"We've lucked out!" Runir gasped. I nodded and thanked destiny and the Spirits for the small triumph. That particular suite was familiar to my friend and me. We spent time there as children, and the rooms had a hidden escape route. It was hidden in the wall of one bedroom, and the passageway would lead us almost anywhere in the castle.
"This will make our secondary objective easier." Runir's face quickly dropped its smile with my words, but he knew better than to argue with me in front of our warriors. "In fact, you five set up the room." I gestured to the guards. "Your ladyship's legs are cramped from all the sitting and she must visit some the castle's beautiful gardens. Let's go Jervin." The other guards nodded, but I saw the concern on their faces before they proceeded down the hallway after the attendants that were responsible for my luggage.
"What are we doing?" Runir said in confusion.
"We are walking to the East Wing." I readied for his outburst.
"This is not the plan!" He suddenly hushed as a group of servants scurried around a corner and walked past us.
"We are going to wander for a bit. I want to see what the East Wing looks like." I slowly continued my trek, ignoring the fact that he had stopped walking.
"Nadea!" he whispered. I turned around to see him standing with his arms crossed over his chest, with one hand fiddling with his fake mustachio.
"Runir!" I said his name as a command and then spun to continue my walk. He sighed loudly and caught up with me.
"You're going to get yourself killed. Let's just stick to the plan."
"The plan will probably get me killed as well." I snickered behind my veil. "Let's go the servant's route." He grunted and we walked the next ten minutes in silence, passing several servants and two bored looking guards.
The East Wing was where my father and I traditionally stayed during our visits, and it was where Paug, Iarin, and Kaiyer roomed when we had last been in the castle. When I had been a little girl, I slept in my father's suites. But once I started to investigate the Ancients, the O'Baarni, and possible locations of Kaiyer, I requested my own quarters and use of the library.
Every time I left my room I would carefully conceal my notes, maps, dream journals, and reference books in a hollowed out stone in the floor. When I last left the documents, I had gone to watch Kaiyer train with Paug and Iarin. The four of us shared a meal together and then I had accompanied the handsome man to his suite. My mind drifted to memories of the hot water of the bathtub, his lips on my legs and stomach, and the desire in his eyes when I took off my clothes. I shook my head angrily and forced the recollections away. Remembering my final few moments with Kaiyer wouldn't help me now.
If the documents were still hidden in my room, I needed to retrieve them. I had contemplated including them with the books I sent home with Paug and his grandfather, but part of me fantasized that Nia would have been able to hold back Losher's invasion, and I didn't want to chase down the writings later.
I didn't know if the Ancients could use my notes for anything, but the thought of those bastards obtaining my life's work made my stomach churn. My guess was that they wanted to interrogate me about Kaiyer, or else they would have killed me instead of leaving me to rot in the dungeon for the empress.
What did that woman want? Why would she want Nanos to kill his father and then take over the kingdom? Why didn't she just destroy us outright? She had the army to do it. Why did she kidnap Jessmei? Why was she having this banquet? There were so many unanswered questions. Runir and my generals had stayed up late almost every night discussion her possible motives. None of them made sense.
Not for the first time, I thought about my father. We used to play battle games together on his well-worn wooden board. He would often make moves that I didn't understand until it was too late and he had captured my general piece and won the game. Even the times I had crafted an elaborate plan he had easily seen through it and beaten me. Although I had never defeated him, he told me that I was the best challenger he had ever played. His words were flattery for his daughter, but part of me wished they were true. I felt like I now played a game with the empress but I was so outclassed that the Ancient didn't even realize that I was participating.
I wished every second that my father could be here with me. Together we would have been able to figure out how to defeat the Ancients and restore Nia.
He couldn't be dead. He had to be somewhere in this castle.
"Can I help you find something?" A voice pulled me out of my memories and back to the task at hand. I felt my body tense up, but then realized it was a young servant girl and relaxed.
"No, we are fine," Runir said. She smiled shyly at him.
