The Captive Kingdom

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

  “The bell rang, so everyone should be headed down.” From that first spoken word of reply, my breath caught in my throat, locking in tighter until I scarcely could think. “We should go down ourselves, or we’ll be the ones in trouble.”

  I recognized this voice. It was so familiar that I knew it down to my bones.

  During the earliest years of my life, he had been my most constant companion. For most of those years, we had shared a room, because my parents felt someone needed to keep an eye on me. Later, in my final two years in the castle, our father had separated us in order to preserve Darius’s reputation. How I had hated that, and I often snuck into his room at night to sleep.

  We were tutored together, took meals together, trained together in horsemanship, sword fighting, history, and languages. Even above those of my own parents, I would know the voice of my brother.

  This was Darius.

  The thought itself set my heart racing and turned my limbs to lead. How easy it had been to deny the truth about Darius when I was on the ship, when logic and reason muted my every instinct to trust in Strick’s words.

  Darius was alive, and not a stone’s throw away from me now.

  Of that I was certain. What I did not know was what to do about it.

  “I thought I heard someone back there.” Darius took a step in my direction. “If everyone is not on the beach, you know the consequences.”

  The woman said, “They only care if you are not there. The Prozarians don’t like it when you are away too long.”

  “We’re cut off from the mainland, and they’ve taken control of our ships. Where could I possibly go?”

  “I know that, but Captain Strick is expected to arrive tonight. She will want you there to greet the ship.”

  His sigh was heavy. “I’m dreading her arrival, Trea.”

  Her voice became even more tender and kind. “I was there at your birth, Darius, and have seen you in every kind of circumstance and challenge since. But never once in all your years have I seen you as anxious as you are today.”

  For the first time, I took the risk of peeking around the tree, desperate to see him again. The woman — Trea — was blocking my view. She appeared to be somewhere in her thirties, and she was a beautiful woman. She was dressed in clothing much simpler than the fashions of Carthya. I did not know her.

  Then she moved, and suddenly, there was Darius facing in my direction. I couldn’t believe my eyes, for he looked almost exactly as I remembered him from six years earlier. Older, certainly — Darius would be twenty now. But his hair was the same shade of brown, and his perfectly straight posture the same, just as Father had always required of him.

  From somewhere in the distance, another bell rang. Trea immediately started forward. “The moment has come. She’s here.”

  Trea took four steps down the trail before she looked back and stopped, realizing Darius wasn’t following.

  Instead, his gaze had caught in the exact area where I now stood. The instant I realized it, I pulled back into the shadows, my heart pounding like a drum. He shouldn’t have been able to see me, not with only moonlight and a few stars.

  But he had seen me, I knew it. I expected he would call my name, or at least draw Trea’s attention to the fact that someone had been watching him.

  When Trea insisted that they needed to leave, he only picked up a bag near his feet and said to her, “Do you know why I’ve dreaded this day?”

  “Why?”

  “Because Jaron is supposed to be on that ship, and I don’t know which will be worse. Is it having to face Jaron, knowing what he’s done? Or will it be watching Jaron face what the Prozarians have planned for him?” Darius glanced in my direction again, and this time I could almost swear that our eyes met. “Either way, I sincerely hope that he never sets foot on this soil.”

  “If he doesn’t come, you have no agreement with the Prozarians, and then what will we do?” Trea paused. “And what if she has come with him? Are you prepared for that?”

  Something changed in Darius’s eyes, a softening perhaps. And I realized Trea was talking about someone else. Not Captain Strick, but a different she. Trea was asking Darius if he was prepared to meet Amarinda again.

  Darius didn’t answer any of Trea’s questions, but I felt the weight of his eyes continuing to stare in the direction where I had just stood. Trea said, “Let’s go, or they will come looking for you, and that never goes well.”

  Footsteps padded away from me, fading, and then the sound disappeared entirely.

  When I was sure they had gone, I slumped to the ground, covering my mouth with one hand. I genuinely had no idea what I should do next.

  I mogen was the first to find me and must have sensed my despair, for she merely sat at my side and wrapped her arm around my shoulders.

  Finally, in a voice as gentle as her touch, she said, “I waited until it was quiet, but then you didn’t return. I was worried.”

  “I saw Darius. He’s alive, Imogen. It’s him.”

  She froze for a beat. “How did he look?”

  “The same. But different. Something is different, but I can’t place what it is.”

  “It’s dark out here. Maybe your eyes played tricks on you.”

  I looked at her and shook my head, then felt her hand press on my shoulder, asking me to move. “Let’s go.”

  “I think he saw me too.”

  Now there was tension in her touch. “You think he did?”

  “I know he did. And he wasn’t happy about it.” I didn’t tell her about the children. Her brow was already creased enough.

  We glanced up as Mott entered the clearing. He didn’t ask any questions but seemed to simply know, as if the effects of having seen my brother were etched into my face.

  Mott crouched in front of me, waiting until I was looking at him before asking, “What now?”

  I closed my eyes and tried to collect my thoughts. “That bell you heard means Strick’s ship has come in. Darius went to the beach to meet it, along with a woman named Trea. She said that she was there at his birth.” Now I looked directly at Mott. “You know her, don’t you?”

