The Indentured Queen

by Carol Moncado

  “I’m afraid.” The words were out before he could stop them.

  “Of what?”

  “Of everything you said. Failing my country. Failing my father. Failing myself.” He stared at the door. “Of being trapped somewhere like this and never getting out alive.” He knew what her next question would be.

  “Why would you be afraid of that?”

  He closed his eyes and tried not to remember. “Because when I was six, I was trapped in this very room for eighteen hours and thought my whole family was dead.”

  30

  With her breath caught in her throat, Katrín stared at the side of Benjamin’s head. “What?” she whispered. Was he actually going to trust her with the story?

  “The alarms sounded throughout the palace. I knew what to do. I ran and hid. In here.”

  She just watched as he took another swig of his water.

  “For over eighteen hours.”

  She couldn’t stifle her gasp. “Eighteen hours? In here, by yourself? What happened to keep you here that long?”

  He sighed. “Miscommunication.”

  “Wait. If you were six, your father was already king, right?”

  A single nod.

  “Then you’re telling me that for the better part of a day, no one knew where the Crown Prince was?”

  “They all thought I was with someone else. I should have been in school already. We had tutors who came here, but I was late because there was a new foal at the stables, and I’d run out there to see him first. When the alarm sounded, my parents and my nanny thought I was at school. The tutor thought I was still with one of them. Apparently, everyone else knew it was a false alarm within minutes. No one else ever even made it to a safe room.”

  He lifted the bottle of water to his lips and took a sip. “The cabinet was locked. So were the trunks. Or at least, my six-year-old self couldn’t open them.”

  “Eighteen hours with no food or water and no clue what was going on in the outside world?”

  “Yep. I was the only kid working with the tutor at the time so he thought my parents decided to keep me ‘home’ after the false alarm. My parents and nanny thought I was with him. My parents had an event later that evening. In the shuffle, everyone thought I was with someone else until my parents got home about ten. I forget where they went, but it was something I’d attended with them before. They’d talked about me going but decided I wouldn’t.”

  He let out a deep breath. “The nanny had been busy with my younger siblings and thought I’d gone with them. My parents thought I was with the rest of the family. It wasn’t until they got home and the nanny asked where I was that they realized I was gone. Several more hours passed before they finally found me.”

  She couldn’t begin to fathom it. “I was lost at a market for like ten minutes once. I know how freaked out I was that I’d never see my mother or sister again. I can’t imagine being somewhere like this for that long without knowing what was going on.”

  “Imagine is the right word. My imagination worked overtime. In my six-year-old head, I knew there were dangers that could come after me but had no clue what they were. I was absolutely convinced I was the only survivor of whatever it was that set the alarms off. I’d leave the room, eventually, and everything would be gone. Just me and this room still standing.”

  “But they came for you?”

  “Not exactly. I was so hungry. I hadn’t eaten breakfast in my rush to get to the stables. Finally, I decided I had to risk it. I went out the way we came in and for a few minutes peeked out from behind the tapestry. There was no one in the hallways. So at least the building was standing, but all the people were gone. I was headed for the main kitchen when an employee found me. I don’t know who it was or where she came from, but she gasped and hugged me for all she was worth, said my parents had been so worried about me. I said I was hungry. She took my hand and rushed me to the kitchen then called security to let them know where I was.”

  “Did you get in trouble?”

  “Only for not telling them where I was going that morning. I wasn’t really in trouble, not like I would have been if there hadn’t been that false alarm, but I did get a stern talking to and asking why I hadn’t emerged when the all clear sounded.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “I never heard it.” He pointed to a box mounted high on a wall. “That speaker should make announcements, but it didn’t.”

  Katrín stood and walked around the trunks until she could sit on the floor next to Benjamin. She slid her hand between his arm and his body and rested her head on his shoulder. Her other hand gripped his elbow. “That had to be petrifying. It’s no wonder you don’t like small spaces.”

  “I had the office redone as soon as I was old enough to make them do it while keeping the look of the original architecture.”

  “You added windows?”

  He nodded. “I could literally not have lived in your room. I would have gone stark raving mad. I’m kind of surprised I’m not right now. How long have we been in here?”

  Katrín checked her watch. “A couple hours. They won’t let it go nearly so long without verifying your location once it’s safe, you know that, right?”

  Another nod.

  She looked up at his profile. How had she not noticed the tear tracks in the space between his eyes and his beard? “Can we get to the safe apartment place near my old room from here? Without leaving the tunnels?”

  “Yeah. But we’re not supposed to leave here until we get the signal, or we can’t stay.”

  She used his shoulder to push herself back up. “We can’t stay. I need to go to the bathroom, and you’re going to go crazy. We don’t have to go out into the outer world, so I say we sneak down to this other place. We’ll leave a cryptic note here and if they throw a fit about it...” She gave a shrug. “You’re the king, and your mental health required the move. Your wife said so.”

  He finished off his bottle of water. “Grab a couple of bottles, just in case, and let’s go.”

