CHAPTER 30 #2
“And it won’t be nearly enough for what we need,” Princess Sakura declared. “Perhaps you trust your strength enough to climb up forty feet of rope, but Kasumi and I cannot.”
“Up?” Keenan swiveled to look at her. “We’re trying to get down.”
Raising an eyebrow, the princess gave him a look that suggested he was daft. “You intend to return, do you not? As we know of no other exit, it would be prudent to ensure we can use this one. Besides,” she continued a bit impatiently, “I do not fancy rope burns from sliding down forty feet.”
“We could lower you.” Keenan eyed the determined lift to her chin as misgivings threaded their way through his chest. “But are you sure you want to come, Princess? We don’t know what’s down there.”
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily, weapon-smith,” she huffed, a response quite unlike her normal perfect self.
“Besides, do you expect Kasumi and me to simply wait up here for an undetermined amount of time until the three of you return? Or to wait with one of the guards while you trot off with a single companion into this unknown space?”
He pinched his lips together. Underground, no easy escape, unfamiliar setting that had been guarded by magic. Letting the princess come was a bad idea.
Removing a bracelet from her wrist, the princess turned to Mori. “We passed a farmhouse shortly before entering the orchard. We need at least one hundred sixty feet of rope, but more is better. Also, if they have a sturdy iron ring, purchase that as well.”
Keenan stared at her. “Why do you need—”
She reached up and tugged on one of the branches, seeming satisfied when the stout piece of wood didn’t move. “It may be dead, but it appears to be sturdy enough for our purposes.”
Mori took the bracelet, but he looked uncertainly at Oliver, as if he wanted the guard’s opinion after his near mishap.
Oliver kept his eyes on Princess Sakura, but he nodded to the teenager. “Go on. Take my horse, and don’t dally.”
The princess turned to Keenan. “I’ll need your bracers. And please remove the ties completely.”
“Why?”
Extending her hand palm-up, she waved her fingers impatiently. “To reduce friction and protect the rope. Unless no one is home or the farmer is difficult, it shouldn’t take Kagemori long. We should try to be ready by the time he returns.”
His hand went to his left bracer, but he clutched defensively at it. He might have lost the use of his hand, if not the appendage itself, if he hadn’t had bracers when the bandits surprised him before he lost Liesl.
A frown tugged at the princess’s mouth, but then her eyes softened as they settled on the spot where a bandage had recently distended his sleeve.
Pursing her lips, she looked around, then gave a sharp nod.
“Never mind. Stirrups will work just as well if not better,” she said, waving toward her horse.
“Can you remove them from Kasumi’s and my saddles? ”
“Of course,” he replied, still mystified as to her intentions. But per her instructions, he began work detaching the stirrup from her maid’s saddle. The horse gave him a side-eye and tossed its head, but Kasumi held the reins, stroking its nose and whispering quietly.
As he turned to deliver the stirrup to Princess Sakura, Kasumi’s voice stopped him. “What’s that in your belt, Keenan? I don’t remember you carrying anything there before.”
Surprised, he reached a hand back. A bit of heat crept up his neck when he felt the silky petals.
They’d slipped his mind in all the excitement.
Even though he intended them as a gift of friendship, he would have preferred to offer them without an audience.
But they were likely to be crushed soon if they remained where they were, so if he was going to go through with it, he shouldn’t delay.
“Just something I picked up on my walk,” he told the maid as casually as he could. Then withdrawing them from his belt, he walked up to the princess, who was debating with Oliver the pros and cons of cutting pieces off their tent ropes versus waiting for whatever Mori brought back.
She looked up at his approach. The slight smile in her black eyes gave him courage to extend both hands toward her. “For you, Princess. One stirrup, as requested, and something I thought you might like. For your hair or—or something,” he stuttered.
She reached for the stirrup, but her smile froze along with her hand when she saw the cherry blossoms. She stared at them far harder than he thought his gesture warranted before snatching the stirrup from his hand and whirling away to the old tree and its new hollow.
“Thank you. Could you fetch the other while Oliver helps me hang this one?”
Her response was like a slap in the face.
Swallowing his mortification and the hot reply on his tongue, he gave his best difficult-customer smile to her back.
“Your wish is my command,” he said between slightly gritted teeth.
She didn’t look at him, her entire focus on the branch she was holding the stirrup up to.
What was the big deal about a couple of flowers?
It wasn’t as if he’d offered her an expensive gift or declared his love for her.
He used to bring his mother wildflowers from Hartford’s ditches all the time.
And after she’d died, he’d done the same for Miss Beatrice until he was old enough to have his head filled with blades and bows instead of colorful blooms for his foster mother.
Dropping his spurned offering, he set to work freeing the princess’s stirrup from her saddle, his hands moving in quick, jerky motions.
He should be glad that she had declined his gift; it helped to clarify their temporary, platonic, barely-even-friends relationship.
Whatever he’d seen in her eyes at the end of their lunch had either been a figment of his imagination or a moment of the princess complying with her mother’s schemes.
Which was fine, because he was going back to Daraigh to—
His hands slowed. To earn a place in the guard if he could.
