Stonehold

Avira
Chapter 1
          The cold bar against my back serves as punishment for refusing to be used in this prison. I won't cry or let them see any of the emotions swirling within me. But it's hard to try and win when you feel like there isn't even a finish line, just more and more pain.
          I think back to what I'd done to "deserve" this cage in the cold early spring weather and question if it was even worth it.
          I had been plowing the snow like all the other women, as I watched Dawn out of the corner of my eye to make sure she was safe. When I heard the sure footsteps of a guard coming a little too close, I knew it was Gaptooth. He was a big guy at least six feet tall and built like a grizzly bear with at least two visible missing teeth. He stepped close behind me. Close enough that his chest was against my back.
          I leaned slightly forward, unsteady on my feet but I couldn't tell if it was because of his closeness or rather the icy chain connecting my ankles together. He buried his head in my matted mess of hair and breathed in as if it smelled good. I hadn't been to the water hole in a week. "Do you want to talk now, Missy?" He asked. I flinched when his lips brushed my neck and closed my eyes unsure what to do. "No? Well, that's a shame." He grabbed my arm roughly and began to pull me toward the guards' cabin.
          I yanked away arm away roughly. "No."
          "Excuse me?" He reached for me and I tried to run but the chain on my ankle made me stumble.
          He laughed as he all but dragged me forward until I shoved my knee as hard as I could into his groin. "I said 'No'."
          The next thing I saw was the caged sky above me. Now I have to spend the night in this cage so small that sitting straight on the ground makes me hit my head. But no, I decide, spending a night frozen half to death under steel bars is better than in the arms of an animal. My breathes comes in a foggy mist and my teeth clatter relentlessly but the only thing on my mind is Dawn's safety.
          This prison isn't meant for children like her or people like me. The King had sent the female traitors from twenty years ago to rot in these cells for crimes against the kingdom, while he executed the men. He called it a mercy toward the women though he allows many of the guards to be sick and cruel. They rape the women and sometimes even the girls like me or even as young as Dawn and that's where we came from. I am a fatherless daughter of a prisoner's crude affair with her enforcer. I don't let any of them touch me but there have been close calls like the one with Gaptooth just this evening.
          It's a cruel life to live especially for all seventeen years of mine with barbed wire gates and permanent chains around me, but sometimes I wonder if my mother deserves worse than it. She has stolen powers from the king and lead a rebellion, killing babies born in nobility for reasons I didn't care to try and understand. She manages to manipulate every weakened soul near her and when I was born, she would eat my rations and leave me just enough to survive by the skin on my teeth. She is wicked and barbarous and even named me Malvea, meaning worthless and unwanted in her native tongue, Freyan. She deserves death for her crimes.
          Dawn was also born within the gates but her mother was kind and loving, only here because of my mother's tricks and deceit. Her mother died soon after her birth and since then I've done everything I can to take care of her even if it means accepting punishments in her place.
          There really isn't much of a system in this place. The traitors slave away, doing whatever work they are asked of and the guards do whatever pleases them. There are small dungeons in which five or six women share which are all in the same giant room of the main building. Mealtime is right before bed when the officers send a small bowl of soup and bread for each girl and once a week we are taken to a pond where we rinse under the watchful eyes of gleeful guards. I let myself drift off into a dream I didn't want to wake from, imagining the bars as protection from the outside world rather than entrapment.
          I wake quickly to the sound of the cage unlocking and see one of the kinder guards that I often talked to. I crawl out, sore from sleeping in a fetal position. "Jeremy," I whisper. "Is Dawn okay?"
          "Yes. But the king is bringing his heirs to Stonehold."
          I sigh, releasing my stress before hearing his next sentence. "Now?" He nods and I become anxious once again. The monstrous king is visiting with his two sons? What does that mean? Is he planning on executing us after all? This prison was referred to by most as a "Stonehold" but I can't handle that. It's a place of torture and depravation. It can't be referred to by me as a measly camp. "What does he want?"
          "I've heard rumors that people are protesting the existence of this place and want everyone publicly executed." He becomes quiet with nothing left to say and I drop my head in acceptance.
          "Maybe it's for the best," I murmur.
          When we reach my cell, I leap inside and wrap Dawn up in my arms. She cries softly and I feel my eye begin to water before I force the tears away. "I thought you were dead." Her sobs bundled with her lisp make it difficult to understand what she says.
