Read Online Before Beauty by Brittany Fichter - Free Book Online

should have sent him running back into the storm,
he instinctively felt he could trust the strange apparitions.
Either that, or the ancient food he’d just eaten was meddling with
his ability to reason.
    Unlike the shadows, however, the
Fortress itself was as unfriendly as he’d ever seen it. The
darkness was nearly suffocating. Walking in it felt like walking
deeper and deeper into a tomb. The air was musty and damp, and it
smelled as if neither a door nor window had been opened in decades.
What had happened to the kingdom’s beacon of shining light, the
sacred place of protection? What kind of power could overcome it?
This thought set him trembling more than anything else he’d
encountered. Perhaps the gossip was not as farfetched as he’d first
believed.
    The shadow kept him moving quickly
down the corridors, but he paused before the throne room. There was
one light, the brightest of any he’d seen yet that shone through
the high windows above the throne. All of the other windows were
covered, their tapestries drawn closed. It was moonlight, Ansel
realized, that was coming through the highest of windows. The storm
must have abated.
    As his eyes began to adjust to the
new light, he realized the grand room had been decorated and left
that way. He could only guess it had been set for the great
coronation ceremony, as that was the night everything had gone
dark. He had turned to go back into the hallway when a voice spoke
from behind him.
    “ And how is it that a commoner
escaped the curse of the Fortress?”
    Ansel slowly turned to see that
the throne, though hidden in shadow from the moon’s rays, was not
empty. A dark figure sat hunched in it. Its voice was soft and
terrible, and Ansel trembled so that he dropped the candle, and it
sputtered out upon the floor.
    “ I beg your pardon, my lord?”
Ansel timidly called back.
    “ All of my servants, my soldiers,
and even my home itself were cursed into this blackness. No one has
come or gone for months. And yet, you come in as if you own the
place.” So the prince had survived.
    “ I beg your forgiveness, Sire,”
Ansel quickly hurried forward and knelt, bowing his head. “I sought
shelter from the storm. If I’d stayed outside I would have died. I
did not mean to intrude.”
    Two thin rings of blue fire
appeared through the darkness, fixing their depths upon him, and
Ansel’s trembling nearly overwhelmed him.
    “ What is your name?”
    “ Ansel Marchand of Soudain, Your
Highness.”
    “ And what are you doing out in
such a storm?”
    “ I sit on Soudain’s city council,
and I was sent to visit other parts of Destin to inquire about
their matters of trade.”
    “ So you thought it would be
acceptable to trespass on sacred ground for this?”
    At this question, Ansel swallowed
hard, praying his response would not be considered
impertinent.
    “ I beg your pardon, Sire, but was
the Fortress not a place of asylum for the weary in the days of
old?”
    The prince was silent for a
moment. “It does seem that the Fortress has spared you, though I
cannot understand why. But perhaps,” the prince spoke slowly, “you
can be of use to me.”
    Ansel’s heart skipped a beat. What
on earth could the prince need with him?
    “ But first, I need to know why you
were willing to enter a place that is cursed. What makes your life
so worth living that you are willing to risk meeting with
phantoms?”
    Ansel’s words became lodged in his
throat. After narrowly escaping the royal edict meant for Isa, he
could not tell the prince about his family. So he remained
silent.
    “ You would defy your prince?” For
the first time, the terrible voice rose, which made it only more
awful. Still, Ansel would not speak.
    “ If you are unwilling to answer
me, I will have no choice than to find out for myself. I suppose
you have heard of my strength?”
    Of course Ansel had. Though few
knew how the monarchs’ power worked, everyone knew that their
kings, and sometimes their queens,