Unless the guild listened to his appeal, his days as a smith were over.
He would do well to put fanciful notions of dark eyes out of his mind and insist Oliver increase the level of his training.
His arm had healed faster than expected, so he was perfectly capable of moving from the simple exercises they’d kept up during the last week or so to something more strenuous.
The princess was examining the hole in the tree and chatting with Oliver when Keenan stomped up, his fist clamped tightly around the stirrup.
Her face looked thoughtful as she studied the older man.
“Why were you so concerned before Kagemori discovered this? I must confess, I had no expectation of any deleterious result.”
Her words made Keenan’s grumbling thoughts slow. He’d noticed something when Oliver yelled, but he’d had no idea what it was, let alone that it had the potential to be disastrous.
“Perhaps that’s why I was needed.”
What, exactly, did Oliver know about the tinderbox that Keenan was supposed to fetch? And why did Keenan seem to be the only one in the dark?
The guard’s eyes stayed fixed on the rope he was looping over a branch. “The plant and dirt magics swelled with every symbol he touched. It was focused outward until the last moment.”
“So it would have opened a hole under him if he’d chosen wrong?” Keenan asked.
“Possibly.” Oliver threaded the rope through the stirrup and began tying a knot with smooth, efficient movements. “There was enough to bury all of us if the enchanter had wanted.”
Keenan gulped. Good thing Mori was so fond of his puzzles.
“But how do you know that?” the princess pressed. She extended a hand toward Keenan, and he set his burden in it. “I’ve felt magic on occasion, but I only know the intent when I see its impact.”
Oliver’s hands slowed, but then he tossed the end of the rope over another branch and tied it so it was its own stable point. “I guard the crown prince,” he said simply. “I’ve had specialized training.”
Why did that explanation seem insufficient?
Based on the tension in Princess Sakura’s lips, she agreed with Keenan, but she let the subject drop and handed over the second stirrup.
Keenan tilted his head, examining the curious setup. “What exactly are you doing?”
Her lips twitched, the barest hint of a pleased smile playing around them as she surveyed the two stirrups swaying gently in the breeze.
“Building a pulley system. Normally, I would put them closer together, but I do not wish to stress the dead wood more than necessary. Therefore, I’m dividing the weight. ”
“Pulleys?” He’d heard of the simple machine in Master Elias’s periodicals, but he’d never studied them. They didn’t apply to his work. “How will that help?”
“Simple mechanics aren’t within the purview of a weapon-smith?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“No, nor are they for most princesses,” he replied, but he did his best to keep his voice light despite the sting he still felt over the cherry blossoms. “Yet here we are, and I assume we’ll all be grateful for it.”
Her cheeks pinked the tiniest bit, but her shoulders lifted with something that looked more like confidence than simple practiced poise. “If Kagemori secures the rope, we will.”
Before long, the young guard came trotting through the trees with a large coil of rope around his shoulders.
He was leaning a little with the weight, but he didn’t complain as he rode right up to the tree and slipped it over his head, letting it slide onto the ground in a floppy heap.
“The farmer had two hundred feet, and he wasn’t willing to cut it, even though the bracelet was more than enough to replace whatever he wanted. ”
“And a metal ring?” the princess asked.
He shook his head. “Just the rope.”
She set her hands on her hips, studying the rope and the tree with a critical eye. “We’ll make do. Dismount and remove the stirrups from the saddle. Keenan, will you find an end so we can measure the actual depth?”
The difference between her command to Mori and her request for Keenan didn’t escape his notice, but there was no point dwelling on the reason.
Kneeling next to the crack in the tree, he fished around for one end of the rope.
The princess offered him a rock, which he secured and then dropped down the shaft.
He reeled the line back in until he felt resistance.
“Here,” he said. Princess Sakura grabbed the rope at the edge of the hole, and he hauled the rest back up.
“Forty-one feet,” she announced after it was completely out. “Seven feet to the highest branch is forty-eight, times four…” She gave a sharp nod. “We can increase our advantage and still have enough left to work it from the bottom, but we’ll add some of ours to the end to be safe.”
She had Keenan thread the rope through one of the hanging stirrups.
When Mori returned with the two from Oliver’s saddle, she put one on the rope, had Keenan add the other hanging stirrup, and then pulled the rope through the second loose stirrup.
While Oliver then tied the rope to an unencumbered branch, she bade Mori fetch one of the leather pieces that had fastened the stirrups to the saddles and instructed him to tie the loose stirrups together.
It still didn’t look like anything Keenan remembered seeing in Master Elias’s periodical, but it had been a few years, and he hadn’t paid close attention to the drawing.
“The extra segment will decrease the weight, but the rider won’t have anything stable on which to hold,” Princess Sakura mused, her hands on her hips as her eyes traced her contraption. “But as the rope will be moving slowly, it should not be a problem to adjust as needed.”
Keenan stepped up behind her. “So how does this work? It looks impressive, but pieces of saddles strung together by a princess…” He cringed and shook his head.
Her head slowly swiveled toward him. One perfect eyebrow arched before a devilish smile curled one side of her mouth. “Congratulations, weapon-smith: your confidence in my abilities volunteers you to go first.”