I took several long breaths, facing the water and attempting to block everything else out. I struggled to absorb anything of the tranquility of the setting, however. A weight pressed on my shoulders. After six months with almost no progress, I had Audrey back—I should have been feeling elated. Instead I had the dizzying sensation that everything was spiraling rapidly out of control. I had been the one to stumble into Leander’s trap, and my one hope had been to avoid ensnaring the others at the haven—but now they had all come forcibly to his attention. And the prospect of a party at the Keep—if he did indeed mean to keep his word—only filled me with more dread. I couldn’t fathom his plan, but that it must be nefarious I was sure.
Nothing in my strange history had prepared me for this, and it was all too tempting to turn and throw the burden onto someone else’s more capable shoulders.
So many times I had nearly poured it all out to Cora. But she had taken me in, and loved me, I believed, when I had no one else. She owed me nothing now and had many more than just me looking to her for support.
No doubt Gabe would have happily received the burden. But I shuddered to think of the mess he would make of it. No, I knew better than to trust him with such an important task. Despair swirled in my belly.
As my thoughts consumed me, the last of the light faded. I felt the change in me, like a slight release of pressure that I never noticed until it disappeared each night. Turning with a soft sigh of relief, I spoke.
“So, tell me what really happened.”
Audrey and Gabe both looked up at the sound of my voice, hurrying toward me as my swans scattered for the lake. They looked comfortable together, smiles lingering on their faces. Did they not feel the same burden I did?
“It truly did happen as I described,” Gabe said. “I arrived, the guards at the gate fetched Leander, and he would allow me no further than a few steps into the courtyard.” His tone turned darkly satirical. “For my own protection, of course.”
“And what about you?” I turned to my friend. “What happened, Audrey?”
She didn’t smile or laugh or turn my question aside, and I got a glimpse of something in her eyes that looked even more suffocating than my own dragging weight. But then she turned to Gabe with her usual smile, and I could only assume it had been a trick of the light. She seemed so much her normal self despite her six-month absence.
“Prince Charming here rescued me, of course.”
Gabe snorted. “It was all very heroic. I inquired after her—on her family’s behalf, of course.” I winced at his words, but he didn’t notice, his attention on Audrey. “Given I’m the crown prince, Leander could hardly refuse my request to have her accompany me back, so he fetched her and just about pushed us both out the gate.”
“And glad I was to leave that dreary place,” Audrey assured us both.
“So you were a prisoner,” I said.
She nodded slowly. “Not in the dungeon and chains sense, of course. But it turns out Lord Leander doesn’t allow his servants to take leave, and he has commanded that rest days are to be spent inside the Keep’s walls. For our own protection, of course.” She threw a wry glance at Gabe as she mirrored his words. “The guards are commanded to open the gates to no one. Short of throwing myself from the top of the walls, there was no obvious way out.”
“We were worried about you,” I said slowly. “How did Wren and Cora take the news that you were trapped in there?”
“Oh, I didn’t tell them that,” she said. “I did patch things up with Wren, though.” Her face dropped, her voice turning sad. “I never meant for her to think I had run from her. I just told them that I did it to try to earn my keep for once. Lord Leander does pay his servants—although only the visiting merchants give anyone an opportunity to spend it.” She wrinkled her nose.
“Visiting merchants?” I asked, astonished. So those were Leander’s common visitors.
“None that I recognized,” she said. “They must come purely for the Keep because I’m sure they don’t visit the town. And very odd sort of merchants they were, too. From the look of them, you’d be more likely to conclude they were soldiers.”
I frowned. Perhaps they were the only sort of merchants still willing to venture through the forests? But I had too many questions to linger longer on that one.
“And they believed you?” I asked. “Cora and Wren, I mean.”
She shrugged. “I just explained that Lord Leander gives the opportunity for his servants to earn more coin by working through rest days. I’d left the note, so I knew they had no reason to worry over me.”
I stared at her. Could they really have bought such a story? I worried at my lip. Audrey loved her family, but she had always been a little heedless and rather foolhardy. So perhaps they had found it believable.
“What were you thinking?” I asked, the words bursting out of me. “Why did you go there?”
“I had to, Lady,” she said, full of earnestness now. “I couldn’t abandon you to such a fate. I’d heard that young Tom went to the Keep looking for work a year ago, and they didn’t turn him away. I thought if I infiltrated his servants, I could get information on how to free you.”
“And did you?” Gabe asked, eyes alight with curiosity and interest.
I frowned at both of them. “It was a dangerous thing to do! Tom may have found work there, but did he ever come back out again? You should have thought it through more carefully. If Gabe hadn’t arrived, you would have still been stuck there.”
“But he did come along,” she reminded me, and my jaw clenched at such a hare-brained—but somehow unassailable—argument.
“Is she always like this?” Gabe asked Audrey with a grin.
“Oh, sometimes even worse,” she assured him with mock gravity.
“Do neither of you intend to take this seriously?” I asked.
