Chapter 25 #2
An eerie silence filled this wing of the castle and not one that was just quiet, but a silence of abandonment.
Dust covered most of the paintings hanging on the walls, the faces obscured by time.
We passed a table with a golden statue of a stag.
Cobwebs weaved in and out of the horns. The dust and cobwebs increased the farther we went down the hallway.
Why wouldn’t the servants clean this area? Were they instructed not to?
Did Kane ever come this way or had the horror of what happened been too difficult to face?
He lost three sisters and his father with no explanation why.
Gideon stopped at a door on our right. I couldn't see what he was doing, but I could hear the clicks of a lock followed by a soft creak. My palm warmed and tingled the way it always did near my chambers. No visible rune glowed, just the familiar, unsettling buzz beneath my skin.
The door opened, and Gideon pulled me into the room.
Moonlight poured in through the arched window, the curtains drawn back. Dust motes drifted in the air. A large cobweb draped from the corner of the room all the way to the fireplace mantel.
Dust coated everything—the bookshelves, the wardrobe, even the large mirror above the dresser. Dust even covered the floor, revealing our footprints. They had left the washroom with nothing but a few soaps, and it was obvious no one had stepped in here in decades.
Gideon gave a small wave of his hand, and our footprints vanished. Strangely, the illusion held, revealing no new tracks.
“Search everywhere,” he said.
“What are we looking for?”
“Anything that may tell us what happened the night King Kyros died.”
I started by the bookcase while Gideon slid beneath the bed. I ran my fingers over the old spines, each one taken over by time. Some of the titles were illegible; others were written in a curling, elegant script, similar to what I used to find in the priestesses’ library.
What was Kane’s mother like?
Was she like him? What did she look like?
How was their relationship before the exile?
Thumbing through the old books, I imagined her here, alone, and how scared she must have been to send her only remaining child to the Dryad Realm, and the horror she must have felt when he returned as an adult.
Why would she have left him again?
Any sane mother would've stayed.
Maybe she wasn’t sane. The rumors about King Kyros said he had gone mad with dragon sickness.
Not sure what I was hoping to find, I continued on the next shelf.
Gideon moved to the desk and began rifling through the drawers.
My finger tripped over a book that seemed to not fit in the space it was shoved in. I pulled it free and flipped it open. The inside had been cut in the center creating a pocket, and within that secret compartment, I found a rolled-up scroll.
“Gideon,” I hissed.
“Did you find something?” He closed the drawer and started walking toward me, then stopped, his eyes going wide.
“What?” I asked, but he was already moving.
He crossed the room in a heartbeat, yanked me into the shadows, and clamped a hand over my mouth. We slammed against the wall, straight into a cobweb. My nose tickled, and I sneezed against his palm.
“Quiet,” he said, pure panic in his voice.
I clutched the book tight as an illusion wrapped around us, turning everything fuzzy at the ends. The shadows in the room seemed to deepen, a cloud passing over the bright moon, removing any light we had.
While I didn’t have hearing as exceptional as the fae, I trusted that whatever Gideon heard was not good.
A grating noise came from near the fireplace and the wall slid open.
Ella, the brown-haired pixie, flew in.
“All clear,” she said with a sigh.
“Are you sure?”
A shiver of fear shot up my spine and I went rigid at the sound of Kane’s voice.
Gideon's hand on my mouth tightened.
My breath stilled. Could they see us? Hear us?
Kane hadn't stepped into the room. He spoke from the shadows, from some secret passageway. Ella fluttered around. Her gaze went to the floor and then directly to me.
“What is it?” Kane asked. “We have to keep checking the other rooms.”
Ella hesitated for a moment. “All clear, Your Majesty.”
“Good. Let's check my father's room next. I want everything sealed before I leave tomorrow.”
Ella flew back into the secret passageway. The wall slid back into place, leaving the room unnaturally quiet.
Gideon held me in the shadows until enough time had passed. He dropped his hand and moved beside me.
“We need to leave,” he said.
“What’s going on?” I whispered. “Why is Kane sealing the royal wing?”
“I don’t know, but it’s not good. Something has happened.” Gideon glanced at the book I clutched to my chest. “Let’s go somewhere and look at that.”
Taking my hand, we vanished, and he went to the door.
Outside in the hall, will-o’-the-wisps floated around. They drifted through the corridor like curious sentinels, their golden light bouncing shadows off the walls.
“We can’t go that way or they’ll spot us,” Gideon whispered, then tugged me back inside.
“What are we supposed to do?”
“The passageway.”
“You want us to follow Kane?”
“The wisps answer to the king, and they can see through any illusion. We have no choice.”
Holding the book tight, I considered our choices, and none of them were good.
Gideon tugged me toward the fireplace and pressed everything he could touch until something clicked and the wall slid away.
No light. Complete darkness.
“I don’t want to go in there.” I pulled away from him and stepped back into the room.
Gideon grabbed a lantern hanging on the hook and turned the knob. A warm glow illuminated the stony passage. “We have no choice.”
“Do you even know where this leads?”
He hesitated, his gaze flitting to the floor. A flicker of uncertainty strained his expression.
“Great.”
Against my better judgment, I followed Gideon inside. “No need for camouflage,” he said. “The light can’t be reflected.”
Slowly, we took the passage down.
The walls pressed close on either side, the damp air thick with mildew. I sneezed, and Gideon turned around with widened eyes as if that one noise would doom us both.
Sorry, I mouthed, and we continued.
The dark passageway wound around, coming to a fork. Gideon looked both ways before heading right.
The stone beneath my feet was damp, slick with something that clung to the soles of my feet. I fought the urge to gag as we stepped forward. The air grew heavier with every inch, stale and full of rot and mold.
Had something died down here?
With little light, I could barely see ahead or behind us.
The lantern flickered. How much oil did we have? Would it be enough?
Something scurried past my feet. I squeaked, and I grabbed Gideon’s back.
“Something just touched me,” I hissed. “How much longer?”
“Quiet,” Gideon hissed.
I glared at him. “This is a terrible idea.”
“We’re fine. Let’s keep going. It has to lead somewhere.”
“That’s not very comforting!”
The lantern flickered again. The nearby shadows crept around the walls, enclosing us.
Please don’t go out.
“I think I see a door ahead.” Gideon’s voice was hushed, and his pace quickened.
“Wait. Slow down!”
The light dimmed to an ember. The passageway darkened, and I fumbled forward, searching for the rough stone, my heart thundering in my chest.
No. No. No. No… “Gideon, slow down.”
He turned back to me, his face barely visible in the dying light, his eyes narrowed.
A soft click echoed ahead. The sound of a bolt unlatching then the groan of hinges.
The door creaked open just enough that a sliver of moonlight cast into the dark passageway.
We both froze as the oil finally ran out, the lantern flame gone.
My breath stilled, and I reached out for Gideon but only found air.
Then the door fully opened, revealing us.