The Kept

The Escape

 Nerys paced her small berth and cursed under her breath.

Four full strides that brought her to one wall and then another four back to the door, which had been barred shut from the outside. Nerys tried again to force the door open to no avail.

"I know you are still out there!" Nerys shouted to the person guarding the other side. "If you unlock the door and walk away now, I promise your role in this will not be held against you."

"I highly doubt that," Dadien replied. "And I wouldn't blame you. If anyone even thought to use Amparo as we used you, I would burn everything they ever loved to ashes before killing them."

"Are you going to let me out, then?" Nerys asked.

"I can't do that. I'm just here to talk while you are a captive audience."

Dadien gave a light laugh as he realized his poor choice of words. Nerys was mildly annoyed by the sound, which jarred her from a numbness she hadn't realized had overtaken her. It was quickly followed by an aching sense of something lost.

"Don't you have better uses for your time?"

"I know your pushing everyone away isn't just so we won't keep you from facing Ardin on your own terms," Dadien said. "It's so you have no one to keep you from joining Trygve's soul."

Nerys leaned her back against the door and could hear as Dadien did the same on the other side.

"I've had similar thoughts since losing Mari," he confessed. "But even if they are waiting among all the gods to welcome us home, we can't go to them yet. Not while there is still so much need for us here. Once I'm sure you're no longer a danger to yourself, I'll set you free and we'll take your power back from Gereon together."

"Keeping me in a closet doesn't make me powerless any more than caging a tiger makes it a house cat."

"You might have won your crown of your own – frankly terrifying – accord, but by the laws of gods and men, the king master to his queen. Even your most loyal servant wouldn't dare to come between you two. A selfless friend, however..."

"A 'selfless friend' who also happens to have a vested interest in becoming king?" Nerys countered.

"I'm the only one you have left on your side—thanks to your own efforts, by the way. The crown would be a nice way to show your appreciation, but that's not what I'm after."

"I am no danger to myself. If you really consider yourself my friend and this isn't just another attempt to get me to choose you over Gereon, let me out now."

Dadien didn't respond and the door remained locked. Nerys sighed.

"That's what I thought," she said. "I know better than to rely on you to win back something you could never claim for yourself. I will take what is mine without your empty promises."

*****

Guards came and went. Nerys heard their footsteps and brief exchanges, but her questions and threats went unanswered. It stood to reason that someone would eventually have to open the door to provide Nerys with basic necessities at some point, but the hours stretched without a sign of her solitude being broken. She finally laid down and was staring at the grain of the wooden crossbars in her bunk when she heard the sounds of the door being unbarred. She hurried into position and grabbed the door as soon as it began to slowly open. The guard tasked with checking in on her seemed to be anticipating some resistance, judging by their caution, but was wholly unprepared when she burst through the door and kicked them in the chest. It was the same deckhand who had previously given up his post in the crow's nest for her and Dadien. When Vayk took over, he had remained loyal and been imprisoned along with the captain.