  As Katrín wrote a note she said would be cryptic enough some random bad guy wouldn’t know what it meant but Thor would understand, Benjamin stood next to the door.

  Get out.

  He needed out.

  She understood that, despite his relative calm since she started that card game.

  “All done. Let’s go.” Katrín gripped his upper arm as she put her shoes back on. “But if you could go a little slower this time, I’d appreciate it.”

  Benjamin picked up the lantern. “As long as I think it’s safe to do so.”

  “Fine.”

  He turned the lantern down as far as it would go and still give off light before he opened the door, just in case. The corridor was dark and quiet. “Let’s go.” He turned the light up a little then reached back and took her hand. Just that bit of contact calmed him.

  They’d come from the left, but this time they went right. Katrín remained quiet as they walked the tunnel, went down the steep spiral stairs, and eventually came to another door. Last time, he’d had Katrín open it, putting himself between her and whatever danger might lurk behind. This time, he opened it, unsure of what they would find on the other side.

  His entire family lounging like it was no big deal? Assassins with guns? Nothing?

  The latter was most likely, but until he knew... He pushed Katrín behind him as he opened the door. As it swung open, relief flooded him. Only emergency lights. No assassins. No family members wondering why he’d freaked out. Just dim lighting until he turned everything on.

  Because in about two minutes, every light in the place would be burning.

  He wouldn’t sleep in the dark for weeks.

  Walking through, he flipped a switch and bathed the sitting room in the florescent glow.

  “This is nice,” Katrín said, walking in and letting the door shut behind her.

  “It could be worse.” But he still didn’t like it.

  With the indication that someone was there, th
e rest of the room began to come to life. There were no windows for obvious reasons, but picture frames with outdoor scenes lit up.

  “I don’t supposed there’s clothes I can change into?” Katrín set her handbag down on a side table, and used it to balance as she took her shoes off.

  How did women walk on those things? Spikes held her heels several inches off the floor. Benjamin found himself grateful for men’s more practical footwear.

  “There should be.” He pointed down the hall. “There’s no separate quarters here. The monarch gets his or her own room. Everyone else bunks up. Clothes for you should be with mine.”

  He watched her walk down the hall and wondered what this day would have been like if she hadn’t been with him.

  Still climbing the walls in the safe room, most likely. Or curled into a fetal ball of quivering mess.

  After following her down the hall, Benjamin closed and locked the bedroom door behind him.

  “You really think someone’s about to walk in on us doing what exactly?” she asked, tossing her shoes into a corner.

  “Another layer for someone to get through if they show up here.”

  She just nodded and headed for the closet. “So where exactly are we in the palace?”

  It took him a minute to get the mental map in place, then he pointed at a wall. “Your old room is right through there.” Were those stones what he thought they were? “Looks like there might even be a door into it.”

  “So the monarch’s room has an extra way in and out. Makes sense,” she called as she went into the small closet. “I don’t have any clothes in here. Can I borrow something of yours for now?”

  “Sure. I think my sisters have clothes down here somewhere though.” It had been a very long time since he’d given this hideout anything more than a passing glance.

  “I’ll look later. I just want to get out of this dress. I can use a t-shirt and a pair of shorts that probably don’t fit you anymore but have a drawstring.”

  Benjamin took his jacket off and threw it on a nearby chair. “Go for it.”

  He heard a frustrated groan from the closet. “I’m sorry to ask, but I need some help. I can’t get this stupid thing undone.”

  “Just a minute.” He took his cuff links off and set them in the tray on the side table, then rolled his sleeves as he walked through the small room.

  Even in his mind, he knew it wasn’t small. Katrín’s old quarters on the other side of the wall were maybe a third of the size, possibly even less. But he’d spent most of his life avoiding rooms with no windows and preferred rooms as big as he could find.

  Katrín walked out of the closet as he neared it. She’d already removed the tiara and taken her hair down. She turned her back to him and swept her hair to the side. “I undid the top few hooks, but I can’t reach all of them on the top.”

  It looked like six or so inches of the two sides of navy blue lace were connected with little hooks as close together as they could get. Her back was bare until close to her waist.

  Had he ever noticed how smooth the skin of her back looked? “Just undo the hooks on top?” he asked.

  “Please.”

  His fingers fumbled with the small metal hooks, the tips brushing against the skin of her neck and back.

  By the time the last one came free, he wasn’t sure he remembered how to breathe. Taking a giant step back, he blew out slowly. “There you go.”

  Her arms twisted around to reach the hooks on the bottom part of the dress. “Thanks.”

  Katrín disappeared into the closet. “Do you want something to change into?”

  “I’ll wait until you’re done.”

  A minute later, she emerged in an old Eyjanian Olympic shirt and a pair of sweatpants with bare feet. She stopped in front of him. “I’m proud of you.”

  “For what?”

  “Facing your fears. Letting me in.”

  “Running away.” That thought had been plaguing him since they left the other room.

