Chapter 60 Kiera
Kiera
I waited in agony for four days.
I desperately wanted to claim my night of freedom immediately, but Everett and Delysia agreed with my first instinct—to wait. The timing had to be just right.
Melaena needed time to find the two soldiers and set up a disguise. Aiden and Henry needed time to get here. And I needed to give the guards as little time as possible to find the flaw in their gate.
But it also meant giving Renwell time to change his mind.
I avoided him as much as possible for this reason, pacing my room and then Delysia’s, until she threatened to tie me to a chair.
I visited Everett in the library, where he showed me sketches of the city walls and battlements, ensuring I’d know my way around. He’d make an excellent Teacher, someday.
When the day finally came, I marched into Renwell’s office at dawn and demanded my night. He nodded, a small smile on his face.
I ignored the ominous feeling in my belly and left to send Melaena a message, telling her when to expect me.
As soon as the sun set through my window, I shoved Mother’s knife in my boot, threw a cloak around my simple outfit, and left, carrying Melaena’s costume and jewelry.
I balked at the main palace doors. A dozen guards stood in the foyer like they normally did. Everett and Delysia said the guards had stopped them from leaving, but not forcefully.
Now they stepped aside and opened the doors for me.
Giddy with success, I hurried through. A group of soldiers waited to escort me across the bridge, but they didn’t follow me once I was in the Noble Quarter.
I checked for lurking shadows on my way to Melaena’s, but saw no one. I swept past the bronze dancer, touching her foot for good luck.
Melaena met me in the atrium, her smile full of relief. “Thank you so much for returning my costume,” she said loudly, probably for the benefit of the few patrons relaxing in armchairs. “If you carry the dress, I’ll take the jewelry.”
I handed over the small pouch of jewelry. We walked back to the dressing room.
Melaena quickly locked both doors. “I gave the dancers a night off to spend with their friends and families. Even the two I suspect of being spies were eager to go.”
“Thank you. And thank you for taking such a risk, helping me. I don’t deserve—”
“Stop that right now,” Melaena ordered, grasping my scarred hands in her smooth dark brown ones.
“I can’t begin to understand what your life was like.
I only know my side of things, which was always more clear than the murkiness you faced.
I won’t begrudge you a few mistakes when you have done so much to rectify them. ”
Tears welled in my eyes. “You are truly the best of friends, Melaena.”
She smiled. “Now let’s turn you into Dredger’s wife.”
Less than an hour later, we walked out the front door.
The plan was simple—I would pretend to be Eleanor, Dredger’s wife, who usually delivered his supper around this time.
Melaena had made my face paler with powder and drew lines in my face to age me. She tucked my hair in a floppy cap that belonged to Eleanor. The simple brown cotton dress with deep pockets was also hers. I kept my boots with Mother’s knife. I also carried a basket with Dredger’s meal.
Melaena walked me to the Noble Quarter gate and gestured for the guards to open it. “So good to see you, Eleanor. Tell your husband hello for me.”
I nodded and shuffled through.
I kept a slow, even pace down the main street. Wolves stalked by or slipped into alleys, but they didn’t follow me. I briefly wondered if Renwell was among them or if he’d truly kept to his word to allow me my freedom.
I took a circuitous route to be safe. But nothing seemed out of place. No warnings snaked down my spine.
I hurried past the silent taverns until I reached the city gate.
Keeping my gaze down, I approached the guard at the foot of the wall steps. “Good evening, Locklean. Just delivering Dredger’s supper.”
Melaena had told me precisely what to say, per the real Eleanor’s instructions. If this worked, I would personally deliver whatever reward the couple asked for.
The guard, Locklean I hoped, nodded. “Right, Eleanor. Any extra sausage?”
I pulled out the extra link Eleanor said she always set aside for the friendly guard.
“Thanks very much!” Locklean happily stepped aside, already chewing on his prize. “Just be quick, yeah? The captain has been more strict lately.”
I nodded and hurried up the stairs that criss-crossed up the wall to the top.
Archers lined the battlements, shifting close to the large braziers to stay warm. I eased past them and walked toward the cliff gate, feeling like I was inside one of Everett’s sketches.
My heart pounded the closer I got. Melaena had given me a detailed description of Dredger, but I would look immediately suspicious if I passed by my own “husband.”
He found me first, thank the Four. Dredger, a heavily bearded man built like a bull, waved from his post near the stone gatehouse.
“Ellie, so good to see you, my sweet,” Dredger said a little too loudly as I approached.
I smiled through clenched teeth. “You don’t need to announce it to the whole city, darling.”
He coughed, his cheeks like two red apples. “Right, er, I’ll take my supper now.”
“What, not even a kiss first?” I said teasingly.
Sweat poured down the man’s face beneath his helmet. “Uh, of course.” A few of the other guards snickered. “Somewhere a little more private.”
