One by one, every noble in the ballroom came before the king, had a few words with him, and then left—until, suddenly, the ballroom had gotten very quiet.
Eory looked around and everyone was gone but for him, the king, Kori, Pollyanna, and a few guards standing in the corners of the room.
Pollyanna noticed that, about an hour ago, the queen had excused herself and taken her six-year-old with her. That did not bode well, and it made Pollyanna hyper-vigilant.
The room was so quiet now that Eory’s footsteps echoed when he approached the king.
Laurence sat up straight in his throne and couldn’t help but turn his nose up at the approach of Eory and the Arrozan Sword. He could see nothing but King Herin’s features in the young man’s face.
Everyone in the room was tense.
Fear of the unknown hung in the air as Eory’s ominous footsteps came to a halt before the king. Eory did a bow and fell on one knee before the dais. Pollyanna reluctantly followed suite with a curtsy and stayed on both knees next Eory. On Eory’s other side, Gershom was silent and well mannered and didn’t even pant.
The fairy kept his head and eyes down and said humbly, “I await your judgement, King Laurence. Have I performed well tonight?”
Sweat rolled down Kori’s forehead in fear as she awaited the king’s response.
Laurence looked upon Eory with a consternated expression. He cleared his throat in a moment and replied, “you have, Eory. Many of the nobles were quite taken with you, and the ones that weren’t couldn’t claim that you had been rude to them. You have done extremely well.”
Relief overwhelmed Eory. It felt as if the stress that had made it hard for him to even breathe had stopped constricting his lungs and heart. He nearly jumped for joy, but he managed to keep his composure.
While still kneeling, he asked, “then… Am I free to go, Your Majesty?”
The room was deathly silence again but for gentle breathing.
Laurence took a deep breath. “You are, but I would like you to do something for me, first.”
Kori looked panicked and wondered what the king had in mind. She was already ready to protest.
Pollyanna’s muscles were tensed and she was ready to spring into action if necessary.
Eory just kept his head down as stress once again strangled him about the throat and made it hard to breathe.
“You behaved admirably, but as usual, Pollyanna was poorly behaved during the ball and is a menace to society. She threatened two nobles and even shoved you. I’m afraid I must require that you order her to be executed or imprisoned forever since she seems to obey your every whim.” Laurence said evenly as his fingers fidgeted nervously.
I don't know whether Pollyanna is required to follow his orders, but this is the best way to find out.
Everyone was still; they were all trying to process what he said and what it entailed for each of them.
Pollyanna was furious and felt the most panic she had in ages. Her life was always secure in the hands of Eory’s ancestors because they would always need her to protect them from treason, assassins, and revolts. Not only that, but she and Eory’s ancestors had respected each other greatly and had similar philosophies.
She expected Eory would pick the king over herself. She hated him for it; the two of them had every opportunity to escape, but Eory’s need to be accepted as decent and kind overwhelmed logic at every turn. And now, the king seemed like he was going to reward Eory for his kindness and the only one to die would be herself. She seethed in rage at everyone in the room and wished them all terrible deaths.
If Eory chose the king over her, she could be spending the rest of eternity in jail. If Eory ordered her to die, she did not know what would happen. She suspected that the magic of the potion protecting her would break so she would be able to kill herself, and if she disobeyed the order, the potion would still kill her anyway.
Eory’s face was drained of warmth and his thoughts raced so quickly that he couldn’t hold onto to one long enough to say anything. His mouth moved, but no words came out.
Kori was silent, but hopeful that Eory would agree with the king and order Pollyanna to her death or order her to be imprisoned. She liked the plan.
Eory finally spluttered with unshed tears in his eyes, “b-but—that’s unfair! You said you would free me if I performed well…”
“And I will. I would just like your agreement on this, Eory. As I said, you have performed well, and I can see you becoming a well-respected and well-liked member of society. You are a very kind and understanding young man; the world needs more people like you. But Pollyanna has killed so many people, and she will be whispering poison in your ears until the day you die to try and convince you to be like your ancestors. You must also understand that I can’t help but have doubts about you when you keep a weapon such as her around who could kill me and everyone in this kingdom if she so desired.” Laurence said levelly.
For the first time in a long time in her life, Pollyanna was frozen in fear and didn’t know what to do. She felt like she was waiting to die.
Eory took a shuddering breath and his legs felt weak beneath him. He waited for his mind to clear to finally give an answer.
“Please, Your Majesty. Just let her be free with me. She isn’t evil, she was a slave to my family just like everyone in this kingdom was. She has a good heart and has done great things! She lessened the killing of my father, Herin, and disobeyed him at every turn!” Eory cried as he shakily climbed to his feet.
