Chapter 16
16
“I think we’re going to make it in time—don’t worry,” Nix assured me when we were back on the road. I nodded, breathing heavily. We were nearly to the grounds. The sun was going orange already. But as long as we could get back into the palace the way we got out, we’d be fine. We’d sneak up into my chambers, and no one would ever know, just like the other day.
Because if the sun set and the princess wasn’t around, they’d send out the entire royal army. My ruse would be over. I’d never be left unsupervised again, that was for sure. No more secret outings. No more tiny tastes of freedom.
We walked briskly down the road, nearly running at times, constantly looking around to make sure no one witnessed us, should it be an issue later. At one point, we heard a horse approaching, so we ducked into some wildflower bushes and waited for the rider to pass. It was a good thing, too, because I recognized him as one of the page boys in the palace.
The outer gardens beyond the gates looked gorgeous at night, as if the rising moon was enhancing all the colors somehow. Or even like the flowers were glowing from deep inside. I wanted to stop and explore, but Nix was rushing ahead. She turned and saw me standing, out of breath. “Come on,” she urged. “You can rest later.”
I hurried to catch up. “The gardens are so strange at night,” I said to her. “The flowers should be harder to see, but they’re almost brighter?” The little discoveries about the differences between the human world and the fairy one were never-ending.
The lampposts blinked to life, their faint light illuminating our path. Nightfall was nearly upon us now. The world was quieting, a hush falling over everything. All I could hear was my own breathing, labored from so much running, our feet on the gravelly path, and water streaming over the falls into the outer garden lake.
“Aren’t your parents going to worry about you?” I asked Nix. Then I heard a loud splash. “Wait.” I slowed down. “What was that?”
Nix turned around to face me. “I’m not sure,” she said.
“A fish?”
She shook her head. “No—whatever that was, it was way too big to be a fish. And that’s basically a pond, too small for big creatures.”
We listened for a moment. It was quiet again, just the normal sound of the waterfall. But then, more splashing. Not one big thunk into the water as before, but more like something continuously hitting the water. “Someone’s swimming,” I said.
“They shouldn’t be. This is palace property, even if it’s beyond the gates.” Nix looked angry again. This time she didn’t hold it in. Arms pumping at her sides, she charged directly through the trees at the water.
“Nix, don’t worry about it,” I tried—though not very hard, admittedly. Because I was curious, too.
“Go back to the palace,” Nix called over her shoulder. She disappeared around the bend.
I knew I should’ve gone back right away, but I wanted to know who was there and make sure Nix was okay. Plus, if I was going to get busted for sneaking out, I preferred not to get busted alone.
“Oh, it’s just you,” I heard Nix say.
I let out a huge breath, relieved. Whoever it was, Nix knew them. No threat.
I followed into the trees right after Nix. There was a shirtless boy standing in the water. He wiped the wet hair back from his face.
Lucas.
“What are you doing here?” I yelled at him for the second time in a week. I wasn’t afraid of him anymore, but I was suspicious of him.
“Yeah, what are you doing here?” Nix echoed me. “This isn’t your pond.”
“There’s no good swimming in the Court of Sigbin,” he said, and even had the nerve to smile. He began to walk out of the water. All he was wearing was a pair of soaking wet breeches that hung so dangerously low, his hip bones jutted out. I had to turn my head away. Out of the corner of my eye, I could tell he was looking at me and still smiling. Enjoying my embarrassment, I guess.
He slipped a dry shirt over his head. I looked back at him, though I was still a little flustered. The fabric stuck to his wet skin, on his corded stomach muscles. I focused on the ground instead, trying to get the image out of my head. “Well, since you’re here, are you finally going to tell me what you were doing outside my room?” I demanded.
“Wasn’t it obvious? I was paying an official visit to the soon-to-be queen of Biringan on behalf of the Court of Sigbin to issue an apology,” he said. “But I could tell you weren’t in the mood to see me.”
“An apology for what?” I asked.
He had the temerity to blush, and then I remembered that he had practically called me stupid in front of his entire court and mine. Simple. Provincial. Amador had put him up to it, but he was the one who had insulted me.
“Oh,” I said, taken aback. “Right.”
He bowed his head. “Please accept my apology.”
I dismissed it with a wave of my hand. “A convenient excuse. You were obviously sneaking around! I saw you!”
“Can someone please explain what’s going on here?” Nix asked, looking from me to Lucas in confusion.
“Saw me? Where?” he asked, furrowing his brow.
“In my father’s office! Don’t pretend you weren’t there!” I accused.