All humor instantly dropped from Gabe’s face. “I can assure you I take it utterly seriously. No nobleman is permitted to keep his servants trapped in his castle in such a way. And I do not doubt for a second that he has brazenly lied to my face about this illness. I have every intention of getting to the bottom of what is going on in that Keep and then removing him from his position entirely.” His voice became almost a growl. “At the very least.”
This serious side to him took me by surprise, easing some of the frustration that had been filling my chest with pressure.
“Don’t they threaten to rebel?” I asked Audrey. “How does he keep them in line?”
“Oh no, there’s no threat of that,” she said. “If you think the people of Brylee are bad, you should see this lot. Meek doesn’t even begin to describe them. They were almost as determined to keep me safe inside with them as Lord Leander was not to have anyone leave. I couldn’t even get them to do something so adventurous as to try my tea—I took a whole bag with me and had plenty to share. There’s no way any of them would have wanted to step outside the walls. Especially not with all the wild tales of deadly animals roaming free.” She rolled her eyes.
I shook my head. “You know they might have a point when it comes to that tea. You do know the stuff smells vile, don’t you? It’s not just Wren who thinks so.”
“If you mean the stuff you were drinking at lunch, then I’m afraid it’s true,” Gabe said apologetically.
For half a second, I forgot I was angry and actually grinned at him. “In an act of true friendship, I actually tried it once. She’s right that it doesn’t taste nearly as bad as it smells. It was almost nice, in fact. But hard to enjoy with that stench in your nostrils.”
Audrey just rolled her eyes. “Can we focus, please?”
“What I want to know, is what is this talk of dangerous animals?” Gabe asked. “I heard them talking about it at the haven, and I thought I heard someone saying something similar yesterday when I was lingering around town waiting for Adelaide to emerge.”
“Yes,” I said slowly. “I only heard about it today.” I repeated the gossip Ash had delivered, while Aud
rey nodded along in agreement.
“They had the most outrageous stories inside the Keep, but I had been in the forest recently enough to know they weren’t true. I’ve never encountered such an animal in my life.”
I nodded. It was true that Audrey was one of the few townsfolk still willing to enter the forest—thus how she had followed me in the first place. Plus, I also had never seen any such thing.
“If the rumors are worse inside the Keep, it makes me wonder if Leander is the one spreading them,” I said. “But why would he do such a thing?”
“Why, indeed,” Gabe said. “And you can be sure once he has been exposed and arrested, I shall ask him. But in the meantime, we are in something of a difficult situation. As long as Leander insists he’s protecting me by refusing me entry to his Keep, there’s nothing I can do to force the issue. Not without a couple of squads of guards to back me up anyway.”
I half expected him to make a case for going for help, but he said nothing about it. Whether he was respecting my wishes to keep my location and identity hidden, or whether he was driven by his own heedless desire to be the one to personally bring down Leander I didn’t know and didn’t ask.
“What would you do if you could get inside?” Audrey asked. “I’ve been in there for six months and was unable to find anything that seemed of any use in freeing Lady.”
Gabe explained our theory about the godmother objects, and an intrigued look crossed her face. For a brief moment hope filled me that she might have seen one in her time in the Keep. But her next words dashed it.
“It never occurred to me to go poking around for strange objects. But even if they do exist, I’m not sure I could have reached them. Lord Leander spends an awful lot of time in his study, and no one else is allowed in there—not even the maids for dusting or to deliver food to him.”
“Well, that would be the place to look then.” Gabe sounded far too excited for my liking. “But the question is how to get in there.”
Audrey leaned forward. “Do you really think if you could find and destroy this object that it would free Lady?”
“Actually, I’m hoping we might be able to free more than Adelaide.” He looked my way, as if checking for permission to share the rest of our thinking with Audrey.
I nodded slightly. At this point, she was as wrapped up in all this as either of us.
“It’s very interesting that you say Leander’s servants are even more timid than the people of Brylee,” Gabe said. “It would seem to confirm another theory of ours.” He proceeded to outline our idea that something insidious had infected Talinos, and that it seemed to emanate from this region—and quite possibly from Leander and his mysterious Keep.
“I knew it!” she exclaimed. “I knew something awful was going on. Everyone acts so strangely. But do you really think you could break it—whatever it is? That you could completely defeat Lord Leander just by gaining entry to the Keep?”
“It’s a place to start at least,” Gabe said.
Audrey looked between us, a gleam in her eyes. “Then I think I might be able to help.”
Chapter 11
It turned out Audrey had spent a lot of time around the oldest of the servants—those who had been at the Keep the longest. She figured they were most likely to know its secrets, and, as it happened, she was right.
Some ancient owner of the Keep had built a hidden escape passage out into the forest. And while some of the oldest servants knew about it, they weren’t sure if Leander had ever been told by his parents. His mother had died when he was young, and his father could be absent-minded at times.
When I asked why she hadn’t used this passage to get out of the Keep herself, Audrey explained that while she knew the place it let out into the forest, she didn’t know where it began inside.
“The problem was that I only heard the end of the conversation,” Audrey said. “And they refused to answer any of my questions about it.” She rolled her eyes. “They were all convinced I was a danger to myself and likely to do something reckless.”
