Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Every morning after breakfast, I was led to the vault. With the guards watching, I turned as much as I could of the coins into gold until I was thoroughly exhausted by the time I was done.
The days blurred into one another, the only change being how Gertrude had gone from attempting to fight me every time she saw me to giving up.
Due to her refusal to assume her new role, she couldn’t befriend any of the maids.
Since no one else would talk to me, we had no one to talk to but each other.
It got to the point where it wasn’t all that bad, being stuck with her as my only company.
Now the month was almost over, and I was about to be done in advance.
Today it would all be over.
“Was it worth it?” Gertrude asked as I slipped my shoes on, standing in my clothes, hands on her hips, chin raised.
I straightened, and got hit with a wave of dizziness. The effort of transmuting the king’s treasure weighed on me long after I was done. I let out a ragged sigh. “We’ve discussed this how many times now?”
“You could always just stop this charade,” she said, not-so-innocently. “I will make sure you don’t get punished. I will say you were protecting me.”
“Even if I weren’t so close, and if I believed you, I know you would do something to anger the king, and make him behead us both, then go to war with Avongart.”
Gertrude hustled closer, the hands on her hips now fists. “Oh, so this is for my own good?”
“Isn’t everything?” I said bitterly.
“So, that’s it? I’m to spend the rest of my life stuck in this room, doing nothing?”
Grumbling under my breath, I managed to steady myself enough to stand up. “How is that any different from your life before? At least now you don’t have anyone expecting anything from you.”
She threw her arms up, yelling, “Because this isn’t my life!”
“It is now!” I yelled back, the weakness instantly amplifying. Head swimming, I fell back on the nearest chair, queasy despite my empty stomach.
I sensed her come by me, saw her hands and brown skirt when she came to a stop at the chair’s side. “What I don’t understand is why you took my life when it is clearly making you miserable.”
I raised my head carefully. “You care about how I feel all of the sudden? And I already told you I have to go on, or risk war in my—your name.”
“You don’t really think someone as greedy as King Wilhelm would wage war over some gold, do you?” Gertrude laughed humorlessly. “It’s starting to feel like a threat meant to keep a princess in line.”
“I’ve considered that, but I can’t risk it.” I waited for her to say something before prodding, “Can I?”
She let out a frustrated puff of air, settling against the wall with her arms crossed. “What does it matter? You’re almost done, aren’t you?”
I palmed my face, exhaling loudly through my nose. “Yes, I am. But I’m starting to wonder if it’s worth it, if I have to spend the next couple of decades with that man as my father-in-law.”
“Decades?”
Having this man as the bane of my—or her—life had clearly never occurred to her before. “He is relatively young, and looks to be quite healthy, unfortunately.”
Gertrude snapped her open mouth shut, before her face took on a contemplative look. “Maybe we could have someone rid us of him.”
I huffed in disbelief. “So, it’s ‘us’ now?”
“I’m stuck with you, until you decide to stop this game or run away.”
Run away. I’d spent ages dreaming of doing such a thing. But the romanticization of escape had always been stopped by logic, the questioning of where exactly I could run to, and how I’d survive. This was where the fantasy of marrying a handsome prince came in for girls like me.
But princes didn’t marry maids. They didn’t stand up to their cruel fathers, either.
“If there was a way to turn back time, I’d take all of this back,” I said quietly. “But I’d still be here, going through it with you, like you are now with me.”
“So I should be grateful I am stuck playing Prince and Pauper with you?”
I snorted, shaking my head. “You always did love that book, so this is the closest you’ll ever get to climbing between the pages.”
“The difference is that they both did that willingly and switched back at the end.”
And I couldn’t do that. Not yet. Not when I was so close to getting what I wanted.
But what could I do with her in the long term now that making her live my dull, neglected existence wasn’t fun anymore? Whatever I could do, it had to wait until I was done with the issue at hand.
Captain Grunewich knocked on the door, ready to escort me to the vault for my final task. I passed Gertrude without another word, once again leaving her stuck in my room with nothing to do but read her own books.
Hours later, on the verge of collapse, with my hands burning and gut churning with nausea and anticipation, I bagged the final amount. The only thing keeping me upright was the terror of being trapped in this place again, even when I knew that Roderick would get me out.
Roderick. The reason I was in this whole mess.
And the only person I’d ever grown to miss.
I’d also missed being entirely honest with someone who understood my situation, and whose motives I understood, and respected.
Even if he did use devious methods to get me to help him.
