Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Ryker
“What?” Samael asked.
“Where are the children?”
When Samael glanced at me, the uneasiness in his eyes told me that he knew why I’d asked. “That’s a bad idea, Ryker.”
“Where are they?”
Samael sighed. “He has so many guards here that all the barracks are full. Some are sleeping in the stable.”
My skin crawled. “Did he put the children in with the soldiers?”
Not only would it be almost impossible to separate them from the guards if that were the case, but children should never be in the barracks, amidst the endless debauchery in there.
Many nights were spent by women and men fucking with abandon, exchanging partners, and screwing whatever hole they could find.
Throw in all the drinking and gambling that occurred, as well as the prostitutes who often visited, and the place was barely suitable for an adult, never mind a child.
“No, he didn’t put them with the guards,” Samael said.
“Then where are they?” Tucker asked.
“In the dungeons.”
My eyes widened at this revelation as horror curdled in my belly. That bastard had placed children, who’d done nothing wrong, into hell. I always thought Veni couldn’t astound me more, and then, somehow, he managed to do so.
“There weren’t any children down there with us,” Callan said. “We would have noticed that, even if we were locked in cells most of the time.”
“Not those dungeons,” I told him. “Those are the palace dungeons. They reserve those for amsirah with more royal blood. They don’t imprison the common folk inside the palace walls.”
“Oh, of course. Heaven for-fucking-bid the common folk enter a dungeon in this palace,” Lawrence retorted.
“The conditions in the other dungeons are worse than what we experienced,” I explained. “They’re built into the hillside behind the palace, and the size of the rats and insects infesting them are notorious.”
“You’re kidding me?” Callan snarled.
“I wish I were.”
“I know you’re aware of this, Ryker, but your father… I mean, the duke… is a real piece of shit,” Tucker said. “I know you want to be the one to kill him, but if I get my hands on him, I’ll gladly tear him to pieces.”
“Me too,” Callan muttered.
Lawrence nodded enthusiastically.
Now that I knew where Veni had placed the children, I was more determined to set them free. No one should endure those conditions, especially not innocents. The only problem was getting to them.
Those dungeons were on the other side of the palace, carved into a hill, and no service tunnels led to them.
“How did I end up in the palace dungeons if they’re not for common folk?” Lawrence asked.
“You’re not common folk anymore,” Samael replied. “You’re one of the greatest enemies ever to walk this realm.”
“I consider that an honor.”
“So do I,” Tucker said. “I’d also consider the duke and aristocrats far bigger enemies than us.”
“It’s all based on your perspective, I guess,” Samael said.
“And what’s your perspective?” I inquired.
Samael stepped over another dead guard lying beside a table. “Revenge.”
“Fair enough.”
“How do we get to those dungeons?” I asked Samael.
“We can take more tunnels to the other side of the palace, but they’ll have to be servants’ tunnels. There’s a chance someone could spot us in them, but for the most part, since it’s so late, that chance is low.”
“Where will the tunnels get us?”
“The kitchen.”
And the kitchen was directly over those dungeons. “What do we do from there?”
“There’s another tunnel from the kitchen into the dungeon so the servants can get food back and forth to the prisoners and guards.”
“We’ll take that then.”
“This is a bad idea, Ryker,” Samael said. “If you get caught again, you can’t help the children.”
I didn’t acknowledge his words. “How many guards are with the children?”
Samael was right, I couldn’t help them if they recaptured me, but I couldn’t stand the idea of them down there, huddled together with the rats, cockroaches, beetles, and whatever else skittered through the shadows. I wouldn’t leave the palace without at least trying for them.
“Ryker—”
“I’m not leaving here without them,” I stated.
“You always wanted to be a fucking saint.”
“How many guards?”
“Too many.”
“I’ll decide that. You’re taking us to them.”
Samael hesitated before bowing his head in acquiescence. I thought he’d caved a little too easily, but then I recalled him with Val’s son before leading the child away from his mother’s death.
He’d tried to shelter Georgie from what was about to happen. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but I did now.
“You don’t like what they’re doing to the children,” I observed.
“I’m an asshole, Ryker, but I’m not a monster,” he replied.
“There are many in the towns who would disagree with you,” Tucker said.
Samael frowned at him. “I was doing my job.”
“You were doing what you considered best for you. You saw becoming the sheriff as your way to move ahead. You may not have sought your father’s position in the palace, but you wanted to move higher through the ranks too,” I said.
“I was doing my duty.”
“And that duty allowed you to blindly follow the orders of men who are monsters; that makes you as bad as them.”
“Worse,” Tucker said. “You could have said no, slipped into the woods, and fought against our oppressors. Instead, you chose acquiescence.”
“I freed you assholes, so save me the fucking morality speech,” Samael said. “I don’t like what they’re doing to the children, but those are grown men and women in Nottingshire. They could work harder.”
“You’re a prick,” Lawrence said. “Everyone, in all the towns, is killing themselves just to survive.”
“I’m the prick who set you free, so fuck off. Now, if you want to have any chance of getting to those children before sunrise, we have to move.”
Samael stopped beside a bookshelf, grasped a book, and pulled it down. As the bookcase swung toward us, I called my lightning forth to illuminate the corridor it revealed.