Reign Queen

by L. Darby Gibbs

  “Russal.”

  “And this morning. One mistake, Kambry. Don’t hold me to one mistake.”

  It wasn’t just one. He had been overly protective, limiting her for some time. Last night, leaving her behind when he went to see Burty and the guards had been one too many times. Stopping her when she had hoped to capture whoever was spying on them had been another. A game of manipulate the wall was not enough to show him she could be strong and useful. She wanted to prove to him she was his equal. Then they could be strong together, relying on each other. She needed that, needed to know he viewed her as an equal under any circumstance.

  She held his gaze. “It’s going to take time for us to learn how to be together, but I’m not leaving, Russal.”

  He took her hands in his own, closing his eyes, and pulling her toward him with subtle tugs. Even with his eyelids shut, she could see he desired to hold her close. The gentle tug on her fingertips stayed steady.

  “Why are your eyes closed?” she asked.

  “I don’t want to see you wishing I would step back. I am pretending you are just teasing me, making me wait. I’ll wait forever for you, Kambry.” Sadness seemed to seep into his expression the longer she held back. Not that she didn’t want to be close to him. She couldn’t decide if that was something she was ready for. Shouldn’t they be strong together before they allowed themselves to be weak in each other’s arms?

  It would only take one step to press herself to his chest, step up on her tiptoes and kiss him. Her lips could already feel his tender press. She lifted a foot, still uncertain if she was stepping forward or back.

  A whistle shrilled through the air. Russal dropped his hands from hers and spun around.

  A voice yelled from a short distance away. “Your Majesties?”

  “We’re late for our lunch with Amily and Tomo, I fear,” he said.

  Kambry looked down at her raised foot. Yup, it was in front of her other foot, hanging in the air, the step forward incomplete. She let it drop. Her lips parted, disappointed at having lost the opportunity to kiss him.

  His back to her, his soft words almost went unheard. “She couldn’t have given us one minute more.”

  She reached for him, but he launched himself toward the hedge, parting the thick wall of foliage in an instant. When he turned, it was to beckon her forward to exit their training space. Russal cast a look of longing at the green walls and the high stone. “We must come back here and practice some more.”

  He stepped through the hollowed space in the hedge, his hand reaching through to her. Laying her hand in his warm grasp, she joined him on the other side, the hedge sealing up.

  Lunch with the Condoris proved to be a pleasant break from facing how she felt about Russal. Amily was a cheerful hostess, and unlike Lady Laurents and Mom, she didn’t bring up the obvious tension between her and Russal. Amily whispered in Kambry’s ear when the two were leaving. “It takes time to grow comfortable with each other. Trust your instincts.”

  If only her instincts would supply a clear message.

  Russal had left her abruptly, saying he had a hunch he wanted to check on. So she sat on the balcony outside their bedroom and brooded.

  She was alone again, and this time she didn’t want to go downstairs. What if Felip was there? She had yet to tell Russal he’d been in her parents’ quarters. She thought about the passage just feet from their bed. Sealed by two layers of paneling, it didn’t have a latch and stealthy opening that Felip could sneak through. She ran her hand over the panel. What if she could seal it with Kavin magic? She hurried back to the entrance to their balcony and swung the door open.

  “Kavin, come inside.” She swept her arms wide and a breath of air brushed by her. The curtains on either side of the balcony door swayed. Back at the wall, she ran her hand along the seam and closed her eyes. Seal. Bind yourself into a whole. The panel trembled, and she grinned. Could it be that easy? Could they simply open and close access to the interior tunnels? Felip didn’t have the king's ring; she did. Russal had the original king’s ring, and Felip was not the king.

  She rushed for the stairs and descended, hiking her dress high to keep it from tangling her feet. At the bottom of the stairs, she gazed along the walls of the drawing room. The windows caught her attention and her mouth gaped with excitement. In seconds, she had all three windows wide open, Kavin breezes chasing each other about the room.

  “Where is the secret tunnel, Kavin? Find it, show me.”

  The breeze bumped along the wall, leaving a trail of shifting picture frames, sliding figurines and pages of books flipping as if tiny fairies were casting harried spells. Kambry followed along behind it. A pretty crystal bell dropped off a half-round table against the wall and shattered on the floor.

  Kambry jumped. “Kavin, what if that’s a priceless piece or a memento important to Russal!” She dropped to her knees. Maybe this hadn’t been a good idea. She picked up a sharp sliver. A tiny piece quivered on the floor. Slowly, it pivoted until it was pointing at the baseboard. Kambry shook her head. “I think you could have found another means to direct my attention,” she said, but she leaned close and looked at the tall white molding. There was a seam. She ran her finger over it and air ran past her wrist. It came from the wall. Could that be a draft? With the shards of crystal lying everywhere, she hated the thought of treading on them. She’d have to gather the pieces up before she could inspect the wall.

  She stepped back. There were two sets of vertical molding strips that sectioned off the paneling. They matched all the others that framed stretches of wall in equal widths about the room. But they could also hide the seam of an entrance.

