I Bought the exiled king (by Natalie Winter) novel Chapter 153

Valencia

“What is going on here?”

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A loud voice boomed through the temple and I felt relief course through me when I heard that familiar voice.

I craned my neck up to see the Crone approach us.

Nina sputtered like a dying engine and looked around.

“M–madam Crone, weren’t you praying?”

The Crone looked around, and at Sarah, who was clutching one of her arms with the other. Blood was seeping out of her injuries where Nina had scratched her badly.

“Crone, look at me! I am here! Help!!”

I shouted and banged my fists on the door again. She noticed me and scooted down on her knees.

“Valencia! What is happening?“.

She asked and I answered.

“I need to come in and you have to find the King and help him.”

The mention of the King made her look at me in surprise.

“The King? What happened to him? He had stabilised right?”

Nina tried to come forward and distract her by saying something useless.

“Dont mind her. She is speaking gibberish and is trying to distract you.” She said and tried to hide me from

her view.

“No, don’t. Please listen to me. The King is dying. You have to help me.”

The Crone was shocked to hear that and immediately asked the doors to be opened.

The heavy doors creaked as the temple keepers heaved against them.

Their bare feet scraped the stone, the sound of wood grinding against wood filling my ears like thunder. For a fleeting moment, relief surged through me.

I was about to be inside, about to drag Sarah to safety and scream the truth until someone listened.

But the second the gap widened, a rush of movement slammed into me.

Steel glinted. A soldier’s snarl filled the passage as he lunged at me with his blade raised high.

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Chapter 153

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Apparently all my shouting and slamming the doors had caught the nearby soldiers‘ attention and they noticed me, just a girl and the temple that they had ignored all the time.

“The temple! It must be filled with gold coins and treasure!!”

One of the soldiers yelled and the others soon gathered around me.

“There is no treasure here. Just medicine and herbs!”

I tried to shout at them but the soldier in the front leered at me, looking at me up and down.

“There are just temple keepers inside. Leave them alone.”

I tried to inform him but that only made his eyes widen and saliva drip from his mouth.

“Are they all beautiful like you?”

“What?” I clutched my hand to my chest just as Sarah forced the door open a little and the guard caught a peek of the women gathered inside.

“Attack!” He shouted just as I shrieked, “Move!” and threw myself sideways. The torch I had been clutching tightly, clattered against the ground, rolling into the shadows.

The soldier’s sword came down where my head had been a breath before, striking sparks from the stone.

Gasps erupted from the temple keepers who instinctively stepped back.

“Help me close it!!” I shouted and began trying to shove the door hard but my strength wasn’t that much against the soldiers trying to barge in.

Sarah jumped to my help and we both began to push the door. Our feet tried to lodge themselves in the ground but it was growing slippery due to our sweat and the blood spilling down from Sarah’s hand.

“What are you waiting for? Dont you want to live?”

I looked at the onlooking women who were frozen in shock but my words got them to blink out of their stupor.

Another pair of hands shoved through the gap–dirty, blood–slick hands clawing for purchase. The doors hadn’t opened for these men and I wouldn’t let them get in.

*Push them back!” the Crone bellowed, her voice sharper than any blade.

The nearest temple keepers grabbed whatever they could such as iron candlesticks, wooden staffs, even the heavy brass incense burners that hung from chains. The infirmary had turned into a battlefield

I scrambled to my knees as the first soldier forced his way inside, his eyes wild, his armor splattered with blood. Bebind him more shadows pressed against the doors, snarling like starving wolves.

One of the older tropers swing a staff down on his helmet, the crack schwing through the caverites spade pr The soldier staggered but didn’t fall lnstead his sword whipped out, cutting de

bestien

9:54 Sat, Sep 27

Chapter 153

“No!” I screamed as she crumpled, her cream robes blooming red.

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The Crone’s hand shot out, catching the fallen woman before she hit the ground fully. Her eyes burned—not with fear, but with the kind of fury that made me shiver. “Close the doors!” she roared again.

Another soldier had almost shoved his way through, his shoulder forcing the gap wider. Sarah, trembling and pale, grabbed the nearest thing she could–a clay jar of salve–and smashed it into his face. The jar shattered, green paste and blood spraying. The man howled, his grip faltering.

That gave two more keepers the chance to slam the doors together, crunching the soldier’s arm between them. His scream was guttural, animalistic. I wanted to clap my hands over my ears, but I couldn’t move.

“Push!” women cried out together, a chorus of raw desperation. Their thin frames bent like bows, straining against the weight of the soldiers battering from outside.

Another keeper fell. A sword had slipped through the gap just before the doors shut completely, slicing across her back. She collapsed with a choked gasp, blood soaking into the stone.

The scent of iron and blood was everywhere.

I pressed my hands against the wood, lending what little strength I had. My arms shook, my palms burned from the friction, but I shoved with all I could. Behind me, I heard Sarah sobbing, her breath hitching, but she didn’t stop either.

Finally, with one last guttural cry, the women forced the doors closed. The sound of the bar sliding into place thundered like a victory drum.

The soldiers on the other side rammed the doors, but the temple held. For now.

The keepers slumped against the wood, gasping. Blood smeared their hands, their robes, their faces. One wept quietly, whispering prayers between shallow breaths.

I bent over the first woman who had fallen, the one with the staff. Her eyes stared blankly at the vaulted ceiling, unseeing. My throat clenched tight. I had only seen her a handful of times in passing, never spoken more than a polite word–but she was dead because she had tried to protect me.

My stomach twisted.

The Crone rose slowly from where she’d crouched, her face one of firm resolve. She looked at me. Not Nina or the other women but me.

“You said the King is dying” Her voice was calm now, almost too calm, the kind that carried a weight heavier than shouting ever could.

I nodded, though my vision blurred with tears. “Martin’s men they’ve turned the palace into a slaughterhouse. Killian is chained in the dungeons, bleeding. I saw the King falter. He… he won’t last long. Please, you have to come.”

Nina hissed like a snake, still clutching Sarah’s wrist. “You can’t believe her! Look at her–she brings soldiers to our door, brings death with hert She’s cursed. If you follow her, you’ll doom us all.”

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Chapter 153

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But even as she spat the words, the temple floor was streaked with blood from the women who had given their lives to push those doors shut.

The Crone’s eyes, sharp and unreadable, flicked from the bodies, to the barricaded door, and finally back to

1. me.

“Then,” she said with a firm resolve, “We have little time to waste.”

Her words sent a shiver down my spine.

And for the first time since stepping into this cursed palace, I felt the tiniest spark of hope that maybe, just maybe, Killian and I weren’t entirely alone.