The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Holly Black
- Language: English
- Genre: Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy eBooks
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
The cold of the prisons eats at Oak’s bones, and the stink of iron
scrapes his throat. The bridle presses against his cheeks, reminding
him that he is shackled to an obedience that binds him more securely than
any chains. But worst of all is the dread of what will happen next, a dread
so great that he wishes it would just happen so he could stop dreading it.
On the morning after he was locked in his cell in the stone dungeons
beneath the Ice Needle Citadel of the former Court of Teeth, a servant
brought him a blanket lined in rabbit fur. A kindness he didn’t know how to
interpret. No matter how tightly he wraps it around himself, though, he is
seldom warm.
Twice each day he is brought food. Water, often with a rime of ice on
the surface. Soup, hot enough to make him comfortable for a scant hour or
so. As the days stretch on, he fears that, rather than putting his torment off,
as one puts a particularly delicious morsel to the side of one’s plate to be
saved for last, he has simply been forgotten.
Once, he thought he recognized Wren’s shadow, observing him from a
distance. He called to her, but she didn’t answer. Maybe she’d never been
there. The iron muddles his thoughts. Perhaps he only saw what he so
desperately wanted to see.
She has not spoken with him since she sent him here. Not even to use
the bridle to command him. Not even to gloat.
Sometimes he screams into the darkness, just to remind himself that he
can.
These dungeons were built to swallow screams. No one comes.
Today, he screams himself hoarse and then slumps against a wall. He
wishes he could tell himself a story, but he cannot convince himself that he
is a brave prince suffering a setback on a daring quest, nor the tempestuous,
star-crossed lover he has played at so many times in the past. Not even the
loyal brother and son he meant to be when he set out from Elfhame.
Whatever he is, he’s certainly no hero.
A guard stomps down the hall, driving Oak to his hooves. One of the
falcons. Straun. The prince has overheard him at the gate before,
complaining, not realizing his voice carries. He is ambitious, bored by the
tediousness of guard duty, and eager to show off his skill in front of the new
queen.
Wren, whose beauty Straun rhapsodizes over.
Oak hates Straun.
“You there,” the falcon says, drawing close. “Be quiet before I quiet
you.”
Ah, Oak realizes. He’s so bored that he wants to make something
happen.
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