Chapter 12

12

There are thoughts privately held that may not be publicly shared, not until the majority turns.

~ Abayar, founder Sandsteader Press

Vlerion pulled the hidden door to the spymaster’s office shut, plunging the tight passageway into darkness. Still clasping Kaylina’s hand, he led her a couple of steps toward the stairs, but she slipped out of his grip and stopped.

“Don’t you want to hear what he says?” she whispered.

In the gloom, she sensed more than saw Vlerion turn. “He knows about this passage, and he’ll know the guards didn’t let me out the main door.”

“Yeah, but?—”

“And I don’t know this castle well. We’ll have to hide somewhere and escape later or get out before he raises?—”

A door in the office thumped. “Where’s Vlerion?”

Milnor.

Vlerion found Kaylina’s hand and gripped it again, but she resisted being pulled away.

“Just for a minute,” she breathed, well aware that Vlerion had the strength to hoist her over his shoulder and carry her.

“He wasn’t here when I came in, spymaster,” Shylea said.

“His taybarri didn’t break him out.”

“Uh, no, spymaster. I wouldn’t think so. I came to report for tonight’s duty. Does the prince’s arrival change anything as far as my?—”

“The taybarri wanted to break him out,” Milnor said, raising his voice over hers. “I have no doubt. That male is his mount, and I think the female belongs to the Korbian girl. She’s in the castle too.”

“Ah, yes, spymaster. But the prince. Do we need to?—”

“I want those two, and I want them executed,” Milnor said. “The girl had a role in Sabor’s death; I know it for a fact now. Spy Yevarro just got back from questioning Bloomlong. Korbian delivered the killing blow. The beast hurt Sabor, but she killed him. A commoner from some backward island down south. The gall .”

Vlerion did as Kaylina had feared, stepping forward and hoisting her more easily than she’d picked up her bag of mead. She found herself draped over his shoulder with his arm around her legs and her face pressed into his back. Vlerion broke into a jog, somehow finding his way in the gloom without tripping or bumping her against the wall.

Only after he descended the stairs did she risk lifting her head and speaking. “How did the taybarri get in? They can’t flash through gates, right?”

“Correct.”

She imagined the portcullis ripped from its mounting hardware. A group of taybarri had done that before, after all. “Do you think we can ride out without being killed?”

“We’ll see.”

“Do you think we can stop in the kitchen for the mead I brought? If there’s not going to be a tasting…”

“ No .”

“There were a lot of bottles of mead. I hadn’t even opened them yet.”

“No.”

Vlerion set her down and pushed against a wooden portion of the wall, sliding something rectangular a couple of inches outward. Another bookcase? Or maybe a grandfather clock? Either way, it wasn’t the entrance the staff had used.

Kaylina knew collecting her mead wasn’t a priority—more than ever, she had to make sure Vlerion escaped the castle—but she couldn’t help but wish she could retrieve it.

“Will you follow me the rest of the way out?” Vlerion asked quietly as someone ran past the clock, not noticing the way it was shifted slightly out from the wall. “Or do I need to carry you to the courtyard?”

“Is that where we are?”

They weren’t near the kitchen where Kaylina had first entered the maze of hidden passageways. She had no idea where in the castle they were , but Vlerion had to know these routes better than he’d implied.

“We’re not far from it,” he whispered as someone else clattered past—a guard in chainmail with weapons jangling on his belt.

A roar sounded. That was Levitke.

“They’re not being subtle, are they?” Kaylina whispered.

“Taybarri aren’t known for that. You didn’t answer my question.” Vlerion put a hand on her waist.

“I can run.”

“But will you?”

“There’s nobody to eavesdrop on here.”

Or so she thought. An irritated male voice came from the end of the hall, the direction opposite the roars. “Someone get those cursed beasts out of my courtyard. How did they get inside?”

“They won’t let themselves be captured, Your Highness!” someone called.

“Then shoot them.”

Vlerion growled. He didn’t have his sword, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a threat.

“They’re taybarri, Your Highness,” came the shocked response.