“Um, as much as I’m enjoying this conversation, we need to go,” Nix interrupted. “Like, now.” She pointed to the sky. It was super dark.
Lucas was frowning. He seemed to want to say something, but Nix was pulling my arm. “Come on!”
He picked up his coat and boots and made to leave. But I wouldn’t let him. “You’re coming with us! We aren’t done here,” I said haughtily.
Nix looked at me pleadingly. “Um, we’re going to get in trouble if we don’t get back in time and—”
I cut her off, mortified. “No one is in trouble,” I manifested. “We’re just late for dinner. Lucas, you’re coming with, because I’m not done questioning you.” There was no reason he couldn’t just take off, so I added, “It’s not optional. If you don’t comply, I’m sending the Royal Guard to arrest you for attempted regicide!” He needed to understand I wasn’t playing around.
Nix shifted uncomfortably. “Um, Princess—”
I shot her a look that silenced her immediately.
Lucas folded his arms across his chest. “Attempted regicide? What in the great blue sky are you talking about?”
“Spying on the Court of Sirena and being at the palace without permission,” I snapped.
He stepped toward me. I fell back. “For your information,” he said, jaw clenched and face red, “I’ve always had permission to be here—from your father, in fact. But I guess you don’t know that, since you don’t know anything at all about Biringan except that you want to rule it.”
“Both of you, please!” Nix was desperate now. “Enough! We have to go!” She pleaded with Lucas, “Just come with us.”
“Fine,” he said. He pulled his boots on and shrugged on his coat. “I wouldn’t want Her Royal Highness to sic her goons on me.”
The three of us walked the rest of the way to the palace, Lucas in front so I could keep my eye on him. All the way I battled with worrying about what he was up to and whether I was about to lose all my freedom on top of it.
***
As we walked through the gate and up the path to the palace, we saw there were people swarming everywhere: guards, staff, and a crowd of onlookers. The front doors were wide open, which was never the case once the sun went down. Whatever was happening seemed like a lot more than Jinky discovering that I was missing for dinner.
“What’s going on?” I asked out loud, even though I knew neither Nix nor Lucas could answer.
Both of them were silent. Suddenly, Lucas held his arm out to block me.
“What are you doing?” I asked, indignant.
“Wait,” he said. “We don’t know what this is about.”
“I’m about to be queen,” I said. “I have every right to—”
“Shhh.” Lucas held his finger to his lips.
“How dare—” But I didn’t get to finish.
“Stay here,” Lucas said, darting off back into the woods. As much as I didn’t like him telling me what to do, I had to admit to myself that he was right. I had no idea what I was walking into.
“Did he just use that as an excuse to take off?” I asked Nix.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “I kind of believe him.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t think he’s lying to us. I think he did just want to swim. And I think he meant his apology.”
“Nix.” I closed my eyes and rubbed my face with my hands. “I saw him in my father’s chamber. Then I caught him outside my door. He might not be lying about wanting a swim, and maybe he feels bad about insulting me at the council meeting, but I’m pretty sure he hasn’t told us the truth about why he’s always around here. Unless you think I’m the one who’s lying?”
“No, of course not. I believe that you saw him there. But I don’t think he was doing anything to hurt you.”
“Then what was he doing?”
She shrugged. She wrapped her arms around herself and shifted her feet. “I don’t know. I thought he sounded sincere. Like, really surprised you accused him of trying to kill you. I mean, when you think about it, why would he want to do that? It seems a little far-fetched, don’t you think? He is a knight, after all, and made his vows. All I know is, I’ve been going to school with him for a year, and, yeah, he’s way too into himself, and his girlfriend is a stuck-up brat, but...”
“But I’m not a killer,” Lucas said.
Both Nix and I jumped about a mile into the air. “You scared me!” she shouted. I didn’t say anything, but my heart was racing. I wondered how much he’d heard.
“And by the way, Amador’s not my girlfriend. She just wants everyone to think she is,” he added.
Oh, he’d heard a lot, then.
Lucas stepped up close to me. I sucked in my breath and stared him down, annoyed to notice his dark eyes had glints of gold in them. Did he have to be so beautiful? And so close to me? “Listen,” he said, gripping both of my forearms with his strong hands. “I did not harm your father. And I don’t want to harm you. I’m sorry for what happened at the meeting of our courts. It was wrong of me. I don’t share those views. I regret what I said, and I hope you accept my apology.”
We looked into each other’s eyes for a few seconds. His hands were warm; I could feel the heat of his touch through the thin fabric of my sleeves.
