Daliya was starting to loathe those strategic meetings. There was nothing strategic about boasting about your latest kill count and the number of villages and towns one destroyed.

  She sat quietly, watching the general announce this week’s achievements.

  While the empire was proclaiming complete control over Ardun, its army faced great difficulty against its treacherous terrain. ‘Moving mountains and shaking earth,’ the general had argued. The Earth Shakers were treacherous and devious beings who avoided direct conflict with his army like darkness fleeing the sun.

  “Rest assured, Your Majesty, we shall end their reign of terror and liberate the eastern regions,” General Nasir insisted.

  Already a new name, Daliya mused. They sure didn’t waste any time.

  “Another thing, Your Majesty.” A proud smile pulled at his lips as he talked. “I have managed to capture a rat.”

  Daliya stilled, suddenly interested in their conversation.

  “Did you? Why haven’t I been notified of this?” The emperor said, eyebrow raised.

  “I have feared that something–” He glanced at her. Daliya raised an eyebrow in response. “Would interfere and sabotage our efforts. We found him lurking around the palace. We don’t know if he is alone or has accomplices. But we’ll find out soon enough.”

  Daliya forced herself to act normal.

  Near the palace? Could it be one of the assassins?

  “It wouldn’t be long before he starts singing.” The general gave a short, brittle laugh. “We already started the interrogation.”

  Daliya had an idea what kind of interrogation the poor man was going through. She clenched her fists. She looked at the self-satisfied look on the general’s face and knew she had to do something.

  “Your Majesty, I would like to see the prisoner.”

  The emperor looked at her, head tilted to the side.

  “For what reason?” he asked.

  “Those wretched animals have dared to attack me not once but twice—”

  Nasir snorted.

  Daliya shot him a glare. “I have as much desire to wring information about those filthy creatures as much as you do, if not more.”

  “Do you, Your Highness?”

  Daliya slapped her hand on the table. Ice sprung from the point of contact and spread along the table surface, then stretched toward the general’s throat. The tip of the ice dug into his skin, and a trickle of blood sluggishly trickled down and disappeared under the jacket’s collar.

  “I dare you,” Daliya threatened, voice calm.

  Please don’t.

  She didn’t want him to test her. Couldn’t he just keep his mouth shut? What did he have against her? He clearly had the emperor’s favor. What else did he want?

  The general’s throat moved as he swallowed. But thankfully, he didn’t say another word.

  “Enough,” the emperor’s voice reverberated in the room.

  Daliya snapped her fingers, and the ice burst into snow.

  “The general will deal with the prisoner.” The emperor leveled Daliya with a look. She opened her mouth to protest, but he stopped her with a wave of his hand.

  “Dismissed.”

  And that was all.

  She found Haitham and Laila arguing inside the room. Daliya shook her head. It was official now. Her room was turned into their base..

  Laila almost yelled at Haitham about where his loyalty lay.

  “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to get him out,” Haitham hissed at her.

  “Lower your voices. We don’t want to alert the entire mansion to your presence,” Daliya hissed.

  They turned to her. Haitham’s almost smile at her arrival was in contrast with Laila’s murdering gaze.

  “Yesterday, Arham was captured,” Haitham announced. He looked conflicted.

  Daliya stood near the window, glancing at the servants as they went about their business. Two guards laughed as they shared some joke, one of them pushing the other lightly. If only they knew who was in her room.

  “I know,” she said simply.

  “Of course she does,” Laila snarled.

  Daliya turned to her, arms crossed. “Don’t get your hackles up. I had nothing to do with it. I just knew this morning.” She tilted her head to the side, regarding her. “It would be good for you to be nice to the only person here who can help.”

  Laila stilled, expression frozen on her face. “You’ll help?” she asked, voice guarded.

  Daliya shrugged. “I was denied to see him. But I’ll see what I can do.”

  Haitham approached her, grabbed her hands, and squeezed them. “Thank you.” He smiled.

  Daliya smiled back. “A bit early for that. I still don’t know where he’s being held. Something called…Qar?”

  Their breath hitched.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  “What? What is it?” she asked.

  “It’s an underground prison. Whoever enters it emerges a corpse. It’s a place worse than death.” Haitham ran his hand through his hair, disheveling his raven hair further. He slumped on the chair, eyes closed. “No one even knows what it looks like.”

  “It’s fine. I’ll find out where it is. I’ll follow the prick around if I have to.”

  “No. It would be too dangerous.” His tone was final.

  “You’re going to let Arham die?” Laila yelled.

  “I said I’ll take care of it,” Haitham said through gritted teeth.

  “You care about her more than our cause?! More than the comrades you fought alongside you your whole life?!”

  “It’s different,” he hissed, standing up.

  “Oh, really? How?”

  Daliya pinched the bridge of her nose. She could feel the start of a horrible headache. “Could you both please stop? This is getting us nowhere.” She groaned. “I’ll be fine. I can protect myself.”

  Haitham grasped her wrist. “Controlling your powers and breaking into the most notorious prison in the empire are two different things.” He looked at Laila. “Meet me tonight at the west wall. We’ll look—”

  “No, listen,” Daliya cut him off. “I’ll ask Mazin. He might know something. Once I find anything, I’ll let you know.”

  He opened his mouth as if to say something but shook his head and looked away. “Fine,” he said. “But you’ll come back once you find it. No exploring, no nothing.”

  She huffed. “Fine.”

  “Promise.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I promise.”

  Mazin was overlooking the knights’ training. Daliya thought it amazing how even when they were away from the northern castle, they still trained and ran drills. They were quite committed to their job.

