Silent Kingdom Read Free

couldn’t I control my voice? Why couldn’t I stop the words?
    He exhaled, stirring the candle flame in front of him into a frenzy. “So.” His voice was even, quiet. “This is how you insist on behaving?”
    He searched my face for several long, terrible moments. My heart rammed into my chest but I couldn’t turn away, couldn’t lower my eyes.
    I didn’t want to—tried not to—but I whispered, “Yes.”
    What’s wrong with me?
    The smallest trace of anger flared in my father’s eyes, making them gleam silver in the candlelight.
    How could you? Those words, however, wouldn’t move past my tongue; they were lodged in my throat, where I felt like I was suffocating on them. How could you kill your brother? My uncle?
    Desperate for help, I looked at my mother. Her face registered disbelief. Her horrified eyes turned not to her husband, but to me. Why? How could you accuse your own father? her open mouth pled, though she never moved her lips. The shocked words were written plainly all over her face, shouting in my own brain.
    But how could he kill his own brother?
    Father’s deep, callous voice tore through my mind, shattering my hope that this was all a terrible dream. “My own daughter is a traitor,” he announced to two of his guards, who had already stepped out from the shadows.
    My heart quickened. I hadn’t seen them there, hadn’t imagined my father would request members of the Royal Guard to be present during a simple family meal.
    My father stared at me. “She is willing to spread rumors and lies to tear the kingdom apart, and is a threat to us all.” He turned to Narek, Captain of the Guard, and gestured with a flick of his wrist. “Take her to her chambers and guard the door.”
    Would he really convict me of treason and make me a prisoner in my own home?
    Arms grasped me and lifted me from my seat before I could react. “Please, please!” I shouted, but I had no argument to make, no pleas to soften a murderer’s heart.
    My mother stood, her body trembling as her wide eyes fixed on me and then on her husband. “Zarev…Your Highness…what is this? She is only a child…your child…”
    “She’s thirteen, nearly a woman, and old enough to know what she is saying.”
    “But…she’s in shock—grieving…” my mother’s voice shook; it was flimsy, uncertain. Her feeble argument faded in my ears while the guards carried me out kicking and screaming. The only replies to my shouts were the sounds of heavy doors slamming and the guards’ footsteps echoing in the long, empty hall.
    They carried me to my bedchamber and shoved me into an armchair by the fireplace. Despite the warmth from the fire crackling on the hearth and the familiar atmosphere, chills shuddered down my spine. I gasped for air and tried not to think about what could happen to me. Shapes seemed to move in the shadows collecting near the entrance to my dressing chamber, in the darkness settling around my bed.
    I stared up at the men, wondering if they felt any hesitation, any misgivings about what they were doing. But their expressions bore no compassion.
    They began to file toward the door, leaving me huddled in my chair, when I heard approaching footsteps from the hallway outside. “Wait,” a voice called out—the king. I froze.
    They swung the door open. As my father strode through, he glanced over at his men. “Leave us.” While the guards retreated silently, he stared down at me.
    Blood throbbed in my ears and my breath lodged in my throat. I stared down at the floorboards, refusing to meet his gaze.
    “Where did you get such a mad idea about me?” His voice was low, full of a threat I’d never heard before. Where was the man I’d called father? Certainly, he had always been stern and withdrawn, someone I longed to please, someone I longed to hear loved me; but he had never treated me poorly. Tears erupted, smearing the floor into a smudgy brown mass. “Look at me.”
    Slowly, I raised my head, blinking in a