Chapter 8

The once King of Darkwell paced around his cell, a cell in the dungeon of his own castle. Tomorrow they would punish him, with what he did not know but whatever it was, it could not be worse than the disappointed and betrayed expressions on his daughters’ faces.

How could he have let this happen? He was a good king, a fresh face for his people and they had adored him. How could he have been so stupid as to let them find him out?

He had gotten too close. Too close. Close enough to help them work it all out. To piece the clues together like some twisted jigsaw puzzle to reveal his inner demons.

He kicked the leg of the bed angrily before collapsing onto the hard, damp mattress. The springs dug annoyingly into his back as he lay looking up the ceiling and trying to avoid the dripping of water coming down from one of the beams. He at least hoped it was water.

The tears were coming again, hot in his eyes and as he blinked they ran down the sides of his temples and onto the dirty pillowcase that was covered in moth bites.

 

The King knew he would not sleep that night.

 

He must have dozed into some kind of sleep because the sound of metal woke him from whatever rest he was getting. He did not feel rested. He felt sick and his stomach was in a tangled knot. He blinked his stinging eyes and looked up at the guard who was unlocking the gate, a pair of shackles in his hands. The King had never felt so undermined. He sat up, running a hand through the unruly blonde strands of his hair.

“You are to face the Gateway immediately” The guard grumbled. No ‘your majesty’ or ‘your highness’ the King’s heart sunk further. He did not know what he meant by ‘the Gateway’, as far as he was aware there was no such thing in the realms of Darkwell. He tried to still his quivering hands as he stood up and approached the guard and let him tighten the shackles around his wrists.

He looked up at the large man, trying to find any shred of sympathy and loyalty to his old king in his hard eyes. He found nothing, no emotion, his eyes were like stones. A statue’s blank gaze.

“What is to become of my wife? My daughters?” The King enquired. The guard’s face seemed to soften, only briefly, before returning to a blank slate.

“Your wife was found dead in her chambers last night” He replied. The King’s guts churned and he fought hard not to vomit right there and then. Danu was dead? How could this be? Oh, what a foolish question, he knew how, but why? Why would she abandon her daughters, and it was abandoning them, for he would never see them again either.

“No… My daughters… Why would she do this? For surely she knew that I will now join her in the after-life” He said. The guard gave him a little smirk at this and the king looked at him with his piercing green eyes “What?”

“Oh, your highness. Death would be too easy” He said

“What do you mean?” The King asked, frowning more “What I did is punishable by death”

“Not for you, my Lord,” he drawled the word mockingly before continuing “You are to be banished” He said. The King’s eyes widened

“Banished?” he asked “Where?” He knew the answer before he spoke. It suddenly made sense; the Gateway must be some kind of access point to the most wretched place known to the people of Darkwell and the surrounding kingdoms. His heart stood still as the guard smiled cruelly and said the word that the King had not heard for a very long time. A word that evoked fear in any man unlucky enough to be in hearing-range, a word that pierced through the King’s ears and made the hairs at the back of his neck stand on end.

“Thornacre”