Chapter Twenty-nine

The director was sitting at his desk. He looked up at us as we walked in, putting down the piece of paper he was reading. A candelabra stood beside him with five flickering candles, but besides that there was no light in the room. A slight breeze came through the open window, causing the flames to jump and cast flickering shadows on the walls.

"Lord Tandrix," he said calmly. He slipped the paper into a drawer, then interlocked his fingers and rested his arms on the desk. "And Lord Tandrin. To what do I owe the pleasure?" He looked at me then, and his eyes narrowed. "Did you arrest him again?"

"No." Tannix approached the desk, his left hand still clenched around the sword handle. I hung back with Tandrin and Sir Eppson, who had closed the door behind us and stood facing it as if an enemy was about to burst in.

"In fact," Tannix said, "he brought something to my attention regarding a letter. Tell me, my lord, why would you torture him for information you already had?"

The director shook his head slowly. "I'm afraid I have no idea what you are talking about, Tandrix."

The tension in the room jumped up a notch at that. Even I knew that dropping Tannix's title without permission was extremely offensive. Tannix's reply was calm and steady. "You're denying knowledge about the letter?"

The director ignored him and looked at me. "You told me that Lord Tandrix had nothing to do with this. I can't say that I'm surprised that you lied to me, but it's quite a shock to find that the Tandrans are out to kill the king."

"They're not," I said, forgetting my promise to Tannix in my desire to defend him. "You are."

The director laughed. "You believe that I'm part of this? No doubt they helped you escape so that you could carry out your plans. I knew there was something suspicious about you getting out."

Tannix slapped his palm on the table, drawing the director's attention. "Whether you are involved or not, you know something about the plot. Tell me. I have the authority to follow up on it myself, and I fully intend to."

While the director was distracted by Tannix, I approached them. I was curious about the paper he had hidden from us.

"Had you found the letter, you could claim rights to information regarding it," the director replied. "As it is, you cannot."

I crept around the side of the desk. The director must have noticed me, but not realized what I was trying to do. He didn't react until I reached for the drawer. I grabbed the handle and suddenly he lunged at me.

It happened almost too quickly for me to follow. One moment he was coming at me with a knife and I was sure he was going to stab me and that would be the end of it. I moved instinctively. My fingers found the little sword letter opener, and I stabbed it into the director's arm. He reeled back just as Tannix vaulted across the desk and jumped into him, slamming him against the wall. Tannix drew his sword, and with his left hand tightly held the front of the director's tunic. The little sword clattered to the floor and blood ran down the director's arm.

"Carry on, Finn."

I hesitated, eyeing the director warily in case he tried to get around Tannix and attack me again. Tandrin and Sir Eppson had also pulled out their swords, and I decided I was safe. I reached for the drawer once more, ignoring the furious look from the director, and pulled out the first few pieces of paper.

The one on top was the letter. I recognized the wax seal. The second piece was a diagram. At first, I was confused, but then I turned it to the side and recognized it with a gasp. Tandrin, who had walked up behind me to look over my shoulder, figured it out at the same time.

"It's a drawing of the castle. That's the king's chamber." He pointed to a room with a splat of red ink on it.

The ink near where I was holding the diagram was smudged and the tips of both my thumbs were black. "It's still wet," I said. "Tannix? If he drew this for Kassia, she must have just left."

"He's right," Tandrin said, taking the paper from my hands. "Odd that he'd mark the king's chamber. He has hours of meetings to go through tonight, and he'll be in the throne room for most of it." He looked up from the paper, across the room.

"So we alert the guard," Tannix said, meeting his gaze. He pulled the director from the wall. "I place you under arrest, Lord Meyat. Sir Eppson, escort him to prison. Tandrin and Finn, come with me."

Everyone started moving, but I stood still, staring at the open window. Sir Eppson collected the director, and Tannix and Tandrin headed towards the door. I walked towards the window, not exactly sure why the idea had come to me. By the time Tannix noticed me, I was already crouched on the windowsill, one hand still inside, steadying myself.

"Finn, no."

