Summary:
Spoiler! :
Thousands of bits of wood, plaster, and metal rain down like hail, accompanied by a boom that knocks me to the ground. I struggle to my feet, spitting out the dust and debris that flew into my mouth instead of settling on and all around me. I see in my side view that all of the guests are thrown in disarray; the ground level’s chaos; I turn around and can still hear the pandemonium.
I walk briskly along the rail on the second floor, searching for the room Vanadis is in, desperate for someone to confer with. Coming from nowhere, another bomb explodes just behind me. I break into a run.
I duck down a long hallway that leads to the back of the castle. Behind me, I hear quick footsteps. I glance back and see a man, dressed in all black and wearing a mask, rushing after me; strapped to his belt are half a dozen grenades.
Where the hell did he get those?
At the end of the hall I hesitate, kicking off my shoes and gathering up my skirt. I launch up a spiral metal staircase, sprinting in circles, higher and higher. The man stops at the base of the case, and before I can realize how horrible of a mistake it was to choose this route, he takes a grenade from his belt and pulls out the pin. He lops it as high as he can. I grab at the hand rail moments before the grenade blows out the stairs below me.
As I’m dangling in midair, clawing for purchase amidst the rattling metal, it strikes me; why would he blast his only way of following me? Then I look back and watch him dash up the stairs, and I realize he’s going to chance a jump. Desperate, I haul myself over the stairs and fervently climb the rest. When I’m at the top, I see him leap the chasm - and narrowly make it. He charges after me.
Without thinking, I run for one of the towers in the end of the castle. I weave my way through an intricate maze of halls and rooms, but I don’t lose the pursuer. I burst through to a bedroom suite in the third tower, barring the door with a flat-backed chair. I hurry to the window - opening it, swinging out onto the six-foot ledge, and closing it in one swift motion. I sit down at the edge, take a deep breath, and I jump.
Pain striking my ankle, I land on the second ledge - a slightly larger one I once thought was for decoration - and back away into the shadows closest to the castle wall.
Though muffled, I can hear the assailant breaking down the door.
My heart thudding, I clumsily try to maneuver through a hole in the second ledge about the size of a square yard that leads to nothing. I slip my feet to where blocks of the stone wall are missing; hand and footholds for the escape route no one knows about.
Descended fully from the second ledge, I cling to the handholds, hoping the assailant won’t think to check outside, hoping he won’t know about the second ledge or its escape route, hoping the shadows hide my shaking form. There’s so much riding on hope.
The window above me slides open. I hold my breath as I hear him step out onto the first ledge, as his footsteps get nearer the edge, as he drops onto the second ledge - doesn’t just lean over and look as I’d hoped.
My mind blares. I’m dead. Dear God.
I see the shadows darken half a shade as he grows closer, too close, with me too helpless.
Then I see his face.
For the heartbeat I miss, I consider letting go and dropping to my doom.
He leans down so half his body is through the hole; his face is inches from mine. My mind shuts off and all I can hear is a high-pitched buzzing; all I can see are his incredibly blue eyes. I want to lunge at him, to throttle him; I want to grab him by the neck and pull him down to his doom as well; I want to do anything before I die.
He slips a small envelope in my hand and disappears.
…
I pace the bedchamber on shaky feet. I can’t get my heart to stop skittering; my breaths are all ragged, like I’m enclosed in a glass box and I’m slowly running out of oxygen. Every so often I have to stop and grasp a dresser, a table, anything to steady myself as a wave of vertigo ripples through me.
It shouldn’t be this hard to regain composure; I shouldn’t be this unnerved. The fact that I am is unnerving in and of itself. I massage my temples and try to figure out what’s so wrong about this.
It’s not that several bombs exploded around me; it’s not that I was chased through my castle with the threat of death looming; it’s not even that I was caught, trapped, and basically at the mercy of a stranger poised to kill.
It’s not that he let me go.
Maybe it’s the letter? I clutch it in a sweaty hand, not daring open it now, not until I’m alone in my room; maybe not then. But something tells me I’d be no different without a letter.
The only other thing I can think of is his stare. When he was sliding the letter under my red hand, his gaze was locked on mine; his eyes were solid blue, brown eyelashes framing them; they were pleading, almost, as though begging me to stop some nonsense and follow the right path, the one he’s on. To realize my folly, give up everything I have, and run away after him. The stare was too imminent.
Everything slides around as I’m encompassed once again in dizziness. Distantly, I can hear someone calling my name. My knees buckle and in moments I’m on the floor, head between legs, breathing steadily, deeply. Waiting for the vertigo to pass. Waiting for it all to make sense. The person calls out louder.
