The Serpent's Chains

Sabine

My head throbbed. It was the first thing I felt when I came back to my senses. I blinked my eyes open. My mouth felt like it was full of cotton and blood pounded in my ears.

The men who captured me, they were in the room with me but they didn't look shadowy anymore. They were solid, flesh and blood, dressed all in black.

I tried to move my arms. They were behind me, tied to a chair. I shifted again and found my ankles tied to the chair, too. This wasn't good.

My captors didn't speak but I felt their eyes on me as I tested the bonds.

Other than a single oil lamp on a rickety-looking table, there was no light. I couldn't see any windows which meant I was probably underground or in a basement.

Wherever I was, no one would come looking for me. I was property. If I went missing or died, it would be written off as an asset loss.

The prince hadn't even paid money for me. Why would he think I was an asset worth retrieving?

I was on my own and I would find a way out.

There was no way to remove my collar without my old slave master's hand but if I could get out of here, I could start a new life. A free life.

Twisting my wrists, I tested the knotwork on the ropes that bound me. They were tight but I could move my wrists. That meant I could loosen them.

A prickle of magic went through the air and I noticed my captors looking at each other. There were six of them, probably a team of mages. Hanging around Prince Cole, I learned a few things about strategy. Like how mages used magic to communicate without words. It prevented anyone from overhearing them.

Somewhere behind me a door opened and light streamed in. The door closed almost immediately and booted footsteps approached.

A short figure wearing a cape came around the chair and stood in front of me. They had a mask on.

"What do you want from me?" I asked.

Gloved hands pulled the mask off and a pair of brown eyes peered at me from a round, delicate face. Her brown hair was pulled back in a braid and even in the dim light, I could see her brown skin tone matched my own.

She looked... familiar. I felt like I'd seen her before, a long time ago.

That was stupid. There was no way we'd met.

She tilted her head to the side. "Hmm. You're not what I expected."

I furrowed my brow. "Who are you? What do you want?"

On the streets of Vagra, I thought Princess Rosalie was the target. But these mages were almost identical to the ones that attacked me in the garden, only they weren't smooshed. I was sure they were of the same variety.

Two attacks meant I was the target. But why?

"My apologies. I should introduce myself. I'm Cara Sarcon from Stivalia. Second daughter to King Verill."

"The royal family?" I gasped.

"Yes. I've been retracing the footsteps of my sister. Heir to the throne of Stivalia. All my searching has led me to you."

"Me? I'm a slave. I have nothing to do with Stivalia or the royal family."

Cara frowned and studied her fingernails for a moment. She rubbed the tips of her fingers together like she had something on them.

"You wear one of those barbaric collars, don't you? The kind that stifles your magic and forces you to use it at your master's behest?"

I bowed my head and my cheeks stung.

"You're a mage and by rights, you should be in Stivalia living as a noble. Instead, they treat you like chattel here. Of course, your existence has everything to do with Stivalia!" Cara flung her cape over her shoulder and paced in front of me.

I watched her gait and found it familiar as well. Who was this woman? Why did she invoke long-forgotten feelings of nostalgia?

"Are you telling me that Stivalia wishes to free the magical slaves of Telasia and elevate them to nobles?"

Cara stopped and glanced down at me. Even though I was seated, she wasn't much taller than me.

"We're deviating from the point."

I scoffed. That's what I thought. She could tempt me with pretty words like "noble" all she wanted but Stivalia had no intention of freeing slaves, magical or otherwise.

"My sister vanished over twenty years ago. She was not easy to track down but I've found a few contacts that pointed me in the right direction." She looked at me with a piercing gaze I felt to the bone and pointed a thin finger at me.

"I'm only twenty. How can I know anything that happened twenty years ago?" I challenged. "I've been a slave the majority of my life. I have no friends, no family."

"And yet, you managed to become Prince Cole's personal attendant. There must be something special about you. Your magic, perhaps. Is that why he took a shine to you?"

Sighing, I bowed my head. The collar felt like a weight dragging me down. The one thing keeping me from defending myself. "There's nothing special about me."

"Oh, you better hope that's not true. After all the work I did to get you here." Cara huffed. "The prince's timing... had he delayed his return for a few moments, I would have captured you in the palace. That would have disrupted Telasia for a long time."

"What are you talking about?" I glared at her. "My disappearance means nothing to them."