“I can’t imagine where they got that idea,” I muttered and then grinned apologetically when she threw me an accusing look.
“I spent so many hours searching for it,” she said with a sigh. “I can tell you a great many places where the entrance isn’t.”
“Well, we’ll know soon enough,” said Gabe. “From this side, all we need is the exit—the tunnel itself will lead us to the entrance.”
“You know I just escaped from the Keep, right?” Audrey said. “I can’t say I’m excited to be sneaking back in there the next night.”
“You’re not going at night,” I said quickly. “Because you’re definitely not going without me.”
Gabe grimaced, looking as if he wanted to argue, but refrained from actually doing so. I wasn’t sure if he was frustrated at the limitation or just wanted to keep me away from potential danger. Either way, I didn’t intend to budge on the matter.
“In the morning, then,” Gabe said. “And you don’t have to actually come in, Audrey. We just need you to show us the exit to the passage. It’s probably better that way, anyway, since Leander won’t be able to do Adelaide or me any great harm even if he does find us. He can instruct his guards to bar me entry under the guise of keeping me safe, but he won’t dare actually harm me if he finds me already inside.”
“Not that we want to be seen,” I said quickly.
We might be safe, but our friends were not. And in truth, I didn’t have the same faith that Leander wouldn’t be willing to cross a line of no return. Knowing I was a princess hadn’t stopped him from entrapping me.
I didn’t mention any of that, though. Something had to be done about Leander—and for more than just my sake. Going into the Keep seemed to be our only option. I agreed that Audrey didn’t need to come, though.
“But what about Lady?” Audrey asked. “She’s not the crown prince.”
“No, but she’s close enough,” Gabe said, before I could think of a reply of my own. “And he seems to want to keep her alive.” He gestured around us at the lake and the clearing, not seeming to notice my wide eyes and tense expression. “I’ve been wondering if perhaps he’s scared of her brother.”
“Why would Lord Leander be scared of Lady’s brother?” Audrey asked. “You know Lady’s not from around here, right?”
Gabe finally picked up on the confusion coming from Audrey and the tension radiating from me. He looked quickly between us, his eyes settling on me.
“I thought you said you told her everything.”
“I told her everything about my situation and the trap or curse or whatever this is.” I glared at him. “Not everything about everything.”
“Wait, what’s going on?” Audrey’s eyes darted back and forth. “What don’t I know?”
Gabe looked more uncomfortable than I’d ever seen him, having just stepped into the middle of something he clearly didn’t want to be involved in.
“I’m sure I mentioned that Adelaide sent me to get you,” he said. “Didn’t you wonder how I knew her?”
“Well…” Audrey bit her lip. “I guess I was just so relieved to be out of there and to see my family again. Plus, Lady is a damsel in distress and you’re a prince, so I guess it just seemed like the kind of thing that would…”
She trailed off at my unimpressed look.
“Sorry, Lady.” She gave me a cheeky grin before scooting over to sit closer and gazing at me coaxingly. “You know whatever it is, you can tell me, right? We’ve been friends for years now. I even went to the Keep for you!”
And how could I resist that? I sighed. “Gabe thinks Leander might be concerned about my brother because my brother is Prince Dominic of Palinar.”
“King Dominic now, actually,” Gabe cut in.
I winced at the reminder.
“King Dominic…” Audrey barely seemed able to squeeze the words out, for once actually robbed of speech. “But that would make you…”
She stared at me.
“A princess, yes,” I said with another sigh.
“You’re a princess!?!”
I winced at Audrey’s shout, so close to my ear.
“She is, indeed,” Gabe said. “The missing Princess Adelaide, no less. We’ve known each other since we were small children.” He frowned. “You know, come to think of it, I’m surprised none of you ever considered the possibility. She must have turned up just after the curse fell, and it’s not like she changed her name.”
“I was thirteen,” I said. “I had other things on my mind than creating a false identity.”
“I didn’t mean it as a criticism,” Gabe said with a smile. “It made my job easier in the end.”
“I don’t think many people in the village even know my name is Adelaide,” I added. “Most of them just call me Lady. And I’m not sure if word of a missing princess ever reached the haven. Brylee is fairly insular—and the haven even more so.”
“I’m sure I would have remembered news of a missing princess named Adelaide who disappeared at the same time as our Lady turned up,” Audrey said, apparently having regained her voice.
She fixed me with a betrayed look. “You’re a princess, and you never told me? How could you not tell me? I thought we were best friends!” An even more horrified look came over her face. “You didn’t tell Wren and Cora and not me, did you?”
“Of course not.” I said. “I haven’t told anyone. And I still don’t intend to tell anyone, so keep it to yourself, please.”
“A princess. You’re an actual princess…and I’m the only one who knows.” Her voice sounded a little dreamy.
“Apparently I don’t count,” Gabe said under his breath to me.
“Of course you don’t,” I murmured back. “You don’t live at the haven, and you’re a man. A prince, in fact.”
A Captive of Wing and Feather Page 9
