It almost made Eilonwy laugh now, to think how afraid of the dark she’d been as a child. One of the castle staff would have to stand in her room with a lantern lit until she fell asleep, or she would be awake the whole night, too terrified to rest. How superficial a fear that had been; standing in the Horned King’s presence, she understood why few dared to even speak his name.
Afraid though she was, with a fear that traveled through to her bones, she still had a role to play, a family’s reputation to uphold. She would not disappoint, not when she had been prepared for this her entire life.
“I wish to understand why, exactly, I have been snatched from my bed by your cabal, and brought to… this.” She gestured around her with a distinguished wrinkle to her nose. She was only stalling, of course. With the Horned King around, kidnapping was always a possibility, more of a probability, and Eilonwy had been raised with the assumption that this would be the inevitable outcome. “A proper host would have greeted his guest hours ago.”