CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN ISI
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ISI
Trew knelt beside the bunk and pulled supplies from the pack while I crouched next to him, placing my hand on the woman’s arm. Her skin felt papery thin and cold beneath my fingers, the bones jutting up against wasted flesh.
“Yes, I'm Amarissa,” I said. “And you're Eva, aren't you?”
Her eyes focused on me. “Yes, that's me. I was a good friend of your mother’s. I knew her for most of her life.”
“How long have you been here?”
She shrugged. “It’s not as if the guards tell me, but judging by how old you are now, it’s been many years. Since I lost my Marlane.”
“She died sixteen years ago,” I said.
Something moved across her face, a private devastation, quickly swallowed. Her hand found mine on the blanket and held it with surprising strength.
“That long.” It wasn't a question. She closed her eyes, and I had to fight the urge to ask her everything. What my mother had laughed like, what she’d feared, and what she’d said about me. But we had no time. We never had time.
“I need to ask you—”
“Yes.” She opened her eyes. “Ask.”
I fought to keep my voice gentle despite the urgency clawing at my chest. “We don’t have much time.”
Her gaze moved between us, lingering on Trew with a frown. “Who’s he?”
“A good friend.” I paused, the words I was about to speak feeling both terrifying and absolutely right. “No, he’s much more than a friend. I love him. I’d kill for him. Die for him.”
Trew put his arm around my shoulders and kissed my temple.
A hint of a smile appeared on Eva’s wrinkled face. “You’re happy then?”
“Very,” I whispered.
“I’m so grateful.” Tears sparkled in her brown eyes. “I couldn’t ask for more than that for you.” She tried to sit up but failed, her body too weak. Trew lifted her until she could settle with her back against the wall.
I sat on the bunk beside her, cringing at how hard and cold it was, and uncorked the water flask and held it to her lips.
She drank in small sips, her throat working with the effort.
She took the cheese-stuffed pastry I offered with trembling fingers, biting into it and chewing slowly. Her eyes closed as she savored it.
“Haven’t eaten anything this nice in years,” she said, her voice cracking. She shook her head. “Has it truly been sixteen years? It’s hard to believe.” She took another sip of water. “I wondered if anyone other than the guards would ever come.”
Pherin landed on my shoulder, her tiny body radiating tension.
Anyone coming? I asked.
Not yet. Smoke dying. Hurry.
They were extinguishing the fire already. The guards would be back soon.
“You were there when my mother died,” I said.
The woman’s face crumpled. Tears spilled down her weathered cheeks, cutting tracks through the grime.
“I tried to save her. But it happened so fast. I…couldn’t.
” Her voice broke. “She opened a passage right there on the stairs. She was practicing, trying to get better at it. She wanted to travel south, to the place her father left her. She was determined to find the answers she thought he’d hidden there. ”
My throat tightened. My mother had been practicing veil-travel, working toward something important enough to risk everything.
“Who pushed her?” I asked.
Eva closed her eyes. “I’ve kept this secret for a very long time. I thought if I stayed silent, they might spare you and your sister.”
“Who?” Trew’s voice held an edge I rarely heard, showing the dangerous king beneath the bodyguard disguise.
The woman looked directly at me. “The same person who ordered me thrown in here. The same person who knew about Velacross, the veil, and everything your mother could do.”
“The woman with the red hair,” I said. “She pushed my mother, didn’t she?”
Eva nodded, reaching for a slice of meat with shaking hands. She ate mechanically, as if her body demanded fuel even as her mind relived the horror.
“Who is she?” I could barely breathe around the tightness in my chest.
“I never knew her name. She’d come to the court before, always in secret, to meet up in the woods with him.” Disgust filled her voice.
Her breathing grew labored, each word an effort. She coughed, the sound wet and painful. When she pulled her hand away from her mouth, blood stained her palm. She stared at it and sighed. “I’m dying. It’s taken a long time, but it’s coming for me soon.”
Trew rifled through the pack and pulled out a healing herb, handing it to her. “Chew this. It’ll help.”