  “Running to a safe place both physically and emotionally.” She reached a hand out and rested it on his midsection. “Acknowledging that you need a change of scenery or to get out of a situation where you’re uncomfortable is okay, good for you even.”

  Katrín stretched up, likely on her tiptoes until her face was closer to his.

  Benjamin reached out to rest his hands on her waist and help her balance.

  “I’m proud of you,” she said again, her dark eyes earnest. Then she brushed a kiss against his lips, and time stopped.

  31

  “Benjamin? Katrín?”

  Katrín blinked as she heard a key scraping in the door.

  “Don’t get up,” Benjamin whispered, tugging the blanket further over her shoulders. He sat up, blocking her from whoever’s view, but he didn’t seem concerned.

  “There you are.” Was that the Queen Mother’s voice? Katrín heard footsteps that stopped far too quickly. “Oh.” Shock? Surprise? “I didn’t realize we were interrupting something.” Amusement.

  “You’re not,” Benjamin told her. “We both decided it was time to rest for a bit since we had no idea what was going on. We’ll be out in a minute.”

  “Of course we didn’t.” Definitely amusement.

  The door closed.

  “I’ll get dressed, and you can follow me out in a few minutes.”

  Katrín buried her head in the pillow. “Please don’t leave without me.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m never going to be able to face your mother again. Or Thor. Or whoever else came in with her.”

  “Just Thor, I think.”

  “So I’ll never be able to face either one of them again.”

  “Why exactly?”

  She pushed up on her elbows. “Because the whole palace is on lock down because of a threat, and we have no idea what it was, but hey, let’s go to the monarch’s secret lair and...” Her face fell forward until it was buried again as she groaned.

  “I promise you, my mother is ecstatic to find us together.”

  “So? That she has any reason to think anything about it at all is mortifying.”

  If she didn’t know better, he was probably stifling a chuckle. Come to think of it, did she know better?

  “Then why don’t you go get dressed in the closet? I’ll get dressed out here, and we can leave together.”

  “Thank you.” She pulled the top blanket off and wrapped it around her before hurrying to the closet. A minute later she sighed in frustration. “I’m still going to have to wear your clothes, because all I have is that dress.”

  “I’ll wear something very casual too then.”

  At least he seemed to care about not embarrassing her by dressing far more nicely than she would be able to. The bathroom mirror let her fix her hair into a ponytail. Better than nothing.

  “I’m ready when you are,” he called softly.

  She stared at her reflection in the mirror, wiping a bit of dried blood she’d missed earlier from under her nose. “I’m going to live in here forever.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re too strong to let something like this keep you from living life. So come out here, and we’ll face them together.”

  Walking out of the closet, she refused to looked directly at Benjamin.

  “It won’t be that bad.”

  Katrín didn’t think she believed him, but took his hand as they walked out of the room and down the hall.

  Benjamin stopped before reaching the sitting room, and she nearly ran into his back again. This time she peeked around to see Thor and Queen Mother Eliana standing close to each other but looking at the ground, and somewhat guilty.

  “Care to tell us what’s going on?” Benjamin asked.

  “Nothing,” his mother answered quickly. Too quickly.

  “There was a breech at the front gate.” Thor motioned for them to sit on the sofa. “Until we knew more about what happened and why, we wanted all of you somewhere safe.”

  “What happ
ened?”

  “The investigation won’t be complete for some time, but early indications all point the same way.” He held a file folder toward Benjamin who took it. “A man was driving a moving truck. He had a stroke less than a quarter mile away from the front gate, hit the gas, and went straight through at high speed until the retractable bollards stopped him near the building.”

  “Retractable bollards?” Katrín asked.

  “Barriers that pop up when the gate is breached,” Benjamin explained. “They’re designed to stop the vehicle before it actually reaches the building, but there’s a minimum distance to allow enough time from breach to full protection. It’s closer to the building than we’d like, but with current technology this is the farthest from the building they can be. There’s not nearly as much room between the gate and the building as there would be if it were built today.

  “So guy has a stroke, happens to be directly lined up with the gate, rams it, stopped by the bollards?” Benjamin leaned forward with his elbows on his knees as he looked through the paperwork. “There wasn’t any evidence of foul play or explosives or anything that would indicate there was more to it?”

  Katrín watched her husband carefully. She hadn’t seen this side of him before, the businessman she knew he was.

  “Nothing at this time, sir.” Thor leaned forward to point at a note on the page. “This wasn’t his first stroke, but we didn’t want to give the all clear until we had the bomb squad and dogs check it out. It took a while to get everything cleared.”

  “How long as it been?” Benjamin asked.

  “About four and a half hours.”

  “What about the man? What’s his status?”

  “We didn’t approach the vehicle immediately, because we didn’t know what might be in the back. Instead we focused on evacuating areas near the truck.” Thor hesitated. “He was deceased by the time we got to him. We think he was gone before he hit the gate, but we won’t have definitive answers for a while.”