Chapter Thirty-Seven
Valeris
Irritation radiated off Analleia as we entered the grand ball room.
She attempted to hide it but proved a failure.
Or maybe I had become more adept at reading her.
Part of me felt guilty for forcing her to help me when she clearly didn’t want to, but the intellectual side of my brain said she had been up to something when I stumbled upon her.
This was the easiest way to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn’t cause any trouble.
I grimaced, realizing my mistake. I should have followed her first and figured out what she was up to before revealing myself.
That’s what she would have done, but my first instinct when seeing her disappear around the corner had been to call out to her.
Why was I worried about completing the puzzle ball with her?
Probably because she was a puzzle herself.
And to ensure I won the grand prize tonight.
As well as the throne.
Besides, she had hunted me down at the masked ball. I was only returning the favor.
Her pale blond hair was piled atop her head, several ringlets curling at the base of her neck.
I wished she would turn, that I could take in her fierce blue eyes again.
Something transfixed me whenever I met them, and I found myself wanting to lose myself in them.
If only to understand them. Understand her.
I yanked my thoughts elsewhere, pulled my gaze away from the sage-green dress that more than flattered her. This was a business deal. Nothing more. All I needed was to crack her code.
Instructions had already been given by the time we reached the ballroom, and servants were handing out slips of paper containing the first clues to the participants.
Most attendees had gathered into groups of five or more in order to have several minds to work with.
There were at least twenty different possibilities of what could be written on the paper you received, and only one paper amid the hundreds would lead straight to the prize while others led to clues that would eventually lead you to the prize.
The rest of the clues led nowhere at all.
You could either be looking for one thing by yourself or one thing with fifty other people.
Mass confusion to make the game more “entertaining.”
Ezrielle lurked close by, sizing us up. I smirked at her as I snatched one of the papers meant only for me and my siblings. My father had arranged our own separate puzzle from the main one. I stifled a groan at our first clue.
“What does it say?” Analleia peered over my shoulder, and my gaze drifted to her at our proximity.
“Not here.”
She grumbled as we moved back into the corridor, guests making their way to whatever it was they were looking for, wherever their clue would lead. Analleia ripped the paper from my hands.
“In a hurry, are we?” I asked.
“Yes.”
She read over the writing several times before looking to me for clarification.
I frowned as I spoke the words aloud. “‘Seventy degrees west and fifty steps up, no one can get in and no one can climb up. The light that will guide you is hidden in stone, this task is not one you can do on your own.’” I let out a chuckle. “Well, I’m glad I decided to do this with a partner.”
“I’m not.” Analleia glanced around as if looking for someone.
I found myself wondering who.
“What do you make of this?” she asked.
I read it again. “We need to go up. It doesn’t sound like an easy place to access, and it will take two of us to accomplish it.”
She rolled her eyes, something flickering behind them. Annoyance?
“Seventy degrees west, and fifty steps up ...” She swung her head around. “That’s the west tower. It would be seventy degrees to the rest of the building, wouldn’t it?”
“And fifty steps up ...” I tucked the paper into my breast pocket. “Let’s go.”
We made our way through the palace, passing guests who threw us suspicious glances in fear we would steal their clue or beat them to the prize. Why the west tower? It was abandoned with nothing of importance in there.
“What’s in the west tower?”
I frowned, her inner thoughts seeming to connect with mine. It felt like I was repeating myself after just having the thought go through my head.
“Nothing. It’s abandoned.”
Which made it the perfect place to stash a prize.
Analleia glanced behind us before peering at me. “No bodyguard?”
Howland was nowhere in sight. That wasn’t like him. Had I lost him in the ballroom?
I shook my head, stuffing away my unease.
He would catch up.
We reached the other end of the palace, and I opened the door to the tower, ushering her inside.
“Fifty steps up.” She didn’t count aloud, but I watched the concentration on her face, the way her eyebrows scrunched together as we circled our way around the tower center.
