Chapter 17 Checkmate
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHECKMATE
The courtyard was the worst part of the castle.
Manicured bushes and spiraled trees led toward a large central fountain that stood drained and exposed for winter.
Fresh, frost-tipped air swirled around the space, allowing the tantalizing experience of freedom.
The gargoyles craned their necks from the turrets and the high wall laced with jagged diamonds glittered from all sides, slick and deadly. A constant reminder of where I was.
I leaned against the castle, tilting my head back so that the wall fell from view and only the fat, gray clouds were visible lumbering across the sky.
Lilyanna and the prince strolled the perimeter hand in hand, their voices hushed and excited.
He wanted the wedding in two weeks, which was likely a good thing seeing how Lilyanna may not make it that long.
As if in agreement, the long membranous tail of the gargoyle above my head floated into my eyeline like an arrow shot through my moment of freedom.
We hadn’t spoken a word about last night. Lilyanna regained her composure a lot quicker than me, forcing the memories into whichever distant part of her mind she stored her trauma. I remained down in that pit, lost amid the rocking glass and smeared handprints.
“This is my favorite time of day,” Clement said. “When we’re both standing here together.”
“Mine too.” My stomach fluttered. I was beginning to look forward to waiting beside him, watching the mind-numbingly boring courtship between Lilyanna and the prince.
He made it more than bearable, keeping my heart pumping and my body flushed with warmth.
He was safety, comfort, familiarity, and despite Lilyanna’s views on the subject, I trusted him.
I hated myself for the weakness.
His hand brushed mine. “Because you’re actually doing your job, behaving yourself, and I get a sliver of worry-free time.”
I groaned. “Do I really make your job that much harder?”
“Yes.”
“And do you still find me irritating?”
“Yes.”
I snorted. “But the most important question is, do you trust me now?” A faint twinge of embarrassment fluttered my chest like I really cared about the answer.
“Yes,” he answered without hesitation.
Strands of my hair snagged on the stone as I turned to look at him. Despite the softening of his mouth, tension strummed down him like a taut bow.
“You need to leave the castle, Tam.” He kept focused on the prince’s meandering progress. “If you won’t do anything I say, please do this.”
“I need to make Lilyanna leave.” My hand rose to my neck as I stared at the amniotic-colored skin that poked out of Lilyanna’s high collar. “She’s an innocent caught up in”—I waved my hand up toward the hovering gargoyle—“all of this.”
What would happen if she ended up in that box? If I left, there would be no one to protect her.
Clement fell silent, waiting until the prince and Lilyanna were at the far end of the courtyard. They both sat on a low bench half-obscured by a holly bush, its red berries plump and glistening against the gray stone.
“You’re not a very good judge of character.” He turned to look down at me. “Especially for a maid that moonlights as an assassin.”
I frowned. “That’s not—”
“She’s almost got what she wants.”
“Yeah, but at what price?” I held his stare, cursing how beautiful his dark eyes were up close. I’d barely have to move an inch, and my lips could be pressed to his.
“Seriously, Tamara.” I flinched at my real name, drawing back. “I’ll get you out, no matter the cost. The other day could have been a completely different story. You may have been the one on trial and I...” He shrugged, frustrated.
I folded my arms across my chest and ripped my gaze away. The prince and Lilyanna were circling back toward us.
“Why is it just me you want to get rid of?”
“You’re the only one who doesn’t want to be here.” His hand skimmed down my side, coming to rest on my hip.
“And you?” I turned back, softening in his grasp. Just the lightest contact of his fingers against my skin and my mind cleared, my body blossoming to life.
“It’s my—”
“If you say duty, Clement, I’m going to draw this sparkly dagger, drag you into the center of the town, and challenge you to a duel.”
He tipped his head back and burst out laughing. “I’ll have you on your back in seconds.”
I leaned into him, moving with the tightening of his fingers as he drew me closer. “Promise?”
He grinned.
