Page 17 of Fated to the Wicked King

The king’s manner was not perturbed at all. Still standing at the dais, he turned to one side. I was a mere afterthought. He likely couldn’t care less what I was going to say. He was toying with me.

“And what is this brilliant idea of yours?”

I pushed up to stand once again, wincing when the chains bit raw into my wrists. Ignoring the part of my brain that insisted this was absolutely madness, I clenched my jaw. If it gave me a chance to save those people, I had to try something.

I lifted my determined gaze to meet his once again. “The first step in any problem-solving endeavor is finding the root of the problem,” I announced with authority, willing my knees not to tremble. “In my view, your elimination system is quite flawed, disorganized—this killing off random groups of people. It wastes time. It will be near pointless to kill off the arms and legs when what you really need to take care of is the head.”

“Are you saying you’d like me to cut off their heads?”

“No!” I shot out. “I…I simply believe it would be significantly more efficient if you were to first discover the root of the disloyalty. If you can glean more information, figure out where these people are from, who they are working for—that would be a more prudent use of your resources.”

“You are suggesting I sit down to tea and talk to them? Questioning all these individuals will be tedious and pointless.”

“Then perhaps a compromise,” I piped up. “Why not first weed out the suspicious characters from the innocent ones? Surely that should save you at least half the time.”

His eyebrows rose in mockery. “Are you then offering to be the one to interrogate these ruffians and validate their objectives?”

“You… You are requesting my help?”

His eyes narrowed. “Probably best you don’t mistake these as requests.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. “I’m curious, Your Majesty. As the most powerful being in Wünder, can you not probe these people’s intentions using your own magic? You also wear a mystical heart. Does it not serve you at all?”

“Of course not.” He sniffed, as if annoyed at the reminder. “This borrowed heart is nowhere near as powerful. And since it seems the one you have has not degraded as I had expected, I shall make use of your magic as well. You shall reside here until I have completed my mission.”

“For how long?”

“Until I have eliminated all who I consider a threat to me. The security at the ball should have been thorough. We still have yet to uncover where these people even sourced their invitations. My sources tell me there is one particularly influential faction that is going rogue. But my armies cannot seem to gain much information about it, or these people, including where they are from, or who they are working for.”

Swallowing hard, I dropped my gaze. There was no guarantee what he would do with the magic sealed in my heart. No guarantee he would show mercy to any of the prisoners. But he was powerful enough without the boost from enchanted hearts. It would be futile for me to refuse him anything.

I had no choice. The only thing to do was to ensure I got something out of this bargain. Even if he never honored it, even if he went back on his word, at the very least, I had to try. I took a deep breath. “Then I am sure we can come to an agreement.”

His eyebrow rose, more in amusement than annoyance. “What sort of agreement?”

I made sure to meet his gaze steadily. “I will do as you say, under three conditions.”

“You wish to negotiate with a tyrant?” He cracked a smirk. “Very well. I should say I’m not an entirely unreasonable man.” He folded his arms across his chest. “State your terms.”

I took a deep breath, my mind zipping back and forth through permutations of this problem. I needed to ensure I would not seem like I was asking too much, but guarantee I got a fair exchange.

“First, in the event that I identify any more of your would-be assassins, you will endeavor not to kill these people without a fair trial.”

“Would you have them escape and attempt to murder me again?”

“No. I simply mean, you must be open to negotiation⁠—”

“More negotiation?”

“Yes.”

He shook his head. “No. I will decide what to do with them.”

I jumped in alert. “Then at least, please, let me ensure that you punish only the ones who are indeed guilty,” I beseeched. “If you kill off your subjects whom you suspect of disloyalty, I fear you will have no subjects left, Your Majesty.”

His face twitched again. “What’s your second condition?”

“Second, in exchange for my—my help—” I faltered since he had emphasized that these were not ‘requests.’ I steeled myself and went on. “You must take me across the River of Tears to search for the Hatter.”