Prisoner in the Well

Synopsis

I became the most insignificant maid in the Cold Palace, spending each day throwing sharp stones into a dry well alongside the others. They said the well held the deposed queen, a woman with a venomous heart who had plunged the court into chaos, and that this was her just punishment. Yet every time I held those jagged stones, my heart tightened painfully. One afternoon, when no one was around, I quietly lowered a few pieces of bread I had secretly saved into the well, using a battered basket and carefully lowering it down the rope. From the depths below, a hoarse, frail man's voice called out, "Who are you?" That was when I realized it wasn't the deposed queen trapped down there, but a man.