"Oh, okay. It looked like you were going that way." She pointed toward the passage that led to the East Wing.
"We are just walking around little one. My lady's legs have cramped and she is enjoying some exercise." Runir gestured to me and the girl blushed. The upper crust of our society wouldn't pay much attention to servants, so I turned and kept hobbling in the direction we had originally been going. I heard the young girl turn and continue on her path.
"Stop thinking negative thoughts," I said when she walked safely out of hearing range.
"I'm not! I am thinking completely reasonable thoughts." The tone of his voice forced me to smile and I almost laughed.
We passed a few other servants, but none stopped to question why we headed toward the East Wing. Every few moments I had to stop to catch my breath. The corset under the dress was digging into my ribs so badly that I couldn't fill my lungs with enough air. I did some calculations in my head and realized that at the rate we walked it would take another twenty minutes before we made it to my room.
If we didn't get stopped by a guard or Ancient.
"It seems like you are walking twice as slow now that we are in the East Wing," Runir mumbled as he offered an arm. It would complete the masquerade, so I took it. I didn't even realize what he said until a few seconds later. We had finally made it to the East Wing.
The air was silent and still. Our footsteps cut through the emptiness and bounced off the thick stone walls of the hallways like swords slamming into shields. Or perhaps it was just my nerves causing every footstep to sound so horribly loud. The tight dress clogs the countess had given me squeezed my feet painfully and didn't help our attempt at stealth.
We ascended the stairs in the North Wing before we came over to the east so we were on the same level as my suite, my father's room, and my semi-private library. That was another place where Kaiyer and I almost kissed. Runir had barged in and ruined the moment. I shot a glare at my tall blonde friend and then sighed. He had only been trying to protect me, and it was probably better that I had done nothing carnal with the man I thought was the O'Baarni.
"Almost there," Runir whispered after five more minutes of walking that seemed like five hours.
"This wing looks deserted," I said breathlessly. My heart beat a thousand gallops a minute and sweat coated my back through the tight corset. If we got out of this alive, I was going to burn every one of these horrible garments I could acquire.
"Good. I hope this will be easier than expected." We turned a corner and saw the door to my room.
It was unguarded.
We both breathed a long sigh of relief. Runir had expected the whole Ancient army to be lying in wait for us at my doorstep. I had almost started to believe the same, and now that we were here I realized how stressed I actually felt.
"It's locked," he whispered as he glanced around the hallway and jiggled the handle on the thick oak door to my room. I saw massive beads of sweat roll down his neck. It was cool inside the castle; he was just as nervous as I was.
"I lock it when I leave, of course." My laugh came out like gravel. I pulled the iron key from my sleeve and unlocked the door. Runir pushed his body in front of mine and went through first, holding his arm back to keep me from entering so he could make sure it was safe.
I heard footsteps from down the hall heading to
ward us. Runir grabbed my arms and pulled me into the room. I closed the door as softly as I dared and twisted the lock on the handle. The click sounded as loud as the castle’s alarm bells.
We leaned against the oak, breathlessly listening to the footsteps. They were hard boots, definitely not something a servant or noble would be wearing. They turned the corner and grew deafening. Runir's face was inches from mine as we listened at the door, his eyes filled with panic. His breathing was as labored as a running horse. I put my finger up to my lips and tried to smile, but I was scared too.
There was a muffled conversation and then the sound of laughter. I couldn't make out the words through the thick oak, but it didn't sound like our language. It was the Ancient's tongue, full of rich vowel sounds and sharp T’s. The boot steps grew closer and Runir reached for the decorative dagger at his belt. If the Ancients heard us breathing through the door, the small weapon wouldn't help. A few of their warriors tore through dozens of ours on the night of the banquet.
Then the footsteps passed my room and echoed away down the hallway. The voices continued talking and another bout of laughter erupted.
When the steps faded away into nothing we both let out a long breath. I felt dizzy and gasped. The damned corset was going to strangle me. Runir sat down on the ground and I mirrored his movement, fighting against the darkness at the edge of my vision. I really needed a glass of water and a place to lie down for a few minutes.
