‘Look at this!’ a voice laughed in the dimly lit corridor. ‘You’re not so tough now that my grandfather isn’t looking after you, are you?

‘Shut up, George. Lewis heard Emily groan from the other side of the stone wall.

Standing up from the rickety wooden bed, Lewis walked over to the bars of his cell, leaning against them as he tried to see who Emily was talking to. If he pushed his face against the iron bars, he could just about see the person she had called George.

From what Lewis could see in the bad light, George had dark hair and looked to be about the same age as him and Emily. The thing that drew his attention, though, was what he was wearing. Underneath a thick blue cloak, Lewis could see a neat black shirt that was trimmed with gold.

‘Shouldn’t you be trailing around after your father?’ Emily snapped from somewhere out of sight.

‘That’s King Vandemark to you now, filthy commoner!’ George shouted, disappearing momentarily as he lunged at the bars of Emily’s cell.

With a shout, he jumped backwards into the middle of the corridor, holding his arm. ‘Don’t come near me!’ Emily shouted.

‘The sooner they execute you, the better,’ George said. ‘What are you looking at, Hargrove?’ he demanded when he saw Lewis watching the scene through the bars of his cell.

‘I’d rather they execute me now than have to be around your pathetic hide,’ Emily spat.

Despite the rough cart ride back to Tristan that had taken all night and the week of living off scraps in the castle jail, she seemed to still have some fight in her. It had been three days after their imprisonment that a man named Edmund had come down to the jail.

Lewis had been sitting on the uncomfortable wooden bed when he heard Edmund tell Emily that she would be facing trial for high treason in a few days. From what he had been able to hear of the conversation, he had managed to pick up on the fact that she hadn’t been supposed to have a trial. Somehow, he convinced them to hold one.

‘Lewis?’ a tired voice asked from the darkness of the cell opposite him. Looking away from the shouting match that had started between George and Emily, he saw an elderly man clinging on to one of the bars of his cell. In the dim light, he could see a whole collection of cuts and bruises on his face.

‘Charles? Is that you?’

‘Afraid so,’ he replied, glancing at George to make sure he hadn’t noticed. ‘How did you end up in here?’

‘Sebastian gave Emily a letter for you,’ Lewis said. ‘After I found out you had been dragged out of the bakery by guards, we tried to get to Uncle Samuel in The Green Valley. I thought he might know something about it.’

‘What happened to the bakery? Is Maria alright?’ He asked desperately. ‘They won’t tell me anything.’

‘Maria’s alright as far as I know; I sent her to stay with Uncle Samuel,’ Lewis said. She had been okay the last time that he had seen her anyway. ‘They burned the bakery to the ground after they took you through. I think they were trying to cover up your disappearance, but they didn’t realise Maria was there as well.’

‘As long as Maria is alright,’ Charles said. ‘We can rebuild the bakery if I get out of here.’

‘Do you know why Sebastian would have written to you?’ Lewis asked, remembering that Commander Redmond had burned the letter in front of them when he had found it. Charles was their last hope of finding out what could have been in it. In the distance, he heard a door crash open. ‘Emily said it had the future of the kingdom in it.’

‘Your father’s death wasn’t everything it seemed to be. You need to get out of here,’ Charles said hurriedly as the footsteps drew closer.

‘What happened?’ Lewis asked quickly.

‘Your father’s death wasn’t an accident,’ Charles whispered as two hooded guards came into view. ‘He never wanted anything to do with Tristan. That’s why he moved to the forest.’

‘Hey! Break it up, you two!’ one of the hooded guards shouted as he rapped Lewis across the knuckles with a wooden cane. Taking his hands off the bars, he took a step back, out of reach of the guard.

‘Time to go,’ the other said quietly, ignoring George and Emily’s bickering as he opened the door to Charles’ cell and dragged him out into the corridor. In a slightly better light, Lewis saw the extent of his injuries. Every inch of skin that he could see through his torn clothes was either bruised or scarred.

‘What does it all mean?’ Lewis called after Charles as the guards led him away. In the darkness, he saw Charles try to turn before he heard the sound of the cane striking him.

‘They murdered him!’ Charles shouted.

Each word that he uttered earned him a strike from the cane that belonged to the guard. The sound of Charles’ cries disappeared as the door at the end of the corridor banged shut behind the guards.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

‘Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll let you see his rotting corpse before your execution,’ George said. Looking up, Lewis saw that his argument with Emily had stopped abruptly in favour of watching the guards drag away Charles.

‘George! Get out of here!’ a voice, which Lewis now recognised as Edmund’s, shouted. Looking around, Lewis saw Edmund striding down the corridor towards George.

‘Enjoy your trial,’ George said sweetly with one last glance at Emily before he turned and disappeared down the corridor, muttering something as he passed Edmund.

‘Edmund!’ Emily called when she saw him. ‘Edmund, what’s going on?’

Ignoring her call after him, Edmund kept walking until he reached Lewis’ cell. A moment later, a hooded guard appeared at his shoulder, a large ring of keys in his hand. ‘Open it,’ Edmund said quietly.

‘Are you sure?’ the guard asked nervously as he paused before turning the key.

‘Yes, he won’t do anything,’ Edmund replied, staring Lewis down intently.

When the cell door swung open, Edmund stepped inside, pushing the door shut behind him. Backing away from Edmund, Lewis felt the bed against the backs of his legs. Behind Edmund, the lock clicked shut again. There was nowhere to run.

