“You shall have it.” The crown prince nodded. “Do not be afraid, Vhalla. I will not let them kill you.” He made two dangerous promises in two breaths. Yet something in his voice told her he was ready to go to great lengths to keep both. Aldrik squeezed her hand gently. “I should return. The break for lunch will be over soon, and after my testimony I am sure they will want me accounted for.”
She gripped his hand as though her life depended on it, feeling tears protest his departure. He stopped all movement. Even after his confessions, after the anger, after all she’d been though, he remained. Aldrik, her prince—good or evil—remained with her. They both stared, waiting for the other to make the first move. Vhalla would have given anything for time to stop.
“Please don’t go,” she whispered faintly. “I don’t want to face their verdict alone.” Her shoulders trembled, and she struggled to keep the tears contained. As the time ticked down Vhalla realized, with earth-shaking horror, the notion of dying terrified her.
“Vhalla...” he breathed faintly. “You are never alone. I will be there.” He took her palm and placed it on his hip, his body was even warmer than his hands. “Never forget, we are Bound.”
Vhalla remembered that dark and ugly spot from the day in the garden. She looked at where her hand now rested on the prince’s side.
“We will face it together.” His tone was sincere and serious. She looked for reassurance, and he lavished it upon her with only his eyes. One more time, Vhalla let herself shamelessly fall into those dark depths, before he rose to leave.
IF CRAIG AND Daniel had heard anything, they made no indication when she met them shortly after. They also had the decency not to comment on her eyes being red and puffy. Vhalla replayed the surreal conversation in her head as she followed the guards.
The prince was ever an enigma.
He had said he was her friend. Vhalla wondered exactly how he had been taught the meaning of friendship. The lines of truth and lies were blurred with him and her life hadn’t exactly improved since he had entered it.
She resumed her seat by the door after Craig and Daniel locked her back in. Aldrik, she thought, not daring to say his name aloud. No matter what had happened, she couldn’t find it in her to regret meeting the dark prince.
“Friends, huh...” she breathed, remembering how he held her beneath the stars. Vhalla opened her eyes before her mind betrayed her.
The door at the end of the hall banged open. Vhalla heard the scampering of small feet and turned. A servant boy dressed in a dull gray tunic came running. “The prisoner is requested.”
Craig and Daniel exchanged a look before turning to her. Vhalla nodded and stood; it was time. They unlocked the door and she walked unshackled to the courtroom. No matter what happened, she found relief knowing this was the last time she would make this walk. The door opened before her, and Vhalla plunged herself into the light, squinting as her eyes adjusted to the late afternoon sun.
The Senate was there and seated. Some stared at her in anger, others regarded her with calm. Vhalla tried to determine if the senators who had called for her death looked angry or happy. She couldn’t decide. Egmun sat in the center, and he stared at her queerly. His eyes made her uncomfortable. Vhalla’s skin crawled, and she looked away.
The royal family sat on their thrones. Prince Baldair wore a conflicted frown. The Emperor was banging his staff again, but Vhalla barely heard it as her eyes met Aldrik’s. He wore a tortured expression on his features and looked away quickly when he saw her stare. Vhalla’s stomach turned upside-down.
“Vhalla Yarl.” The Emperor stood. “After much deliberation and review of the evidence,” Vhalla noticed he glanced at his eldest son a brief moment, “this high court has come to a verdict. Head Elect?”
Egmun stood. He held out a large piece of parchment before him that he read from. “Vhalla Yarl, on this day two hundred thirty-four years after the birth of the first Solaris, you have been judged for your crimes against the people of the Great Solaris Empire.”
She shifted her weight from foot to foot, forcing her hands to stay at her sides.
“For the crime of recklessness, we have found you guilty.”
Vhalla breathed sharply through her nose.
“For the crime of endangerment, we have found you guilty.”
She clutched the sides of her burlap sack.
“For the crime of impersonation of nobility, we have found you guilty.”
Vhalla looked sideways at Baldair. Clearly he had not offered much defense for his role in that particular offense.
“For the crime of public destruction, we have found you guilty.”
She began to feel dizzy.
Egmun continued to read as they looked down upon her. “For the crime of heresy, we have found you not guilty.”
It was a start.
“For the crime of murder, we have found you not guilty.”
She gripped the bars taking a slow breath.
“For the crime of treason,” Egmun’s eyes flicked over to her a brief moment. “We have found you not guilty.”
Vhalla rested her forehead on the cool iron of her cage. She wanted to feel relieved, but something about the pain in Aldrik’s eyes cautioned her otherwise.
“To atone for your crimes it is the will of the Senate, the people, that you will be conscripted into the military to apply your abilities to the war in the North.”
Vhalla blinked. They were making her a soldier. She didn’t know anything about fighting; sending her there was a death sentence. Her eyes widened; that was the point. Either way they would win. If she succeeded they would claim the glory, or the Northerners would kill her for them.
“You are to be considered property of the Empire for the remaining duration of the war and will be deployed to the front in one week’s time,” Egmun continued.
“I don’t know anything about combat,” she said meekly.
The Head Elect looked at her slowly. “We have been assured your powers are special, beyond compare. If that is the case, I am sure you will learn quickly,” Egmun sneered at her.
Vhalla looked about frantically; Aldrik clutched his seat so hard his hands shook.
“Should you be found to disobey an Imperial Order, partake in any treasonous activities, or flee your duty, you will be put to death by the righteous flames of the leader of the Black Legion—” Egmun paused with a dark grin in her direction. “—the Crown Prince Aldrik.”
Her mouth dropped open, and she looked over frantically.
His face hadn’t changed. Vhalla turned to Prince Baldair, who glared at his brother. She turned to the other senators, but unsurprisingly there was little love there.
“This is the will of the Senate, on behalf of the people.” Egmun rolled the parchment and began to descend the risers of the Senate. His footsteps echoed like a hammer against her brain.
Vhalla felt numb; she wasn’t sentenced to death, but she might as well have been.
When Egmun was halfway to the Emperor, starting up for the Imperial Platform, she allowed herself to look at Aldrik. He shifted in his chair and for a brief moment he placed his hand on his hip. His message was clear.
No matter what, he couldn’t kill her because of the Bond.
This was an order just as dangerous to him as it was to her. She wasn’t sure if she was glad, or tortured by knowing where this placed him. If he was told to kill her and he refused, Valla had no doubt these very senators would turn it against him. Vhalla gripped the bars and barely kept in a scream. They did not know the true gravity of what they had done.
Egmun handed the parchment to the Emperor and slowly returned to his seat.
“Vhalla Yarl, before the Light of the Mother I have heard your crimes, your evidence, and the people’s will in your fate. I find this to be a fair and just punishment for the offenses you have committed against the Empire.” A servant brought a small bowl of hot wax and a large metal seal on a platter. The Emperor dripped the molten liquid onto the parchment and pressed his seal onto the paper that held her future.