Chapter 39 – Vale
Chapter 39
VALE
S o many questions bubbled through my mind. Neve already had a sword and stakes. Why had she felt the need to take that particular blade?
None of what I’d seen made sense, and I didn’t think it was because of the ale still pounding through my system in spite of the food and water the human had brought me.
That same human, Emilia, was directing us through the palace, and I had to be ready to protect and fight the moment we exited the castle. So, as much as I wished to question Neve, I needed to focus.
“Up ahead, we’ll have to cross a hallway in the main part of the palace,” Emilia announced as we reached the bottom of a staircase.
Though it was difficult to tell because I’d never been back here, I sensed that we’d made our way to the ground floor and were, perhaps, near the servants’ living quarters.
“Is it a well-traveled part?” Neve asked.
“Not this time of night. And it’s the only instance in which you’ll be vulnerable before going outside.” Emilia gave Neve an encouraging smile.
The slave seemed very attached to Neve, which I found odd. As Neve was a princess and my wife, I’d expect servants and slaves to show her respect, if nothing else, but every time the human looked at Neve, she seemed a bit . . . sad?
Something wasn’t adding up. As soon as we were safe, and I was clear-headed once more, I intended to do some digging.
“Thanks for letting us know,” Neve said with a stoic nod. “We’re ready.”
“Good”—Emilia stopped and turned to face the wall—“because the exit is right here.” She pressed her hand into the wall, right where a handle molded into her fingers.
“How many are there like that?” I despised the jealousy in my voice even as I spoke, but it rankled that the human walked around back here and shared some sort of secret with Neve.
“Doors?”
I nodded, and Emilia appeared thoughtful. “I’ve used around two dozen.”
“Others can use them too?” I asked. “Besides Neve, I mean.”
“Yes.” Emilia eyed me, suspicion clouding her eyes for the first time. “But you’d have to kill me before you pulled their names from my lips.”
“Which won’t be necessary,” Neve cut in. “He’s curious. Vale has wanted to come back here for a while. ”
The human glared at me, but Neve must have assured her for she twisted the handle, shifted something on the other side—a tapestry by the sounds of it—and peeked outside. “The coast is clear.”
We followed her through the door, ducking under a tapestry, and into the hallway. I recognized the area right away and shock set in. The labyrinth inside the palace was far vaster than I’d imagined, and I’d studied the blueprints of the parts that had disappeared.
Were there parts that hadn’t made it onto the blueprints? Rumors of such things abounded. Of rulers who had constructed areas of their castles, hidden them, and killed off the builders to keep their secrets.
Had the Cruel King done so? Or another ruler before him?
Or perhaps all the ale and my injury really did have me more turned around than I thought. As Emilia shuffled across the hall and shoved aside another tapestry to place her hand on the wall, I figured that was as likely as not.
The wall shimmered beneath the human’s touch and, again, a door appeared, the handle a moment later. Emilia opened it and crossed the threshold. Then Neve. I was about to follow when a gasp caught my attention. I twisted and froze.
Calpurnia, clad in soft, slippered feet, had rounded the corner—a cup of something steaming in her hand. I cursed myself for getting too drunk and not being on guard, for not having heard her coming .
“Vale,” she whispered. “Where are you . . . how are you . . .?”
“Vale,” Neve hissed from inside the hidden passage. “Come on.”
Calpurnia straightened. “That’s her!” A blink of shock crossed her tanned face. “Bleeding skies! That’s how she got away that day! She?—”
I stepped into the hidden passage, shutting the door behind me. Eyes wide, I met Neve’s curious stare. “Calpurnia saw me.”
“What!”
“She recognized your voice too. We must hurry.”
Neve swallowed. “What will she do?”
I couldn’t be sure. Calpurnia wouldn’t wish to hurt me. But Neve? If given half the chance, she’d tell my father that Neve had access to this part of the palace. Another reason for him to dislike her. Perhaps to suspect her too.
“Hurry!” Emilia hissed. “You must leave as quickly as possible! The door isn’t far.”
Relief did not flood me at her claim, for once we reached outside, we weren’t safe. We simply had a new problem. Neve had heard the assassin say there were more of them. How many? Frostveil would be difficult for many to breach, but many could be waiting in the city. The one that broke into my rooms was not the same vampire I’d seen in Rall Row.
Those thoughts consumed me until, again, Emilia stopped in front of a plain wall .
“This will lead outside. Near a servants’ entrance. The one covered in ivy.”
“We’re familiar with it,” Neve said. “Thank you, Emilia. I wish you could come with us.”
