Page 51 of Quest for her Knights (The Lost Souls of Dyconia #5)

I almost lift my hand to wave, but instead I cling to the railing in frustration. So what if that guy won? It could be Aaric from Ravenbrook for all I know.

He offers me a small wave, and I turn away, not wanting him to think I’m interested. I watch as the other fights are won, but I’m barely paying attention.

My mind starts wandering to how I can escape this place. As upset as I’ve been about my knights leaving, I’ve also been pushing aside the fact that the kings and queen are going to force me to marry the winners of this contest.

Marry them. As if that isn’t the biggest event of my life, and they’re giving me no say at all.

I move back to sit in my chair as refreshments are served and the next event is set up. It looks pretty complex, and when King Ian announces it’s an obstacle course, I sort of wish I could run through it. It looks fun, with all the things to jump over and crawl through.

I even hear one of the lords laugh as he ducks out of the way of a swinging log. It reminds me of Arrow, and I sigh, wondering what he’s doing right now.

I watch as the lords run the course, collecting six different colored strips of fabric. The most points are awarded to the first man back, with fewer for the second, and so on .

Number eight, the lord who won the archery contest, waves up at me as he passes near where I’m sitting. I pretend to ignore him, but the way he moves through the course with ease is slightly mesmerizing.

At one point, I see him tackle number twelve to the ground, just before he’s hit with a swinging log, and I decide they must be brothers.

Which house are they from? Twelve was one of the winners of the combat challenge, so these guys might be front runners.

I just pray it’s not those dicks from Ravenbrook.

I’d rather stab myself in the eye than marry them.

When the contest is over, I can’t quite see the other winners from where I’m sitting, but I tell myself I don’t care anyway.

King Chase stands to address the crowd. “That’s it for today’s challenges. Tomorrow will be the final three challenges before the winners are chosen.” Cheers go up throughout the arena as Freya and her husbands, my brothers, make their way over to me.

“So…” Freya says with a smile. “Anyone catch your attention?”

I shrug. “Not really.”

“You seemed pretty interested in number eight.”

“I don’t remember him,” I lie, watching all the lords head out the back of the arena, in the opposite direction from us.

At the back of the group, four men walk together, and I catch a glimpse of their numbers: eight, twelve, twenty-two, and nineteen.

They’re definitely brothers. And Ravenbrook only had three lords, so at least I know it’s not them.

The best I can hope for is someone I haven’t met who’s actually nice, or maybe someone from Shadowcross. They seemed like decent men. However, the thought of marrying anyone who isn’t my knights feels wrong. Like I might just vomit from the thought alone.

I stand up just as number eight turns around. He waves wildly at me, and twelve smacks him in the back of the head, making a laugh burst out of me. I slap my hands over my mouth as my wide eyes turn to Freya. She gives me a knowing smirk and links her arm through mine.

“Let’s go get some dinner, shall we? You can tell me all about how you haven’t noticed number eight yet.”

“Oh, shut up,” I grumble quietly, making her laugh.

Unfortunately, the queen has me sit beside her, so I’m unable to relax and talk to Freya during dinner.

“Shouldn’t Elora go out there to meet the contestants?” Freya asks when the idea of me leaving the castle comes up.

“No, the contest needs to be unbiased. If any of them let it slip what their number is, it could cause her to choose one over another.”

“Is that such a bad thing?” Grayson asks his mother. “She has to marry them, after all.”

The queen sighs and shakes her head. “I’m done with this topic for the night. Elora, when you’re done eating, the guards will escort you to your room where you will stay until morning. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” I grumble, taking a small bite of food.

“I’ve told you to call me Mother.” I nod, not wanting to tell her that if she wanted to be called that, she needed to start acting like it.

When I’m back in my room and changed for bed, I sit on the large bench under one of my windows and look out into the darkened night. Lights flicker from the direction of the arena, and I imagine it’s the lords and spectators who are camping out there tonight.

I sigh, thinking about how most of my time in this world was spent camping with my knights. I’d gladly go back to that over this stuffy castle any day.

Finally, when it's well past midnight and I can’t keep my eyes open any longer, I climb into my massive bed and hide under the blankets until morning. Wishing, once again, that maybe this time when I wake up, they’ll be beside me again.

I wake up with a groan as I move my arms and legs around the bed. Nope, all alone still. There’s a knock and one of the guards calls through the door, “Princess, are you awake? You need to be downstairs in an hour. ”

“Yeah, yeah,” I call back. “I’m getting up.”

By the time I’m sitting on my throne in the arena, I’m feeling much more awake. The sun is shining brightly today with no clouds in the sky as I wonder what contests the kings have in store for us today.

The only things in the arena are a bunch of long branches and buckets.

King Cole stands to announce the first contest. “The first challenge of the day is simple. Hold the water the longest.”

I watch as each of the lords puts the branch across his back and two knights stand at each end.

There’s a short countdown then the knights, in unison, hook the buckets to the end of the branches.

It’s the way you’d hold a bar for squatting, but instead of weights, they’re using buckets of water.

And instead of squatting, they just have to stand there.

Several of the lords start shaking straight away, water sloshing over the sides of their buckets before they crumple to their knees, effectively putting them in last place.

The rest are able to hold out for about ten minutes before the next wave of them start to give up. After that they start dropping like flies until there are only four left.

One of them is nineteen, but I can’t tell who the others are. When they eventually give up, Nineteen is declared the winner, and I have a strong feeling that whoever he and his brothers are, they’re going to win this whole thing .

