The King's Secret

by Maryam Durrani

  “That’s a useless idea,” I said, speaking up. Lance let out a

  soft groan, letting his head hang. “We’ll only be able to use

  them if we are attacked in our own kingdom. We can’t let the enemy get that far. If they do infiltrate our kingdom, we can’t hide and pop out from different areas, trying to scare them,” I explained. “We have to attack immediately.”

  This time, Ashes scowled.

  Lorelle pondered over my suggestion.

  “Wouldn’t it be better if we did both?” one of the Knights offered. I recognized him as Taj.

  I shrugged. “Why not? But these tunnels are for emergencies only. We’ll need two guards posted at every entrance; we don’t need spies running effortlessly through Astodia.”

  Ashes was good, but not up to par with me. Not yet.

  Lorelle turned to me, entirely this time. Her entire focus was on me, and so was everyone else’s. Every living creature in that room waited for my opinion. “Adalia, what do you suggest?”

  I scanned the crowd, letting the silence draw out for as long as it could before they attacked me for another outrageous idea.

  “I suggest,” I said slowly, “we keep the tunnels closed. They’re useless and will only keep the castle vulnerable since so many people know of them. I think,” I said, choosing my next words carefully, “we should meet with king Adrean.”

  Ashes choked on her own saliva.

  “You do know he’s the one planning to attack us?”

  “We should go to Dystalphi with a few men,” I said, gesturing to the Knights. “At this point, we can only try to call off the war. But, we can set a ground for the battle and keep innocent civilians out of harm’s way.”

  Appalled, the Knights exchanged glances.

  “If I may,” interjected one of them, stepping forward.

  “Won’t they try to kill us the first chance they get?”

  Again, the room turned to me.

  I faced the knight who’d spoken, recognizing him immediately as Simon—the one I’d roundhouse kicked in the face about a week ago. The bruise on the side of his face was still prominent.

  “They won’t,” I assured them.

  “And how do you know that?” he raised an eyebrow. The room was silent as they waited for me to justify my claim.

  “Because,” I explained, “King Adrean knows me—longer than anyone standing in this room. He knows he won’t be able to destroy me—us—that easily. That’s why he hasn’t attacked yet.” I paused to let it sink in. “He’s working on an army at least triple the size of ours, because he knows that with me, with our Knights, with this queen,” I gestured to Lorelle, “he’ll need an army greater than anything history has ever seen.”

  A murmur of agreement passed through the Knights. Even Ashes looked won over.

  “You really have a way with words,” Lance whispered under his breath.

  “I protect. It’s what I was bred to do.”

  Lorelle stood in full support behind my plan.

  She wouldn’t admit it, but she seemed relieved that I was back. With the plan I had offered, there was only one problem.

  I had to accompany a few Knights to Dystalphi. I had just gotten back, and there was no way I wanted to see King Adrean’s smug face again.

  I groaned at the thought.

  Although, the tunnels weren’t a bad idea. They were a waste

  of time, but they made sense. I walked through the corridor towards Xavier’s room, playing with a knife. The blade flipped comfortably as I took a turn into the next hallway.

  Suddenly, something smashed into me. The blade slipped from my fingers, clanging against the floor.

  I clutched my nose, stepping back.

  “Watch where you’re going, moron,” I hissed, sucking in air through my teeth.

  “I apologize for being a moron, but I was actually looking for you.” Xavier held my shoulders, steadying me. “You almost stabbed me with a knife.”

  “Were you running?” I scowled, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I think you broke my bone.”

  “It’s not that bad. Let me see.” He reached forward, cupping my face in his hands.

  “What did you want to tell me?” I pouted, my voice nasally.

  He grinned, kissing my nose. “Not here.” He slid his cool, callused fingers into my hand, tugging on it. “Come on.” I followed him, twisting and turning in the hallways until we reached a dead end.

  “Look,” I said in mock awe, “a wall! It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen!”

  “Hear me out,” Xavier holding up his hands. “Remember the tunnels Lorelle was talking about?”

  “Xavier, you’re not going to tell me there’s a secret passageway in the wall now, are you?” I said with a groan. “Because I’ve lived here all my life and trust me—I would’ve known if there was.”

  “Of course not,” he scrunched up his nose as if it was obvious. “It’s under the carpet.”

  “What?” I asked, bewildered, glancing down at the space between my boots.

  “Listen.” He held a finger to his lips as he shifted his weight

  slowly, from one leg to the other.

  The floor creaked.

  “Does stone creak that way?” he asked, a twinkle in his eye.

  “No.” I stepped back as Xavier began rolling the heavy carpet back. “How did I never notice . . .?”

  “Because you were never looking for it. I never knew either until I wondered how I had never found a secret passageway my entire life in a castle of this size. In the books, there’s always one.”

  “So, you got this idea from a children’s book?” I raised my eyebrows.

  He nodded. I beamed at him.

  “When you’re searching for a way to kill a drakon, you might come across many of those,” he said casually.

  With a final push, he rolled the carpet back, revealing a wooden trapdoor. He grinned at me in triumph.

  “Well, have you been down there yourself?” I asked, sitting on my haunches beside it.

