All Chapters of The Shattered Crown: Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
81 chapters
Chapter 20 – A Letter of Ashes
Smoke rose before dawn.By the time Elias reached the eastern battlements, the air was thick with ash and the bitter smell of burning oil. The gatehouse shuddered under distant thunder not from the sky, but from rams pounding against ironwood.“Archers, to the wall!” Seren’s voice cut through the chaos. “Hold the gate!”Elias drew his sword, the same blade his father had once carried into the War of the North. Firelight flickered along its edge, reflecting in his eyes like molten gold. The night before had been politics. Now, it was war.A soldier stumbled toward him, blood streaking his face. “Majesty they came from inside! Someone opened the gate from within the guardhouse!”“From inside?” Elias snapped.“Yes, sire. The locks were undone before they struck.”Mara appeared at his side, cloak torn, a cut on her cheek. “The signal fires they’re burning from the lower city too.”Elias’s stomach tightened. This isn’t an attack. It’s a message.He turned to Seren. “Seal the inner gates. N
Chapter 21 – Rhys’s Doubt
The palace was still smoldering when Rhys found him.Elias stood at the highest balcony of the eastern tower, the wind whipping at his cloak, his knuckles white against the cold stone. Below, the courtyards were a blur of chaos servants hauling the dead, guards shouting orders, the scent of burned oil clinging to everything.“Your Majesty,” Rhys said, his voice low but edged. “You’ve not slept.”Elias didn’t turn. “Neither has the kingdom.”Rhys hesitated, then stepped closer. “We should talk.”“There’s nothing left to say,” Elias muttered. “Alaric struck from within. Someone helped him. And now” He stopped, his gaze falling to the horizon where black banners waved over the smoking hills. “Now my father’s emblem returns from the grave.”Rhys exhaled slowly. “Then we confirm it. We find proof. But standing here doubting everyone won’t win us anything.”Elias finally faced him. His eyes were hollow but burning. “You think I doubt for pleasure? Every whisper in these halls sounds like tr
Chapter 22 – Intruder at Midnight
The night was heavy with silence, a kind that pressed against the walls and seeped into the breath of the palace. Outside, the rain had long since stopped, but the air remained thick with the smell of wet stone and smoke from dying torches. Elias sat at his desk, a single candle burning low, its flame trembling every time the wind whispered through the cracks.He hadn’t slept for two nights. His eyes burned, and his fingers trembled slightly as he scrawled words on parchment orders, revisions, a new decree to calm the council after the last murder. His handwriting was slipping, the ink blotting under his uneven grip.He could almost hear Rhys’s voice still echoing in his head “You hesitate too much, Elias. That’s how kings die.”Elias dropped the quill, leaning back in his chair. The flickering light painted long shadows across the walls, twisting around the edges of his chamber. Somewhere in that shifting dark, he thought he saw movement a flicker too deliberate to be from the candle
Chapter 23 – Council Tensions Rise
The council chamber was a storm before the thunder.When Elias entered, voices were already raised — sharp, clipped, layered with panic and accusation. Nobles leaned over the great circular table, robes and jewels catching the morning light, faces red with anger. The banners of the crown hung above them, but they may as well have been funeral cloths for how grim the air had become.Seren trailed behind Elias, expression unreadable as ever. Her gaze swept the room once, counting exits, measuring threats. She took her place at the back of the chamber, her hand resting lightly on the hilt of her dagger.Elias moved to his seat the high-backed chair at the head of the table, the symbol of authority that had never felt heavier than it did now.“Your Majesty,” Lord Varin began before Elias could even sit, his voice tight. “Three guards were found unconscious near the north wing last night. You would have us believe this was a coincidence?”Elias didn’t answer immediately. He clasped his han
Chapter 24 – Mara vs. Rynna
The palace had never been quieter, and that was how Elias knew something was wrong.The usual hum of servants, the echo of distant boots, even the fluttering of doves in the courtyard gone. Silence, deep and deliberate, settled like a shroud over the marble halls.Rynna moved through them like she belonged to that silence. Her steps were soft, her expression distant. A book of prayers hung loosely from her hand, but her eyes were not reading. She was listening to whispers that seemed to follow her no matter how far she walked.She had felt it for days now: the weight of gazes behind closed doors. The way the guards paused when she passed. The subtle change in tone when her name came up in conversation.It was as though she’d become a question no one dared to ask aloud.When she reached the end of the corridor, the double doors to the council library were already open. Inside, Mara stood waiting arms folded, posture sharp enough to draw blood.The torches cast her in half-light, shadow
