Chapter 131 Interlude Nine

Chapter 131 Interlude Nine
Interlude Nine

The city felt different tonight.

Lanterns burned along the streets in uneven clusters of light, their glow reflecting against damp stone walls and narrow alleyways.

Soldiers moved quickly through the roads, their armor clinking softly as they carried out orders.
Whispers followed them everywhere.

People leaned out of windows cautiously, observing what was going on.

Someone coughed violently somewhere in the darkness as fear moved through the city like a quiet wind.

Isolde felt it all, all the emotions her people were feeling, the insecurity and worry for their families. She could almost taste it.

She walked quickly, her cloak trailing behind her as two guards led the way toward the northern district.

Beside her the foreigner walked at an unhurried pace but still somehow never falling behind more than three easy paces, which she was sure he was purposely maintaining as a sign of his respect.

“All this just feels like a test run, unoriginal,” he said suddenly. The queen glanced at him. “Fear of monsters?"

He muttered, looking unimpressed.

The queen looked at him properly since they had stepped out into the moonlight. He was indeed a fine man. As she walked with poor concentration, a thought suddenly formed in her mind.

She doesn't even know his name.

She forced her gaze away from him as a strong odour wafted into her nostrils and shut her eyes briefly, feeling her throat burn from the sensation.

When she finally opened her eyes to look ahead, the foreigner was now walking next to her.

“Be careful,” he said in a mindful tone she had never heard him use before.

A few more houses, but with their windows slid shut. She had never been through this side of town, she realised, adjusting her hands resting on her stomach. There's a thick fog that obscured almost all the huts. Suddenly it felt like she was at a delinquent domain and she could get robbed or something, but then she remembered that not only was she the queen and had the foreigner with her, but also there were guards with her.

However, Isolde did not fail to note how horrible the air was down here.

They continued walking in silence until the burned tower finally appeared ahead.

Even from a distance it looked wounded.
Blackened stone climbed toward the sky like the skeleton of something that had once been alive.

Soldiers waited outside, and when they saw the queen approach they straightened immediately.

“Your Royalness,” they greeted in surprise.
“Inside,” she said, and they immediately obeyed without question.

The interior of the tower smelled faintly of smoke and ash. Broken stone littered the floor.
The walls were scarred by dark burn marks that climbed toward the ceiling like creeping shadows.

But it was the floor that held her attention.
The claw marks were unmistakably deep that she immediately gasped without meaning to.

The marks were carved into the stone itself.
For a moment no one spoke. One of the soldiers shifted uneasily.

“We found them exactly like this, Your Majesty.”
Isolde stepped closer, studying the gouges carefully.

They were far too large to belong to any animal she knew, just as she had been informed.
Behind her the foreigner crouched beside the marks. His fingers brushed lightly over the stone as he examined them.

He looked almost… thoughtful. She noticed that immediately.

“You recognize them,” she said quietly.
He did not answer right away, but then he stood.

“There are not very many creatures that can,” the foreigner supplied.

She stepped closer, trying to see the marks from his angle.

Her boot slid suddenly against a patch of loose ash. The movement was small but unexpected.
Her balance shifted recklessly, and for a split second the ground seemed to tilt beneath her.
Then strong hands caught her waist.

The world stilled.

She found herself inches from him. The foreigner, the man who lit a fire inside of her by merely running his finger down her face, and he was far too close.

His hand was firm against her side, steadying her easily as though she weighed nothing at all.
For a moment neither of them moved.
Then she quickly stepped back, looking almost horrified.

“I am fine,” she said, a little too quickly.
His expression remained calm as he nodded curtly.

“I did not insinuate otherwise.”
Heat crept faintly across her face.

“You should not have been standing that close.”
She forced her attention back to the claw marks reluctantly after he did. But something about the moment lingered in her now messed up brain. What was she thinking bringing him here, involving an almost stranger, an outsider in the kingdom matters? It should have been Haden here investigating and taking a look at the mysterious marks in his kingdom, not this man. Instead she completely left Haden in the dark. Why did she even do that?

Behind them one of the soldiers cleared his throat.

“Your Majesty… someone approaches.”
Heavy footsteps echoed from the tower entrance, and she squinted a little to make out the figure. Gooseflesh rose on her neck as she recognised the walking pattern and eventually the torch now flickering on his face.

Then King Hardin stepped inside.