Even if I would pay a massive price if his plan came to pass.
But I couldn’t blame him for that, not entirely. I was to blame, too.
After I was done, I crawled out of the vault. The captain supported me up to my feet, and all the way down to my lunch with the king and the prince.
Eating always made me feel better, and that included the strong coffee they made here. I had to wonder if it was standard across all of Orcage, and if now, I’d be free to tour the city of Vergoldet, and in general allowed out of the palace.
Hunger and optimism kept me moving until I was settled in my chair across from the princesses. The first course was schnitzel with mashed potatoes, sour cream and sautéed onions.
My stomach growled at the smell alone.
I had barely cut a piece of the fried, breaded beef when Wilhelm asked me, “I assume you’re done with the vault.”
The slow-creeping hysteria of exhaustion pulled my lips wide in a wobbling smile. “Yes, sire. I am done, and before the time we had agreed on.”
“Good,” he said, going back to his food.
I tried catching Heinrich’s eye, but, as usual, he acted like I wasn’t right across from him.
Our so-called marriage would no doubt continue in the same vein.
I’d come to dread a life where I always struggled to lure words out of his tight-lipped mouth, not to mention being in the same bed every night, only to be completely ignored.
The second course arrived before I’d had the chance to do anything but sample the first. Beef dumplings in soup, then goose, roasted and stuffed with chestnuts and prunes, and glazed with gravy and pan drippings.
I rushed to stuff myself with all I could, already dreaming of the inevitable chocolate dessert when the king cleared his throat.
“Since you finished earlier than expected, why don’t you turn a few more things into gold for me?”
I paused, forkful of goose still in my mouth.
Wilhelm continued, “I have a line of decorative suits of armor on the floor below us that are rusting too quickly in this weather, and I’d love for them to be gleaming and golden by the wedding.”
Dread began to rise up my chest as I swallowed my food. “But I already did what you asked.”
He picked up his glass, taking his time with his gulp of wine. “And now I’m asking you to do more.”
It felt as if my head had been punctured and the air was slowly escaping it, leaving me lightheaded and filled with rising panic. “But we had a deal! That I’d only do what paid back the debt!”
He glared at me over the rim of his glass. “And I’ve decided that the vault isn’t enough.”
“Then what would be enough?” I let the fork clatter to the plate, my voice high and shaky.
Wilhelm slammed his glass down with a firm thunk. “When I say it is.”
Just like when he’d locked me in the vault, the whole world felt as it it were closing in, suffocating me.
I looked out to Heinrich, but found him looking at his plate, with his sisters looking anywhere but at me.
They knew about this. This wasn’t a spontaneous idea. Wilhelm had planned this.
He had never planned on letting me out of this deal. I was going to be kept here, fulfilling a debt whose line he kept shifting until I was a husk. I was trapped from all sides, with him, with Roderick, within this castle.
I had to get out of here!
Possessed by the manic urge to flee, I shot up, knocking my chair over, and bolted from the room.
“What are you waiting for?” I heard Wilhelm boom from behind me. “Grab her!”
I heard the guards’ boots stomping on the polished floor behind me, but desperation lent my weakened legs strength I’d never had.
I couldn’t let them catch me. I couldn’t go back. I didn’t give up being a princess’s maid to be a king’s hostage!
It didn’t take long for me to get lost, but I wasn’t looking for somewhere inside the castle. I only kept track of where I was going through the windows, because my target was outside.
Guards came from up ahead and from the side, joining the ones behind me. I came to a skidding stop, caught in the middle by a window.
Heart pounding between my ears, I grabbed the nearest chair and flung it at the window, sending the glass raining in a thousand shattered pieces. As the guards ducked to avoid the shards, I flung myself out of the broken window.
Free-falling for two terrifying heartbeats, I crashed on my hands and knees.
Pain exploded in my every joint as shards tore into my dress and cut across my palms. But I couldn’t let that slow me down.
With air shearing through my lungs, I was up and running into the garden, with the guards yelling behind me.
Only one thought was left in my mind. Escape. It didn’t matter where, or if I’d survive. I’d rather be executed for treason than be stuck as his alchemist slave.
The fountain with the four dancing nymphs came into view. The guards shouted behind me, telling me to stop, and that I had nowhere to go, but I didn’t care.
All I needed to do was reach that one stop.
Heart in my throat, I leaped onto the ledge of the fountain. A hand grabbed my skirt , but I lunged forward, dislodging it to dive into the water. Into Faerie.