“I do too. But I’ll wait here for you, if you ever wish to return home. Ever loyally yours, my princess.”
Neve swallowed, and to my great astonishment, she hugged the human.
I stood off to the side, uneasy. Not that I disliked humans, more like I rarely thought about them and knew little about them. They were often out of my sight, and overall, rare. Once, bringing human slaves into this kingdom had been far more common, but not for many centuries. Now, most of the humans in Winter’s Realm were all born here. They did not belong in their world, wouldn’t fit in, but fae didn’t see them as equals. We gave them only one option—living and serving in the three pillars of society: the noble houses, the House of Wisdom, or the Tower of the Living and the Dead. In turn, each noble home or foundational institution fed, housed, and protected the slaves.
I wasn’t alone in thinking that the exchange of freedom and everything one might dream of in that life was not a fair exchange for food, shelter, and protection. I was, however, in the minority. It was an uncomfortable circumstance that I did not like to think about.
However, Neve was at ease around them, likely because she’d grown up with many humans. Seen them brought over from their world even, for the laws of Winter’s Realm did not exist in the Vampire Kingdom .
The pair broke apart. Emilia stuck her head outside again and proclaimed the coast clear.
I slipped my hand down to find Neve’s, but she pulled away.
“We need to keep our hands ready to fight,” she said, not meeting my eyes.
“Of course,” I said, though I’d rather connect with her, feel her skin on mine as we ran for our lives.
“Good luck.” Emilia cast another smile at Neve and nodded to me before we stepped outside, closing the door behind us and bracing against a great gale of wind that about blew me over.
I reached out and steadied Neve as she stumbled back into the castle wall, which had reverted to sheer stone.
“Stars!” Neve breathed, teeth chattering already and eyes blinking as snow whipped into her face. “It’s absolutely freezing out here.”
“And windy. That will hinder flight,” I murmured, already reassessing how we’d have to flee. “If there aren’t breaks in the wind, we’ll have to run through the city.”
Neve’s eyes widened. “Maybe we should go back inside and wait? See if the winds die down? It will be difficult to see through such thickly falling snow.”
“Remember what Vishku Sindri said? That the coming winter storms would be the worst we’ve seen in many turns?” Snowflakes melted on my skin as I waved my hand through the air. “This must be what she meant. Who knows how long it will last?”
Neve rubbed her hands together. “I suppose the wind might blow our scent away, but it might also blow it to them. Those vampires in your suite will remember it.”
“Yes, but they might still be inside and, anyway, they don’t know the city like I do,” I said.
For a moment, she looked like she wanted to argue but ended up giving a single nod. “You’re right. I think it’s time for me to leave, anyway.”
My mouth fell open, and my stomach dropped to my knees. It had always been the plan for her to leave. Now that it might actually happen, I wished to tell her the truth: that I never wanted her to leave.
But since we’d taken our relationship to a physical level, Neve had pulled back—maybe exactly because she was leaving. I didn’t know. All I knew was that she wasn’t interested in staying here. Staying with me.
“So what do you say we make a run for it?” Neve pointed to the closest part of the castle wall, visible through the snow-filled wind. “Fly over that wall? Even with the winds, that short of a flight should be doable, and I don’t remember guards being near there. Actually, the thick snow in the air might help in that regard. No guards will see us.”
Not that it mattered. Calpurnia already had. Still, I nodded. “Let’s go.”
We raced for the wall, my most recent injury tugging slightly and my ankle weaker than normal. I might have underestimated the injuries, but I pushed through, relieved for one thing: that Neve was correct in thinking that the snow was doing us a service. Though soldiers manned the walls, it was unlikely that they’d be able to spot us this far away, anyway.
But vampires could see very long distances. Did they wait out here somewhere? Biding their time until we fled?
Or did the assassins believe we’d remain hidden in the palace? It was anyone’s guess. I only hoped that wherever the other assassins were, it was far away from the palace and Lordling Lane.
We reached the wall and wasted no time leaping into the air. No longer pressed down against my back, my wings caught the wicked winter winds, and I shuddered.
Up we went, and as we descended, fighting the wind as we did so, I searched the street. My heart pounded, expecting a vampire to leap out at us at any moment. Not any vampire either, a Red Assassin. Prince Gervais had been difficult enough to kill, but if the stories about the Red Assassins were true, they’d be ten times more difficult.
My fear was for naught, though.
As far as I could see, which, thanks to the snow, was not as far as I would like, no one roamed the street. Considering how dark and cold it was, few would be out tonight. That would both help us spy vampires and make us a potential target.
“Stay close,” I said to Neve as we landed. “Keep your hand on your stake. Wings ready to fly if we need a quick escape.”
