Chapter 3 - The Woman in the Dungeon
By noon, the crowd had doubled.
“Kill it!” they shouted.
“Save the kingdom!”
“Burn the dragon child!”
Mara stood behind a narrow window in the west tower, Elara strapped against her chest.
Every chant hit like a stone.
Lucan closed the shutters. “You shouldn’t hear that.”
“They want to murder my daughter. I should hear exactly what kind of people they are.”
Lucan did not argue.
Unlike the others, he had not once called Elara a monster.
Mara noticed.
“Why aren’t you afraid of her?” she asked.
“I am.”
Mara almost smiled. “At least you’re honest.”
“I’m afraid of many things. That doesn’t mean I stab them in a crib.”
A crash echoed below.
The gates were taking hits.
Rowan entered with blood on his sleeve.
“Not mine,” he said before Mara could ask.
“How long?”
“An hour, maybe two.”
“To stop the mob?”
“To stop half my guard from joining them.”
Mara stared.
Rowan’s face hardened. “Someone spread the prophecy through the city before dawn. Printed copies. Hundreds.”
“Who?”
“We’re finding out.”
“No, you’re deciding whether to hand Elara over.”
His silence answered her.
Mara’s heart broke in a quiet place she had no time to protect.
Rowan stepped closer. “If the gates fall—”
“You’ll give them my baby.”
“If I don’t, thousands may die.”
“And if you do?”
He had no answer.
Mara turned to Lucan. “Take me to the dungeon.”
Rowan frowned. “Why?”
“Because there’s someone down there who knows why that painting has my face.”
Ten minutes later, they descended beneath the palace through tunnels older than the kingdom.
At the last cell sat a prisoner Mara had been forbidden to visit since childhood.
Her mother.
Selene Ellery had supposedly died of fever eighteen years ago.
Instead, she was alive, silver-haired, and chained to a wall.
Mara stopped breathing.
“Mother?”
Selene slowly raised her head.
Tears filled her eyes.
“You had the child.”
Mara’s knees nearly gave out.
“You knew?”
“I prayed I was wrong.”
“Why are you here?”
Selene looked at Rowan.
“Because his father discovered what our bloodline carries.”
Rowan went still.
Mara stepped closer to the bars. “What bloodline?”
Selene’s gaze dropped to Elara.
The baby stared back.
Then Selene whispered one word.
“Drakeborn.”
A deep rumble moved through the dungeon floor.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Lucan reached for his sword.
“What was that?”
Selene closed her eyes.
“Too late.”
From somewhere far below the dungeon came the sound of stone cracking.
Then a voice, ancient and enormous, spoke through the earth.
May you like
“Daughter.”
Elara smiled.