“And what are you two laughing about?” the prince said. He and Lilyanna stopped in front of us, his arm slung around her shoulders. Her eyes were bright, smile full, but there was a wariness in her expression.
“I challenged Clement to a duel.”
Clement’s arm fell from my waist and hovered over his saber. Bryn appeared on the other side of the prince, cutting me a withered glare.
The prince ignored them both. “Well, go easy on him. It’s hard to find staff that lasts around here.”
“Mhm, yes.” I nodded. “And—”
Clement clamped his hand across my mouth before I could say ‘women.’
“No, Clement.” The prince angled his body toward me, trapping me in his aura. “Let her speak. I do enjoy Tam’s questioning.”
It was now or never. Clement could huff in irritation as much as he liked.
“What happened to the woman prisoner? She didn’t leave with the other two.”
The prince raised his eyebrows. “You do manage to ferret out information, don’t you?
” He glanced at Clement, and my insides froze.
“More came to light after you both left. She decided to stay with us, to atone for her crimes here at the castle rather than journeying South.” His arm tightened around Lilyanna’s shoulders.
Her collar pulled away from her neck, exposing the marks under the pressure.
“Crimes? But—”
“Practicing magic, flagrant magic, is a crime. She may not have committed the act she was blamed for, but her actions condemned her all the same.”
“So, she’s still alive?”
The question hung as mist between us, painted on the cold air.
“No.” His smile faltered. “There was an accident, and she took her own life. In the stressful events of the day, she wasn’t fully searched and had a hidden knife.” He patted Lilyanna’s arm soothingly even though she hadn’t flinched.
“But—”
“It really wasn’t Clement’s fault, Tam.” His cheeks relaxed, the dimples popping as his smile casually returned. “He’s been distracted lately.”
My mouth fell open. I swiveled to Clement, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. His jaw was set, a muscle pulsing underneath the ever-lengthening beard.
“Shall we go back, Tam?” Without waiting for an answer, Lilyanna wriggled out of the prince’s hold and linked arms with me. My body moved numbly alongside hers. So many thoughts swirled through my jumbled brain, contorting with the rapidly rising anger.
The wind chased us inside, forcing us through the wide doors into the castle before instantly dying as we crossed the threshold.
“Lilyanna, you know that’s not true. It’s...we...” There had been no blood, no marks, no evidence. She’d not killed herself in that box.
“Please, Tam. There are some things you have to let go.”
As if in agreement, the stone walls groaned, mortar dribbling to the floor. The sconces on the wall pulsed, drawing us onward and back into the belly of the castle.
Our eyes met briefly before we both sucked in a deep breath and wound our way back to her rooms.
* * *
I was getting better at checkers. Not because I wanted to, but due to the lack of anything else to do. Dinner was cancelled once again, so we’d eaten in Lilyanna’s room and now sat across from each other, bent over the small brown and white pieces.
Dusk had already fallen outside the thick window. The deep purple air leeched into the flicker from the candles we’d stationed around ourselves, having automatically moved as far from the hearth as we could. Even if it meant aligning ourselves with the freezing stone wall.
“What do you see in the prince?” I pushed one of my brown pieces forward, the carved ridges sinking into the grooves of my finger.
“I mean, he’s handsome, generous, a prince.” She jumped one of my abandoned pieces, the cream tile clacking on the board. She piled it up with the others she’d taken.
“Sure, but is that what you want?”
She laughed, her eyes never leaving the board as she stubbornly stayed three moves ahead of me. “It’s fate. I told you it’s been read to me in my tea leaves for years. Now I'm here, it’s all coming true.”
“Being strangled and burned was in the tea leaves?”
Her mouth twitched. “I can see your attempt to look out for me.” She moved forward, exposing a rift down the center of her pieces. “Thank you.”
I pushed my piece toward the opening, realizing my mistake as soon as I’d let go.
I huffed back into my chair and folded my arms. “Am I supposed to dote on the prince as well once you’re married?
” She jumped one, two, three of my counters, never once looking up, her tongue wedged between her lips.
