41. Whatever is Necessary
Chapter 41
Whatever is Necessary
S tellon
As soon as Pharis was gone, Raewyn looked up at me with a panicked expression.
“What’s happening? Is he going to turn me in?”
I shook my head and pulled her to my front again, stroking her hair then pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She had become so precious to me, but my time with her was about to come to an end.
Thinking of that eventuality sent literal pain slicing through my midsection. I wanted to pull her inside myself so I could keep her safe always.
“No. He won’t, Firebug,” I said. “He made a promise not to tell anyone about you, and he’s kept it. He vowed that he’ll continue to keep it.”
“And you believe him?” she asked, clearly not believing him.
“I do.”
Pharis had never betrayed me before, and after the mental conversation we’d just had, I was sure he had no intention to do so now.
“He recommitted to his vow just now mind-to-mind,” I told Raewyn, “though he wasn’t thrilled about it, to say the least. We can’t lie to each other that way. Pharis won’t betray the secret… but someone might.”
She tunneled her hands between us and pushed back to look at my face.
“What does that mean?”
Grand Star, she was beautiful—even now in this moment of distress.
The sadness threatened to drop me where I stood, siphoning all the strength from my legs. I walked over to the settee, pulling Raewyn with me and settling her on my lap where I ran my hands over her back, her arms, her legs.
It felt like I was standing at the edge of the Drylands, about to attempt a desert crossing with no water flasks. I was trying to cram a lifetime of touching her into these last few moments.
“It means… you have to leave. As soon as possible.” The words burned like hot coals as they came out.
“Because though I believe my brother will keep his word, I also know a secret like yours won’t stay buried forever,” I said. “I don’t know who else the Earthwife might have told. The jailer? A cellmate? Even a whisper of a royal assassination plot is cause for execution. I can’t take the chance of my father finding out while you’re here under his roof. I’m getting you out of here within the hour.”
“But how?” Raewyn asked. I was gratified to see sorrow on her face as well.
Part of me wished we’d completed the bonding before Pharis had burst into the room, but another, smaller and much wiser part understood that my father might very well take her head anyway to punish me.
I simply couldn’t take the chance.
“We’ll use the secret passageways to get down to the kitchen.”
I knew the way like the back of my hand. Pharis and Mareth and I had used the passages throughout our childhoods to filch sweets when we were supposed to be in bed.
“From there it’s a quick trip to the door closest to the stables,” I said. “We might be a bit exposed right there at the end, but I don’t think we’ll be seen—not many are up and about in the palace at this hour.”
A glance at the standing clock told me it was the wee hours of morning, still a couple hours of precious darkness left to aid our escape.
“We’ll go to the stables and saddle Malo then ride for your village. You’ll wear a cloak to cover your hair and face. The gate guards might wonder, but I’ll lead them to believe you were a Fae guest here for the Assemblage, and I’m giving you a ride home a bit early. Of course they’ll make salacious assumptions, but let them. They’ll never know your identity.”
“I’m hardly concerned about my reputation at this point,” Raewyn said.
“Exactly,” I said. “It’s your life I care about. I’ll do whatever is necessary to protect it. I love you, Raewyn. I always will.”
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she shook her head in wonder. “I don’t deserve such loyalty. Not when I agreed to the Earthwife’s plan. How can you still love me, now that you know the whole truth of it?”
“Because I know the truth of you —of your heart. There’s no way I could have fallen so deeply in love with you if I hadn’t known, deep down, that you loved me, too. That you would never hurt me.”
An overwhelming wave of despair crashed over me. “How am I going to live without you?”
“Stellon,” she whispered, grasping my face between her palms.
Our mouths came together, moving in a frantic, almost painful joining of lips and teeth and tongues. This was not a joyous expression of tender emotion but a desperate hunger.
The feel and taste of her inflamed me instantaneously, sending a wildfire of need through my body. My fingers literally shook with the urge to strip off the light shift again and physically ensure we could never be parted.
Instead, I willed my hands to go still and gradually ended the kiss.
“We have to go,” I whispered against her lips. “Your life depends on it.”
Holding her waist, I set her feet on the floor and rose from the settee.
“How is your ankle? Could you run if you had to?”
She lifted the foot, turning it in a circle before setting it down again and doing a little hop to test it.
“It’s not exactly comfortable, but as you said, my life depends on it. I’ll do what I have to do.”
“Good. Now get dressed as quickly as you can. We don’t have long before dawn.”
Pressing one last kiss to her forehead, I went to do the same, gathering my riding clothes and pulling them on hastily before moving to the painting that concealed the secret passageway’s entrance.