I turned my head, glancing back into the office. "I can catch up with her."

"No."

"I know her. Maybe I can stop her."

"No, Finagale." He started towards the window, probably intent on grabbing me, and I pulled myself off the windowsill. He wouldn't come after me, there wasn't time. I climbed quickly, ignoring him when he yelled my name a few times. The wind had picked up, blowing my hair into my eyes. I was glad I didn't have the cloak. It would have been billowing out behind me like a flag, potentially pulling me from the wall.

When I dropped to the ground, I knew that Tannix had given up on calling after me, and instead gone to get the guards. Honestly, I doubted I could stop Kassia, but I hoped to at least to delay her. I had a better chance of catching up than Tannix and the guards did. I got to my feet and ran around the building. Behind the main building, one wall separated the Order from the castle. Surely Kassia would have simply gone over it. I ran up to the base of the wall and looked up.

The section of wall was taller than rest by about a storey. I rotated my right wrist while planning a route. The ache was getting worse, running along almost my entire forearm. I could make the wall, I was sure of that, but if I had to do much climbing afterwards, I ran the risk of my arm giving out. I wasn't scared of heights, I never had been, but falling was a different story altogether.

Planning my path only took a few seconds. I rolled my shoulders and started up, using my left arm almost exclusively and again trying to use my right only to balance myself. Sometimes it wasn't avoidable, and I had to put weight on it. I made the wall in good time, all things considered, and crouched on top to plan out the next part.

I had never seen the castle grounds before. They looked larger than I had imagined. The Cliffs of Loth loomed to my right, and the wall curved away from the stone before joining the southern wall. In front of me was a wide green yard, dotted with trees and flowerbeds. Green wasn't a colour I was used to. Zianna was so dense that there was almost no room for things to grow. A portion of the field was fenced off, and through the darkness, I could see large shapes that could only be horses. A wide paved road led from the field to a large gate to my right, which was flanked by two guardhouses. In the middle stood the castle.

It was tall and looked to be made of the same white stone as the buildings in the upper city. It had quite a few turrets, but the two front ones were the tallest and were topped by pointed roofs. I knew there would be guards along the tops of the turrets and battlements, as well as by every door. I could see two entrances from where I was, one main one blocked by a large portcullis, and a smaller one blocked only by a gate. It would be my best chance, and Kassia's, as well.

Aside from near the gates, the grounds themselves looked deserted. I began to climb down the wall, confident that in the darkness no one would see me. I hopped off the wall once I was close enough to the ground, landing lightly on my feet just as thunder boomed overhead. I flinched, caught off guard by its loudness. Rain was uncommon in Zianna, thunderstorms even more so. The storm god, Ordon, must have been angry.

I took off running across the field, grateful that I no longer had to use my right hand for anything. When I reached the castle, I pressed myself against the wall. Before moving on, I paused to catch my breath and make sure that I hadn't been seen. There was nothing—no sounds of men calling to each other or alarms ringing. By the time my heart beat had slowed, I felt as safe as a thief could be in the castle grounds.

I started moving, trailing one hand against the stone to prevent myself from straying too far away from it. The closer I was to the wall, the harder it would be to see me from above. Soon I saw the dip in the wall ahead of me that indicated the gateway and I hesitated. I watched the door for as long as I thought I could, but nothing happened. There wasn't any movement or the sounds of anyone shuffling around. Cautiously, I moved forward, keeping low to the ground. When I got right up to the edge, I peeked around the corner.

The gate was almost close enough to reach, but there was no guard standing in front of it. Looking down the tunnel, I could see no guards behind the gate, only a few dark piles that looked like bags of some sort. Stranger than the lack of guards was the fact that the gate wasn't locked. It hung open, as if someone had pushed it closed a little too gently and it hadn't quite caught.

I slowly pushed on it and as soon as there was room for me, I squeezed through. The only way to explain the gate was if Kassia had already been through before me. The tunnel was almost pitch black. I could see light up ahead of me, and some faint light shone in front outside, but it was only getting darker outside. I was nearing the bags when my eyes adjusted. I gasped and took a step back.