“Please?” he asked, then let go of me.
I felt cold suddenly without his touch, and as much as I hated to admit it, in my heart, I agreed with Nix. I believed him. There was something desperately sincere in his tone, and while he might have been a pawn of Amador’s, I didn’t take him to be cruel.
“Fine, apology accepted.” I relented, then quickly changed the subject. “So did you find out what’s happening at the palace?”
He shook his head. “I couldn’t get close enough. But...” He craned his neck to look farther down the road to the palace. “No one else seems to be coming. With all the commotion, we could probably just appear in the crowd without anyone questioning where we came from.”
“They’ve probably been looking for me already. Maybe that’s what it is. Someone noticed I was missing.” I was in deep trouble. I’d never escape again after this.
“Okay.” Lucas was contemplating something. “In that case, no big deal. We’ll say we were exploring the gardens, lost track of time, got turned around in the maze.”
“You don’t think they already looked there?” I asked.
“Sure, but there are all sorts of coves and hidden spots. It’s certainly possible to go unnoticed.”
With the stress of the moment, I didn’t think to question why or how he knew that, or else I would’ve been suspicious of him again.
The three of us agreed to the same story—Lucas wanted to discuss relations between our courts, Nix tagged along as a chaperone, we got lost walking in the gardens, and we finally found our way out. Reasonable enough. It could work. Everyone in Biringan trusted and respected Lucas, even outside of the Court of Sigbin, so they’d believe it if he said so. Whether they should trust him was another story.
We waited for the right moment, when no one was paying attention to what was going on beyond the gates and slipped right into the crowds as nonchalantly as possible. We walked casually to the entrance, where guards tried to stop us.
“Hold on, there!” One of them held out his staff across the walkway, blocking our path, then lifted it within seconds. “My apologies, Your Highness, he said, bowing. He was flustered. “I didn’t know it was you.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “You’re just doing your job.”
His shoulders relaxed, and he bowed again.
“What’s with the commotion?” I asked the guard.
“I wish I could tell you,” he answered. “But I don’t know. I’ve only been told to stand watch.”
I thanked him, and we continued for the door. As we stepped inside, Lucas leaned toward me and whispered, “You shouldn’t show weakness like that.”
I stopped abruptly and snapped at him: “Do not tell me what to do.” My jaw was clenched tight. “How did I possibly ‘show weakness’?”
“Oh, relax,” he said, downplaying my anger. That only made me madder. He stepped closer to me and whispered again. “All I’m saying is you never truly know what’s going on with anyone here—who they might have a deal with, who they might trade information with, whether they’re involved with the insurgency. If you act like you don’t know what’s going on, they could take advantage.”
I cut him off. “Fine, got it.” He did have a point, as much as it pained me to admit it. I also wasn’t going to forget the reason I’d been out tonight to begin with. “The same goes for you. Who knows what’s going on with you?”
He leaned back and looked me up and down. “Exactly” is the only thing he said before continuing to walk into the palace. I was annoyed all over again—what did that mean? He wasn’t even going to deny that he was up to something now that he got me to do what he wanted. Maybe I wasn’t using him to get back into the palace—maybe he was using me.
“Wait,” I said, stopping again. This was very strange. No one had rushed up to me, asking where I was. People were still gathered at the edges of the castle foyer, whispering in groups, guards flanking every single door, their eyes darting around the room on high alert.
Lucas seemed to catch on to what I was thinking at the same time. For a second he seemed a bit annoyed that I was standing there again, but then he looked around, then back at me, and raised his eyebrows. “Something’s wrong.”
He charged forward again. Nix and I followed him. “Are you okay?” I asked her. She had been awfully quiet for a while. She didn’t look great either.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she assured me. She swallowed.
“Are you sure? Because you don’t look fine.” Her hands were shaking.
“Can you tell me if—if anyone looks like they’re from Jade Mountain?” she asked.
I was confused. “Jade Mountain? The Chinese fairy realm?”
She nodded.
“No—I don’t think so.”
Nix looked relieved, and I wondered what that was about—why she would be so concerned if there were encantos from Jade Mountain in Biringan.
Lucas pushed through the only closed doors we’d seen so far—to the tearoom. There, we found a crowd of guards and nobles, and a few palace staffers crouched in a circle, surrounding something.
“Can someone tell me what exactly is going on here?” I shouted. All heads turned to me. A few people in the crowd stepped aside, revealing what everybody was staring down at.
There, on the floor, was a body.