Cara threw her head back and laughed. Her cackles made the air in the basement shudder. Her silent accomplices clung to the edges of the shadows but even they shivered at her laugh.

"I would have been the first to succeed in kidnapping someone from within Telasia palace grounds. They would have taken me and my family seriously then!" Her dark chuckle tapered off and when she turned her eyes to me, they were filled with loathing.

"Perhaps you overestimate your abilities."

Cara scoffed. "Had the prince not intervened... there must be a reason he did. You are special to him in some way."

"Are you deaf!? I'm nothing to the prince!" Tears pricked my eyes. "If it weren't for his dragon, I'd be in a ditch somewhere!"

My insides lurched. It felt silly to be upset by my own words. I'd lived my whole life as nothing.

Here I was, trapped in a basement with some insane woman. I was probably going to die here. No one was coming for me and no one would mourn me.

What a sad existence I truly had.

"Hmm. Then I wonder what it is that ties you to Aura? I was certain it was because the royal family assassinated her. But if your ties to them are weak..."

"Aura?" The name slipped from my mouth before I could stop it.

I hadn't heard my mother's name on anyone else's lips since she died. I was the only one who remembered her or spoke it aloud to keep her memory alive.

"Yes, Aura Sarcon, my sister and heir to the Stivalia throne. Do you recognize the name?" Cara's voice softened and she leaned in, grabbing the arms of the chair.

Her eyes were level with mine, she smiled and I smelled her sickly sweet breath.

My heart hammered in my chest and I thought she'd hear it. I held my breath for a moment until I settled my pulse.

"It is an unusual name. I haven't heard it before," I said.

"Hmm. I think you're lying." She pushed the chair back several inches and turned her back to me.

"What do you want from me!? I don't know anything! How could I!?" I screamed into the dark room.

It was the only way to chase away the memories that clawed their way back inside. My mother's screams, the sounds of flesh slamming into flesh as those thugs beat the life out of her. My body trembled and tears wet my cheeks.

I was nine years old again, hiding under the bed while I listened to my mother die.

"Are you even listening!?"

Cara's sharp voice pulled me from my thoughts. I blinked back the tears and wiped my nose on my shoulder.

"No."

"Figures. I find the only slave in Telasia that doesn't obey orders from her superiors. If you do know anything, you need to tell me. Aura isn't the saint everyone makes her out to be."

"I don't know anything," I insisted, grinding my teeth together.

"Maybe I haven't made myself clear! I need to find my sister."

"Right, because Stivalia is weak without an heir? Don't you have other siblings?"

Cara stamped her foot. "Argh! You're so stubborn! I don't need her to sit on the throne. King Verill would never allow it. He'll execute her himself when he finds her."

"Then what's the point of finding her?"

"Aura cursed my entire family. She's not a mage, she's a witch! What kind of a sister curses her siblings? She's a treasonous traitor and we want justice."

My stomach gurgled and I twisted my wrists in the ropes again. I had a little more movement now. The bonds were loosening, slowly.

I didn't have a lot of memories of my mother but I remembered every magical lesson she taught me. Curses were not among them. My mother was a different Aura.

That had to be why Cara was confused. It wasn't a common name but if she found out my mother's name, she probably assumed.

I shook my head a few times. My mother wasn't capable of cursing anyone.

In the memories I did have of her, she was soft and warm. It was because of her and her kindness that I refused to complete the love spell for my former master.

"I'm sorry for what happened to your family, but I don't know any Aura."

"Are you sure about that?" Cara's lips twisted into a smile. "Think about it before you lie to me."

I glared at her. There was nothing she could say or promise that would convince me her intentions were good.

"I'm not lying!"

Cara sighed heavily. "That's too bad." She snapped her fingers rapidly.

Her men jumped into action. One of them grabbed the oil lamp and moved to a corner of the basement. The others held up a bloody, purple, limp body.

His head was twisted at an impossible angle and his limbs all jutted out at odd angles. He'd been beaten, broken, tortured, mutilated.

Through the bruises and swelling on his face, I saw discernable features and my heart sank.

My former slave master.

"It took me a while to track him down but when I did, he was most forthcoming with information about your mother, particularly her name."

My breath stuck in my throat and I stared at his hands, barely listening to Cara. His fingers were all broken and disfigured, completely lifeless.

There was no way my slave collar could be removed now.