4. Breaking and Entering
Chapter four
Breaking and Entering
T hunder rumbled through the darkness, loud enough to shake the foundations of buildings. Yet it wasn’t nature’s rage that pulled the High Inquisitor of Luxenal Copper Mine from her dreamless sleep. Rather something softer, gentler. A whisper intent on being heard above the storm. It rang clear in her mind, as though someone had sat right by her ear as they spoke. She bolted upright, a chill clinging to her spine, for there was no one found in the shadows. What they’d said she couldn’t recall. Her waking mind instead turned over the words the woman had spouted. What was she supposed to break into? Why was the commander staying away?
It had to be a trap. A game of the commander’s own making. But she was awake now and with the tempest rattling the windows; it was unlikely that sleep would reclaim her.
She dressed quickly in black leathers, easier to skulk around in the shadows without being seen that way. Slowly, she edged her door open, searching for any signs of a patrol unit. Though her status as a princess of the realm protected her, it wouldn’t do much if they caught her in the commander’s office without authorisation.
As she approached his door, there wasn’t a soul in sight. She pulled out her lock picking tools and set to work. The cacophony of the storm hampered her speed, forcing her to move slower, lest she lose a click of the lock barrel to the roaring call of nature. It felt like hours had passed when the door handle finally released.
She found the messages sitting in the centre of his desk atop discarded plans for the new buildings and shafts out east. Five lay there, but she was only interested in one. It was easy to spot, with the wax seal royal emblem on the reverse. Using the tip of a dagger, Solveig pried it open, pulling the heavy stack of paper out.
It was an execution summons, except the inmate’s name was missing from the front of the file. Luxenal hadn’t received a new prisoner in over a month. Whoever they were, they had to be important. Perhaps a high-ranking member of the anti-magicists, a group who had grown in popularity as more unexplained deaths occurred.
She flipped the cover over and the papers almost slid from her frozen grip as she stared at the name. She hadn’t thought of him in years, but clearly, he had.
For the King of Torrelin had decreed that the next prisoner to be executed was Prince Malik Etana. The youngest brother of Solveig’s childhood best friend Adira Etana, the future Sovereign of Farrenhold. A gamut of emotions raced through her mind before settling on bone searing anger.
She’d foolishly allowed herself to hope that in the years she’d been away, her parents would have softened toward her. Recognised how she had bowed and broken each piece of her soul to answer their every whim, but it still wasn’t enough. It never was. They were playing games with lives to test her loyalty, and Solveig refused to play. It didn’t matter how desperately she wanted her family to see her as one of them. She wouldn’t be responsible for the end of a centuries-old alliance. Leaving her with no other choice.
The High Inquisitor of Luxenal Copper Mine was going to help a prisoner marked for execution to escape.