were far away from his current surroundings. As he wiped away another tear, he wondered what was coming next and if he’d just been served his last meal without his knowing.