Chapter 6
Biyu pored over the scroll Yat-sen had given her, concentrating on each spell he had written out for her in plain terms. There were three spells.
The first was an invisibility spell, but it was incredibly difficult to keep the glamour up, so she could only use it for ten seconds maximum.
The second was a spell that made her footsteps eerily quiet but required too much concentration in conjunction with any other spell.
The third was a basic attack spell, in case of an emergency if she had to surmise, but she didn’t pay attention to it much since she already knew how to use her flames to attack.
For one whole week, she practiced by herself in her room.
The first time she had used the spell, she had nearly fainted with anxiety, certain that the mages would bust into her room and drag her away to the towers, but no such thing happened.
Eventually, she became accustomed to practicing it, even though it made her palms sweaty and her stomach clench painfully, her gaze never straying from her bedchamber’s door.
Each night, she wondered if she should sneak out to the library, and every time she backed out, telling herself that she wasn’t ready yet. She was too frightened to leave, too cowardly to even attempt to sneak past her guards.
But by the eighth night, she knew she had to do it. If she couldn’t do it now, then she would never be able to muster up the strength to follow the plan. This was only the first step, she told herself. There was a long, long road ahead of them.
Biyu tentatively touched the door handle. She already had an excuse in mind if the guards noticed her and asked what she was doing. Oh, sorry about that! I didn’t mean to startle you. Have you seen Jade? I thought she might have escaped at some point. I don’t know where she is.
She repeated the lines over and over, sweat dribbling down her spine and nausea rolling over her in thick waves; she could do this, she told herself.
Breathing out deeply, she slowly pulled the door open, her entire body tense and ready to slam it shut with an apology.
But to her surprise, a single guard was posted, and he was standing there with his back against the wall and his head slumped forward.
His chest rose and fell in a slow rhythm and Biyu could only stare in shock. He was fast asleep.
Not wanting to waste the opportunity, she quietly shut the door behind her and shuffled down the hall, keeping her gaze locked on the guard.
What if he was just pretending to doze off so he could catch her in the act of escaping?
But the more she stepped away from him, the more she realized that he was out of it.
She spun around and hurried down the corridor, her heart beating wildly in her throat, and her hands trembling as she rounded the corner.
She hadn’t even used her magic.
Were her guards really this incompetent?
She couldn’t believe it, and it made her realize how true Yat-sen’s assessment was.
Her guards were useless at their jobs, or maybe they were just complacent.
They must have known the spineless princess wouldn’t dare step out of line.
Years of watching her and doing nothing had probably made them bored, had made them realize they could sleep on the job and nobody would reprimand them, because they wouldn’t be missing anything.
Biyu should have felt a little bit annoyed at that, but it worked in her favor and she couldn’t keep the grin off her face, nor the skip out of her step as she walked the familiar bends of the hallways.
She used to love the intricate paths throughout the palace, even if she was only allowed in certain wings.
She hadn’t thought she would walk these halls like this ever again; without guards flanking her, without people peering down at her with thinly veiled mistrust and disdain.
She felt like she could breathe again, for the first time in five years.
Her smile quickly faded as she was about to round a corner and heard people talking.
She pressed herself against the wall and waited a moment, her ears straining as two women complained about a womanizing palace guard.
Her breath caught in her throat when their footsteps came closer, and closer.
She scrambled down the hall and hid behind an ornate pillar.
Sweat dampened her hands, armpits, and below her breasts.
She stopped breathing and waited as the women passed by.
They didn’t notice her, just continued to grumble about the man’s straying eyes, and how he wasn’t pleased with one partner, and such, which normally would have made Biyu curious who they were talking about, but this time only annoyed her and made her wish they would hurry along.
Biyu briskly continued her trek to the library, her gaze skittering over the halls in search of guards.
She did a good job avoiding the guarded corridors by hugging the walls and taking short detours, but the closer she drew to her destination, the more guards were present, and she couldn’t bypass them without using magic.