I imagine myself coming in from the rain; I imagine myself shooting a bow in the woods; I imagine myself downing one of Acksel’s shots. Clearing my expression, I stand up. I’m fine.
Before I leave the room, I realize I’m still holding the letter. Without thinking, I hide it the only place my strapless dress will allow; down the front. I walk outside the suite, into the hall, to find a small party searching for me.
Vanadis notices me and steps in front of the group. “There you are. Where’s the assailant?” he asks, as though it’s assumed I’ve been keeping tabs on him.
“I-” For a split second I consider telling the truth. “I lost him. Back by the spiral staircase. He blew up the stairs and didn‘t have another way to follow me. I was on my way to the safety chambers when I thought I heard a noise, so I hid here.” I gesture to the suite I was in.
Most of the people in the group accept my story easily - they probably saw the stairs, and if that’s true, what’s to say the rest isn’t? - all but Vanadis. His face is unreadable, and for some reason I really wish it wasn’t.
“Good,” he says flatly. “Soldier Farandol, could you escort the princess back to her suite? Adah, you’re to stay there guarded by armed soldiers until the rest of the castle can be searched.” He turns to Paylor. “When you’re done, there‘ll be a meeting about this in the war rooms. Understand?”
“No,” I cut in. “I’m going to the meeting.” I try to sound firm.
“No, you’re not. You’re a princess; haven’t you learned by now that war rooms aren’t your place?” Vanadis’s voice is almost mocking but… not quite convicted.
“But they are the place of a soldier.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, child.” A stocky man presents himself from the group, and I grimly recognize him; General Lout, Gavin’s father. “You’re not a soldier, you’re just a girl; a woman can never be a real soldier. You’ve not even completed initiation. Now go back to your room, where you belong.”
I ball my fists. “No,” I say. “I’m going.”
“Child, don’t press me.”
I’m about to challenge him when I catch Vanadis’s eyes; his eyebrows are furrowed slightly and his lips are pursed, like he’s telling me Don’t do it. I don’t think I can trust anyone here, but ever since I met him, something in me’s always says to listen to him.
I let out a breath I wasn’t aware I was holding. “Fine.”
General Lout smirks, making me want to take back what I said. “Well then, you two are dismissed.”
My eyes are steel as we walk down the hall towards the third of five back towers, where my old suite is.
I wonder if it’s the same as before, if they left it alone; if my old clothes are all still hanging in my wardrobe; if my old books are still stacked on the shelves; if all my old soaps and perfumes are still in the bathroom; if the walls are still cream, and the floor still copper, and the furniture still a mish-mash of bronze and chocolate; or if they tore all that down when I left. Maybe they burned all my belongings, took down the plaster wall panels and the thick carpet, revealing the stone beneath. Maybe it all sits bare and raw.
We reach the large wooden door and Paylor pushes it open. I brace myself and peer inside.
Empty.
The walls, floor, and furniture is the same, but everything’s gone; all the stuff that made up my first fourteen years. Cleaned out. Thrown away. Discarded. And why not? It’s not like I was ever coming back…
Paylor’s about to leave for the meeting when I say, “Can you unbutton my dress?” I don’t want to ring a servant to undo the dozens of buttons scaling the back of my gown. That would take too long, and Paylor would be too close to the war rooms when they finish.
He nods politely. His fingers caress my back as he works the small beads from their loops. Once he’s done a few, I have to hold the front of my gown to keep it from falling down; I can feel the letter scrape my skin. He finishes and opens the door to exit, but hesitates, leaning against the frame. He looks like he’s fighting himself on whether to say something.
“Princess?”
He can see he has my attention.
“What you did back there, standing up to the general… It was risky. And you couldn’t win. Was it worth it?”
“What do you mean?” I’m still clutching my dress.
“Was it worth getting on his bad side? Was it worth looking difficult? Because if you ever do anything that stupid that could put me and Acksel in danger, it better be worth it. Because if it isn’t - you’ll have to answer to me.”
He closes the door hard behind him.
I have no idea what he was talking about - how anything I do could affect them specifically - and I don’t have time to ponder it. I let my dress drop, the letter with it, and pray there’s some clothes in my dresser. There is, and I quickly change into tough jeans and a black shirt. I want gloves and a hat, but I don’t have them, so I go as is.
I climb out the window to do something risky and stupid, and not once do I stop and ask if it’s worth it.
So. I'm very on-the-edge with the whole action scene at the beginning - action's never been my strong suit, and I'm not sure how well I'm translating the scene from my head. Also, how's the dialogue in the hall, and Paylor's dialogue? And then, I guess, anything else you notice/want to point out.
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