I drop the paper.
My eyes meet my father’s, and my heart constricts.
Before I can protest, my father yanks free of his captors, surprising me with his speed and strength. “No!” he shouts. “Zara, no.” The knights jerk him backward. “You cannot go. Please, Zara. Do what you must to escape—” He’s cut off by a quick blow to his head.
Spurred into motion, I push past the gray-eyed knight and run to my father’s side. “Unhand him!” I wrestle with the tallest knight’s hands. The other knight rears his fist back, ready to land a blow on me.
“Stop!” the gray-eyed knight orders him. “The princess must not be harmed.”
My eyes widen. Princess. Only my mind can’t process this now. My father’s troubled eyes search my face, then the knights drag him out.
I pursue them as they pull him through the shattered doorway of our farmhouse. “Please,” I whimper. “He’s no longer fighting.”
They ignore my pleas. My father struggles against them, and the tall knight thrusts his fist into my father’s jaw, dropping him to the ground.
The gray-eyed knight lays one hand on my shoulder and wraps the fingers of his other around my arm. “Your father is ill. The Virus has driven him mad.”
“Nay.” I shake my head. “This is your doing.” I bite down on my lip, preventing my mouth from opening again. No matter my newly elevated station, that will not stop their fists from flying if I insult the King’s Round Table Knights.
“You filthy…” the knight towering over my father says. “He bit me!” He reaches for his V-Baton next to the sword on his belt and my heart stutters to a stop.
I jerk against the knight holding me. “Don’t—” But it’s useless. The tall knight clubs my father over the head, and his face smacks the ground. Dry dirt clouds around him as blood trickles from his forehead, bathing the earth.
The other knight, his visor still masking his face, takes out his own V-Baton and it hums, its tip sparking to life with a white-blue current. He shoves the end of the metal wand into my father’s shoulder. My father writhes, his body convulsing.
Then he lies still.
Move, I pray.
“Put him in the prison carriage,” the knight behind me orders.
They grab my father’s arms and drag him to a carriage drawn by two black horses. I sway, my legs numb and threatening to buckle.
The knight rights me. “M’lady,” he says, his tone dark, serious. “Pack your belongings. Castle Karm awaits.”
THREE
Castle Karm stretches across the horizon. Never-ending. The carriage creaks to a stop and I look up. Gleaming silver gates rise before me, their electrical charge humming. Stone guard towers, positioned on either side, make up the gatehouse, with a guard stationed in each tower. A loud snap bites my eardrums, and I flinch. The horses snort. The electrical current running through the gates has been shut down, and now they squeak open.
As we pass through, I can just make out the blue-coned peaks of the castle. It’s the same view I’ve gazed upon for so long, only closer, and somehow more menacing. Torches and hanging lanterns guide our path, and my skin tightens with dread.
My carriage rumbles into the inner courtyard while my father’s veers off. I peer out the open window, trying to watch it for as long as I can. A gust of wind blasts me backward. It stings my swollen, irritated eyes, and I push the heels of my hands into their sockets, clearing away fresh tears.
The gray-eyed knight opens the carriage door and offers me his hand. “Prince Sebastian requires you to be settled in your quarters before you’re to make his acquaintance.” His tone is callous.
Ignoring his outstretched hand, I step down from the carriage on my own. I refuse to touch the hands of the knights who beat my father. This was not the first time. They’ve paid many visits to our farm over the years, making sure to keep my father and his animal production “in line.”
Gathering up the hem of my tunic-dress, I move away from the carriage. I’d grudgingly done as told and changed into the nicest dress I own. I’d also sneaked away while I changed to do as my father had requested and pry the floorboard up. Inside was a wooden box that contained just what he said it would: his wedding band and a second object—an outlawed dagger. After inspecting my father’s ring, missing him and my mother both, I’d reluctantly placed it back into the box. Then I’d strapped the dagger’s sheath to my leg, praying the Force wouldn’t search me.
The dagger rests against my outer thigh now, and through my tunic I rub the pad of my finger over the R and D along the hilt. At least a part of him is still here. They may have taken him away, but his initials remind me that he’ll always be with me.
Guiding me.
Compared to my pristine surroundings, my finest layers of cream linen might as well be a smock.
Sprinkling the lush grounds is every color of flower and foliage. Pink and lavender indigo spring up between mounds of snapdragon, and ivies crawl sparsely scattered pines. The scents of rosemary and thyme nearly overpower me as the hem of my dress stirs their sprigs. In the center of the grounds, clear water cascades over an intricately carved stone fountain, and iridescent hues arc above it, twinkling in the afternoon light.
Stepping onto the stone court, I spin once, taking in row upon row of arches on freestanding columns. The immense box-like structure of the arcade surrounding me is only small compared to the colossal castle it protrudes from. I crane my neck as my eyes roam up the front of Castle Karm. Its near-white stone is spotless, nothing like the dusty, dank farmhouses of the country. Guards pace the wall walk of the second landing, and above them, midnight blue and silver tapestries drape the outer walls, matching the conical rooftops reaching into the sky.