Page 17 of The Freedom You Seek

For some reason, I was convinced that this was exactly what had occurred. It made me furious, and I stood up without listening to the following conversation.

No one tried to hold me back as I stalked out of the tavern and into the night to blow off some steam. There was still a guard to deal with who’d seriously pissed me off—and who needed to learn his lesson about why that was a really atrocious idea.

Two nights and a day passed, and no one had come to see me. Except for the brief moment when Rewi had sneaked in, I’d been utterly alone. I didn’t know if this was a good or a bad sign, but the longer I sat in the cell and stared into nothingness with only my thoughts and fears as companions, the more I lost hope of getting out of this situation unscathed.

If Rewi hadn’t brought me something to eat and drink, I would have been in even worse shape. Yet the hardest to deal with was the overwhelming sense of helplessness and fear of what would become of me.

I clenched my fist. Aside from being desperate, I was still angry and furious that no one asked me what hadhappened. Nobody cared about my perspective, so much was obvious.

On top of everything, I was unbearably filthy. Dried blood and dirt stuck to my skin, and I itched all over.

During the last few days, I’d tried to get rid of Jelric’s betrothal choker, but all I’d managed was to hurt myself to the point where my bruises stung every time I moved my head. A sensation of pure weakness was threatening to overwhelm me.

I must have fallen asleep, but was startled awake by the sound of the dungeon door slamming shut and boots shuffling outside of my cell.

Rubbing my eyes, I waited for the dizziness to pass and sat up as four guards appeared in my vision. Two of them kept carefully neutral expressions, but the third had pity written all over his face. I recognized him; he’d been the one who had covered me with the bedsheet when they’d taken me from the stables. The last one’s face was dominated by an enormous black eye, and his mean appearance made me shiver.

“Get up,” the callous one barked as he unlocked my barred cell door, and when I didn’t react fast enough, he pulled me up by my forearm. I was in agony, and my knees collapsed.

“Please—what’s happening?” My voice sounded so timid, and my anger was currently buried under waves of anxiety.

Instead of answering my pleading question, the unpleasant guard motioned to his waiting comrades. “Shackle her. Can’t risk a dangerous murderer breaking free in the crowd.”

His words paralyzed me. Shackle. Murderer. Crowd. This was bad—really bad.

As the guards restrained me by jerking my arms back and placing weighty metal shackles on my wrists, I whimpered at how cold the material felt on my skin and made no attempt to resist them. No fight was left in of me, and I barely registered them binding my ankles as well. The chain between the shackles was short, and walking would be hard.

At last, the guard, who still wore an expression of pity and discomfort on his face, stepped up to me. His brown eyes met mine, and he took a deep breath. “Sorry,” he whispered just for me to hear as he covered my head gently with a rough hessian sack and tied it tightly around my neck. A sickly-sweet smell of something herbal and biting instantly assaulted my senses, but I wasn’t able to identify what exactly it was.

I was blind and bound, and when two of the guards grabbed me by the elbows and dragged me along, I just followed them as best as I could. I was surprisingly calm, calmer than I’d been in the past few days, not feeling much panic or anger or anything anymore. A numbness settled over my mind, and I moved my feet automatically.

I opened my mouth to plead again, but I must have lost the ability to string words together. With every breath I took, I was more detached from myself and the world. I couldn’t bring myself to care anymore. I was void of feelings.

After pacing restlessly in my small inn room, I left the depressing bedchamber. Our search for answers regarding the deceased man in the stables had only led us to dead ends. While I was tempted to sneak into the city dungeons, the place was too well-guarded for Fig allowing meto risk it—as if it were a risk.Instead, I’d found the guard who’d annoyed me, and I could only hope for him he’d learned his lesson and never would dare to mess with me again. Sadly, he hadn’t put up much of a fight, and so the pent-up energy that had been bothering me was still very much present.

Antas had tried to calm me down earlier, but my irritation only grew. I didn’t like being idle or having no plan to follow, and my mood was even worse than in the past few days.

Last night, Thain had persuaded me to take a break and join everyone in visiting the festival today. According tohim, it was supposed to be the busiest day of the event, full of performances in the town square, and in a moment of weakness, I’d told him I would attend. Now, I’d rather cut off my leg. I should have known better than to listen to Thain, of all people.

My lack of enthusiasm was to blame for my—admittedly intentional—delay, and the others had already left without me. Despite the powerful temptation to stay in my room and escape the crowds, I begrudgingly chose to make my way toward the town center.

It wasn’t a long walk, and when I arrived, I let my gaze roam over the masses of people, hoping to find any of my companions. Instead, I got distracted by a scene that instantly caught my undivided attention. My whole body stilled as my eyes latched on the display in front of me, and an uneasy energy vibrated through me from head to toe. I felt my hands shaking, and a peculiar sensation, almost like a premonition, overwhelmed me, leaving me with no doubt. Whatever was going to transpire here would be important, and it was no coincidence that the others and I’d chosen to join the celebrations today. I would bet my right arm that this was what Antas had meant when he said I’d know what our purpose was in this godsforsaken town.

“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath as I closely observed a damn gallows in the middle of the town square that hadn’t been there yesterday. The knowledge came with clarity from the depths of my soul and settled in my bones: I had to keep alive whoever was supposed to die here. By any means necessary.

For the briefest of moments, I remained frozen in place before my training to perform under intense pressure kicked in. After checking that no one was currently being led to the wooden execution contraption, I turned my attention to the next phase of my hastily forming plan. I had to find my comrades because things would get messy fast if we had to rescue a convict from their final punishment in front of a massive crowd.

I weaved my way through the masses, and luckily, it didn’t take long until I spotted Thain, who was currently wooing a few townswomen.Of course he did.I couldn’t be considerate of his dalliances on a regular occasion—and certainly not when the situation was so dire—so I jostled him away from the females and hissed in his ear, “We have an emergency. Find the others. Afterward, head to the inn, gather our belongings, and ready the horses. Bring them as close as possible to the eastern exit of the town square.”

Thain glared at me as if I were more than just a little unhinged, but I couldn’t care less. He had better obey my orders, or things would get very uncomfortable for him very soon.

“And before you ask, no, I haven’t discussed this with Fig yet. There’s no time for that.” I couldn’t care less about Thain’s pouty glower. Although our relationship hadn’t been great in the past few weeks, he must have noticed the seriousness and urgency on my face, and in the end, he nodded.

“I’ll tell them we’ll meet near the booth serving fruit punch in ten minutes if I find them.”

“Noted. Now go.”

I glared at him until he took off.