  “Captain, I’ve been looking for you,” She smiled at him. “Come with me. I would like to have a word with you.”

  Mazin paused, looking at her, then nodded. “Of course, Your Highness.”

  Daliya followed him out of the barracks. They walked along the stone path in the courtyard. The captain fell into steps beside her, a curious look on his face.

  “What do you know about Qar?” she asked.

  He was quiet for a while before saying, “It’s in the southernmost courtyard, right after the palace’s training grounds. It’s a mere one-room building.”

  She nodded. “I see.”

  “If I may ask. Why does Your Highness wish to go to Qar.”

  “I need to speak with the general.”

  Mazin did a double-take. “The general?”

  His reaction confirmed Daliya’s suspicion. The princess and the general must have hated each other.

  She nodded. “There’s something I need to discuss with him.”

  He hesitated. “Is it about the succession?”

  “Yes.”

  “Your Highness, you have the full support of the knight’s order. If you wished it, we would draw our swords in the grand hall.”

  Daliya blinked at him. Was this man speaking about high treason?

  She cleared her throat, an incredulous chortle escaping her lips. “Hopefully, it won’t get to that.”

  He paused, then nodded.

  “I want Your Highness to know…if you ever wish to tell me anything–” He looked at her, eyes expectant. “I’ll be willing to listen.”

  Daliya sent him a confused look.

  “That is all.” He bowed and left.

  The next time she was called to the palace, she ventured further beyond its training grounds and arrived at a building that couldn’t be bigger than a single room at the center of a large courtyard.

  It was indeed the prison. She could distantly feel the presence of multiple soul cores somewhere underneath—dozens. Just how many prisoners were held beneath the palace’s surface?

  Too bad Mazin was still not allowed entrance into the palace. None of her knights were. She had wanted him to accompany her inside. She felt like she was walking into the lion’s den. And with having Haitham near the emperor too risky a chance for him to be exposed, Mazin was the only other person in this world she was familiar with.

  The prison guards didn’t stop her. They carried on as if she wasn’t there.

  “Take me to the general,” she ordered one of them.

  The guards glanced at each other, expressions unreadable. Then, one of them pulled at a thread dangling from a small hole in the ceiling.

  “The Wraith has been notified. He’ll be here shortly,” he announced.

  Not a moment later, an old man with a hunched back and a wrinkly face carved by time emerged from the entrance. His gnarly fingers clutched weakly at the doorframe to support his shaky frame. The clothes on his back were rags stitched together with uneven needlework. He looked up at Daliya with dull, milky eyes. One of the guards smacked him upside the head. The poor man’s skeletal frame shook from its force.

  Daliya had to restrain herself from grabbing the guard’s offending hand. She gritted her teeth and fixed her steely eyes on the guard.

  “Bow down to Her Highness,” the guard snapped.

  The old man bowed, apologies falling from his dry and cracked lips.

  Clenching her hands into fists, Daliya snapped at the guard. “Move it. I don’t have time to waste.”

  The guard let go of the old man’s neck and bowed hastily. He moved to the side, clearing the path.

  “Follow me, Your Highness,” The old man said.

  He walked down the stairs slowly and measuredly, his back tense as if waiting for a strike. The stony wall he leaned heavily on was the only thing holding him upright. His feet stumbled, and he leaned dangerously forward. Daliya hurried towards him, her hand clasping his fragile arm. At the same time, the stone under his feet extended, preventing his fall.

  She looked at the stone, uncomprehending. It then downed on her. He was like her. The only difference was his mastery over the earth. ‘What did Haitham call them?’ she tried to recall. ‘Right! Earth Shakers.’

  Her gaze fell on the shaking elder. He stared at her with dull, unseeing eyes. He was blind.

  Fury lit up Daliya’s chest. The guard had dared to brutalize not only an old, weak man, but he was also blind.

  “Your Highness—”

  “You can lean on me if you want.”

  He hesitated, his frame quaking as fear marred his old face.

  “It’s dangerous here.”

  The stairs were small and angeled strangely. The walls ended in sharp turns. She didn’t have the heart to let the poor man feel around the stone for his way.

  “If you’ll allow it, Your Highness.” He took her offered hand, nodding his head in half a bow. She stopped his attempt to bow to her. They were alone here. There was no need to keep the pretense.

  They walked for a while, the old man leading her through a twisted maze of sharp turns and narrow stairs. Then, a ringing sound reverberated through the underground tunnels.

  “What’s this sound?”

  “The maze,” the old man said. “I was ordered to change its pattern every hour.”

  So that was why no one knew the prison’s real design, she mused. Wretched bastard. He not only slaughtered them for their powers but also forced them to use those same powers to build him impenetrable prisons.

  The old man put his palm against the wall and closed his eyes. The ground shook under them, followed by the same sound of sliding stones.

  The shaking continued for a while, then it subsided.

  They continued on their way. The only light was the torch in the old man’s hand. The flames danced with the tremors, twisting their shadows into horrific creatures.

  Daliya didn’t bother using her powers to trace a path to the prison. The maze’s constantly changing pattern would soon render it useless. But she noted that she was getting farther and farther from the soul cores she had felt and was heading toward a lone agitated core.

  It must be the interrogation room.

  Two guards flanked a heavy wooden door. They startled at her arrival. One of them hurriedly walked into the room, closing the door behind him, preventing her from getting a glimpse of what was happening inside.

  Soon, the door sprung open, and out came the general, with a deep scowl on his face, droplets of a scarlet liquid staining his cheek, and even more on his clothes.

  He looked horrifying.

  “Princess, to what do we owe the pleasure?”

  His hand resting on the pommel of his sword twitched slightly.