Chapter 20
Twenty
Nev
Nev stood with her back to the corridor, sword hanging at her side, eyes alert, scanning the ballroom.
Raffe was smiling, talking with the King and Queen of Novaria, a few lords and ladies lingering next to him.
Nev didn’t trust Raffe’s too smooth smile.
The way he entered the kingdom as if it were already his own.
Her back stiffened, a soft cry coming from the hallway behind her.
She didn’t mean to catch the queen crying, which is why she turned as quietly as she could. Offering her a moment of privacy in a world that typically gave her none. It was the least Nev could do, as her protector. She stood firm like a wall, turning away even the Citadel attendants.
Then, the faint crying stopped.
A shuffle behind her.
Nev drew her sword, the sharp slice of metal scraping against the sheath was swallowed by the music. “Your Majesty?” She crept forward, toes pressing lightly into the tile floor. Her eyes darted to the small wedge of darkness where she’d seen Kamari sink into.
Gone.
Her hand tightened around her sword, her boots now flying against the floor. She would have worried, would have felt the smallest tingling of fear, had she had time for it. The smallest glimpse of deep purple silk floated through the back door as she neared the end of the corridor.
“Your Majesty!” She tore down the rest of the hall, her armor clinking, boots thudding. The door was open when she reached it, leading to a narrow, spiraling staircase.
Nev didn’t remember this door. Aesira had assigned she and Nora to scan every surface of the Citadel upon their arrival. Every service entry, every tunnel, every dark corner that may be used as a place for an unwanted visitor to hide.
This door, she did not remember.
She pounded down the stairs, her armor echoing off the narrow stone walls. The tip of her sword caught on a loose stone, tripping her up for a moment. She pulled it higher. Moonlight spilled across the stone tile at the bottom.
Panic fanned in her chest like a moth opening its wings. She would not let harm come to Kamari again. She would not fail her only duty to protect her, again.
The warm, dry air of the desert slapped her cheeks as she plundered out of the doorway. The moon was new, hanging in the sky like a slice of silver. The granite wall of Vargah loomed before her, the flickering of torches kissing the deep, night sky.
The door led her straight out of the Citadel.
“Your Majesty!” Her voice echoed back to her, bouncing off the wall. Biting her tongue, she forced her lungs to slow, her breathing to steady, so she could focus on the sounds around her.
A crackle of flame.
In the distance, music from the party.
A bell from a cart in the main square.
And there–stuck on the breeze–a scream.
Nev’s boots dug into the sand as she abandoned the doorway in a sprint. She focused on the wind, hoping it would bring her another trace of Kamari’s voice. The breeze curled around her neck, her ears, and there it was again.
Another scream.
Her boots skidded in the sand as she reached another door along the wall, small and inconspicuous. It pushed open with easy effort from the sole of her boot, and when she stepped through, a gasp caught in her throat.
A woman held Kamari by her shoulders, arms pinned behind her back. The door led straight into the open desert. “You!” A scream rushed from her throat, deep and menacing, a warriors-cry, as she took off through the sand, sword in hand.
The woman holding Kamari wore a mask, concealing the lower part of her face, but her eyes were exposed and went wide as saucers. “Stand down!” her voice wavered, a thin knife wobbled as she pointed it under Kamari’s chin. “She’s coming with me.”
Kamari thrashed in her grip, black smudged around her eyes, but there was a fierceness there that Nev recognized from Aesira. The queen was not losing this fight.
“Put your knife down,” Nev called, lowering her own sword. “I only want the queen to be let go.” She put her hands in the air, palms out. “I’ll do you no harm. Just let her go.” She met Kamari’s eyes and gave the slightest dip of her chin.
I have you, she wanted to say. Nev had distracted the woman enough for Kamari to wriggle slightly from her grip to clamp down on her hand with her teeth. “Shit!” the woman reeled back, giving Nev just enough space to swoop in and pull the queen free.
The woman scrambled backward, abandoning her knife in the sand. The wind picked up, sand churning in the distance, a new storm brewing on the horizon. Then, the woman was on her feet, darting straight for the storm.
“Go back to the Citadel, Your Majesty! Get Rahashi, tell her what happened.” She glanced to her right, where Kamari was still panting on the ground.
“Go, Your Majesty!” There was no time for politeness and she would apologize later but right now, she needed the queen on her feet and back to safety.
“Kamari!” Her eyes snapped to Nev’s, the use of her name seeming to wake her up.
She jumped to her feet and darted toward the small doorway hidden in the wall.
Nev returned her attention to the woman. She’d made it halfway from the wall to the growing storm. Determination guided her boots as they dug into the sand. She set an unrelenting pace, her sword long forgotten behind her. It would only weigh her down, when her bare hands would do the job.
Lungs burning, eyes stinging from the sand that whipped around her, she reached the woman with more ease than she anticipated.
She hurtled forward, pinning her to the ground and pushing her face into the sand.
A muffled scream, maybe a plea, Nev wasn’t sure, nor did she care.
Sand flew around them and Nev knew the patterns of the storm well enough to know that they had only a minute before they’d be completely engulfed.
“Let me free!” the woman shrieked as Nev pulled her to her feet, pinning her arms behind her back.
She shouted and pleaded and perhaps at one point started crying but Nev trudged forward.
Through the sand, through the wind, through the door, until Rahashi was there, her dark skin and white hair, like a beacon of hope in the midst of the storm.
“Take her below the city,” Nev said, pushing the woman forward into Rahashi’s arms. “I’ll deal with her later.”
Without a word, Rahashi spun, the now prisoner in her grip, still pleading and crying that it was all a misunderstanding. Nev slammed the door shut, sand and wind pelting the other side.
She took only a moment to close her eyes, thanking Celestria for the speed at which she was able to run.
For sparing Kamari’s life not once, but twice.
Then she wiped the sand from her face, plucked it out of her ears, and headed straight for the temple, where she knew her punishments would be waiting for her.