After I got what I came for.
My room seemed to be in the same state as when I left it, but there were subtle changes to the books I had stacked on my desk, maps I had spread out, and the clothes in my armoire. There was no dust on the wood tables or surfaces. Either the space had been investigated and reassembled, or servants were still cleaning it.
"Where is it?" Runir panted from his position on the floor. I tried to get up and failed about a quarter of the way and had to lean against the door. The sweat on my back felt like ice and I fought against the desire to shiver. The end was in sight. I just needed those damn documents.
I walked to my dining table, shifted it over a few inches, and then rolled up the rug that the leg had kept in place. Under the rug were the stone tiles of the floor, one in particular looked identical to the rest, except it concealed a hollow shaft. I pried it up and sighed in relief.
My writings were still there.
I pulled out the carefully folded map, a few small notebooks, and my dream journal. They were bunched together in a bulky stack tied in leather. Once I lifted the precious documents out of the shaft I covered the hole with the tile, replaced the rug, and asked Runir to move the table back in place.
"I didn't plan how we would get them out of here. Shit." My dress was tight across my chest but had a poufy skirt that flowed to the ground. Runir's velvet and silk uniform wasn't tight, but it would not conceal the bundle. The jacket he wore was more for looks than for padding.
Runir's face mirrored my frustration as he looked down at his clothes and spun to look at the seat of his slacks.
"Tie them around my injured leg."
“Your injured leg?”
“Trust me.”
I sat up onto my bed and pulled my skirt up to expose my thighs and stockings. Runir grunted and grabbed the bundle of documents and books, hesitantly looking down at my legs as I dangled them in front of him. I cleared my throat.
"Sorry." His face turned red as he knelt down between my legs and started working. I couldn’t see exactly what he was doing on the other side the voluminous skirt, but I heard him untie the bundle and then felt him cinch it tightly around my bandaged leg. The pressure aggravated the pain in my leg, but I knew if I had it on the other side the bundle would bash into the injury and make things worse. Besides, I was already limping on that side.
"I'll need something else to tie in here so it doesn't fall," he whispered.
"In my top drawer. I have some lace fabric." He scurried over to the drawer, opened it, rummaged through, and then found the thin bits of ribbon. He knelt back down and I felt him wrap the lace around my leg a few more times.
"It’s going to fall."
"Let me walk on it." I got up and eased my steps. It was hard to move my good leg with the lump in my thighs, but it worked. I circled the room with my cane as quickly as I dared. I reasoned that I would seem even more like a limping old woman now with the bundle.
"Feels fine. If it slips, we'll re-tie it." Runir nodded and I pointed to the door.
"Anything else you need in here?" My friend asked. I followed his gaze and looked around my room. Every piece of clothing and furniture had a memory attached to it. But they were just objects that could be replaced. The documents strapped to the inside of my thigh were the most important possessions I owned, besides the sword I lost when I had been captured.
"No. Let's get to your father's suite." We moved to the door and listened again. After a few moments of silence, Runir carefully poked his head out and then gestured for me to follow him. I closed and locked my door behind me and we started to walk, or hobble, the way we came.
Then we heard more footsteps.
They were coming from the direction we needed to go. Runir and I looked at each other in panic. We'd already walked sixty feet from my room and the footsteps were too close for us to turn back. There was another hallway that would take us deeper into the East Wing, but also led to a flight of stairs. I pointed in that direction and we moved quickly through the turn while we tried to keep our steps as quiet as possible.
The footsteps continued to follow us, we kept walking and looking straight ahead. They were following us and getting closer. These were gentler than the boot stomps we had heard earlier, so I hoped they belonged to a servant wearing soft-soled shoes.
Whoever it was would come upon us in thirty seconds if we didn't do something drastic.
There was another turn ahead leading us deeper into the wing, away from the stairs. I hoped the person behind us would not take that path. I hobbled toward the bend and we made it around the corner unseen.
