The mossy ground felt cool between his fingers. Sedric opened his eyes and groaned as he sat up. It was past noon already, judging from the sparse light coming into his rather cramped dungeon cellar. Every bone in his body ached from sleeping on the ground night after night. How many days had it been since the betrayal? Time was hard to track with nothing to keep him occupied all day.
He should have seen it coming, really. Sedric had always known about prince Luther’s tendency for ruthlessness and pettiness, especially concerning his appearance. The prince’s temper had never been such a big issue to Sedric when it was directed at someone else, yet here he was. Thinking back, it was nothing short of a miracle that Sedric’s loose tongue had never brought him into trouble with the man before. He had been the prince’s closest companion for years, aiding him in his studies and fighting alongside him during the Coast Wars. He had even been the one to introduce him to his fiancée, lady Catharine. They had shared everything, until Sedric had gotten on his bad side.
It had been a simple comment during one of Luther’s balls. They were talking about the latest trends in imperial fashion. When Catharine had addressed the prince’s new curly moustache, Sedric jokingly mentioned he used to draw those on wanted posters when he was still a child. The young prince had flushed a deep red, but laughed about it along with everyone else. Ever since that day, however, their conversations had been more reserved and Luther had not sought out his company as much as he normally did.
Then, some days after the ball, two royal guards stood at Sedric’s door. While one was holding up a permit, the other one proclaimed ‘In the name of the throne, we demand access to search your chambers!’ Surprised, he let them in, thinking he had nothing to hide anyway. But then they pulled Catharine’s heirloom necklace from under his bed. Disbelief and astonishment took hold of him and he did not resist as he was escorted towards the dungeons.
No use thinking about that now, though. Back to figuring out some way to escape. If he could not get out of this dungeon soon his body would become too weak to try anything. He needed someone or something in order to create a plan. No use trying to get one of the guards on his side. He winced as he remembered his last attempt at bribery. No, better to look for something else. The guards had been talking about a second prisoner that would arrive sometime today. Being cut off from any reliable source of information, Sedric did not know much about the whole thing, only that there had been a strange incident in some nearby farmer village a couple of days ago that had greatly unnerved the guards. Some scuffling noises came from the other side of the room. Had the newcomer already arrived then?
‘Oy! Yeah, you, who else would I be talking to?’ A figure had walked up to the bars of the cell across from his. A tall, lanky boy no older than 16 was curiously staring at him. ‘I was thinking you looked familiar. You’re that fancy bloke who’s always with the prince, aren’t you? I’ve been hearing you’re a pretty good sword.’ The boy had something unsettling about him. ‘If you’re thinking of running from this stinking cellar, I might be able to help.’