My stomach tightens in unease. Last night, as I lay in bed, I tried to think of ways to escape, but being constantly surrounded by knights, it’s literally impossible to get away.

I wondered about escaping through a washroom window but beside my room, which was far too high up for me to escape out of, none of the washrooms I’d found even had windows.

Maybe I’ll have to wait until I’m married to escape. Would my knights still want me if I married someone else? Freya told me divorce wasn’t a thing here, it’s why they took marriage so seriously, it was forever. But if I were forced into it, it wouldn’t really count, would it?

My wandering mind is interrupted by King Chase. “The next challenge is a little different. Each lord has forty minutes to find a gift they deem suitable for the princess. My daughter will review these, without knowing which gift is from which suitor, and place them in order of appeal.”

I raise my eyebrows in surprise. I didn’t know they were actually going to let me have some say in the contests, however small it is.

The timer starts and most of the lords run out the back of the arena in search of their gifts. Some move more slowly like they already have something in mind.

They are collected outside the arena, so there’s no chance of me seeing what each man brings, but once they deliver their item they move to stand around the inside the arena, all facing the middle where the box of gifts is placed .

“Princess,” King Lewis says, getting my attention, pointing to the stairs close by where two knights wait for me.

I stand and let them escort me down to the arena floor. It feels strange being down here with the lords all standing around me, staring at me with their identities concealed.

I scan them all, my eyes catching on number twelve as he clenches his hands into fists.

Okay then… I quickly look away, worried about the anger I sense there.

I’m led to a table in the center, covered in numbers, with a large box placed on it. A man standing there gives me instructions.

“All the items are in this box, just place them beside the number you award it, with one being first place.”

I nod, understanding my task and reach in for the first item. It’s a necklace with a small emerald on it. It’s pretty so I put it beside number three for now. The next item is a large gemstone. It’s shiny, but I decide the necklace is more useful so it goes to number four.

My task starts to become difficult as I find most items seem decent but not unique or exciting.

I find a bouquet of flowers and just toss them on an empty number, wanting this to be over with.

Next I pull out a gold comb and I sigh, moving it to one of the lowest numbers.

I don’t value money, and I’d never use the comb, being too afraid to break it .

I let out a breath of frustration as I pull out the next gift and frown. It’s a tiny stone. Not a gemstone, a regular gray stone.

But as I rotate it through my hands I realize it’s not just a stone, it’s an arrowhead. It’s been hand carved and looks exactly like—

My head shoots up, as my wide eyes spin around the lords. “Princess, you can’t look at them,” the man overseeing the challenge tells me, so I look back down at the arrowhead and frown.

I swear I’ve held this exact item before. Arrow makes these for his bows. Is he here? Are they all here? They is no way they’d be allowed in this tournament though.

Despite my hesitation, I place it in the number one spot and hear a murmuring in the crowd of spectators.

I ignore them as I pull out the next object, another gemstone. I move faster, wanting to get this over with so I can take a better look at the lords. The next object is a small dagger in a sheath. I pull it out and inspect it. I don’t have to touch it to know how sharp it is.

Draven.

I’m sure I cleaned this exact dagger before, sitting around the campfire with Draven. I place it in the number two spot as I reach back into the box. Some more flowers, a golden brush, and a dress make their way onto the table.

But when I pull out a thong, I slap my hand over my mouth to stop the laughter. They don’t make underwear like this here. This is a pair I made myself. Now I know they must be here. I push some things around to make space in the number three spot, biting my lip to contain my excitement.

The last item comes out of the box: a needle and thread. I grin, pushing the other three down and placing it at number one. I look at the man overseeing the event and say, “Okay, I’m done.”

He frowns at my choices for a moment before he nods. “Thank you, Princess. You can go back to your seat now, while we award the points.”

“Can I wait to see who won?” I ask, but he shakes his head.

“No, we’ve been keeping all points from you so it’s a surprise.”

I frown, not liking others treating my life like some big game.

The two knights escort me between them as we head back to the stairs. I quickly look around, trying to figure out if any of these look like my knights. Twenty-two catches my attention as he raises his hand and places it on his heart.

Blaze.

I grin at him, somehow knowing exactly who’s behind the helmet. I bite my lip as I turn to walk up the stairs and return to my seat.

“You look happier,” King Lewis notes. “Did you enjoy that challenge?”

“Yes, it was very telling,” I reply honestly.

As the next, and final, event is being set up, Freya calls me over to stand with her and her husbands .

“So, that was a fun one, was it?” she asks curiously.

I narrow my eyes at her. Since the tournament started yesterday, she’s been acting much happier than she had in the previous four weeks.

“Is this your doing?” I whisper.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she says, feigning innocence.

I glance out at the arena, wondering what exactly she did to get them back here. Did she tell them how sad I was? Did she have to beg them to come back?

I frown with worry and ask, “What did you say to get them to come back?”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” she repeats, batting her lashes innocently at me. But then she leans forward and adds quietly, “But if I did, I’d tell you they never left.”

She straightens up and smirks at the stunned look on my face.

“Enjoy the last event, sister,” Pyke says as they take their seats.

I move back to mine and watch as a bunch of random objects are placed haphazardly around the arena.

It’s a little like the obstacle course, except there’s no clear path or direction.

There’s a giant pile of dirt in the middle with a large pole standing upright at its center, surrounded by clusters of logs, bales of hay, and even some large bushes.

“What is all that for?” I say aloud.

“Ah, I’m glad you asked,” King Lewis says with a smile. “Because you get to take part in this last challenge.”

“I do?”

“Yes. You’re the prize.”