The courtroom emptied far sooner than anyone had expected.
Although the witnesses had spoken, their testimonies had raised as many questions as they answered. None had been able to place the Crown Prince at the scene of Princess Lannae's kidnapping with certainty.
Still, neither had they cleared his name.
At Queen Maye's command, the proceedings were suspended until the afternoon.
The guards escorted Leonard through a maze of stone corridors before stopping before a heavy oak door.
One of them unlocked it.
"Inside."
Leonard stepped into a modest chamber. Unlike the grand hall, there were no towering pillars or rows of ministers. A single table stood at the center of the room with two chairs facing one another. Sunlight filtered through a narrow window, casting pale lines across the floor.
The guards removed the chains from his ankles but left those around his wrists before withdrawing from the room.
The door closed.