‘Sit,’ Edmund said gently, gesturing to the bed.

Caught off guard by the tone of his voice, Lewis did as he was told, slumping down on the moth-eaten excuse for a blanket. Had Edmund come to see him just to give him his sentence?

‘You can leave us now,’ Edmund said as he turned to the guard, who still stood beside the cell door. ‘I’ll call you when I’m done here.’

‘Yes, Sir,’ the guard replied before turning on his heel and disappearing down the corridor.

‘You two have caused quite the stir,’ Edmund said as he turned to Lewis. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt you,’ he added as he sat down beside Lewis.

‘What’s going on?’ Lewis asked.

‘As I’m sure you know, Miss Bridwell’s trial is coming up very soon. In fact, it is scheduled for midnight,’ Edmund said quietly. ‘Both of us know that with the weight of the crown against her, she can’t win this trial. It took every favour I had just to be able to get her a trial.’

‘Why are you telling me this?’ Lewis asked. He didn’t want to think about what Emily was going to have to go through because he had caught them.

‘That is a good question,’ Edmund replied. ‘One that I can’t possibly answer here.’

‘Then why bother telling me?’ Lewis asked, growing more and more frustrated by the second.

‘There is a place called Whitecliff; I can answer that question and every other one that you must have right now there,’ Edmund said.

‘But we both know that I’m not getting out of here alive,’ Lewis said dully.

In response, Edmund reached inside his pocket, producing a glittering gold amulet. It took Lewis a moment to realise that it was the same one that Emily had been wearing when they first met.

‘Do you know what this is?’ Edmund asked as he held it out to him. ‘Go ahead, take it.’

Taking the amulet from Edmund, he felt the weight of the heavy metal in the palm of his hand. Embedded in the centre of the gold was a single, teardrop-shaped black stone surrounded by an assortment of other jewels. It was the first time he had really had the chance to see it up close. Emily had always kept it hidden.

‘This is the amulet that Sebastian gave to Emily,’ Lewis said slowly.

‘Whether he gave it to her or not, I don’t know, but yes, it is the amulet that Miss Bridwell has been wearing since she left the castle,’ Edmund said. ‘It is also known as The King’s Amulet. As you can probably guess from that, it belongs to the king, passed down from generation to generation.’

‘If you think Emily stole it, you’re wrong,’ Lewis said defensively.

‘I don’t think she stole it,’ Edmund assured him. ‘How she got it isn’t what I’m here to discuss, though. There have been strange events going on in Tristan ever since that green star appeared in the sky at the end of Harvest.

‘There is a legend called The Prophecy of Days. It is said that if the rightful heir of the kingdom is not crowned, then all manner of unspeakable creatures will be unleashed on the world. The green star is supposed to serve as a warning. We are running out of time.’

‘What does this have to do with the amulet, though?’

‘When King Vandemark used to go on public visits, he used to wear this amulet. In the case of an attempt to assassinate him, he could just press the black stone in the centre. It would enable him or anyone wearing the amulet to disappear,’ Edmund said, pushing the amulet back into Lewis’ hands when he tried to give it back.

‘You need it,’ Edmund continued. ‘Miss Bridwell’s trial is scheduled for midnight in the main courtroom, which is located two floors directly above us.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Lewis said as he looked between the amulet and Edmund.

‘When the guard comes along to collect your plate, he will forget to lock the door to your cell again. If you use the amulet correctly, you will be able to find Miss Bridwell before her trial ends,’ Edmund said.

‘But there are guards all around the castle,’ Lewis said, recalling the patrol maps that he had studied when he had been in training.

‘That’s correct. No one has ever managed to escape from the castle before. But there is one thing that none of them knew.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Located in The King’s Office, there is supposed to be a secret escape in case the castle is ever under siege. They say that the kings are able to find it because they spend every day staring at it.’

‘How do I get to the office, though?’ Lewis asked, noticing a huge flaw in Edmund’s plan. ‘I have no idea about the castle layout; it could take hours to find it.’

‘Miss Bridwell will know where to go,’ he said confidently.

‘How am I meant to get her out of the middle of a courtroom, though? If she suddenly disappears, someone is bound to notice,’ Lewis said as he looked at the amulet.

‘When they realise that your cell is empty, there will be chaos. As long as you are quick, you should be able to disappear without them noticing,’ Edmund said.

‘And if we aren’t quick enough?’

‘It’s probably best not to think about that too much,’ Edmund said as he got to his feet. ‘You’ll want to hide that as well.’

Nodding, Lewis put the gold chain around his neck, tucking the amulet down the front of his shirt. Making sure that the chain was hidden as well, he looked up at Edmund. ‘Is that alright?’

‘Perfect. Good luck,’ he replied with a nod before he turned to the cell door. ‘Guard!’

After a moment of silence, there was the faint sound of footsteps drawing closer. When the guard appeared, he produced the ring of keys that he had used to open the door earlier.

‘We’re done here,’ Edmund said, bitterness in his voice. If Lewis hadn’t witnessed the conversation that he had just had with Edmund, he wouldn’t have thought anything of his tone.

Without waiting for the guard to lock the cell door again, Edmund strode off down the corridor. As he disappeared from view, Lewis heard a rush of footsteps, and Emily called after Edmund again as he passed.

‘The guards will be along soon,’ Edmund said, pausing momentarily as he addressed Emily. Without another word, his footsteps faded away, the guard hurrying to catch up with him.