“The Queen requests an audience,” said the guard, urgently, almost to the point of yelling.
I rolled my eyes. Surprise, surprise. The Queen wanted to see me. I gritted my teeth to keep from screaming obscenities at an empty castle. It wouldn’t have done me any good. The guard continued to stand there, waiting for my next move. I didn’t struggle or put up a fight or complain. I just spun around where I stood and headed back down the hall towards the Queen’s chambers. With every heavy footstep I put a little more distance between myself and safety. I’m never getting out of here, I thought to myself.
“Not that way,” said the guard.
My mouth fell open as I considered the possibility that the guard could have read my mind. I didn’t turn around but instead gazed over my shoulder at the guard that had not moved an inch from where he stood, holding my suitcase and purse. Had he simply sensed that I didn’t want to be here? Maybe it was a lucky guess. Either way, it was creepy.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly, “What?”
The guard looked very uncomfortable. His eyes shifted from left to right and his feet did the same. He shrugged slightly as though he didn’t understand what was going on.
“The Queen?” said the guard, “She’s not in her chambers,”
It had been a rare occasion that the Queen would summon me someplace other than her chambers. I spent more time in her chambers than in my own room.
“Well,” I said, not sure what to say but relieved that the guard didn’t seem to possess mind reading capabilities, “Where is she, then?”
“Oh,” said the guard, throwing my suitcase over his shoulder with ease and nodding his head toward the hallway, “I’ll just set your things down and then I’ll show you,”
As I walked behind the guard I noticed a few things about him. He didn’t wear the typical guard uniform, his was… different. It was completely black but had different equipment than the castle guards happened to carry. I didn’t see a gun on him but I knew he had one, somewhere. And he was larger than many of the other guards that I had seen around. Now that I thought about it, I couldn't recall seeing him at all before. Looking over his clothing, I couldn’t find a single patch or insignia of Queen Victoria’s guard on his clothes.
“Are you new?” I asked as I began slowing my walk behind him to create more distance between me and the back of his heels, my heart skipping a few beats as I considered the possibility that he wasn’t actually a guard.
“No,” he said, as though chatting with an old friend, “I’ve worked for the Queen for hundreds of years,”
That was a small comfort. But no sooner had my heart settled, than it took off for the races again. He hadn’t said which Queen; he had just said the Queen. I increased the space between us as I followed him. But as the distance grew, the guard began looking over his shoulder at me with clear curiosity on his face. We reached my bedroom but instead of going inside he simply opened the door and threw my suitcase and purse into the room and quickly shut the door again. Before I had time to protest, though there wasn’t anything that could have been damaged, the guard turned quickly to me and gave me a huge grin with a wink.
“In my experience, it’s best not to keep the Queen waiting,” he said.
I stood in silent shock at the strange behavior the guard was displaying. Normally the guards were methodical, impersonal at best, but this one was behaving outrageously compared to all of the other guards I had encountered. He didn’t strike me as particularly threatening, but he was odd and that had me concerned. His smile reminded me of Jasper’s enthusiastic grin and that put me on edge. But I continued to follow him.
“Where are we going?” I asked as we reached a corridor I had only been down once before.
The guard didn’t answer me and the pace of my heart quickened as I recalled why I had gone this way the last time and what had happened there. I began walking slower and slower as we made our way into the cool, dark passage ways that I had the displeasure of visiting once before. The guard seemed genuinely at home in the tunnel, the filth underfoot packed down hard to the point of resembling a modern floor instead of the dirt path it would have resembled in the light. There were candles lit every few feet but the light was still as poor as I had remembered, or worse.
“Where are we going?” I asked more firmly though I knew where we were headed and didn’t like it one bit.
This time I got an answer. The guard spun around and the candles lit his face in a harsh way. The shadows caught his sharp angular features, and he resembled more a monster from a nightmare than a man. Even in the low light I could see the sparkle in the very back of his eyes, not of joy but of excitement. His smile was stretched tight with eagerness across his brilliantly white teeth, his lips stretched thin.
“The dungeon,” said the guard, “The Queen asked for you to be brought to the dungeon. Immediately,”
I recoiled from him, my hands rising slightly as I prepared to defend myself in whatever way I could manage. I couldn’t imagine running through this tunnel and making any real progress in an escape. I could see the scattering of straw which I knew would make my feet slip. I recognized the place, but I didn’t like it. The last time I had been here I had dipped my hand into torture and I wasn’t fond of the memories it brought back.
The guard looked me over quickly, as though I had been the one to do something extremely odd but smiled and began back down the tunnel again. I paused, unsure how wise it was to continue to follow him. I had never seen him in the castle before and he hadn't been specific about which Queen he was talking about. And the dungeon we were headed into didn’t have another exit. If I were being kidnapped again it was poorly planned.