          "Of course not, Silly. If I was then I would never get the chance to do this!" I leap at her, tickling her as a smile finds its way onto my face. Little moments like this are the only times I ever get the chance to smile as her childish laugh rings throughout the main building. I eventually stop when she complains that she'll pee herself but am left with a small smile, seeing that her tears of sadness were replaced with ones of laughter.
          But just because Dawn is given opportunities to act like a normal child, she's anything but. She knows how to behave. "Quiet!" a voice shrieks. We both instantly silence as our smiles are wiped from our faces. She is so quiet that I can't even hear her breathing.
          When the lights are out silence is mandatory. When she was a baby, I used to sing softly to her or whisper in her ear, "It's nearly dawn." She heard that so often that her first word was dawn which soon became what I call her.
          "King William is here with his sons Prince Hunter and Prince Cade of Valier. We expect you to all be on your best behavior. Thank you." General Saar, the man in charge of this prison. He is kinder than one would expect and often protects the women from the guards, though he seems to be under orders to ignore it. He is only twenty-five, less than a decade older than me, and he is King William's most trusted advisor and dare I say friend. The other two women, Melissa and Christie, walk toward the cell wall from their beds, curiously while my mother stays in bed, seemingly aloof.
          The first thing I see is the king's crown as he walks into the room and the second is the princes, following close behind. I didn't know who was Hunter and who was Cade, having been stuck here all my life. King William begins to talk with General Saar while Cade and Hunter look around the room with loathing so strong I could practically feel its fiery rage. I felt my face morph into a sneer and had to school my expression before either of them looked my way. They hate us when they are the ones letting the guards pick us off like a lamb in the slaughter. Saar walks the royals around the room as they take it all in. This is the first time they'd ever visited their subjects and I can't seem to keep myself from glaring at them.
          My gaze seems to draw one of the boy's and he just locks eyes with me. His expression shifts from hate to swirls of curiosity and confusion as he watches me. My expression changes too as I see him. I've never seen a boy my age before for any male baby had been taken away for what I can only assume was an early death. He's tall and his eyes seem to be a murky blue that catches me off guard. I don't even know how I could see them from here. Then his brother turns to him, talking in his ear before his eyes land on me. Soon they're both staring at me and I'm just staring back, hopeless as to what else I can do. They turn to the king and ask and they all talk softly before heading over toward me. I duck my head and pull Dawn behind me, trying to appear as small as possible if only for her sake.
          "You may bow for your Ruler," a voice says sharply. I look up and see the second brother staring right into my soul, though hate isn't what I see. I see the pounding noise of pity in his gaze. I glare at the tone he used and the two women beside me bow down on their knees. Glaring in their general direction instead of anyone in particular I drop into a mocking curtsy, stumbling wildly in the chains as they cut into my many blisters.
          Bow?! For a king who has never done one thing for me his whole life?
          "Please," the king adds softly, looking at me with a strange brand of nostalgia. It wasn't until I dropped to my knees, pulling Dawn with me that I realized that my mother was still in her bed under the covers. "Now you may stand."
          I stood to my full height, though the princes were both still at least a head taller than me. I wasn't short. I was taller than average and refused to feel dwarfed by not only their height but also their status and power. I find myself sneering at the second prince and that his eyes are very different from his brothers. They're a dark green with small rims of gold, somehow both sharp and warm. "What is your name?" he asks with a certain authority I'm tempted to deny.
          "Avira." It's not my given name but Dawn and my mother are the only people who know it so I began telling all who ask the name I'd given myself. It was the name of the brightest star in the sky. Jeremy had told me about it during my first punishment in the cage. I had survived by myself and grown all on my own. I could give myself a title I want to hear.
          "Where is your mother?" King William asks.
          I take a moment to think before I say boldly, "I don't have one." I know the other women in the room including my mother knew otherwise but I don't want to see her as my mom. She is just the one that brought me into this cruel world. She doesn't get any credit for who I am.
          The brothers' eyes seem to be watching everything but this conversation. "I'm sorry for your loss," the king continues with a faux sadness in his eyes.
          I'm not.
          "I plan to release all the children and young that were not involved in the acts against the crown."
          I nod but don't bother to say any more. My heart beat picks up its pace and I barely keep my eyes from shifting to Dawn behind me. Does he want to kill us the way he did the boys? Put us in a different dungeon or cage all over again? How can he blame us for our parents' crimes.
