Chapter Fourteen
THE PATH TO his own bedroom through the secret passages was forefront in Caro’s mind. The various turns and hallways he had used for years to hide from the public eye, and thereby preventing any of his family from noticing him, were all he thought about as he walked through the far-too-familiar pathways up until the moment when Caro stopped outside the one doorway he had never dared use before. He refocused his thoughts on the lock, which was a deadbolt-style that required multiple turns of the knob to pull back. Preventing the bar from scraping or the knob from squeaking was all he allowed himself to worry about. Once the door was unlocked, he took a step back and to the side, motioning Thris forward with a wave of his arm.
Thris drew his sword, echoed by the rest of their group, before waving for another soldier to yank the door open.
They fell into the king’s sitting room with a roar, dashing forward into an immediate melee. Caro followed, staying back and out of the way. He was fully aware he wasn’t nearly as well trained as the mixture of Thris, Fen, and Braxton’s elite fighters. Caro remained by the secret door, ready to join the fighting should he be needed, though he hoped that wouldn’t be necessary.
Four guards were always stationed by the door in the king’s private rooms. The king also had two bodyguards with him at all times. The crown prince had an additional two bodyguards, and Prince Cadell was also properly trained in how to use a sword. This time of the morning, Cadell and King Cyphus ate breakfast together. Caro had never been certain whether Cadell was getting trained as heir, or whether it was Cyphus’s way of monitoring him to prevent Cadell from stealing the throne early. Caro had certainly never been invited to dine with them. What that meant was nine fighters immediately jumped to their feet to engage with the fighters coming out of the hidden door, and their shouts brought more guards from the hallway.
Swords clanged, and fighters grunted and yelled. Furniture screeched as it was shoved out of the way, and dishes clattered as the breakfast table was overturned. Cadell was yelling about something as he was surrounded by fighters from both sides, including Fen and Thris, but Caro couldn’t make out the words over the rest of the cacophony. Braxton was on the other side of the room, part of a group fighting over there.
Once the initial influx of guards from the hallway had ended, Caro expected more to arrive from the barracks or other hallways. That was why their plan was to take out King Cyphus and Prince Cadell quickly, and escape back into the secret passages to join the rest of the fighters in the city. But the doorway remained empty. Namin had about fifteen people fighting for them, against Caro’s group of thirty. The outcome was decided.
Only… Caro sucked in a breath, his gaze casting around the room and trying and failing to find the familiar, hated face of his father, King Cyphus. There was no sign of graying blond hair or angry blue eyes, or even a spot where he could be hiding. His bodyguards were here, fighting, which meant he had to be in residence. But he was definitely not in the sitting room.
Perhaps their attack had happened a few minutes too early, and King Cyphus hadn’t yet emerged from his rooms to have breakfast with Cadell. Or, they had failed to conceal their approach from Cyphus’s magic, and he had fled. Either way, they had to find him or the coup would fail.
Since the guards from the hallway outside hadn’t rushed in until after the fighting began, Caro felt it safe to assume King Cyphus hadn’t fled that way. Additionally, Prince Cadell had been left like a sitting duck when he could have fled after King Cyphus had Cyphus gone out that way if he did indeed flee. King Cyphus might not care overly much about anything but his own comforts and security, but Cadell was the only viable heir in Namin. Losing Cadell would destabilize Cyphus’s rule and reduce their international standing. Not having an heir in Namin could cause absolute chaos. Other countries wouldn’t want to continue even the already limited trade agreements they had with Namin. Had he the chance, King Cyphus would have fled with Cadell in tow. Which meant King Cyphus had to be in the private bedroom area of the royal apartment.
Braxton must have come to the same conclusion since he was fighting his way toward the doorway that led deeper into the apartment. And yet, an alarm went off at the back of Caro’s brain. Perhaps King Cyphus thought his fighters could win against the invading force, but would he really trust them? Fleeing into a dead end would only increase his chances of getting caught. Unless…
A terrible scream interrupted Caro’s swirling thoughts. He spun to look and let out a squeaking gasp. Cadell hung off Thris’s sword, impaled like a bug in the museum’s curio collection. The sword had pierced through his stomach, at an upward angle with the tip penetrating out his back near his shoulder blade. Cadell’s heart must have been skewered.
Cadell twitched once before going limp, and Thris twisted his sword as he lowered his arm to ensure the damage was permanent. Cadell’s body hit the floor with a thud that seemed to echo in Caro’s mind, the sneering lips and condescending eyes replaced by the slackness of death. The older boy who had broken Caro’s arm in a fit of rage when Caro was six; the young man who had used the younger Caro as a practice dummy when he was learning sword fighting; and the prince who had ordered Caro to join a mercenary band in a doomed attempt to invade Toval—knowing Caro likely wouldn’t survive—lay there like a mannequin, blood pooling beneath him onto the cream-colored carpet. Dead. Gone. The boogeyman of Caro’s childhood, the terror of Caro’s adult life, and the only older brother he’d ever had was gone. Caro let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, the violent exhalation masked under the roar as the coup forces were galvanized, and the Namin defenders fought to protect what was left of the royal family.
Reminded, and glad for the distraction if he was being honest, Caro spun and dashed back into the secret passage. King Cyphus wouldn’t box himself into a corner. No, there had to be a second exit into the secret passages from the bedroom area.
Caro’s fears were immediately validated. Light shown into the dark hallway from a second open door a few feet down from where Caro was standing. A flicker of moment caught Caro’s attention, and he looked up just in time to see the trailing hem of a dressing gown vanish around a corner ahead.
“He’s getting away!” Caro yelled into the sitting room, but his legs were already moving. Caro took off down the passageway, hoping some of the soldiers would follow as he tried to catch up to the fleeing king. He slid around the corner just in time to see a foot disappear around a left-hand turn, and when he reached that corner Caro saw a flash of graying blond hair—King Cyphus’s back as he descended a staircase. Caro was catching up. Eyes on the prize, he scampered down the stairs, arriving at a landing with a hallway heading left and right as well as the switchback for more stairs. King Cyphus couldn’t have gotten so far ahead that Caro wouldn’t see him down the hall, so Caro took the stairs. Twice more, Caro reached a landing and had to continue downward, following what he hoped was the king’s path into the depths of the castle until he finally reached the bottom level, and his only option was to try the hallway.
The mage lights were out in this hall. Caro squinted through the gloom, trying to still his panting breaths so he could listen for any noise ahead. He crept forward slowly, looking to both sides and straining his ears for the slightest noise to indicate where the king had gone. He didn’t dare call up his magic to search; he might be able to pinpoint where the king was hiding, but the glow would give away his own position far faster. He inched his way forward, trying to sense some clue as to where the king had gone.
A sudden clatter off to Caro’s right, like the sound of several items falling to the floor, had Caro turning in that direction. A second clatter and a muffled curse and Caro hurried his steps. He passed through an opening of some sort, the solid edges dark in the gloom, as he followed a third, muffled, clanking noise.
And then the thud of a door closing and thunk of a heavy bar dropping to lock it echoed in what Caro realized was a rather small room. The limited light immediately vanished, leaving Caro standing in complete darkness, trapped.