Then we pulled up short and stopped.
I knew that Kaiyer's room was in this direction, but I didn't expect it would be guarded. Two Ancient women stood at attention in front of the door that had been his. They wore light blue-dyed leather armor with gray metal plates on their boots, shoulders, and forearms. They were a good hundred feet away, but they both turned and stared at us icily when we came around the corner.
"Are you lost, humans?" The voice sounded from behind and Runir spun around, a small gasp escaping his lips. I somehow remembered that I was supposed to be an elderly woman and turned to face the speaker in a slower fashion.
Another Ancient. She was armored like the guards at Kaiyer’s door, save that her leather pieces were etched with golden designs of stars, moons, and flowers. The thread matched her long golden hair, which was halfway pulled up into a topknot. The rest of her hair fell in a mismatch of braids and loose ties down over her back and chest. Her eyes were a strange green color, bright and alien, with gold flecks that matched her hair.
"I'm afraid we are." Runir spoke surprisingly well, but I could hear the panic in his words.
"I do not believe that you are allowed in this part of the castle." The woman's voice was the soft warm purr of a mountain cat. My breath came out in ragged gasps and my body shook in terror.
I felt the ties on my books slip.
It was a small slip, but I was drenched in sweat and it caused the bindings to slide down my bandaged leg.
"My lady needed some exercise after our long journey. We were looking for a garden and must have gotten lost," Runir recited our rehearsed script. The woman's green eyes lazily turned to me.
"Your lady?" The woman's hand rested on the hilt of her sword. I was glad that the veil covered my face so she couldn't see my panic. I recognized this woman. She had been in my cell with the silver-haired general.
"Yes, I--" Runir tried to continue, but the Ancient held up her right poi
nter finger to silence him. Her nails were filed into pointed talons. The woman's strange eyes looked up and down my blue and silver dress for a few seconds.
"This is very interesting." Her beautiful face twisted into a smile that was mostly white teeth. "Who is your lady?" Her eyes met mine through the veil. I felt the books slip down my leg even farther. My heart was slamming into my ribs like it wanted to break free.
At least if this woman killed me, I wouldn't have to deal with the fucking corset anymore.
"She is the Countess Detoria; we have traveled for the past two weeks and her--"
There was no disguising the panic in his voice now. His words came out like a plea and his hand slid down to the short sword at his hip.
Oh, please don't touch your sword my friend. She'll kill us. My brain tried to scream.
"Interesting." The woman put her pointer finger to her chin and tapped it in thought. She glanced from me to Runir. "What is that smell?" She frowned slightly as she sniffed the air in annoyance.
"Smell?" my friend choked out in confusion.
"Yes." She inhaled again, licking her lips, and looked to me and back to Runir. "It is you, male." She leaned in close to Runir and sniffed his shoulders and then moved up to his face. The woman was about as tall as me and she had to stand up on the balls of her booted feet to reach him.
"It is my hair dye," he blurted when she tilted away from him. "I am going gray, so I dye it." The Ancient nodded thoughtfully.
"Ah, that explains it. What is your name, human?"
"Jervin," my friend answered. I remembered to breathe, but then the binding of books slipped down my leg another inch. Before I could close my legs around the bundle, they caught on the edge of my stocking. I almost cried out in relief.
"I see. Jervin, and the Countess Detoria." The woman looked back at me again, twisting the corner of her mouth up in a half-smile.
She knew. My legs wouldn't move. They felt like blocks of cold, wet stone.
Maybe two seconds passed, maybe two years passed, as the woman's green eyes stared at me.
"The best way to reach the main part of the castle is down this corridor." The woman finally pointed a sharp finger past Kaiyer's old room. "Then make your second right. That hallway will bring you to some stairs. Take them down three flights and there should be servants there to guide you to your room, or perhaps a garden." Her eyes bored into mine through the veil. "That is, if you aren't too tired of walking."
The Destroyer Book 2 Page 33
