The Dragon's Kiss

"Let me show you, Kel!"

Leif's eyes lit up as he suddenly had an idea.

From his belt, he produced a small silver key and held it up excitedly as he began walking to where Kel's chain was attached to the wall.

"It's stuffy in here, right? So why don't we go for a little walk?" the boy babbled as he worked on unlocking the chain. "That way I can show you how I took revenge for you."

Are you kidding me? Kel's jaw dropped as the boy grasped the end of the chain as if it were a leash.

Was he really planning on walking her like a dog?

If Leif noticed her dismay, he pretended not to. Instead, he frowned thoughtfully as he studied her attire.

"I'll have a shawl and some shoes brought for you," he nodded, snapping his fingers loudly.

"Your Highness?" In an instant, three guards burst into the room.

While the red-haired boy explained the items he wanted brought, Kel felt her face flushing.

Naturally, she recognized every single one of the men who had just come in. She'd even bested two of them in spars right before leaving Mevani last year. Now, here she sat in nothing but a cotton shift with a 15-year-old boy holding the chain to her shackles.

When she dared peek up in the midst of her humiliation, Kel noticed the soldiers' expressions contained nothing except pity.

They must feel sorry for me, she grumbled internally, since I'm completely at the mercy of this crazy kid's whims.

She had an idea at that time, but hadn't fully realized yet that the guards listening attentively to their young king's wishes (and everyone else in Mevani) was equally subject to Leif's every whim. The only difference was that their chains were invisible.

In spite of her shame, Kel was extremely grateful to cover herself with a thick shawl and soft slippers. She hardly had time to slide them on before Leif was yanking on her chain, urging her to 'come and see'.

As she trudged through the palace behind the giddy boy, the chain rattling loud enough to announce their arrival everywhere they passed, she noticed an abundance of sympathetic glances from the palace workers.

It seemed everyone was already well acquainted with the bizarre personality of their new king.

But, one thing still bothered Kel.

If everyone thought so poorly of him, how did he garner the support to take the throne? And why did they still serve him faithfully? As he said, the people could turn on him at any moment, but it didn't appear as though they were even considering that idea.

"Strange.." Kel mumbled.

"Ah! We're here!" Leif announced, startling her.

They had stopped in front of the iron gate sealing away the dungeon.

Kel immediately thought back to when Leif had bragged about 'punishing' the previous royal family and Dash.

Were they.. in there? Behind the heavy door that separated dangerous criminals from the rest of the palace?

Her hunch turned out to be correct.

Every cell in the dungeon was empty except the two smallest, which were occupied by a couple of filthy men with dull eyes and matted hair.

"Dash?" Kel gasped. "Y-Your Highness?"

She tried to run toward the two, but Leif quickly yanked on her chain, sending her tumbling to the ground.

"'Your Highness' is right here, Kel," the boy chided, sauntering past her. "This old man is just a dirty prisoner."

"Kel.." Dash's hoarse voice was hardly audible. "What? How?"

Leif clicked his tongue.

"How is she alive?" he scoffed, leaning against the bars keeping Dash locked away. "After you betrayed her?"

Despite the boy's taunting, Dash remained focused on Kel.

"Dash, why didn't you tell me?" Kel slowly approached the cell, wary of Leif pulling her to the ground again, "I could have-"

I could have helped.

But even if she had known what was happening in Mevani, would she have rushed back in with Dash to save her home country? Even now, she felt sick being tangled in the small kingdom's affairs.

The conversation between the two childhood friends ended there, Kel unable to say the rest of her words out loud and Dash retreating back into himself amid Leif's onslaught of insults.

The former king of Mevani, someone Kel once looked to as a father, was far less responsive than his prison mate and didn't even acknowledge the presence of visitors outside his cell.

As Kel stood there in the dim dusty dungeon, she wondered if the king had always looked so weak and old. Sitting upon his grand throne, he always seemed strong and confident, but now.. he was the same as any other elderly man.

She should have felt satisfaction that the man who betrayed her had been reduced to such a state, but her heart ached bitterly.

Even Dash, with all the accusations Calix had laid against him and his intentions toward Kel, looked too pathetic locked away in the dirt.

The air around them was hot and humid. It carried a myriad of foul scents unpleasantly around the entire room. Without so much as a bread crumb visible on the ground, it was clear to see that the men had been fed nothing or so little that they had licked up every bit of it.

It wasn't a place a person could stay.

Dash and the king.. they both had done wrong, but they didn't deserve this.

Right?

But Barclay had suffered far worse because of their decisions, and Kel.. well, she had suffered too. So then, this was only fair.

Right?

The conflicting feelings between Kel's mind and heart made her feel dizzy. She should have followed the stinging in her chest spoken out against Leif or given the two prisoners a piece of her heavy mind, but all she could manage was..

"I want to leave."

"Ha. Leave?" Leif cackled. "We still have to decide what to do with them. I only kept them alive for-"

"Please," Kel said softly.

Leif put on a sour expression but begrudgingly agreed.

"Alright. I can see you're in no mood for this right now," he grumbled, giving the two men a final glare before turning away.

Like his usual self, Leif chattered endlessly on their way back to Kel's own prison--the locked room, specially designed to secure her shackles.

Was the boy really unmoved by the scene in the dungeon? How could this possibly be the same adorable kid she'd been hunting squirrels with less than a year previously?

When they finally reached her room, and Leif locked the chain onto the wall once again, Kel had come to a conclusion.

With eyes glued to the floor, she bravely spoke up for the first time since the dungeon.

"What happens to me if I say no?"