25. A Confession #2
They were taking a much longer route back to the parlor. The guards paused outside a new and unfamiliar set of doors. “Please, make yourself comfortable and enjoy the hospitality of the palace,” the dark-haired guard said, extending a hand to the door.
Etiana and Rerdas exchanged a glance. Neither of them reached for the handle.
The woman pushed the door inward, and he glimpsed yet another sitting room, a fire throwing cheerful light over enameled tables, tasseled lamps and glistening velvet couches. There was no one else seated in the spacious room.
“Should you require anything, please ask.”
Etiana donned her most winning smile and turned to the guard. “The palace is such a wonder. But I’ve been traveling for too long, and while the comforts of my home pale compared to this, I believe I’d rather just—”
The guard stepped so close to her that Rerdas’s heart shot into his throat.
“Dear Lady.” The woman’s sparkling smile was an inch from Etiana’s nose. “Enjoy. The hospitality. Of the palace.”
The second guard loomed closer, and Rerdas spotted another pair quickening their pace from the end of the hall.
“Thank you,” he muttered, grabbing Etiana by the elbow and towing her into the room.
The door swung shut as soon as they were through it, and Rerdas heard a distinct and ominous click. They were locked in.
Etiana stormed a full circle around the space before she turned back to him. “What was all that with the queen?”
“We had to say something more convincing, Eti. She’ll think we had to leave the city for onyx to keep paying for the Little Dreamer.”
“I’m not sure it worked, given she’s locked us in a room with no windows!”
Rerdas yanked one of the sweeping, layered curtains back. There was only wallpaper beneath them. “Shit.”
Etiana flounced onto a couch beside the fire and took deep, noisy breaths before sitting up properly again. “It’s another test. She’s going to jab at Dantin to see if he supports our story, and she doesn’t want to give us a chance to speak with him first.”
“But… what if she doesn’t believe any of us at all? If she somehow knows Aunt Uralta escaped?”
“Then we’d be questioned in a prison with a hot poker, not summoned to tea.
” Etiana smoothed her skirts. “She won’t keep us here forever.
And if Dantin tries to cover for us, it’ll look like an old friend trying to hide our loss of fortune to avoid shaming us.
” She pursed her lips at him. “It was quick thinking on your part.”
“I’ll feel better about it once we’re actually out of this damn place,” Rerdas muttered. The whole palace could rot.
“Sit down and talk through the plan with me. Once we’re off her grounds, we make straight for the south gate. By what route?”
They debated every minute detail of where and how they would go the moment Kuraya gave them a chance.
The fire crackled and shifted in the grate, and the flames grew slowly, slowly smaller.
They found a board for a game of pebbles, they recited their plan again in whispers, and the fire ebbed lower still.
Etiana lit one of the oil lamps, while Rerdas crouched by the fireplace, staring into the red glow of the embers.
The sound of voices in the hall brought them both scuttling close to the door, listening. Rerdas pressed his ear to it, but all he could make out was the tone of what sounded like an argument.
He sprang back when the dark-haired guard stepped into the room. Her smile was gone. “Special pets, I see,” she muttered. “Come on, then.”
Etiana tucked her arm against Rerdas’s and kept him at a stately walk, rather than a sprint, into the hall.
“There you are,” the Duke of Umber said, unfolding his arms. A smile broke over his handsome face, but torchlight caught the worry in his eyes. He twisted the pinky ring on his finger, radiating uncharacteristic anxiety.
“Umber,” Rerdas breathed, hurrying forward. For once, it was easy to reach for him.
“I’ve a coach waiting. And supper. You must be starving.” The duke looped an arm around his waist and extended his other arm to Etiana, who beamed at him.
The guards trailed them down the hall. Umber arched an eyebrow at the woman in Etiana’s shadow. “What are you doing?”
“Seeing you safely to your coach, Your Grace,” the guard replied.
“Very thorough,” Umber replied stiffly.
The duke almost never sounded like that. He wasn’t particularly good at masking his emotions, having no real need for it, but he seemed as though he might be trying. All the same, Rerdas saw the way his jaw clenched and nostrils flared.
Rerdas said nothing until they were all bundled into Umber’s coach and the wheels ground over the gravel drive, leaving the cadre of guards standing in the dark.
“Thank the gods you were there.” He shivered beneath the arm Umber threw around his shoulders. “I don’t know what’s happening at the palace.”
“Too much, too quickly,” Umber said. He shook his head and tilted Rerdas closer. “Don’t let it trouble you. All will be well.”
Rerdas watched the neighborhoods whirl by. Marasette, the duke’s seat, would bring them no closer to the south gate. But at least it wasn’t the palace. He would get Etiana on her own at the earliest possible opportunity, and then they needed to run.