Without even meaning to, her forefinger brushed against the ring nestled on her thumb for reassurance.
The crystal hummed with power and the band warmed her skin, almost like it was calling forth her own magic, and she released a shaky breath at the feel of renewed energy surging through her. She could do this. She was capable.
Biyu poked her head around the bend of the hall that would eventually lead to the library, and immediately noticed three guards walking toward the direction of the library.
Knowing what she knew about patrol schedules, they would reach the doors and loop back here, and keep doing that until their duty was done for the night.
Inhaling deeply and quietly, she quickly trailed them, keeping herself close to the walls. If they turned around, if they even glanced over their shoulders, they would spot her. She wasn’t sure if she could cloak herself in invisibility quickly enough. But she had no choice here.
Biyu barely breathed as she stalked behind them. Please don’t notice. Please don’t notice. Please don’t notice.
“—doesn’t seem to like me very much,” one of the guards said with a long sigh.
The one in the middle chuckled. “She doesn’t like anyone.”
“Commendable for you to try, at least. I wouldn’t have even tried talking to one of them,” the third said.
They were drawing closer to the double doors; sweat dripped down her spine and she held her hand over the ring for reassurance that it wouldn’t fail her.
The worst possibilities raked through her mind—that the ring would deplete of magic, even though Yat-sen said it would probably last six months, that she would flub the spell and alert them of her presence.
That … that something would go wrong and that she would be discovered, tossed in the towers, and would ultimately doom her brother as well.
The guards were oblivious to her as they poked at one another and chortled at their ventures with women—particularly the middle one.
“I really thought women from Sanguis fucked pretty much anything, you know?” he said with a throaty, crude sound. “The bitch could have at least looked at me.”
“Looked at you as she rejected your sorry ass?” The one on the right bit back his laugh. “Vita is a warrior, isn’t she? A spy or assassin or some special kind of warrior? You think she’d want to waste time with a palace guard?”
Biyu inched closer. They were only half a dozen feet away now.
“Well, I thought maybe I had a chance—”
“Why? You’re only good for palace maids.”
“I wouldn’t touch one of them Peccata bitches even if all the hellhounds in the world dragged me by the balls. There’s something vile about those half-breeds. They’re soulless, I’m telling you, and the men are even worse. Remember what that red-haired bastard said a few nights ago?”
One of them chuckled. “Ey now. They’re not half-breeds, they’re full-blooded outlanders.”
Now.
Biyu pulled her magic to her, the spell coming easily despite her apprehension.
Right on time, the guards spun on their heels.
Biyu pressed herself flatly against the wall, her breath catching as the men walked past her.
A few seconds must have passed, but it felt like an eternity; she held onto the spell, her legs leaden as she inched closer to the doors.
She couldn’t hold onto it any longer. Her head was going to split open; she was going to get caught. She had to get to the door—
Just as she grasped the handle, the spell flickered, her hold slipping. She yanked it open, the spell coming undone with a whoosh. She didn’t have time to see if the guards saw her. She slipped inside and closed the door as quietly as she could. It clicked shut.
She gasped, her hand slapping to her mouth.
She had been too loud; surely the guards had heard her entering. Surely they were going to shove this door open and take her away. Surely …
But seconds turned to minutes and nobody barged inside.
Releasing a shaky breath, she turned to face the room and nearly choked on another gasp.
She had, for some reason, thought it would look like she had remembered it—with old bookshelves thickly lined with dust and scrolls and tomes, with banners pinned on the ceilings and drifting toward the tops of the shelves, and the smell of musty pages pervading the air.
Instead, she was shocked to find that new, sturdy, extremely tall bookshelves lined the room, with sliding ladders built onto them.
It was too clean, pristine, and it smelled floral and like incense instead of like dusty old parchment.
Even in the dim lighting she could make out the impressive outlines of the shelves bursting with books, scrolls, and literature.