Chapter 25 – Death in the Council
Dawn came gray and hollow.The bells over the east tower tolled once then stopped. Not the usual rhythm of morning prayers, but something slower, heavier.Elias woke to it. He didn’t bother calling the servants; he dressed himself in silence, every buckle and clasp an echo in the still air. Seren appeared at his door before he could step out.“There’s been… an incident,” she said.Her eyes told the rest.They hurried down the corridor. The palace, always alive by sunrise, now felt like a tomb. Guards lined the hall leading to the council chamber; each man’s face was a careful mask. The smell reached Elias before the sight did iron, candle wax, and something faintly burnt.The doors opened.Lord Halvern, the oldest councilman and once his father’s adviser, sat slumped in his chair. His wine cup lay spilled beside him, the crimson stain creeping across the marble like a spreading wound. His robes were open at the chest, revealing flesh scorched in the precise shape of a small crown.A s
Chapter 26 – The Hungry Riots
The morning air carried a strange stillness the kind that came before a storm. From his balcony, Elias stared at the lower districts. The sun hadn’t yet burned away the mist, but smoke already curled upward from a dozen small fires.“Food depots were raided at dawn,” Seren said behind him, voice grim. “Bakers were beaten. Grain stores looted. The guards tried to contain them but…” He hesitated. “The people are starving, my lord.”Elias’s hands tightened on the railing. Starving. It had been weeks since the harvest wagons were diverted north, a “temporary” measure meant to starve Alaric’s supporters in the border towns. He had agreed to it his first real show of authority. And now, that decision had turned back on him like a dagger.“Where are the city stewards?” Elias asked.“Dead or hiding. The mob stormed their quarter last night. They hung the taxmaster in the square left a crown carved into his chest.”Elias turned sharply. “Like the councilman?”Seren nodded. “Someone’s making a
Chapter 27 – Merchants’ Defiance
The palace smelled of smoke and fear. The fires had been contained, but the air still burned with the scent of charred grain and treachery. Elias stood before the great council table, where every noble had gathered or pretended to.On the far side sat the Guild Masters of the Capital, rich men with jeweled hands and cautious eyes. The merchants had been summoned to provide food and supplies to the starving lower districts. Yet as Elias entered, none rose to bow.A silence fell.“Your Majesty,” said the eldest among them, Master Darek of the Grain Consortium, his voice dripping with honeyed disdain. “We come as loyal servants of the crown… but the crown must understand, we cannot give what we do not have.”Elias’s gaze hardened. “You have stores beneath your counting houses. I’ve seen the ledgers myself.”The merchants shifted uneasily.“Those supplies,” Darek continued, “are already spoken for. Lord Alaric’s territories offered fair prices“Fair?” Mara’s voice cracked through the cham
Chapter 28 – Fire in the Market
The day began with smoke.At first, it was a single thread, curling lazily above the market rooftops a signal no one wanted to see again. Then came the shouts. The sound of pottery shattering. Horses screaming. And soon, the city was aflame.Elias was in council when the door burst open.“My lord!” Captain Halric staggered in, soot on his armor. “The lower market’s burning the crowd’s out of control!”Elias didn’t wait for the council to react. “Assemble the guard. Now.”He stormed from the chamber, cloak snapping behind him, Seren and Mara close on his heels. The air outside was thick with ash before they’d even reached the gates. Bells clanged from the temple towers one for warning, two for fire. By the time Elias rode into the market square, chaos reigned.The people were no longer just hungry they were furious.Merchants’ stalls were overturned, barrels split open, grain spilled like sand beneath running feet. Men with soot-black faces hurled stones at the palace banners. Women sc
Chapter 29 – Rynna’s Intervention
The letter felt heavier than it should.Elias turned it over in his gloved hands again and again, the crimson words seared into his mind. She knows your secret.He didn’t know which part chilled him more that someone knew a secret… or that they knew there was one worth knowing.The dawn light filtered through smoke-stained windows as he stood in the war room, the scent of ash and sweat clinging to the air. Seren and Mara argued quietly near the table; both had refused rest.“The riots will spread again,” Mara said. “Half the merchants fled the capital last night. The rest will hoard their food until Alaric promises them protection.”“Then we take it from them,” Seren muttered. “If they’d rather starve the city than obey the crownElias cut him off. “No. We’ll stabilize the streets before we touch their stores. If we lose the people, we lose everything.”“Elias“Enough.” His tone left no space for debate. He folded the note once more and slipped it into his belt, unseen. “We move to th