34

"I didn't kill him, I swear it!" Sari wailed, her voice cracking with emotion. "I was only there after he fell!"

Drea leaned down, her dark eyes boring into Sari's. "Then tell me, Sari, how did he fall? Did you see anyone else in the room with him?"

Sari shook her head frantically. "I don't know, I swear! I was just going to check on him, but when I got there, he was already on the ground!"

The investigation room of the royal arena was a cold and dreary place, filled with an eerie silence that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The walls were made of solid stone and had a greyish tint to them, as if the very walls themselves were mocking the prisoners who were held there.

Sari could see that the walls were adorned with all sorts of instruments of torture. There were rods, whips, nails, ropes, and other things that made her shudder in fear. They hung ominously from hooks on the wall, like a warning to anyone who dared to cross the royal family.

The investigator, a tall an