She shifted the sword she’d taken from that lavish room in the hidden palace. I didn’t know whose room it was, though it had to have been someone important— being so near the one that had clearly been Queen Revna’s suite.
I didn’t need to ask if the book was the diary she’d mentioned. The diary interested me too. My mother had been Queen Revna’s lady-in-waiting, and Queen Revna had written about my mother and Lord Riis. Though I’d decided to trust the Lord of Tongues, that didn’t mean I did not want to learn more about his past. About if he’d been more than a friend to my mother—if once, they’d loved one another.
We plunged into the city, walking quickly down the streets, as one would if they were desperate to get out of the cold. Perhaps in such weather, running would not look too odd, but I would not risk it. Not unless we saw a threat.
As we wound through the streets, we were met with only snow and wind. On a night such as this, no one had even kept their horses outside.
We’d reached the square where Ragnor’s Pies and many other food stalls waited with the doors closed and windows shuttered and rattling against the gales. As the square was wide open, I could see that no one was around.
“Across,” I said, and we strode into the square.
We were halfway to the other side when I sensed that I’d been wrong. We were not alone. Someone was watching us.
“Eyes open,” I murmured. “I feel?—”
“Oh my stars!” Neve pointed to a table pushed up against a stall and tied down with rope.
I swallowed. Someone appeared to have fallen asleep at the table. In a cold such as this, I doubted anyone could survive sleeping outside.
“We have to check on them,” Neve whispered.
“We have to get to Luccan’s,” I corrected, hating myself. Whoever that person was, he was one of my people. A fae of Winter’s Realm.
But so was Neve. I’d made a promise to keep her safe, and more than that, I loved her.
My heart gave a hard thud, as it did each time I thought of how desperately and quickly I’d fallen for my wife and how she seemed to have changed her mind about me.
“It will only take a moment,” Neve said. “I don’t have a good feeling about him or her.”
“I don’t either.”
“Dead or not, we still have to check, Vale.”
I sighed, and the air streamed white from my lips. “Hurry.”
“Sir? Miss?” Neve strode up to the fae and shook them. “Can you hear me?”
No response came, and though before she’d put on a practical front, anticipating that we might be met with death, my wife’s face fell.
“Let me check their breathing,” she said. “Then we can go.”
She placed both hands on the person’s shoulders and lifted. The moment we caught sight of his face, I knew it was a lost cause. Not only was the fae dead, but blood dripped down the front of his torn-out neck .
“The vampires did this,” I growled. “They attacked a fae of Winter’s Realm.”
“They did,” Neve said, setting the male down with trembling fingers. “He’s dead. Let’s go?—”
“ What?! No burning boat? No prayer to the stars to honor him?” a female voice sounded from somewhere unseen, silky and powerful.
I spun and located her by the gleaming of her daggers in the moonlight. She crouched on top of Ragnor’s stall, a slice of a smile cutting across her face.
“If you’re going to leave him there, he wasn’t worth much at all, then, was he?” she purred. She leapt off the stall and landed as light as a snow leopard into fresh powder. The thorn-choked rose on her breast jumped out at me. She belonged to the Red Assassins’ guild. “Good thing we used his blood for something useful then.”
“Behind me,” I murmured.
“Oh, if I want a drink from that pretty neck, it won’t matter where she stands,” the vampire sang. “That is, unless you are more than what you seem.”
She paused and studied my attire. “Lovely clothing, though outdated. And you’re quite muscular and seem to be ready to fight off an enemy.” Her eyes traveled to Neve.
“Stakes.” The vampire’s sharp fangs lengthened. “Now, why in the world would anyone in this kingdom be carrying stakes unless they expected to come across a vampire?”
“You can never be too safe,” Neve growled. “You’re about to find that out for yourself.”
The female vampire let out a throaty laugh. “Am I, little dove? Are you the one we’re searching for? If you are, speak up. The faster we take your head, the sooner we can leave this frozen wasteland. The fae blood is delicious, but not good enough to stay here.”
“Wife.” I angled to take control of the situation before Neve admitted her identity to this cold-blooded killer. “We should?—”
“I’m the one you’re looking for,” Neve proclaimed. “I killed Prince Gervais. Given half a chance, I’d do it again too.”
A stream of curses left my lips. By the dead gods, could Neve not hold her tongue for a second! As exasperated as I was, however, I didn’t dare take my eyes off the assassin as she lifted two fingers to her mouth and a shrill whistle cut through the night.
“Little silver dove, you have felled a prince. Now, let’s find out if you’re up for taking on the Red Assassins.”