Bags didn't wear the black and gold uniforms of the city guards. They didn't have arms or legs. I closed my eyes and touched the wall with my left hand, taking a moment to steady my nerves. Despite where I lived, despite the risks involved with my life, I rarely came across death.

Fear hit me in full force. If Kassia had done this, and there was no reason to think otherwise, than I didn't know if she'd listen to me. Why would she? If everything she'd told me had been a lie, it was just as likely that the feelings she'd been showing for me were too.

I forced back the fear and opened my eyes. I couldn't explain why, but I felt the need to see this through. I found the letter and, although inadvertently, it was my fault Kassia knew who she was supposed to speak to. If the king was killed, I would blame myself. I stood there just a little longer, collecting myself, and then took a deep breath and walked past the two bodies.

The tunnel opened into a little courtyard. I thought back to the diagram Tandrin had taken from me, and could almost see it in my head perfectly. The king's chamber had been a few floors up, but the throne room, if I was thinking of the right place, was on the main floor, close to where I was.

Seeing that there was no one around, I stepped out into the little courtyard and ran across it to the next doorway. The corridor ahead was dark, but I walked in without hesitation. Years of breaking the law had perfectly prepared me for this. Already the nerves from seeing the guards' bodies had faded away. I let myself focus on the task at hand—finding Kassia and not getting caught in the process. I was good at this. I never got caught when I was by myself.

I didn't let my confidence overtake caution. Whenever the corridor I was following crossed another, I paused, tiptoeing to the corner to peek in both directions before dashing across the hall. There didn't seem to be too many guards in this part of the castle. Tandrin had said there would be hours of meetings, and it made sense for the guards to flock around the king and all his important guests.

I was considering a prayer to Lukk, the god of luck, when footsteps echoed down the corridor towards me. Without a second thought I ducked into the closest room, only to find it mostly bare aside for a window draped in heavy curtains. With no other options I climbed into the window, and pressed myself flat against the glass.

"Did you see that?" The voice was in the doorway. "I think the curtain moved."

I held my breath as if that would somehow help, but there was no way they would hear me breathing with the wind howling outside.

"No," a second voice said. "Maybe you're seeing ghosts again. Queen Florinne, this time?"

"Do you want the king to know you make jokes like that? I swear to the..." their voices faded as they continued walking down the hall.

I slipped out from behind the curtain, and carefully looked out into the hallway. Once the two men had turned a corner, I kept going.

I didn't cross paths with anyone else, and soon my corridor connected to a large atrium. I hung back, tucking myself behind a statue of a knight while I eyed the room. There was a large wooden door at one end, with two guards standing on either side of it. Even without the director's diagram I would have known that was the throne room.

The atrium was pretty crowded. There were plenty of guards scattered around, most of them talking quietly amongst themselves. The two at the door were perfectly still, as if they had been carved from stone. Servants walked around, carrying trays or large baskets. The guards paid them no attention. The servants varied, some young, and some old. Some of them were Natives but most of them were Telts. It might have been possible to put on a disguise, if I had time.

I didn't have long to contemplate it because a line of servants walked by, distracting me. They were each carrying trays of food, and they walked in an orderly line towards the doors. One of the guards grabbed a handle and pulled his half of the double doors open. I got a glimpse of a long table covered with a red cloth, and many men and women sitting around it. I looked back to the servants, and there she was.

I had to do a double take, looking back at the servant, making sure I was right. She was in the middle of the line, by then walking into the throne room with her back to me. She was wearing the same simple white dress as the rest of the servants, but I recognized the hair.

It was Kassia.

Without giving myself a chance to change my mind, I ran towards the door. My eyes locked on Kassia. I heard guards shout but they sounded strange and distant. The line of servants turned around towards the noise, and she looked at me. Her eyes widened in disbelief. One of the door guards tried to grab me and I dove at the floor, rolling under his arms before gracefully getting back to my feet.

I threw myself at Kassia, knocking the tray from her hands and sending us both crashing into the floor.