“Just get rid of them.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Another growl emanated from Vlerion’s throat.

“Do you need to hum?” Kaylina whispered, resting a hand on his back.

“I might.”

They waited for whatever guard had been responding to the prince to race down the hallway toward the roars. But nobody passed by the clock again. Maybe this hallway didn’t connect to the courtyard after all?

Another ferocious roar sounded.

We’re making our way out to you, Kaylina thought, imagining Levitke’s face and willing the words to reach her. Don’t let yourselves be captured or shot, please. Otherwise, we’ll need to escape on a geriatric donkey.

The next roar sounded indignant as well as ferocious.

Vlerion risked pushing the clock farther from the wall and leaning out for a better look.

“The hall is empty,” he said after a moment.

“That’s… odd, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” But he slipped out, waving for her to follow.

Kaylina did but looked in the direction the prince had been shouting from. Though some more noises came from the end of the long hallway, he wasn’t in view. Neither were any guards.

A whisper of cool night air, salty from the harbor, came from the same direction as the taybarri roars. Kaylina didn’t have to be urged again to run after Vlerion as he headed toward an open door leading to the courtyard.

As she’d suspected, they were in a different part of the castle from the kitchen. Alas, there was no opportunity to pop in and retrieve her bottles.

“If they don’t send my mead back,” she whispered as she ran after Vlerion, “I’m going to have Frayvar send them an invoice.”

“ That’s your biggest concern right now?” Vlerion glanced back, amused despite their predicament.

“Not my biggest, no, but it’s a concern. The blackberry mead is really high quality.”

“Aren’t they all high quality?”

Kaylina lifted her chin. “Yes, they are.”

Vlerion stopped at the door to the courtyard to look out.

“There are guards… but they’re not trying to grab our taybarri. That stable boy holding his arm might have. Foolish.”

“You don’t try to grab a taybarri unless you have honey drops in your hand. Everyone should know that.”

Vlerion leaned out farther. “The taybarri saw me and are heading this way. The gate is closed, but they’ve gotten through it before.”

Crenoch and Levitke appeared, running toward them.

“Watch for weapons fire,” Vlerion warned. “Get on and stay low.”

“Got it,” Kaylina said.

The taybarri stopped in front of the door, turning to bare their fangs at anyone who dared approach while offering their backs for their riders. Kaylina, afraid of guards on the ramparts who might have blunderbusses aimed at them, mounted as quickly as Vlerion. Night had fallen while she’d been inside, but there were lights aplenty in the courtyard for guards to take aim.

On Crenoch’s back, Vlerion took the lead, the taybarri loping toward the gate, snarling menacingly as they went. Staying low, Kaylina glanced toward the castle walls as Levitke ran after them. There were guards up there, and they did have blunderbusses, as well as bows and swords, but she didn’t see anyone with a weapon lifted.

When she and Vlerion approached the gate, the grumpy senior guard who’d reluctantly let Kaylina in before lifted an arm. But not to stop them. He pointed at someone, and the portcullis rolled up.

“Oops, it’s malfunctioning, sir,” the guard operating it called cheerfully. “ Again .”

“We’ll have the engineer check it in the morning,” the senior guard said, standing aside so the taybarri could ride through.

One guard even stepped out to hand Kaylina’s sword to her.

Vlerion lifted a hand toward them. Kaylina gaped at the guards. As the taybarri carried her and Vlerion toward the road that descended down the side of the plateau, her shoulders were tense. She expected at least one of the men to do as the prince had ordered and shoot them. True, the prince had ordered the taybarri shot, but Kaylina trusted he would like her and Vlerion dead too. Milnor, at the least, wanted that.

Despite her concerns, no weapons fire trailed them down from the plateau.

“What just happened?” Kaylina asked as they neared the bottom.

“King Gavatorin is dead,” Vlerion said, as if that explained everything.

But he gazed thoughtfully back up at the castle as they rode into the city streets, and Kaylina didn’t think he’d expected this outcome either.