“Keep up,” shouted the guard over his shoulder as he neared what I knew would be the door to the dungeon, laying just below the barn for the horses.
I gathered my courage. Whatever was waiting for me in that dark, humid, isolated dungeon wasn’t going to wait on me all day. And if it was Queen Patricia, at least there was a chance I could make enough noise kicking and screaming that someone might rescue me before I could be dragged out of the castle. I made my way to the door of the dungeon where the guard was waiting for me. He stood looking at me, waiting for me to give the go-ahead to enter. I gave a halfhearted wave for the guard to lead the way.
He opened the door and stepped aside so that I could enter. At first I thought the dungeon was empty. It was not as I had remembered it. There was a pile of straw in the corner but the metal chair, where the assassin had sat, was gone. And the table that had Tommy’s equipment spread across it was also gone. But the dungeon wasn’t completely empty. In the corner, elegantly cloaked, stood Queen Victoria. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief but my anxiety was only amplified as I observed her pacing in the far corner. It only took a few seconds for Victoria to realize that she was no longer alone. Victoria looked up and when she saw us she threw her hands up, as though we were the honored guests for a party we were late for.
“Good, good,” said the Queen, coming over to me and then looking out the door, down the dark underground tunnel that led back to the castle, “Sebastian?”
The guard nodded his head once, slowly.
“Thank you, John Campbell,” said the Queen, “Is he far behind?”
The guard nodded his head back and forth slowly, making a slight frown with his mouth as he scrunched up his chin.
“Very good,” said the Queen, turning to me, “Well, I know you have been chomping at the bit to get out of here but something has come up. Something important,”
I rolled my eyes. Every time I turned around something important was popping up and it always revolved around the Queen. Her ability to conjure urgent matters out of thin air would have seemed fascinating if it weren’t for the fact that it was so annoying and inconvenient. If it were a power, the Queen was using it for evil instead of good every time she kept me from leaving. Or perhaps she never intended to let me leave.
I put my hands on my hips, be
yond tired of the delays and excuses. More than likely, she was fetching Sebastian to come up with another reason that he could not leave either. True, the Queen had a pretty good chance of keeping Sebastian here. Sebastian was easily manipulated by the Queen but I was not going to stand for it anymore. Sebastian could stay if he wanted but I was going to go, no matter what.
I had spent more than enough time between these castle walls. They had been my prison more than my comfort. All the pain I had experienced for the last couple of years had been centered around this place, these people, and things I had little to do with. Of course, Jasper was my fault. It was only a matter of time. In a room full of killers, I was a sitting duck. Whether Josephine would want to hear it or not, Jasper had been an accident.
“It’s always important,” I said, “but funny how important stuff always happens right as I’m planning to leave,”
“This time is different,” said the Queen.
Her elegant dress could not hide her anxiety as she paced in the dirt and straw that covered the floor of the dungeon. I had decided long ago that I would not let any more of the Queen’s manipulation keep me in this castle for a minute longer than I had to be. I watched her pace a worn path into the dungeon floor.
I started to wonder if this time was really different. In the past, Victoria had always been angry or aloof but I had never seen her truly worried. She wrung her hands and paced as the candlelight flickered with every pass she made down the wall. My curiosity got the best of me because for a moment I saw myself in her, pacing. What could have happened that would make such a calculated and smart Queen so worried?
“What is it?” I asked with genuine concern as I began to see more and more wrinkles form across the Queen’s brow, her frown deepening with every moment.
“Not just yet,” said the Queen, “I want to wait until Sebastian is here,”
“I’m here,” said Sebastian, ducking slightly as he stepped through the door of the dungeon, the shadows of the candles casting dark circles under his eyes and deepening the hallows of the cheeks in his face. He looked menacing enough that I cringed, before I realized it was the light and shadows playing tricks.
“Excellent,” said the Queen, “Sebastian, you’ve met John Campbell. John, you’ve met Princess Prussia, his new wife. Prussia, this is John Campbell.”
I nodded, impatiently, as the introductions went in a pointless circle. I didn’t care what the name of the guard was. I wanted to know what was going on that the Queen had decided to call Sebastian and I for a secret meeting in the dungeon with a guard I had never met or seen before.
“The list,” said Sebastian, handing the Queen a scrap of paper.
I tried to peer at the handwriting on the piece of paper as Sebastian passed it to the Queen but I couldn’t make out any of it.
“You’re certain?” asked the Queen as she looked over the piece of paper.
“Yes,” said John Campbell and Sebastian at the same time. Both men looked at each other for a brief moment and then back at the Queen, waiting, silently.
“What is going on?” I asked, the silence started creeping in and sending my mind on wild paranoid adventures about what it could be a list of.