A few minutes later the two of us stood, holding hands in front of the opening. In my other hand, I gripped the hilt of my sword.
“It’ll be dark in there, but I know the way,” I told Raewyn. “Just keep hold of my hand and don’t speak. Once we get to the kitchen, I’ll peek out and make sure it’s safe to cross to the outer door.”
She nodded rapidly, her chest rising and falling and her eyes wide.
As we moved silently through the dark tunnel, I thought of my brother and sister with gratitude.
Had the three of us not decided to create this secret maze for ourselves and spent years of our childhood working on it, I might be facing the prospect of watching Raewyn hang instead of just having to leave her in her village and ride away.
At the moment, I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to stand doing even that, but that was a question for the future. For now, I had to get her safely away from the palace.
Hopefully no intrepid kitchen maids had decided to get an early start on the day. I didn’t want to have to hurt anyone during our escape, but I’d do what I had to do.
Raewyn’s safety was the only thing that mattered to me anymore. If I had to slash a path of blood from here to her village, that’s what I’d do.
The barbaric thought made me wonder for a moment if I really was any better than my father. Pharis might be a better Crown Prince after all.
From what I’d seen, he would never feel this level of desperate love for anyone , which meant he’d be better suited to rule over every one.
As for me, from now until the end of my immortal life, the better part of my heart and mind would remain with Raewyn, no matter how far away she might be.
Reaching the end of the passageway leading to the kitchen, I halted Raewyn with my hand and whispered into her ear.
“Step back just a bit so you won’t be seen when I open it.”
Then I put my eye to the tiny hole in the canvas that covered the passage exit. Pharis had cleverly placed the peephole in the center of a bowl of grapes painted on the other side so it could not be detected.
Seeing no one in the kitchen, I eased open the painting frame and motioned for Raewyn to follow me into the dark room.
Only the moonlight streaming through the open window lit our path as we hurried past the empty counters and cold, quiet stoves and then the stacks of fine china filling the cabinets inside the butler’s pantry that led to the exterior door.
This was the entrance through which daily deliveries of food and fresh flowers were brought into the palace. Tonight, it was our doorway to freedom.
I quietly slid the heavy bolt from its cradle and pulled the door open. Once again, I poked out my head and looked back and forth to make sure no one was around before motioning for Raewyn to join me in dashing the short distance from the palace to the stable’s side door.
There would be no one up and about inside it. The horses residing in this section were reserved for my family’s private use, with the horses and carriages of our guests housed in a separate wing of the stables.
Following the path I’d traversed so many early mornings in preparation for my unauthorized excursions to the Rough Market, I led Raewyn past Mareth’s roan horse, Rinna, and Pharis’ night-black steed, Dargan, toward Malo’s stall.
“This is where the horses sleep?” Raewyn whispered in an incredulous tone. “This is nicer than any house in my village.”
Looking around, I took in the solid stone walls and plentiful windows as well as the finely crafted wooden walls and gates that comprised the horse stalls. The stable smelled of leather and fresh hay, having been cleaned throughout the day.
Even Malo’s water and feed buckets were made of silver. She was right. Our horses lived better than most people in our lands.
Once again, I was reminded of just how differently Raewyn had made me think, how she’d made me notice the inequities between her people and mine.
I would never go back to un seeing them. I only wish she could be around when I eventually did succeed my father and make all the changes I planned to make.
“Here we are,” I said to her. “This is Malo. Malo, meet Raewyn.”
“Oh he’s beautiful,” she said, touching his cheek and gently stroking him from forelock to nose.
He shivered all over, nickering in greeting.
“He likes you,” I told her. “He has good taste.”
She smiled. “I hope he doesn’t mind that I’ve never been on horseback and have no idea how to ride.”
Saddling him, I reassured her. “You don’t have to know, though it would be a useful skill to acquire for the future. For now, you’ll ride in front of me.”
I had just lifted her onto the front of Malo’s saddle and was preparing to go open the stable’s large door, when it opened on its own, and torchlight flooded inside.
No less than ten of my father’s kings-guard charged into the stable. Four of them came to a stop directly in front of Malo’s stall, trapping us inside it while the rest blocked the stable exits.
Even Malo with his vast height and strength wouldn’t be able to push past them, and I wouldn’t urge him to try as the soldiers all brandished swords and spears.
Sensing the danger, he sidestepped nervously, his head and tail high, dancing around his stall at the sight and sound of the intruders barking orders at me to halt.
And then the King himself came striding through the stable’s front door.