“Forty-eight, forty-nine.” She looked up on the fiftieth step, focusing on the door that waited.
I grasped the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. I tested shoving my shoulder into it, but it was reinforced with steel and most likely barred from the inside.
“No one can get in, and no one can climb up, but the question is, how do they get out?”
Footsteps pounded up the tower from below us, and I guided Analleia up the stairs. “There might be an entrance in one of the other rooms.”
I reached for the next door and it swung open beneath my touch. We slid inside and Analleia set about the room looking for any hatches or openings. Four solid walls and a dirty floor surrounded us. No one had been in here for ages.
“This is a dead end,” she whispered, moving to leave.
The lock on the door clicked before she reached it. She froze, looking back at me with worry.
I heard a faint chuckle from the other side of the door and closed my eyes in anger, letting out a slow, controlled breath.
“Ezrielle.” I spoke her name like a curse.
Analleia’s eyes sharpened, whipping around like daggers as she reached for the handle of the door, jiggling it. When it refused to budge, she shoved against it. She’d have better luck trying to move a boulder. She tried again and again, her breathing growing labored as she sought an escape.
“You’re going to wrinkle your dress,” I mused.
“If you’re so worried about it, then why don’t you give it a try?” She glared at me. “I don’t see you offering any help.”
I shrugged. “I could, but I prefer to not waste effort where it’s useless.”
She shoved the door a final time then winced in pain.
My brow furrowed. “Are you all right?”
She ignored the concern. “You tricked me into coming out here, didn’t you?”
I didn’t trick her into anything, although my insistence she join me could be viewed as strong coercion.
“How does me being trapped in a room with you—and no way out—help me win the game everyone else is playing out there? While they are most likely not trapped in a room? This is Ezrielle’s doing, nothing more than her trying to sabotage any chance I had.”
She pursed her lips, and I found myself distracted by it. By her sharp cheekbones and eyebrows curving into an angry frown. I wished she would smile just once. A genuine one. Not a manipulative one like she’d given me on the first night I met her—
She was my enemy. If she smiled at me I should be worried.
She marched over to the window and looked out.
“Jumping is a grand idea if you don’t mind doubling the number of bones in your body at the bottom.”
She ignored me, easing up onto the window ledge. “No jumping. I prefer to shimmy my way across and climb.”
My stomach dropped as she eased away from the window and onto the outer wall. “You’re not serious, are you?”
She flashed a wicked smile. A challenge.
I was worried.
“You can do what you want,” she said. “But I’m not going to sit here and wait for a winged horse to descend from the sky.”
“If you fall—”
“I won’t.”
She was serious. “Do you realize how far away the ground is?”
“I’m perfectly capable of seeing how far away the ground is, but I’d prefer you not mention that while I’m hanging above it.”
Her fingers gripped at the rough stone as her toes balanced on the designs carved into the stones jutting out that was little more than a lip.
“This isn’t that bad,” she called back. “Almost like walking on a ledge. You coming, or are you staying behind?”
My jaw ticked. Some ledge. She was mad. I wouldn’t risk falling to my death to avoid being outdone. I leaned out the window, watching her inch her way along the wall, and saw that with the proper grip and balance ... what she was attempting might be possible.
Not mad, but genius, in a mad sort of way.
I pulled myself up onto the lip, keeping my attention on the stones and off the ground far below.
My eyes strayed to her hands, which were practiced and confident, not the work of someone scaling a wall for the first time.
This must have been how she got into my room after spying on Ezrielle.
She angled herself for a smaller window ledge a short step down from the lip.
She descended first, grabbing the window frame for support, and I sidled up beside her, glad to have something thicker than the lip beneath my feet.
She sidestepped at my presence, about to dip through the window.
The stone beneath her gave way, and I both felt and saw her body drop beside me.
My hand shot out, grabbing beneath her arms to yank her against me.