  “Without you to protect me? I wouldn’t dare.”

  I rolled my eyes so hard I could practically see the inside of my head. I grabbed the hatch, pulling on it with all my might. It was heavy, and the tremor in my right wrist made it hard for me to hold on, but I felt Xavier give it a nudge backward with his boot.

  “I had it,” I glanced at him as it fell to the floor.

  “What do you mean?” he asked, playing it off as if he’d done nothing.

  I squinted down into the dark.

  “Did you think to bring torches?”

  “It slipped my mind.”

  I groaned.

  “Flip for it?” he asked, pulling out a gold piece from his pocket. The head of the coin had an engraving of a lion, and

  the back a shield with a crown in the center.

  “I’ll do it.” He tossed it to me, and I flipped it in the air.

  “Or, I could just hand you the torches.” My head whipped towards Ashes who stood at the far end of the corridor, holding up two flickering torches. Sunlight flowed through the stained glass, leaving a colorful glow on her face.

  The coin landed on the floor, rolling towards the hatch.

  “Grab it!” Xavier reached forward. I held out my hands to keep him from falling in. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough hands to grab the coin, which did fall in.

  “Well, that leaves you no choice,” Ashes smirked. “These are my torches, which means I’ll have to come with you.”

  “No,” I hissed.

  “Let her come,” he whispered through his teeth.

  “What if she’s not supposed to see what’s down there?” I grumbled.

  “We need backup.”

  “We are the backup,” I retorted.

  “Yeah, but,” he said, lowering his voice even more, “what if something attacks us? Another drakon? We can push her in front of us and save time, making an escape.”

  I knew what he was doing, but it see
med like a good idea.

  “Fine.”

  Xavier waved Ashes over, who handed him a torch, keeping the other in her hand.

  “You first,” she said, jutting out her chin.

  I stepped on the ladder which led the way down. As Xavier bent down, holding the torch out, I placed a knife between my teeth just in case.

  “Don’t look down,” he called.

  The ladder was flimsy and unstable. I took my time, gently

  resting my boot on each rung before I placed my whole weight

  on it.

  “Do you see anything?” Xavier shouted.

  “No need to yell!” I called back, pulling out the knife from between my teeth. “I’m not that far you know—” I was cut off suddenly, before I could even react, the rung below my right boot cracked in half.

  My leg slipped through, and I felt something sharp scratch against the side of my knee.

  “Are you okay?” Xavier asked.

  “Fine,” I said through gritted teeth. As I reached my boot for the next rung, I was met with a flat surface. “Come on down. And,” I quickly added, “be careful of the rungs.”

  I waited for them, trying to let my eyes adjust to the dark. They didn’t need to, though, because the torches lit up the room immediately.

  “Whoa,” the three of us whispered in unison.

  Xavier and Ashes raised up their torches, taking in the room. It wasn’t even a simple, pleasant hideout.

  It was a library.

  Xavier stretched his torch out to get a better line of sight.

  Rows and rows of bookshelves lined the walls, towering twelve feet high.

  “Phoenix, light the torches between the bookshelves,” Xavier directed. She immediately listened, doing exactly as he’d ordered.

  “It looks like this place was worked hard on,” I noted. I began browsing through the bookshelves, pulling them out and flipping through the pages. Most of them were stories or old records.

  “Adalia!” Xavier called. “Come look at this.”

  I made my way over to him, glancing at the shelf he was looking through.

  “These are old journals. Some are empty—see if you can

  find anything useful.”

  Ashes, Xavier, and I began pulling out dusty, old leather journals. After flipping through many of them, I lifted one of them up, finding holes chewed through it. I managed to make out the writing, squinting under the lack of light.

  Dear my beloved daughter Merilee,

  I have hidden the egg just as we discussed. I cannot disclose

  its whereabouts, but I have to tell you this. If this creature is

  awoken, it will be unstoppable. The drakon can only be killed the moment before . . .

  I met Xavier’s eye through the hole in the pages.

  “What did you find?”

  “I’m not done reading.”

  I continued, trying to put letters together. The old parchment was falling apart with just the touch of my fingers.

  Its scales are impenetrable. You must wait for . . . Only then can it . . . harmed.

  How convenient.

  “Xavier.” I looked up, handing him the crumbling letter. “This was written centuries ago by the king of Archaon. He lived here in Astodia. This was his library.”

  Xavier’s eyes scanned the page, Ashes peering over his shoulder.

  “What is Archaon?” she asked. I ignored her, continuing.

  “He wrote this to his daughter, Merilee. He was trying to tell her how to defeat the drakon.”

  “I don’t think she ever received this letter,” Xavier said. He began to read the end. “You are the only one other than me who knows of this place, and I hope that, if you are ever in need, you come here first. I fear . . . Your sons destroyed what my forefathers and I spent many years building. I don’t have much time . . . Weaker every day. I love you, always. Good

  luck my dear. Albion.”

  Albion of Archaon.

  “She never needed to look here. The drakon stayed asleep, that is, until we woke it up,” I sighed. Before I could stop myself, I dropped onto the sofa. A puff of dust clouded around us, causing each of us to break into fits of coughs.

