Chapter 13 - The Confession in the Courtyard
The sound of shattering ceramic echoed loudly across the silent courtyard. Dozens of Carrow’s private guards reached for their swords, but a sharp wave of Rhys’s hand—backed by fifty fully armored cavalrymen surrounding the perimeter—froze them in place.
“Dead?” Sera asked, her voice dangerously calm as she closed the distance between them. “A disappointment to you, no doubt. Especially since it meant your little fabrication about an attempted robbery would never be questioned.”
Duke Carrow backed away a step, his eyes darting wildly toward Rhys and Princess Amara, who had now dismounted and walked forward to flank Sera.
“This is madness!” Carrow stammered, attempting to recover his haughty composure. “She is a criminal! A common street rat who attacked me in my own chamber when I caught her trying to steal family heirlooms!”
“Is that what you told the six noblemen who convicted me?” Sera’s voice cut through the afternoon air like a whip. “Is that what you told them before you had the fifteen-year-old servant girl you were assaulting dragged out the back gate and dumped into the river?”
Carrow’s face turned pale. “Lies! Slander from a guttersnipe!”
“Not slander at all, Duke Carrow,” a soft, clear voice interrupted.
Princess Amara stepped forward, her royal presence commanding absolute attention. She pulled a folded document from her sleeve—a parchment stamped with the official royal seal of the late king and countersigned by Regent Malrec’s own signature, recovered from the Sunken Vaults.
“We found Malrec’s personal ledger in the treasury,” Amara said smoothly, holding up the parchment. “It details every bribe paid to your high court, every fabricated charge designed to silence witnesses, and specifically, the payment made to silence a young scullery maid named Nell—who, as it turns out, didn't drown in the river after all.”
At that exact moment, two northern guards marched through the open gates, escorting a pale, nervous young woman with dark hair tied back in a simple braid.
May you like
Nell.
The servant girl Sera had risked her life to protect.
