As I follow Syra down the dark corridors, I realize that my fever is far from over. Despite all the water she gave me to drink, my throat is so dry it hurts. The air seems freezing, and I can't stop shaking. Eventually, I stumble and nearly run into her.

She stops, turns around and looks me over. Then she frowns and takes from me the little bundle with food and clothes that she has given me.

"I'll carry this," she says. "Hurry up, we need to be by the gates before it's dark. Cassio will only be happy if you disobey his order. He'd gladly have you flogged again."

I lean my shoulder on the wall. The corridor is shifting and distorting in front of me, and so does Syra's face. The scars on my back rub against my shirt, keeping the agony unrelenting.

"What should I do, Syra?" I whisper. "I can’t leave. "

"It's I who can’t leave," she whispers back. "You can just go back to where you came from."

"My work here is not finished."

"What was your work, in the first place? You never told me."

"I…"

I trail away at the distant sound of voices. They seem familiar. I push off the wall and head in their direction.

"No, no." Syra grabs my arm, but I shake her off and keep moving.

As I turn around the corner, the voices become louder. I walk through a short dark passage that opens into a large hall lit with evening sunshine streaming in through the tall mosaic windows. In front of me lays the all-too-familiar grand stairwell, and at the bottom of it, I see Hadrian.

He stands in a relaxed posture, leaning with one elbow on the stone railing, talking to Jasper—the young knight I have seen sitting next to him during the feast in the Great Hall.

I look around. This is the stairwell which should have killed or crippled Hadrian have I not intervened. Did he not realize that I was helping him? Did he not understand that as he was ordering my flogging? Don't the members of the royal family have any concept of thankfulness?

I glance back at Syra. She retreats into the shadows, wide-eyed, shaking her head at me. But I'm not afraid. My fever makes me feel unreal. If there is a chance for me to stay in the castle and finish what I have started, it must come from someone in a much higher position than Cassio.

I leave the safe shadows of the passageway and step into the hall. The two men turn at the sound of my footsteps, but before they can react, I reach them and kneel on the floor, bowing my head.

There's a pause, and then Hadrian speaks.

"This is the slave I told you about," he says. "Mortimer said he wouldn't make it, yet here he is. A strong one." He makes a circle around me. "Go away, slave. I have no need of your services now."

"Your highness," I say, still looking at the stone floor. "I'm being banished from the castle. Please let me stay. I only wish to remain here and serve you."

The knight gasps. "He's talking to you?"

"He does, doesn’t he? " says Hadrian excitedly. "This one does all sorts of interesting things. He looked, he touched, now he talks. I have never had a conversation with a slave before—have you?"

I hear a sound of a sword being unsheathed. "Would you like me to put an end to this disrespectful –"

"No, Jasper, let him be. He's a broken thing." There's another pause, and then Hadrian addresses me. "Look up, slave. I allow it."

I raise my face. His green eyes fix on my bandage, gleaming curiously.

"Why do you want to continue serving me?"

"You allowed me to live despite my insolence. You are kind and just." Each false word falls like a stone from my lips. "I have nowhere to go, your highness. Please let me remain in the castle."

"To remain in the castle," he repeats.

Then, to my surprise, he reaches out and pulls at my bandage.

I wince as the dried blood gluing it to my skin cracks. The bandage comes off, exposing the disfigured left side of my face that I have not even seen myself yet. Fresh blood begins to leak through the barely healed scars.

Jasper gasps and looks away, but Hadrian's face shows only a childlike excitement as he leans forward to study my new features.

"Fascinating," he says, straightening up. "Yet I'm afraid you're too ugly now to serve in the castle. I wouldn't want to wake up to this kind of face in my vicinity—would you, Jasper?"

Jasper chuckles. "I believe not."

"Now, be gone," says Hadrian, waving me away, "and I will be merciful enough to not tell Cassio about your new transgression."

"But where should I go?" I say.

"It's not my problem, is it?" He shrugs, turns away and begins to ascend the stairs, Jasper following him suit.

* If you enjoy the story, please vote or comment! Thank you! *