Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Aurelia
M elisse’s chin trembles as she helps me into my gown. “I didn’t realize you were so dissatisfied with my services, Your Highness.”
It appears my gambit has upset even more people than I anticipated. I’m not entirely sure anyone’s happy about the turn of events I just orchestrated except for the imperial heir.
“It’s not that at all,” I reassure her while keeping my voice appropriately cool for our difference in status. There are still too many keen eyes and ears around us. “I would simply be better served by staff with a variety of strengths. It wouldn’t do to place an overlarge burden on you alone. Speaking of which…”
Committing as fully as I can to my act, I turn toward Rochelle and clap my hands in summons. “Rochelle, I’d like you to attend to me in my chambers now to decide on tomorrow’s attire.” I raise my voice. “Can someone bring her an outfit suitable for her new station?”
Within minutes, Rochelle has donned one of the black and gray dresses worn by the female attending staff and we’re proceeding down the hall toward my bedroom. She trudges along a couple of steps behind me, as is also appropriate.
And possibly for the best, because I’m not sure how well I could keep up this front if I had to look her in the face.
I unlock the door and let her follow me inside. She turns the bolt in our wake, perhaps on instinct from when she’s entered her own room in the past.
She’ll never have chambers to herself again as long as she dwells in the palace.
I turn around, an explanation I’m not sure she’ll accept choking me on the way up—and Rochelle throws her arms around me.
“Thank you,” she whispers as if she’s still afraid of being overheard, squeezing me tight. Her curls spill against my face. “You did it, Aurelia. Gods, you actually saved me.”
All at once, I’m choked up for a completely different reason.
I hug her back, thanking all the gods there are that the person who mattered most in my gambit understood my purpose. “You did well with your part. I believed you saying you’d rather die.”
Rochelle pulls back, grimacing. “I just knew that would make him even more eager to go along with your idea. That absolute prick …”
I can’t restrain a rough laugh. “You don’t have to worry about marrying him now. You can stay with me as long as you need to until it’s safe, and then I’ll see you get back home to your beloved medic. Your father can’t pressure you about a match befitting your station anymore. ”
A teary sheen fills Rochelle’s eyes. She wipes at them, letting out a breathless guffaw of her own. “I can’t believe—it’s amazing that you pulled it off. Gods, Tevio will be so worried when he hears. Do you think there’s any way we could send him a letter that won’t give away the truth?”
“I’m sure I can figure out a reasonable cover story. Let me know how to address it, and I’ll get something sent off in the morning.”
“That would be wonderful. Thank you so much, Aurelia. I’ll be the best maid you’ve ever had once I figure out how.”
I squeeze her shoulder, my own eyes prickling. “You don’t have to worry about that. Let’s focus on getting me through the rest of these trials alive so I can make good on my promise. But first, I think we could both use some sleep.” I pause. “I’m not sure where you will be sleeping from now on.”
“I know where the servants’ quarters are. I’d imagine they always have a few extra beds.” She shakes her head, the light in her eyes fading, but only for a second.
With a renewed smile, she hustles over to my wardrobe. “But first I should make sure you have the absolute best dress to keep Marclinus’s eyes on you tomorrow. Hmm. This one looked wonderful on you, but I think if we cinch it just a little more right here…”
“I trust your judgment,” I tell her honestly, and drag myself to the wash basin to prepare for my own much-needed sleep.
I wake with a hitch of my pulse, not sure what interrupted my rest. With the first blinks of my bleary eyes, I half expect to find the three princes standing around my bed again, sneering at me for humiliating my supposed friend.
All three of them might very well see me as a spoiled, selfish outsider again, but none of them have interrupted my sleep tonight. The room around me is empty.
Knitting my brow, I peer through the expansive space—and hear a faint patter from behind the nearest set of curtains.
I ease out of bed and peer behind the heavy fabric. My heart skips a beat.
A pure white dove is fluttering by the window. It glides down almost to the outer ledge, then flaps its wings to ascend higher in front of the glass pane.
The dove is one of Elox’s sacred animals. I haven’t seen one anywhere around the palace since I arrived.
Is this a sign from my godlen?
If so, it’s an insistent one. The dove flies in a wobbly circle in front of the window and then veers out into the yard. It swoops back to me and away again, as if it wants me to follow it.
I hesitate for only a second. Then I’m grabbing yesterday’s dress, not wanting to risk sullying the one Rochelle adjusted for tomorrow. Once I’ve yanked it over my head, I hurry out and through the halls to the nearest way out.
I slip around the side of the palace, peering up toward the second floor. A glimmer of white catches the moonlight above me and then dips lower. The dove sails past me and onward over the gardens.
There must be something Elox wants me to see. Something that will help me fulfill the rest of my goals here?
I hustle after the bird as quickly as I can while staying quiet. It never circles back, only flying straight ahead until its pale form disappears amid the shadows of the woods.
When I follow the dove between the trees, it takes a moment before I make out the white feathers in a streak of moonlight. The creature flutters onward, and I weave between the trees on its trail.
For a few fleeting moments, I catch a melody in the distance—notes strummed on a lute. Is Lorenzo out here practicing his new instrument this late at night?