          The king nods as if to say goodbye and they all walk away with a powerful stride that I can't help but find annoying. I catch the blue-eyed son looking at me with a small and I look away before I say something I'll regret.
Avira
Chapter 2
          As days pass, I think about that day often. I wonder what would have happened if I had fallen to my knees and begged the king to let me and Dawn be free. Even though spring was coming the weather was still freezing and blizzards had begun to move in. If we are working outside and it begins to snow, we are just told to work harder. Most women are in their fifties and sixties so the freezing weather and constant working caused many to collapse and even die. It's a terrible way to die. They collapse of exhaustion and then freeze to death in the snow. They're bodies aren't removed most times. There have been times I am just shoveling snow and am surprised with a body beneath the powder. I stay close to Dawn and remain quiet and we've been fine so far even as bodies drop around us like moths. There was only one other daughter in the prison. I don't know her name but she is always seen with a much older woman who I assume is her mother.
          The cold bites me as the wind threatens to knock me over. I barely catch Dawn before she falls into a nearby snow bank. Winter wasn't even this bad. I've never seen so many bodies before. A sudden feeling of intense grieving and panic hit me like a boulder and then I hear the scream. I turn toward it, grabbing Dawn's hand. The girl barely younger than I is sobbing and wailing at the top of her lungs as her fists pound into the ground. The body of an older lady lay in the snow beside her with her eyes wide. I shake my head softly in pity and shared grief. I want to walk over and pull her into a hug bad I have to protect Dawn and I just know the guards are going to come over and give her a punishment for her outburst. I remain quiet but tremble. Feeling her pain but unable to express it.
          Ours passed and me plus a couple other women are in the small kitchen cutting the veggies for mealtime. My brain is so jumbled and rushed like tangled yarn or scribbled on a page. More than half the women in the dungeons died this morning. The hair in my lungs comes and goes slowly but not quite steadily. All the women in my cell have died except for me, Dawn, and the mother. She's younger than the rest, barely in her forties so the cold hasn't gotten to her quite yet.
          How could life be so unfair? The mother is the worst of all the women in this place and she is one of the last ones standing. I can't believe it. I don't want to believe it. She deserved that slow and painful death. She deserves to die so she can go to the cell in hell waiting for her. The dull knife comes down on my finger in all my anger and I hiss in a sharp breath. Blood trails down my finger and I shuffle to a guard in my chains and thin shoes. I shove the knife into my pants on an impulse, maybe I'll need it. It's one of the nicer ones so I speak respectfully. "Can I please go to the bathroom? I cut myself."
          He sighs, "Yes, but be quick with it."
          I nod and when I reach the bathroom, I make sure the knife isn't visible in my waist band before rinsing the blood off my hands. I go to bed that night, giving Dawn most of my rations and in complete and utter fear at what the king might do. There used to be a few hundred women in these cells and know there were less than twenty. I shudder at the thought of all those bodies in the snow, rotting with no one to bury them or remember their name. "Malvea," The mother's voice is tired.
          I don't respond.
          "Why did you say your name was Avira?"
          I smirk and imagine her feeling bad that I wouldn't mention her though I knew she doesn't care. "You don't deserve a place in my life."
          You don't deserve life at all.
          She scoffs. "I made you who you are, Malvea. And once I get out of here, I'm going to make sure the world knows what you and that little joke of a child. Malvea." She laughs and I just ignore her, an idea running wild through my head.
          You're never getting out of here. You aren't worthless You're worth than nothing. A burden on the world that needs to be removed.
          I wake up with the sun and talk to Dawn before we head out to work in the cold. "I have something I need to do today while we shovel. Can you be on your own for a little while?"
          She nods with determination. "Yes."
          "Thank you, Dawny."
          When I am walking to the fields, I make sure I stay close to the mother but stay quiet. When we reach them, I walk close to her before pointing the knife against her side. "Follow me quietly or you die," I whisper.
          She chuckles softly, nodding. I lead her to a patch further from a guard and turn her toward me. When I'm sure no one's looking I plunge the knife straight into her chest. She falls to the ground bleeding out though a smile rests on her lips. "You have my blood. You're a killer." She begins to laugh before choaking up blood. "Murderer," she breathes out with her dying breath.