She did as he asked, but her breathing didn’t change.
“Why did the red-haired woman kill my mother?” I asked.
“Marlane was looking for clues to heal the veil.” Reaching up, she stroked my face with fingers that trembled. “She loved you and your sister very much. She would’ve done anything to keep you safe, and she knew that wouldn’t happen as long as the veil remained open.”
My vision blurred with tears. My mother had died trying to protect us, trying to fix what her father had broken.
“Did you see my sister here in the dungeon?” I asked, wiping at my eyes.
“In a cell a few down from mine until they took her away. Poor little Addie.”
“Who took her?”
“Guards, though I’m sure they were directed by him.” She sneered. “Who else? He’s in charge. He controls all this.”
“He took her to the west tower,” Trew said.
“Truly?” Eva’s eyes widened. “He does bad things to people there.”
I shuddered, thinking of Addie locked in the tower, with no one to protect her.
“Do you know anything more about the west tower?” Trew asked.
She shook her head. “I only came to the castle a few times, and I tried to do so when the king wasn’t around.
Other than the day she died. She asked me to come, said she needed me.
Your father didn’t like me. He was jealous, I suppose.
That’s what Marlane thought. We were always close, and he didn’t like anyone coming between him and his wife. ”
Distant shouts echoed down the corridor.
“We need to go,” Trew said, rising to his feet.
“Your mother and I talked about how she might heal the veil, and I told her where she might find those clues.”
“Where?”
Eva blinked a moment. “I don’t…”
More shouts, followed by heavy thuds.
We had to leave.
“We’re taking you with us.” I stretched my arm around her back to help her to the edge of the bunk.
She shook her head, the motion weak. “I can’t.
It’s too late. The damp has sunk into my lungs, and it won’t let go.
I keep getting sick. I’ve been bleeding inside for too long.
” She grabbed my hand, her grip surprisingly strong.
“There’s something you need to know. The woman who pushed my Marlane is still alive.
She comes to my cell to gloat. She’s determined to keep the veil open.
No, she needs to keep it open, or her plans will fall apart. ”
Footsteps pounded in the corridor. Multiple sets, moving fast.
Trew unpacked the rest of the things we’d brought from his bag, hiding them under the bunk. “This is for you.”
“I won’t need them, but I thank you,” she said.
Derren appeared at the end of the hall, and panic exploded from his voice. “No time. They’re patrolling, making sure the cells are all locked.”
Behind him, the sound of armed men approaching grew louder.
Go or I rip apart, Pherin said, flying out through the open cell door.
I couldn’t risk anyone seeing her in her firecat form.
“We can fight our way out,” Trew said, blades in both hands. “But we’ll have to flee the castle after that.”
Panic rose in my throat. “They’ll catch us before we can escape. We’ll take the tunnel like I did when I came here the other night.”
Eva latched onto my arm again, her fingers digging in. She stared into my eyes with a look that cut through my fear. “The grate. The tunnel! Stay left. Always left. The right will take you to the west tower.”
“How do you know this?”
Her bloodshot eyes bored into mine. “Go left or seek answers in the tower.”
Trew looked at me, the question clear in his eyes.
Stomps from down the hall told me the guards were almost here.
Pherin flew back into the cell and landed on my shoulder. Go!
“The west tower,” I hissed.
Eva smiled, blood staining her teeth. “You’re brave like my Marlane.” She stroked my face with trembling fingers. “So young.” Her wet cough rang out. “Did the best I could. To protect her. Like Velacross asked.”
Velacross had sent Eva to protect my mother, not Commander Thorne.
I stood, gazing down at her.
“Be careful,” she said, lying back on the bunk as another cough wracked her frame. Blood bubbled at the corners of her mouth. “Watch out for him. He’ll hurt you…just like he did your sister.” Her eyes closed.
I wanted to stay and comfort her. I didn’t like leaving her behind in this horrible place.
“We have to go now, Minx,” Trew barked out.
