I lied to the four prisoners. I do believe them. I think that they are the ones that the old lady was talking about before she turned. The question is, why would my father want these four people specifically? I can’t admit that I was wrong though. So how do I get out of this without killing them and without admitting I was wrong? I am never wrong/ They were in the temple of Darkness, it is only fair that I thought they were followers of Darkness. It is a logical mistake.
“Strider, Theon,” I call my brothers. They both turn their heads toward me as we walk up the stairs that lead back into the castle. “I think I believe them but don’t tell Amelia until I know for sure.”
“What makes you think they are telling the truth?” Strider asks.
I explain to them that the old lady said something about bringing certain people to him like he asked before she got cursed and turned. I think the people that lady was talking about are in the group of people that are currently in the dungeon.
“Then, why did you tell them that you don’t believe them?” Theon asks.
“In case there is a slight chance that they are lying.”
“And how will you know when to tell them that you believe them exactly?” Strider asks.
“I’m not sure. We will get there when we get there.”
Strider looks like he is going to give his usual logical argument but then shuts his lips. It scared me that the smartest of the three of us doesn’t like my plan but I am the queen after all and they kinda have to listen to me. It’s part of their jobs.
We are in silence for the majority of the walk as we seek out Amelia. We find her in the throne room again, talking to Hammonet. She is kindly reminding him that it was not okay to interrupt me. I feel bad for yelling at him but I couldn’t show the prisoners that I was weak in case they were going to take advantage of that.
When my brothers and I get close enough to Amelia, my brothers bow and I nod to her to show her my respect.
“So, did you get any information out of them?” Amelia asks. Panic starts to exude into her voice as if this will determine how the rest of her life is going to be.
“No, Your Highness. We are going to give them some time to think about what they are going to say to us next. We will not leave until we get the answer. For now, we are putting fear into their minds so that it may be easier for us,” Strider says. He’s careful not to look at me. I know he doesn’t want to give away that I might think that our prisoners are innocent.
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Then something hits me. “Amelia, may I suggest something?” Amelia waves her hand in permission to let me speak. “We know that Darkness gives his followers four weeks to succeed in the task he set them out to do. If the prisoners claim that they are innocent, why don’t we give them four weeks to prove that? We could let them out of prison but they will always be by a head guard or one of my brothers or I. In case they turn, we can give your higher guards Glints so that they can defend themselves if the need to. If they do turn, that means Darkness will be there. We could capture him and force him to balance out with Light again.”
My only problem is, I don’t know how to balance them out. And that’s a big problem. I have never had to do that before. What if I can’t figure it out in time?
“And why not just keep them in the prison?” Amelia asks.
“Because we never know when Darkness is going to turn them. Sure we could have the guards down there but by the time we get notified and come down to the prison, Darkness would have already killed them. We could stay down there but we can’t be down there every single second and we have other places we need to be. It is the best solution I could come up with.”
Amelia looks at me wide-eyed but then quickly composes her facial expression to look more queen-like. We all stand in silence for a minute. The silence is louder the more and more it goes on. Finally, Amelia opens her mouth, Okay, I trust you. This is a war against your father and if you feel like is the best move then so be it.”
A bubbly feeling gets caught in my stomach. Relief sweeps over me and my face starts to cool down. Was it getting hot in here? I hadn’t noticed.
“Thank you, Your Highness. I can assure you that I will keep you and your kingdom safe,” I say. Bowing and turning, I head to the prison to talk to the prisoners once again.