          My heart beats faster at the blood surrounding her body. I begin to shovel snow on top of her, hiding her frozen smile. I've never killed anyone before and I don't want to ever again but the mother made it seem as if I didn't have a choice.
Cade
Chapter 3
          My day is booked with meetings over the riots and deaths in Stonehold. The nobles don't like that the traitors are still alive and as much as I agree in that area, they also want the three girls to be given the same fate. My father doesn't want any of them executed and Hunter thinks we should release all of them. He can't ever make tough decisions so of course doing nothing is his idea of a perfect plan. The lower classes are still angry with the voting system. They say is should be one vote per person like is it for nobility but the nobles are powerful. Changing the laws would wreak havoc, especially with the rebels still on the loose.
          My next meeting begins but my focus is elsewhere. That girl was really born and raised in that place? How did we not know about that? How could Father let that happen?
          I hear the reports of the deaths in Stonehold every day and I've seen the protests outside my bedroom window. Our country was falling apart. We need a distraction, to give the public some hope. The noise of clambering voices comes to an end as my father's voice rings loudly, "We are not killing the traitors. Most are already dead from the cold and those children didn't do anything to deserve that life."
          "But sir. The public won't be satisfied with that. They remember what happened," General Saar says calmly.
          I was born mere months after the cruel acts of those women. They're all psychotic. They killed nearly one hundred babies that were born in nobility. I nearly shivered at just the thought of it. "We just have to remind the masses that we're all equal. The peasants are the same as the royals and advisors. Everyone is the same." Father's voice was decisive.
          As the words leave his mouth I feel a deep disgust at this man. He is being merciful to the murderers which I can understand slightly but he knows we aren't equal. Nobles have rights the peasants could only dream of. This lie isn't going to succeed and I can see that truth on all the faces at the table.
          When the meeting comes to an end I immediately find Hunter. "What do you think about Father's plan?" I ask. He wants to have a sort of competition with people of all shapes and sizes from many different classes including the Stonehold girls and show that they are all equal.
          "I think it's wonderful. It will finally calm down the peasants and force the rebels to give up seeing that we won't do what they demand."
          Of course he agrees with Father. I bite my tongue. He doesn't need to hear my argument. "Yeah, that makes sense. Would you want to spar before we head back?" We're both in nice clothes but I'm desperate for an escape from my royal duties.
          He nods and we head toward the field. "Hey Cade? Do you remember that girl from Stonehold?"
          "Yes, what about her?" I've been thinking about the way she was protecting that little girl and her refusal to bow all day long.
          "I just don't understand how people would want to kill her. She didn't do anything wrong."
          "It's not because of what she did. It's because of who she is. And no, it's not fair."
          He becomes silent and I'm left to think about who will attend the Games. Maybe I would see her again. The blunt sword feels light in my hand. Hunter grabs his own and we begin circling each other in the dirt. I charge first as always since he's such a pacifist.
          He blocks my sword and dances away. The clang of metal as I block his attacks and send my own brings me to a certain peace. I flick my wrist, sending his sword flying into the dirt and press the tip of mine to his chest. I smile seeps onto my face even though I was bound to win.
          Hunter groans though a smile is still written on his face. "Why do we even do this? You beat me every time."
          I can't help but laugh. "Doesn't make is any less fun."
          "Fine. Brawl next. Powers included."
          Father had just given us our gifts with the Thornrose and Hunter hasn't been able to stop playing with his. I was given the small ability of heightened senses. It's not much but if it's used right, it can be very useful. Hunter was given telekinesis and can shift thing with his mind. "Deal," I say and pounce on him.
          He throws me off balance in the middle of my leap and I crash to the floor, dirt getting in my mouth and eyes. I turn back toward him and see him close his eyes. He claims it makes it easier to control it but I think it just makes him vulnerable. I run toward him and notice the shift of his weight onto his left foot. I drop as he throws his arms out in front of him, barely missing me with his gift. I swing my foot, catching his ankles and then he's falling to the ground. I pin him with a smile. "Uncle?"
          He looks away from me and I hear a soft crumbling noise. I duck just in time for the rock to fly over my head. I pin his shoulders beneath my knees and send a punch to his face. He grunts, "Uncle!"
          He's got a cut on his lip from my punch but we're both laughing as we head back inside. As we reach the wall of the front of the castle, bright red words stare back at us.
          Kill them