If so, the dove isn’t leading me toward him. As I pad on through the woods, the music soon fades behind me. Then there’s nothing but the soft rustling of the leaves in the warm night breeze and the rasp of my feet over the twigs and pebbles that scatter the ground.
It’s perhaps several minutes later when the dove finally lands on a branch and stays there. I squint through the darkness, taking in the spot it’s brought me to.
One of the woods’ largest trees lies on its side, moss coating the crumbling bark. It must have fallen months if not years ago. A deeper shadow marks the ground where its roots pulled up from the earth, a steeply-sided hollow left behind. I can’t see anything else at all noteworthy about this spot compared to any other area of the palace woods.
I ease forward to take a closer look at the fallen tree—and at the corner of my eye, the dove disappears.
Not flies away, not hops behind a patch of leaves. Simply blinks out of existence in an instant.
As my head jerks toward the branch where it landed, four women step out from behind the nearby trees to form a semi-circle between me and my path back to the palace.
Fausta’s fiery hair gleams bright even in the thin moonlight. Her eyes shine equally fierce. “Look at that. The princess fell for the simplest trick of all. Some cleverness. ”
As haughty as her voice is, it’s also a little ragged. I re-evaluate the porcelain pale of her skin—perhaps turned sickly not by the dim lighting but by efforts expended. The tufts of hair along her forehead droop with sweat.
My hands ball at my sides. “It was an illusion.”
One she appears to have conjured at significant personal expense. Whatever gift Inganne gave her, she stretched it to her limits with that small deception.
Next to her friend, Bianca lets out a soft but mocking laugh. “Too bad you didn’t figure that out sooner.”
They’re standing with two other ladies of the court—young but married by their pinned-up hair. Friends who’re part of their venomous pack.
I focus on Fausta and Bianca, who are obviously the ringleaders. “Why did you drag me out here in the middle of the night?”
Fausta’s eyes narrow, glinting hard as emeralds. “What have you ever done for him to call you his princess? You’ve never really fought for him this entire time, not as I have. So let’s see you fight now.”
With her last word, one of the other ladies twitches her hand, and the ground beneath me lurches. Only a little, but so abrupt and unexpected that I stumble.
In the same moment, all four of the noblewomen launch themselves at me.
Bianca snatches my hair and yanks my head back so sharply pain lances up my neck. Fausta drives her knee into my back, a vulnerable spot just above my hip. Another of the ladies twists my arm behind me while the fourth drives the hard heel of her shoe into my foot.
A bone crunches, and agony explodes up my leg. I cry out, staggering away from them, thrashing with fists and elbows to try to fend them off .
A few of my strikes land to grunts and pained gasps. Every lady in Accasy’s court learns at least a little self-defense.
But it would take a stronger fighter than I am to fend off four opponents all on my own. Especially when they’ve already gotten the upper hand.
I can’t take more than a hobbling step before I’m shoved back into their ring of blows. Fingernails rake across my cheek; a kick brings me to my knees.
Bianca wallops me across the side of my head, leaving my mind spinning and my skull throbbing. Fausta slams her foot down on the back of my other leg, and my shin bone cracks with a blaze of pain.
I rasp a breath and start to scream, as little chance as there might be of anyone hearing my cry all the way over in the palace. Before I can get out more than a brief shriek, Bianca punches me right in the throat.
I choke and sputter. Fausta aims another vicious knee at my ribs, setting off a splintering ache through my side.
Then she motions to her friends, and they all shove me over the lip of the hollow into the deep cavity left by the fallen tree’s roots.
Fausta lets out a laugh that’s more a cackle. “I hope you enjoy your last day or two knowing no one will even think to look for you here.”
She and her friends grab a few handfuls of sticks and other debris and toss them down on me in a battering rain. Giggling amongst themselves, they dart off into the night.
I sprawl on my side, my breath coming in short hitches of anguish. My elbow on my dominant arm is at best sprained, any movement sending pain stabbing out from the joint.
With my other hand, I swipe the sticks away from my face and peer at the depression I’m stuck in. Just a slight squirm toward the steep earthen side of the hollow has me whimpering in pain through my bruised throat.
One leg broken, the other foot fractured. I don’t think I can even crawl.
I try to lift my voice in a shout, but all that comes out is a faint rasp. The impact of Bianca’s punch has dulled my capacity for speech.
My head sinks down to rest on the uneven earth. When I stop moving, the pain dwindles to the edge of my consciousness.
My thoughts swim into clearer focus with kindling resolve.
I’m not letting my journey end here. Not letting those vicious shrews have the last laugh.
Closing my eyes, I direct a silent prayer toward my godlen. I came out here out of faith in you, Elox. Give me the strength to make my return.
A faint quiver of energy ripples through my nerves, stirring my determination. I squint at my surroundings again.
First I need to get out of this cursed hole.
With my jaw clenched tight, I dig my good elbow into the earthen side of the hollow. As I wriggle my hips upward with my arm for leverage, my ribs scream, but I end up leaning partly against the slope rather than sprawled at the bottom of the cavity.
I stop and pant, splinters jabbing through my lungs.
I can make it to the top. Bit by bit. One heave at a time.
I brace my elbow and squirm, brace and squirm. The ache in my side sears hotter, and my head throbs harder.
The forest floor has just come into view when my broken foot smacks against a stone, and the roar of pain drowns out my thoughts completely.