  “The nurse that Strick described in her notebook, yes, that was Trea.”

  “You knew her name when we discussed this on Westler’s ship. Instead of telling me then, you let me go into this blind.”

  Mott only replied, “I have reasons for my secrets, as you have reasons for yours.”

  I frowned back at him. “That is unacceptable.”

  After a short pause, Mott added, “Trea worked her whole life for Conner, as did I.” His focus shifted to Imogen. “I knew her, but you must have known her too.”

  “Not well,” Imogen said. “How could she have worked for Conner and been at Darius’s birth?”

  Mott rubbed a hand over his scalp as he considered his answer. “I’m sorry, I can’t explain that.” With his attention back on me, he asked again, “What shall we do now?”

  “We must follow them, get a sense for what is happening at the docks. He is expecting Amarinda to arrive with the ship as well, so if we stay close to him, we may have a chance of finding her.”

  “Mott and I will go, but not you,” Imogen said. “It’s not safe.”

  “When have I ever cared about safety?” I asked.

  “How can you not care? Jaron, your leg is still bandaged from the last time you didn’t care!”

  “He won’t stay back,” Mott said, showing a rare spark of urgency. “None of us will, so let’s all go, together.”

  Imogen glared at him, her eyes widened in disbelief that Mott had actually sided with me. But she knew she had lost the argument, so she merely stood and marched ahead along the path. Mott and I followed.

  The path took a sharp incline, which led to the top of a ridge. From here, we had a fine view of the village below, framed in moonlight and lit with torches and lanterns. The village was connected to the beach by a series of gravel paths, dotted with around fifty simple wood homes and open-a
ir markets. Despite the late hour, the paths between them were filled with people in a bustle of activity as the Shadow Tide began to dock at the far end of five ships of similar size and with the same Prozarian flag on display.

  Imogen suggested that if we continued along the path, it would lead us down to the beach. We followed that way, but veered off the path when we got lower, keeping to the dense patches of trees and underbrush, places where we hoped we would not readily be seen.

  Although we were still some distance from the beach, we eventually reached a final patch of trees thick enough to hide us. Beyond here, the trees thinned, then disappeared into clumps of tall grasses, then even those gave way to pebbles and sand. This was as close as we dared get.

  We kept tightly to the darkest places, taking advantage of the fact that those around us were so busy, no one took notice of our shadows.

  The beach was bustling with activity as the Bellanders delivered various goods to Prozarian vigils standing at posts along the beach. The Prozarians were easily recognizable by their brimmed hats and long coats in the same green-and-white colors as their flags. Those who weren’t taking collections wandered among the Bellanders, whips in their hands, shouting orders and making threats.

  The people themselves wore long, simple tunics, some belted with twine or strips of fabric. The men had close-cropped hair and the women banded their long hair down their backs. They seemed to outnumber the Prozarians by several times over, but rather than show any signs of resistance, they continued with their work, bringing food and quilts and weapons to the proper vigils. As they worked, they all seemed to be singing a common tune, one of mourning or defeat. No one sang loudly, but their combined voices created an almost haunted feeling.

  “Faster!” a Prozarian shouted, raising a strap against an older man. I started forward to intervene, but Mott pulled me back, reminding me of our purpose in having come this far.

  At first I was so angry with that Prozarian, I didn’t notice Darius and Trea walking right past us, not until they were so close I could have reached out and touched them. They didn’t seem to see us this time, but each of us froze in place.

  “What will I say to the captain?” Darius was asking. “She will ask.”

  Trea licked her lips. “Let her do the talking, as much as possible. The less you say, the better. Remember how many lives depend on this going well.”

  Indeed, within minutes of the Shadow Tide docking, a gangplank was lowered to the docks. Darius and Trea stepped forward to welcome the ship, though Darius was rocking on his heels, a nervous habit I thought our father had long ago weeded out of him. Captain Strick emerged first, escorted by two of her crewmen.

  “They look miserable,” I whispered. “As if escorting her is a punishment.”

  “They must’ve done something awful to deserve this,” Imogen agreed.

  I turned to look at Mott, who had not answered. I’d been so caught up in studying the area and events around me that I’d failed to notice Mott’s shallow breaths and nervous fingers. Never before, in all our time together, had I ever seen him like this.

  “What’s the matter with you?”

  “Hush.”

  “You look like you’re about to pass out. If you are, I should know.”

  “Hush, Jaron!”

  I followed his gaze forward to Trea, who was standing in our direct line of sight, then looked back at Mott, who wasn’t blinking, perhaps out of fear that he might miss that fraction of a second to stare at her.

  “You can’t be serious,” I whispered, but if he heard me, he ignored it.

  Nor did he need to answer. I understood the expression on his face far too well. Mott had withheld from me a far bigger secret than I had suspected. He didn’t only know Trea. He was in love with her. The kind of love that might have made him forget how dangerous this moment was, how quickly a wrong move could get us caught once again within Strick’s snares.

  In his will, Conner had asked for a portion of his inheritance to go to Mott, as an apology. Maybe Conner was the reason that Trea left. Mott may not have even known what happened to her until this very moment.