I watched as the Queen chewed on her bottom lip and made a slight tsk sound every few seconds. The paper wasn’t very long and the Queen wasn’t a slow reader. In fact, she probably read it five times before she looked up again.
“This is what is going to happen,” said the Queen, the shadows doing nothing to add kindness or youth to her features in the harsh candle light of the dungeon, “Sebastian, no one leaves. 24 hour surveillance. They will be watched wherever they go on the grounds until this has been sorted out,”
“Everyone?” asked Sebastian.
“Yes,” said the Queen with the deepest frown I had ever seen on her face before, “I am not authorizing anything outside of questioning until we know more,” said Victoria very firmly.
I crossed my arms in front of my chest, still unsure of what was going on. I didn’t like that the Queen had simply started barking orders. It didn’t seem like I was needed at all. Actually, it seemed like the opposite. It seemed like another way for the Queen to stop me from leaving.
“What is going on and what does any of this have to do with me?” I demanded, arms still crossed as I looked back and forth between the three of them.
After a pause, the Queen handed Sebastian the list he had given her before and looked at me.
“There is a spy in the court,” said the Queen, a great deal of sorrow settling onto her face, “And I need to ask you a favor,”
My mouth fell open as she spoke, giving me very little detail and explaining what I would need to do. The Queen, Victoria, had asked me for a favor. She wasn’t ordering me, she was asking. Be still my beating heart, I thought. She didn’t ask much but she also didn’t tell me much either, Just that one of the people on the list would need to be questioned. She claimed she couldn’t do it because of a conflict of interest.
While I knew how unprecedented it was that the Queen would ask me for a favor rather than command me, I still hesitated. I had no way of knowing when Josephine might come looking for revenge for the death of her brother. And there was no telling when the war would actually start, officially. Friday at the latest but the castle could be under attack by evening. There was a very real chance that this could be my last window of opportunity to escape and secure my safety and freedom.
“I can’t do this without the Chancellor,” said the Queen, “I know you’re planning on leaving and I understand. But I can’t go to war with a spy in my mix. And if I am seen as heavy handed in seeking out the truth…they won’t rally behind me and go into battle.”
“We,” said Sebastian, “We are leaving. I’m going with Prussia,”
The Queen’s eyes grew wide with rage and surprise. The guard, John Campbell, took a step back, with his eyebrows raised high. He didn’t seem to want any part of what might follow.
“You’re going to leave me to go to war by myself? Asked the Queen.
“I just got married. And this is not your typical war. You said she’s your sister. She’s family.” said Sebastian.
“You don’t know what she’s like,” said the Queen.
“I may not have ever met her, but if she’s family I can’t imagine she would want much more than to be included in the court,” said Sebastian.
“She wants to take the throne for herself,” said the Queen.
“Fix your feud. It’s not as if your own sister would drive a spike through your chest,” said Sebastian.
“So you leave me without an army, then?” asked the Queen.
“I am not the whole of your army,” said Sebastian.
“You are the commander,” said the Queen, “without you, there is no army.”
“I don’t understand why I’m needed,” I said.
I witnessed, for the first time ever, the Queen roll her eyes at me.
“Because I transferred, not just the position of the Royal Chancellor to you, Prussia. I relinquished justice of the court to you, entirely. Without you to oversee it, there’d be no verdict until you return. If there is a spy in my court then I need them removed immediately. It can’t wait. I can’t go into a war like this.”
I covered my face with my hands and stifled a frustrated scream. I looked up at the Queen, her eyes soft and seeking sympathy. I was angry the moment that guard had called my name because I knew I wasn’t going to be going anywhere. And here my anger proved justified. I wasn’t going anywhere. What was one more delay? And I was sure that if push came to shove, if I really tried to leave, the Queen would drag me back. With every new reason she found to keep me here I became more convinced than ever that she never intended to let me leave.
“Fine,” I said, “how quickly can we get through it?”
John Campbell spoke up, raising his hand and looking around timidly.
“I think we could get this knocked out today,” he said a
fter no one called on him to speak, “a few things, a few tools, and a chair and we are ready to rock ‘n roll,” said John Campbell as he looked around at the straw covered dungeon floor.
“Start bringing them in. As soon as possible,” nodded the Queen.
My face was frozen in horror as I realized what John Campbell was talking about. He was talking about bringing people in here, the dungeon. I was guessing to torture more than question. I looked at Sebastian and then to the Queen. Perhaps I had agreed too readily to this. Either way, there was no backing out now.
CHAPTER THREE
I made it to my room, escorted by John Campbell as far as my door. And then he left to find Sebastian, to do as the Queen had instructed and gather up those suspected of spying for Queen Patricia. My suitcase hadn’t opened when John had tossed my things in earlier but my purse had spilled.
Deadly Lovers (The Prussia Series) Page 2