Pollyanna, who had been glaring at the three of them with hatred burning in her eyes, now looked at Eory in shock and confusion.
Kori intervened. “Eory, how many times must I tell you. Those stories were
fiction
. Pollyanna has done no good things for this kingdom. In fact, if she saw the slightest hint of treason in the past, she would always be the first to kill whoever was planning a revolt. Now please, order her to stay in prison forever; order her to die, so that you may live a good life with me.”
Eory looked at Pollyanna, who was keeping her eyes down for the first time in her life and didn’t dare to look at him or anyone else in the room, and then he looked at Laurence and Kori.
Kori had that sweet and understanding look on her face; that face that told him everything would be okay, and Laurence had a determined, but enigmatic look on his face.
“Pollyanna i-is my friend. I won’t let anything bad happen to her.” Eory finally said nervously. “She obeys my every order. I promise you that she will never harm you or anyone else. Just let her go, too.”
Laurence tapped his fingers on the arm rest and his determined expression did not fade from his face.
Eory looked into his eyes as blood pounded in his ears.
And then, to Eory’s shock, the king nodded. “Very well. You are free. Take Pollyanna and go; she may be untrustworthy, but you clearly are. You have demonstrated that tonight. However, please promise me that you will never let Pollyanna harm anyone.”
Eory nodded nervously, and felt the stress being lifted off his shoulders again. He was shaken by the king’s unexpected kindness. “I will; I promise you that Pollyanna will harm no one.”
Kori was stunned. “But Laurence--!”
Laurence held up a hand. “I trust him. He is a kind young man.”
Tears sprang from the waif’s eyes and she sobbed into the armrest on her chair, not wanting Eory to leave her side. She couldn’t believe that even the king seemed to be on Pollyanna’s side, of all people.
Eory’s face lit up and he turned to Pollyanna. “We can leave, Pollyanna! Let’s go!”
Pollyanna looked up at him with her ancient heart beating quickly. She shed no tears of fear, but only had a look of numb shock on her face.
Eory reached out a hand, and the warrior maiden took it and pulled herself to her feet.
She was stunned by Eory’s kindness.
Eory turned to Kori with a smile on his face. “Do you want to come with us, Kori? I wanted to talk to you about how much fun I had tonight…”
But Kori was in the pit of despair and couldn’t hear him through her own sobbing.
Eory’s face fell. He wanted so badly for her to revel in this victory with him, and it hurt him that she was unable to.
Perhaps she will be well enough to, tomorrow
. Eory thought to himself.
And then he, Pollyanna, and Gershom, slowly headed toward the large double-doors which they had come in by on the opposite end of the large room.
There was silence again but for Kori’s weeping and their echoing footsteps as they walked.
Pollyanna kept her eyes glued to the balcony hanging above them.
Freedom was so close that Eory could practically taste it. His smile kept getting larger and larger as the door came closer and closer.
He took one more step which put him, Pollyanna, and Gershom halfway to the door, and then the king said with a loud and clear voice, “kill them.”
Eory froze in fear and shock and his body refused to move.
Pollyanna saw the archers step into view on the balcony.
Kori looked up and tears sprung from her cheeks as she shrieked Eory’s name and tried to make her way over to him just to be caught by the king.
Pollyanna dove and tackled Eory to the ground where she shielded him with her own body. She had him pinned in such a way that his neck was forcibly craned to the right where he saw from under Pollyanna that Gershom was barking and whimpering wildly.
Eory heard dozens of arrows being loosed and his mind and body were blank with emotions he could not even process.
Pollyanna grunted in pain as the arrows thunked into her body—some went through her and nearly pierced nicked Eory’s own skin, but most only just pierced her hardened skin.
He didn’t even care that he was covered in her blood because he had gone numb from being unable to look away from Gershom.
He was forced to watch as dozens of arrows pierced Gershom. There was a horrendous and heart-rending whimper that Eory would never forget, and then the dog lay on its side and twitched while whimpering weakly.
Eory watched it twitch two more times, and then it stopped moving.
Eory stared at its lank motionless body with wide, unblinking eyes. His emotions and mind felt detached from his own body as he lay there expressionlessly and could not move.
More arrows were loosed and pierced Pollyanna’s back. She let out a gasp of pain and she went lank for a moment, but Eory could still feel her breathing and knew she wasn’t dead.
At the moment, he didn’t care whether anyone lived or died. He had very few thoughts about anything at all.