  Imogen met my eyes, and I knew she recognized Mott’s expression too. Except I could not smile the same way she was, because this greatly complicated our problems. Until I knew more about Trea, I would not trust that Darius was safe with her.

  Which meant she was a risk to me.

  And based on the way Mott continued to stare at her, I understood that Mott had just become a risk to me too.

  By the time Captain Strick reached the shore, all Bellanders were on their knees, many of them kneeling only after being threatened by a Prozarian. Even Darius knelt, which left me shaking my head in disgust. Did he not remember who he was, what he was?

  The rest of the captain’s crew members were beginning to leave the ship too, all of them with weapons visible. So far, no pirates had left.

  Finally, at Trea’s prompting, Darius stood and called out, “Hail, Captain Strick. Prozarians and Bellanders alike, give her your welcome!”

  The Prozarians offered salutes of honor, but the Bellanders did not. Instead, they extended their arms straight down, hands in fists. All of them.

  “They’re protesting,” Imogen mumbled.

  The captain took notice of their actions but lifted her arms as if they were all cheering for her and loudly announced, “My friends, as you can see from the condition of our ship, we have suffered greatly while at sea, but we return in victory, with five crates of weapons to strengthen the Prozarian armies, one crate for each ship that has remained at watch here.”

  I felt Imogen’s eyes on me and frowned back at her. We both understood the significance of losing those weapons, the terrible impact their loss would have upon Carthya.

  Strick continued, “Very soon, some of you will receive orders to transfer the crates to each of our ships. Be cautious in your work. Without fail, the crates must not get wet — the contents are too precious; nor should they be exposed to flame. They were stored near a gunpowder magazine, and you will not want to be the person who discovers whether any dust settled on the crates themselves.”

  Imogen leaned close to me. “Without those weapons, what strength does Carthya still have?”

  “Not much. A few dinner knives, and maybe we could throw dirt in the eyes of our invaders.” Imogen half-smiled, but I hadn’t been entirely joking. The recent war had been devastating to our supplies.

  “Where is Darius?” Strick asked.

  He briefly glanced at Trea, then took a deep breath and walked forward. Without warning, the captain slapped him, hard enough that his head turned to the side, where he left it while she yelled, “You might’ve done a better job of warning me about Jaron!”

  Now he looked at her. “What did he do? I warned you of everything I knew.”

  “Then you do not know him well enough. He escaped my ship yesterday. Where is he now?”

  I leaned forward, anxious for the answer. He might not know exactly where I was at the moment, but he did know I was here. If he was going to betray me, this was his opportunity.

  But Darius only said, “Give me tonight to think about where he might have gone. I will have answers for you in the morning, I swear it.”

  “Why should I believe your promises now?” Strick withdrew her sword and advanced on him until he had returned to his knees. “Maybe I’ll just kill you here and take the lens for myself.”

  “I told you before; if you kill me, you will never find the lens. Now, please, give me tonight to think of a way to mend our agreement.”

  “Our agreement was based on us having more time with the second lens. Your brother caused damage to the ship, which delayed our arrival.”

  Darius’s head shot up. “Whatever Jaron did, that isn’t my fault!”

  “But you will bear the consequences of it. We are returning to our original agreement, including the second lens.”

  Darius closed his eyes. “That is too much.”


  “After what your brother put us through, it is more than fair.” She raised her sword. “Accept now, if you wish to live.”

  I looked back at Imogen and saw the same alarm in her eyes that surely was in mine. With a hand on my knife, I started forward, but before I could, Trea ran between them, shouting, “Captain Strick, there is no cause for this. Darius told you everything he knew, but it has been many years since he has seen his brother. Surely Jaron has changed since then. Darius could not predict that.”

  The captain slowly lowered her arm, then a sly smile stretched across her face. “Our original terms are fair. Agree to them now.” She looked toward the Bellanders. “Or our negotiations will begin again.”

  She marched forward, grabbing the arm of a girl who was kneeling in the front row. She cried out with fear and I immediately recognized her as Lavita, the older girl I’d seen with the other children.

  “This one volunteers to make the next jump into the cave,” Strick said. “Shall I choose another?”

  “Release her. I agree to your terms.” Darius lowered his head, though he was clearly shaken by what had just happened. “All of them.”

  “And Jaron?”

  “I will have something for you in the morning, I promise that.”

  “You better go and start thinking.” Strick released Lavita, then called back onto the ship. “Roden, you should be here by now!”

  I gasped when I saw him. Roden’s face was bruised, his shirt was torn, and he walked unevenly, as if exhausted. But he said to the captain, “How may I serve you?”

  “What’s happened to him?” Imogen whispered.

  I shrugged, but the answer seemed obvious enough. He had paid dearly for my escape from the ship.

  Strick pushed him forward, and he stumbled with his first steps onto the sand. “Escort Darius to his home. Watch for Jaron along the way.”

  “Yes, Captain.” He walked up to Darius. “You will come with me, please.”

  Trea touched Darius’s arm, prompting him to move. “You go. I’ll stay here until all the people are safely back in their homes.”

  “Thank you, Trea,” he mumbled.