My other hand grasped at the inside of the window ledge, my muscles screaming at the sudden extra weight and effort of having to hold us both aloft.
Adrenaline coursed through my veins like a raging inferno as I gritted my teeth.
Analleia grasped at me, her legs dangling in the open air beneath us. I grunted and groaned as I heaved, dragging her body forward with mine until her toes brushed against the stone. I pitched us forward, twisting my body beneath hers to take the brunt of the fall as we tumbled into the room.
I sucked in a breath as I hit the stone floor, grimacing in pain.
Analleia sprawled across my chest, clinging to me, her body trembling.
I’d never been happier to have the security of a wide and solid surface beneath me.
Our eyes met, our fear reflected in them, and neither of us moved, our labored breaths the only thing filling the silence. Her pale face scrunched as if in pain.
“Are you okay?” I asked, my voice little more than a husky whisper.
She jerked as if realizing where she was. Her limbs wobbled as she rolled off me, struggling into a sitting position. Cold air replaced the warmth of her.
“Not even a thank you?” I asked. “I should have let you fall.”
“It would have saved us both a lot of trouble.”
She brought herself to her feet but nearly doubled over, grimacing as sweat pebbled on her skin.
Concern creased my brow. “Are you hurt?”
She wiped the expression from her face, and I couldn’t tell if the pain was gone or if she was good at acting. I had taken the brunt of the fall yet she didn’t seem worried at all about my well-being.
And she shouldn’t be.
“You should be more concerned about asking if the floor is all right, the way you landed on it like that.”
I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to coerce the adrenaline in my system to calm down.
“What is this place?”
I groaned as I stood up, taking in the room around me and noticing the barred door first. “The room we were trying to get into but couldn’t.”
It looked like a storage room for all the leftover furniture in the palace, collected into one space with no rhyme or reason to anything. I unbolted the door, checking the stairwell, but it lay empty. With a jerk, I broke the lock to make sure we couldn’t be trapped again.
She said, “Messing with the wooden door isn’t going to help us when what we’re looking for is hidden in stone.”
“And I’d rather be assured we have a way out of here once we find what we’re looking for.”
My gaze roved over the walls. “What do you think it is?”
She grunted as she pushed a piece of furniture to the side, staring at the floor. “It’s hidden in stone. Does your palace have any secret passageways I should know about?”
None I would reveal to her.
I shook my head. “Not that I know of, but this is the oldest tower in the palace. I’m sure it has many secrets.”
“Then we need to uncover them.”
I set about running my hands over the walls, seeking any stone that would shift or turn beneath my touch. Analleia performed the same search on the opposite side of the room, but after fifteen minutes we both came up empty.
I studied the hearth and the stones surrounding it that made their way up to the chimney venting into the night.
It was huge. Over half my height. I ventured closer, looking for anything that could signify a secret opening.
Rising onto my toes, I ran a hand along the mantel, checking for any indentations in the stone.
I caught on a little crevice barely big enough to fit my finger into.
I pushed down. The stone moved with my finger, and a click echoed within.
Whatever lay behind the hearth grumbled, a burst of dust and air puffed from behind the firepit as it rolled away.
The grate leading into darkness creaked inward, opening up to whatever lay behind.
Analleia sidled up beside me, peering into the darkness. “You found it. I say you go first.”
I threw her a dirty look, finding a tinderbox to light one of the torches on the wall and then bending down to duck through the opening.
When my torchlight hit the other side, it illuminated a passageway stretching into the tower.
Analleia followed behind me, and I continued forward, freezing when my foot pressed into a stone and it sank downward.
The grate behind us slammed shut, and I spun, torchlight illuminating an hourglass that flipped over, starting a timer.
Analleia grabbed the grate, shaking it violently as if to force it open, but it was solid iron. It wouldn’t budge.
“I think I know why they said it would take two people to complete.” The thought of being trapped again made my stomach roil.
She turned with a glare, snatching the torch from me and pressing on into the tunnel.