  “Alright, then,” I croaked, waving my hand in front of my face to blow the dust away, “we’ll just have to look through these books.”

  It seemed as if we had struck gold. Xavier began pulling books off the shelves immediately, creating stacks around one of the sofas.

  “I need a lantern,” he said, squinting. “Adalia, do you know what these books are about?”

  “I haven’t started reading yet, as you may be able to tell,” I replied, busy examining the creaky wooden floor and areas behind the shelves for any more hidden entrances.

  “It’s all the lost history people turned into stories and myths. All of it. Right in here,” he said, patting a stack of books. Another puff of smoke blew up around him, but he didn’t seem to care. “Elves, drakons, dwarves . . . They were wiped out long ago.”

  I turned away from a crack in the side of one of the bookshelves.

  “King Albion wrote that before the drakon does something, it is the most vulnerable. What could that be? Flying? Sleeping?”

  Ashes smirked. “Taking a shi—”

  I cut Ashes off before she could complete her sentence, glaring. “Nothing is clear until we read through the entire library.” We resumed looking for any other secret openings.

  “So, I waited patiently and let the adults talk. Now, will

  someone explain to me who King Albion was, and what does this have to do with the drakon,” Ashes said, reminding me she was still here.

  “You do it,” I called to Xavier.

  He didn’t protest. He began to tell her while she listened, interested, sitting on the arm of the sofa next to him as he opened pages and eagerly pointed to things, trying to help her

  understand.

  “So, all those stories were real?” Ashes asked, her eyes wide in amazement. Xavier’s eyes brightened with enthusiasm.

  “They were.” I rolled my eyes.

  “We have to go back,” I said, finally interrupting them. I had found no other entrance, and I was beginning to get bored. I would come down here later, without Ashes, and read through the books myself. “They’ll be wondering where we are. Also,” I pointed at the closed trapdoor in the ceiling, “did anyone fix the carpet? What if someone sees?”

  Suddenly, I realized something.

  “Does the hatch lock from the inside?”

  To this, Xavier shot up, the book in his lap dropping to the ground. “I never checked.”

  I spun around, climbing up the ladder. I tried pushing it with my palms, my wrist shaking.

  “Do you need help—”

  “No.” I pushed harder against the weight, and finally, a crack of light flooded in as the door lifted slightly. Giving me hope, I pushed harder, raising the door higher.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as the door pushed open completely, landing with a loud thud. I crawled out. “Ashes, turn off all the torches.”

  With a scowl, she obliged.

  Xavier climbed up the ladder before her. As he pulled himself up, he gestured glanced down at my leg, his eyebrows knitting together.

  “You’re bleeding.” I looked down to find a cut right above my knee. It wasn’t too deep, but it had bled through the rip in my pants.

  “It must’ve happened when the rung broke.” I peeled the cloth of my pants away from the cut. “It’s not too bad. Don’t worry.”

  Ashes climbed out, handing the torch to Xavier. There was a smear of dirt across her forehead. I smirked.

  “Phoenix—”

  I elbowed Xavier whose mouth snapped shut.

  Ashes shut the trapdoor behind her, helping Xavier roll the carpet back into place.

  I got to my feet, walking towards Ashes, who stepped back.

  “Keep this . . . place . . . to yourself, you understand? Let me remind you, I was once an assa
ssin, and old habits die hard.”

  “Alright,” Xavier said, gently holding my shoulders to pull me back, “I’m sure she won’t say a thing. Right?”

  Ashes raised an eyebrow.

  “What’s in it for me?”

  Xavier knew me very well. He wrapped both of his arms around my shoulders to keep me from leaping on her, which I suddenly had the urge to do.

  “Your soul,” I hissed through my teeth. “You say a word, you die.”

  “You could barely beat me in your training room. What makes you think you can actually hurt me with,” she gestured to my right shoulder, “that?”

  Xavier’s grip immediately tightened, this time around my

  ribs and elbows, holding back my arms. He lifted me off the ground, muscular arms keeping me in place.

  Ashes smirked.

  “I’ll destroy you!” I shouted over my shoulder as Xavier turned me around, pushing me away from the dreadful girl. I kicked the air. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, you b—”

  Xavier clamped a hand over my mouth.

  TWELVE

  The army was getting stronger each day.

  The fourth day after Xavier had discovered the hidden library, snow fell.

  “Get up! Quickly!” a voice yelled. Someone leaped onto my bed, shaking me awake. I groaned, trying to clear my vision by repeatedly blinking. Isabel jumped up and down. “Look outside!” I knew she wouldn’t leave me alone, so I forced myself out from under the covers, shivering as a wave of cold air hit me.

  Jax stood near the thick, heavy curtains. Xavier sat up sleepily on his sofa, his head popping out from under at least four layers of blankets.

  “What’s going on?” he groaned, his head disappearing once again under the comfortable blankets.

  “Now,” Isabel ordered Jax. Jax yanked back the curtains, letting a flood of light enter the room.

  Outside, everything was blindingly white.

  “What?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.

  “It’s snow!” Isabel said gleefully. “Can’t you see?”

  “I can see,” I assured her, grumpily.