“You know, choose his outfits, brush his hair. Am I tied up in your dowry?”
She jumped the final piece, the cream circles outnumbering the brown four to one.
“When I marry the prince,” she noisily raked my counters into a pile, “and we eventually have children, you’ll have so much more to do, you won’t even have time to complain.
” Her eyes met mine, face lit by candlelight. “How will you ever cope?”
I barked a laugh. “Maybe I'll get myself a maid.”
She waved a hand at the massacred checkerboard. “Or a tutor.”
A flurry of nails scrabbled above our heads. Blinded by the glare from the candles, only shadows swirled amidst the diamond ceiling, but a trail of ash floated down.
Lilyanna pulled her silk robe tighter, flapping up the collar to obscure her bruises. “I don’t usually hope for rats, but I do now.”
“And if for some reason the wedding was cancelled and not due to your untimely death?” The prince had lied to me, to both of us, but that wasn’t my primary concern.
The look he’d flashed at Clement still haunted me.
I didn’t like being wrong, I’d given him the benefit of the doubt for the past few weeks and believed him to be innocent. But now I was unsure.
“It must happen. I need it too.”
I leaned forward, dropping my voice to a whisper, “Why?”
She bit her lip. Her face shone wan in the orange flicker from the candles, bled of color. Every day over the past few weeks she became a little more drained, as if a vial of blood had been taken in her sleep.
“Gold mines are drying up.” She kept her voice low to match mine.
“People are starving, our alms are stretched painfully thin. The queendom is arranged so precious metals are our only resource. The same thing happened to emerald, ruby, sapphire, and silver, but once they merged with Prince Bellinor, the supplies were refreshed and the trade routes opened permanently.”
“Because of the murder of their female heirs. They had no choice. Blackmailed into checkmate.”
“If I marry him, I will have control. There’s no other way.”
“If you get that far.”
She leaned back and shrugged. “You’re such a pessimist.” She held my gaze, her face deadpan. “You need to get laid.”
It was so unexpected I threw my head back and roared, nearly toppling backward off my chair. My cheeks ached; my stomach tight as I tried to rein it in. Lilyanna hid her amusement behind her hand but eventually, she doubled over as well, knocking the counters to the floor.
“I think,” I wiped my eyes, “the same could be said for Your Ladyship. Maybe then you’d get your priorities in order and stop chasing the crown.”
She grinned at me. “I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.”
“Yeah, okay. For now.”
“But back to you. I’ve seen you and Clement flirting. You watch him all the time, when you’re supposed to be watching me, hover near him, smile when he speaks.”
“I do not smile. It’s a sneer at his condescending, holier-than-the-Goddess attitude.”
She stared at me, unimpressed.
“It’s nothing.” I made my voice strong and sure, but it was plain she didn’t believe me. I stood and offered her my hand, pulling her to her feet. “Now off to bed. I’m sure we have the most enthralling game of checkers ahead of us tomorrow.”
The collar of her robe flopped down exposing the roiling blue and gray skin of her neck. Her hand fluttered to her throat; what little color remained fleeing from her cheeks.
“It looks much better,” I said.
She pursed her lips, dropping her hand from her neck and twirled the ring on her finger instead. “You’ll sleep here again tonight?”
I sighed but nodded. She squeezed my hand, and I followed her into the bed chamber, climbing into bed next to her.
The silk sheets were cool and smooth, as innocent as I once was.
She really was going to be the death of me.
Where had my detachment gone? It’s what I prided myself on, or at least Siobhan did.
Hadn’t she spent years pushing me around the queendom like a checker piece, never able to forge even a semblance of a relationship?
Maybe she thought I was too far gone, that her constant manipulation had finally seeded within me.
First, Clement managed to worm his way in as I couldn’t stop thinking about him, and now, Lilyanna.
Maybe that would be her downfall.
My eyelids were heavy, an eternal yawn building in my throat. As much as I needed it, I’d never let myself sleep. Terrible things happened when I did.