Captive of the Snake King

SELENE

I was praying in the temple when my father’s mage knights summoned me to the council room.

“Your highness, your presence is desired at the council room.”

I was surprised at the request. As the daughter of my father’s mistress, I was usually left out of important matters.

I looked to my mentor, Ashla.

“Go, Selene. When the emperor calls, you don’t hesitate.”

***

I knew my brother Rhidian and our father had recently returned to the palace from battle, but I had not seen them since their return.

Months ago we had all celebrated when Father killed the Snake King on the battlefield. But our celebrations quickly turned to horror when we learned of the Snake King’s son.

The new king was a true warrior. A Basilisk with a venomous bite and the power to turn his enemies into stone with a single glance. By all accounts he was powerful, brutal, and had an insatiable thirst for blood. Named the Black Adder, he took his father’s place on the battlefield. And now for the first time in ten years, the war was threatening to reach our city.

***

A knot of anxiety tightened my stomach as I walked with the mage knights. My father had never summoned me to the war council room before. While I had a passing relationship with the emperor, it wasn’t the same as what my siblings had as his trueborn children. Not only was I born from his affair with a priestess, I was not blessed with the magic that seeped through the blood and bones of the creatures of our world.

Throughout my childhood my father, Emperor Hadrian le Fay, shielded me in the walls of his palace. But I knew the time would come for me to fend for myself. I had decided to become a priestess like my mother. I had been studying for years, and I was meant to take my vows soon.

What could the emperor want with me?

The mage knight led me along the long corridors of the palace until we reached the tall, heavy wooden door of the war room. Two soldiers guarding the door nodded at their comrade when he approached. They glanced sideways at one another when they saw me trailing behind him, sending my nerves further into disarray.

Rhidian’s voice reached me first as the doors opened. “Your majesty, I know there have been tensions between us and the kingdom of Sharkan. But our only hope to defeat the Black Adder is to form an alliance with them.”

“The people of Sharkan are further to the north. The Black Adder hasn’t reached them yet. They won’t feel our sense of urgency,” said General Eskel of the Cleric division. His silver armor gleamed despite the dried flakes of blood at the edges. He tore a hand through his short brown curls, seething at the massive map on the table.

I felt the tension as I entered the round room, passing under the magical illumination hovering in the domed ceiling. No one paid attention to me, as they were all involved in mapping out new plans, but I knew they were aware of my presence.

I quickly found Father’s red and gray hair at the head of the table. Rhidian stood beside him adorned in golden armor, with his crimson hair unbound around his shoulders. My brother was staring across the table at the cleric general, his oldest friend and lover.

“All the more reason to seek their aid now. If we are overrun with Ophidians in the next month, it’s only a matter of time before they’re taken as well,” Rhidian said.

Father’s eyes flicked as he registered my entrance. I bowed my head, unspeaking and afraid of interrupting a heated discussion. I’d never heard them talking of the war like that. It made it all very real, as if it were right outside the door.

The emperor dropped his hands onto the table, but it was his heavy exhale that gathered everyone’s attention. He glanced up at his son and war council slowly, as if the weight of the crown on his brow was finally catching up to him.

“King Bram of Sharkan has already contacted me. He has agreed to unite against the Black Adder. But his conditions for the alliance were that I give my daughter Cressida’s hand in marriage.”

Silence fell on the room. My breath vented through my lips at the shocking news. I glanced around, searching for my sister. Surely, she would have been summoned as well.

Cressida wasn’t among the council. She wasn’t seated at the table, nor was she occupying a shadowed corner of the room. Of course she wasn’t there. If she had been I would have known upon first walking into the room. Her beauty and the glow that clung to her skin stood out in any room.

“I know this is a shocking request. But we need his men or else we’ll be overrun, and our kingdom of Valeruhn will be no more. Cressida must wed the king of Sharkan as a symbol of a new alliance,” Father continued, his tone far too grave for a conversation about a wedding.

Rhidian caught sight of me and my skin prickled. He winced, and his features twisted into sorrow.

“Father, Cressida has been missing since this morning,” he said without breaking eye contact with me. My brother was addressing our father while updating me to the situation.

The floor dipped beneath my feet. I might have fallen when I swayed if not for the lingering mage knight catching my elbow. My heart twisted painfully within my chest as I thought of my sister.

Princess Cressida was missing. How was that possible?

I’d had dinner with her last night. We spoke of her latest party, and the dwindling number of eligible nobles. We’d laughed and talked like always. But before departing for bed my elder sister had gripped me in a tight hug and wished me well on my future with the temple.

I’d thought it was strange that her goodnight seemed more like a goodbye, but figured we were both tired. Now she was gone, and that fact curdled the contents of my stomach.

Emperor Hadrian surged from the table, fists pounding on the edge of the wood. “I am very well aware that she’s missing, Rhidian. She’s my oldest daughter and the jewel of our kingdom. Our men are searching for her, but we don’t have much time. The Black Adder is distracted by our armies in the southwest right now, but we can’t hold them off for long. We must send a bride to the king of Sharkan and secure his army before it’s too late!”

At that moment, I felt the magic and fate that moved through our bodies. Was I not so different from the others? A force gripped my insides and moved me as if I were a simple puppet. I stepped forward into the light, drawing the gaze of every pair of eyes at the table.

“I’ll do it.”

I heard my voice speaking, but the words didn’t feel like they came from my tongue.

Father’s head snapped up. “Selene? What are you doing?”

“Sister,” Rhidian began, shaking his head.

“Isn’t that why you summoned me?” I swallowed hard, face flushing under the intensity of so many eyes. “You need a bride for the king of Sharkan. Send me in Cressida’s place.”

I’d spent a decade training to be a priestess, not a bride. What was I doing?

“She is not Princess Cressida. They will not agree! And also, she means to take her vows soon,” Eskel said. A few voices from the other war council members murmured their agreement.

“There will be no temple for me to take my vows if the Black Adder breaches the city,” I said directly to my father. “I will go as Princess Cressida, and they will not know the difference.” Even as my heart cracked within my chest for my missing sister, I put the needs of the kingdom above my own.

“Princess Cressida is a great beauty. The king of Sharkan will know if we send another in her place,” a councilman said. His comment struck a pin in my chest, one I’d learned to ignore over the years.

“Princess Cressida and Selene both have blonde hair,” Father said, and I could tell he was considering my proposal. He swiped a hand over his eyes, shoulders sagging. When he opened them, I met a soft honey brown stare that mirrored mine. My eyes were the only feature I got from him, and as he looked at me now I saw a hopeless sadness in their depths.

“If we hope to save Valeruhn we must send Princess Selene in Cressida’s place. We have no time to waste looking for Cressida. We need Sharkan’s army, or else we will all perish under the poisoned blades of Ophidians.” The word of the emperor was law.