“I’ll come back,” I told her. “I promise.”
“Don’t. Too much danger. Can’t have that,” she whispered. “Leave. I’m at peace.”
If only I could do more.
We fled her cell, only pausing to close the door before rushing down the corridor toward the closet I’d escaped through before. A few prisoners watched from the front of their cells where they clutched bars.
Only one spoke. “Don’t forget about us, Princess. Please.”
“I’m coming back for you all,” I growled.
The one who’d spoken smiled. “Thought you would. You’re not like them. Go do what they can’t. End this.”
“I promise I’ll come back before the Day of Mercy.”
He understood why I was fleeing rather than trying to free them now. They all did. I couldn’t save them by dying here. I had to discover what my father was hiding and become dangerous enough to end this.
“Before the Day of Mercy,” I repeated, meeting his eyes. “I swear it.”
“Tell the king we won’t run,” someone else cried out. “Tell him.”
“I don’t see anything this way,” Derren shouted to fool the guards. “Try the next corridor!”
We burst into the closet, Pherin fluttering inside behind us, and Trew yanked the door closed.
“Up,” I whispered, pointing. “Grate.”
He braced himself against the wall and worked his way up, nudging it to the side. Rust rained down on me like before. Pherin flew in through the hole.
He dropped back down beside me and boosted me up through the opening, quickly following.
I scooted into the narrow tunnel as he slid the grate back into place.
Stomps came closer.
We froze.
A guard opened the door below and poked his head inside, peering around but not up, before backing out and slamming the door shut.
Trew’s hand found mine in the darkness, and he leaned in close to speak by my ear. “We have to move.”
“Up,” I whispered, and we started crawling.
Not long later, Eva’s hoarse cry rang out below. The silence after felt wrong, absolute, the kind that meant there was nothing left to stop.
“She’s dead. I know it in my bones.” I crumpled against the tunnel wall, my throat on fire with pain.
Her gaunt face flashed in my mind, those sunken eyes like my mother’s had been when she lay broken on the foyer floor.
The connection stabbed deeper, twisting the loss.
Trew wrapped his arms around me, our breathing hoarse in the tight space.
“She chose this,” he said softly. “Don’t let it be for nothing.”
He was right. I knew he was right. But it didn’t stop the pain or the guilt. I should’ve come for her sooner.
When he pulled away to climb again, I resisted for a breath, my hand gripping his sleeve, unwilling to leave her behind even in memory.
Then I let go.
“Go ahead,” I told him softly. “I’m with you. I promise.”
We climbed through the tunnel until my arms and legs burned and my breathing came in gasps. The passage sloped up into darkness. Trew sent a thread of magic ahead to clear debris from the walls, easing our path. Pherin kept flying ahead before returning to land on my back.
Not far, she’d say. Keep going.
Every step up felt like betrayal. Eva died in that cell. Those prisoners were counting the days until their execution. But with my father's heightened scrutiny, we may never get another chance to investigate the west tower or save them.
The only way to help them was to survive long enough to destroy the man who’d put them there in the first place.
When we reached the fork, we paused, and distant shouts grew louder below us, echoing up the shaft.
“Left will take us to the closet in the kitchen,” I whispered.
“That will be full of people preparing food for breakfast.”
“Right—to the tower. We end this tonight.”
We started climbing again, a section of loose stone crumbling under my grip raining grit as guards’ voices echoed faintly from below. Would they follow us up through the grate?
Moving fast, we approached another grate, where we paused, listening, squinting through the rusty bars, though we couldn’t see much other than an open room and an eerie blue glow.
When we were sure there was no one nearby, Trew carefully pushed the grate up and slid it to the side.
After glancing down at me, he gave me a nod and slowly lifted his head up through the opening.
“Looks clear, but let me check,” he whispered, easing up through the opening.
I peered back down through the dark tunnel.
I’d meant what I said. I’d be back before the Day of Mercy.
Not as a powerless princess, though.
When I returned to those cells, I’d bring fire.