It was only the next day that the king seemed to have ended up in the dungeon by himself.
In tow a young girl whom Lyana thought she had already seen in the kitchen. In her hand she held a
board with a few slices of bread and some meat on it.
"How nice to see you here, Your Majesty. If I had known that you were coming, I would of course
have cleaned up a bit."
The king did not miss the irony in her voice, of course, but he found it rather amusing. "I have to give you one thing, no matter how often you fall, you seem to get up stronger every time."
Lyana went to the bars to look deep into his eyes. "Well, that's exactly what to do after a setback.
No matter how difficult it is, no matter how bad it was. Life goes on."
The king's amused smile suddenly vanished. "That is a virtue that unfortunately not everyone can have, little princess."
She was about to reply when the king gave the guard a sign to let the kitchen maid into the cell to give her the snack.
In fact, she would have preferred to talk to King Ulric more. But his resentment still seemed to be deep. At least she was getting something to eat again.
The cell was closed and the king had already turned away when Lyana stopped him again. "Wait! That's all? Is there no other reason why you were here today?" There was brief silence. "It won't take much longer, then it's all over. Better enjoy the last few days of rest, princess," he advised her without turning around. Then he left.
She watched him go, completely confused, even after he was long gone.
What did he mean by that? Suddenly she remembered Baridis words again. He said they didn't have much time left. Her heart became very clammy. That could only mean that King Ulric was about to
turn his revenge into reality.
Somehow she had to prevent it, she neither wanted to see how he harmed her family, nor how he injured himself with it. His heart might be trapped in that tree, but that didn't mean he didn't feel anything.
Over the next few days she pondered over and over how to stop him. But it seemed almost
impossible to her. The only way she could think of was to regain his heart and help him make his
peace. However, she lacked a plan or a solution for either.
She wished she could find some distraction, but apart from the guard and the kitchen maid, she got
to see no one. Neither of them was particularly talkative, but that had to be because the king had
forbidden them to. She didn't want to cause them any trouble either, so she had soon given up talking to them. The only one who dared to talk to her was Baridi. But even he hadn't visited her since he'd brought his father here. Lyana just hoped that he was okay and that the king hadn't noticed anything about the secret meeting.
The loud crack of the cell door ripped her out of her thoughts.
"Please follow me, Your Royal Highness," said the guard. Lyana hesitated for a moment. It was very sudden. Where should she be taken to? Had King Ulric decided to kill her for good? But why should he still send the kitchen maid to bring her food then?
She decided not to worry about it at first. The last few days had been so exhausting that she had hardly any energy left to deal with new problems.
When she wanted to pass the guard, the strength in her legs decreased for a moment and she slumped. The young guard quickly grabbed her arm, preventing her from falling.
"Thank you." Her eyes met his and for a moment she could see something like sadness and feelings
of guilt. It must have been hard for him to have treated her so coldly until now. Or maybe he knew
what to expect. But Lyana knew that he was not to blame. He only did what his king asked him to
do. So she gave him a smile to show that she didn't blame him. In fact, it seemed to do him good, as
his shoulders relaxed significantly.
Together they left the dungeon and Lyana was greeted by the corridors, which she had become so
familiar with. But something was different. The mood she received was very sad. Even the once beautiful blue and white flowers, which Baridi and Nara had taken care of to decorate the bare corridors, lay completely scattered and withered on the floor. In between there were broken pieces of the vases. It was immediately clear to Lyana that this chaos had to be the fault of King Ulric.
She felt slightly nauseous, and that the guard apparently led her to the king's study didn't make it
any better.
The guard himself also turned pale when they came to a stop in front of the door.