The other guards whistled and cheered as Dredger towed me into the narrow gatehouse.
“Is there really going to be a battle tomorrow?” he asked in a desperate whisper, clutching my basket. “My wife, my children . . . This city can’t burn. I just want the gods-damned Wolves gone. And—”
“Enough,” I hissed, frantically looking over my shoulder as I scurried around the winching mechanism. The metal gate was enormous, anchored by thick chains. “We’re helping free the city right now, you and me. Now watch my back.”
I crouched on the musty floor where the gate disappeared into a crevice. The meager lamplight showed two huge square metal rods skewering the gate against the wall.
Gods damn it, the pins were thicker than I thought. More like metal branches than the slender twigs they’d seemed in Everett’s sketch.
They were also bent upward at the end, like twin snakes ready to strike. I tested one, and it didn’t budge—the iron stubbornly clinging to its home in the gate.
I would just have to sever the metal where it sat against the stone floor. But perhaps that was for the best.
“Hurry,” Dredger muttered from where he peered at both entrances of the gatehouse. “Mankmen is watching the other side, but the captain could come by any moment.”
“Keep talking as though you’re murmuring to Eleanor,” I whispered. “Drown out any noise.”
And keep you from talking to me.
Dredger muttered nonsense to himself while I grabbed my knife. I set the glittering blade as close to the gate as possible and started sawing through one locking pin. It was like slicing a tough steak with a butter knife. Much more difficult than the prisoner chains.
Sweat gathered under my warm dress. My face felt sticky. Gods damn it, if my makeup melted, the other guards would know I wasn’t Eleanor.
I gritted my teeth and strained. Finally, my knife sank through to the stone with a light squeal. I caught the metal handle before it could fall.
Holding my breath, I waited for any cries of alarm as Dredger’s amorous mumbling increased in volume.
No one came.
I carefully laid the severed handle next to the rest of its body, aligning them to look whole.
There. That’s the best I can do, Everett.
Scratching at my sweaty cap, I hurried to the other pin.
“Hey, Dredger, did Eleanor bring you those berry muffins again?” someone called from the other side of the gatehouse.
I jerked upright, my wide eyes finding Dredger’s.
“Leave him alone, Wottel,” said a gruff voice. “Give the man a minute with his wife.”
“Ah, come on, Mankmen, you know you want one as well,” Wottel said cajolingly. “Eleanor’s cooking is the only good food left in Aquinon.”
I flew over to Dredger and flung my arms around him as if we were in a passionate embrace. The poor man’s arms shook as he held me tentatively.
“Later,” Mankmen growled.
There was a scuffling noise just behind us. I gripped Dredger tighter, hiding my knife behind his back.
“Oh, uh, I see what you mean,” came Wottel’s embarrassed voice. “I’ll give you a minute. Fucking Four, don’t make a fourth baby right here in the gatehouse. Captain would be right pissed.”
I flinched. They had three children? They must truly be desperate to risk their lives helping us.
Holy Four, I hope it’s all worth it.
“He’s gone,” Dredger breathed in my ear, immediately shaking me off.
An honorable man. And a dead one if I didn’t hurry.
I raced back over to the second pin and sawed as hard and fast as I could. It seemed like hours, but was probably only seconds until I’d severed the handle and replaced it.
Dredger nearly melted into a puddle of relief when I reemerged, tucking my knife into my boot.
“Go, go!” Dredger pleaded, shooing me like a lost chicken.
I hurried out, blowing him a kiss. “See you at home, darling!”
The guards hooted and teased, then converged on a flushed Dredger and his basket of food.
No one questioned me as I left the wall. Locklean waved and wished me a good night. I replied in kind. Gods, I hoped these guards would join Aiden and Henry when they arrived. We needed all the good soldiers we could get.
I strode back the way I’d come, not daring to leave the main road. The Wolves didn’t stop me, but the guards at the Noble Quarter gate did.
“Oh, silly me,” I said in a quavery voice. “Somehow, Lady Melaena’s earring ended up in my basket. I need to return it to her.” I held up the ornate gold earring Melaena had given me.
The guards shifted their spears toward me. “Did you steal it?” demanded one.
“Oh, Eleanor, there you are!” Melaena called, hurrying toward us. “I was about to come looking for you. I believe I dropped my earring—”
“I have it right here,” I said, waving it under the guards’ noses.
“What a good friend you are. Please let her in.” Melaena smiled at the guards, but even I heard the thinly veiled command.
They grumblingly did as she said.
We hurried back to The Silk Dancer and collapsed into undignified heaps on the dressing room chairs.
“Is it done?” Melaena asked, fanning herself.
I handed her the earring. “We are ready for an invasion.”
“I pray we survive it.”
“I pray we are victorious,” I said grimly. I would die fighting before I succumbed to another cage.
Find me, Aiden, before it’s too late.