  But what about this crystal? Russal could return soon. Crystal. A natural material. She placed the shard in her hand next to another piece, close to where it had lain. They looked to be matching pieces. She slid the larger one up alongside the small sliver. “Become one,” she said and imagined the bell. She wished she had noted its design better, but she knew what its original form was. And there were several quite large pieces that provided the pattern cut into the dense lead crystal. The two pieces wiggled then lunged at each other. In a moment, the other pieces flew together, reforming the bell and hovering a moment a few inches above the floor. She grabbed it and tugged the reassembled bell to her chest. It would annoy her to have it reconstituted only to fall again and shatter a second time. She shifted the table further along the wall past the next vertical strip of molding and set the bell atop it.

  “I’m liking this new skill.” She needed to make a list of all the ways she had used Kavin magic for so far. But that was for later. With the floor clear of the crystal fragments, she was free to examine the wall. She stepped forward and searched along the strip of wood that lined up with the seam in the baseboard.

  She could see there was a crack indicative of a hidden door, at least similar to ones she’d already seen in the castle. But where was the latch?

  “What are you doing?” Russal said behind her.

  She spun around and gave him a bright smile. “There’s a hidden door here, isn’t there?”

  “Have you been looking for it the entire time?” he teased.

  “Oh, no, I’ve been up to much more than that.”

  Russal stared at her and sent a glance around the room. “Nothing looks any different.”

  “I’ve already put together a thing or two.”

  His eyebrows rose. “Do tell.”

  “Can you open this?”

  He eyed the wall and gave a shrug.

  “Show me.”

  “You think this is where Felip got in yesterday?” he asked.

  “Oh, I’m quite certain of it. Unless there is another secret passage in this room.”

  “That’s the only one.”

  “Then show it to me,” she said. “I am the queen, and this is a queen’s demand.”

  “Well, if you are going to be demanding about it, who am I to presume to refuse?” He walked toward her, a gleam in his
eye.

  What was he up to?

  His arm encircled her waist. “Let me show you.”

  “Russal,” she said, a note of playful warning in her voice.

  It only made his grin grow.

  He tugged her to his side and leaned toward the wall, pulling her with him. “See, right here?”

  Kambry looked where he pointed. His hand curled, cupping her hip and sending tingles over her skin beneath the fabric.

  Russal leaned closer. She found herself pressed forward with him immediately behind her.

  “What are you playing at?” she asked and turned to look over her shoulder.

  “You’re going to miss me activating the latch. Watch.”

  She looked back to his hand lifting an edge from the molding she had been examining. There was an audible click, and the wall shifted a fragment away from them, enough to reveal the full height of the door.

  Russal pushed, and the hidden door swung aside. “There. Now you’ve got what you wanted. What are you planning next?”

  “Hiding it better.”

  She surprised him enough that his arm dropped from her side, and he looked at the wall as if to imagine what sort of camouflage she might devise for hiding the door further. He scratched the back of his neck. “It’s pretty well hidden.”

  “But not from Felip Covey.”

  “No,” he conceded.

  “I propose sealing it up, so no one can get through.”

  “The purpose of a hidden door in a royal chamber is to provide escape to the royal family. You want to seal up our escape route?” He scratched his neck again. “It’s been here a long time.”

  “But it’s unsafe.” She waved her hand at the slightly open door. “Shut it. Can you lock it?”

  “Not so Felip can’t get in.”

  She marched to the stairwell. “And that’s acceptable to you?” She trotted up the stairs, and she could hear Russal hurrying up after her. When she reached the top, she went straight to the panel she had merged with the surrounding frame.

  “Kambry, I’d like to keep him out, but I don’t see how, other than closing off every passageway to everyone. I don’t feel good removing an emergency exit.”

  She rapped the wall with her knuckles. “Open this passage to the mistress’s old rooms.”

  “Why?”

  “No questions,” she chided. “Just do what I ask. If you can,” she added.

  “If I can? Step aside, Queen.”

  His fingers followed the edge of the molding, running up and down it more than once. With a glance over his shoulder at her, he revealed his consternation.

  She giggled, creasing his brow further.

  “It should lift right here,” he said.

  “But it doesn’t, does it?”

  “What did you do?” He pushed and prodded at the panel. “I had it open just last night.”

  “Yes, you did.”

  He lowered his brows at her and tried again to shift the panel up and out of the way. Stepping back, he clasped his hands behind his back and glared at the wall.

  “If you can’t figure out how to open it, do you think Felip can?”

  His look grew serious, and he pushed and shoved at the wall. “Kambry, what did you do?”

  “So, you agree, I must have locked it very well.”

  “I concede you locked it down. But I can’t figure out how you did it, so you are going to have to show me.”

  Kambry bit her lips, trying not to smile too broadly.

  “You want me to admit I’m impressed? I am. Now show me what you did.”

  “I used Kavin magic on it. I put it back together permanently. The access simply does not exist anymore. The passage is still there, but there is no means to get to it.”

  Russal sat down on a chair nearby and shook his head. “You don’t know where I went. You couldn’t have known what I went to do. Yet.” He gave the wall a tight look. “Yet, you accomplished what I only suspected. Kambry, you are the right woman to be queen of Kavin.” He stood and bowed deeply at the waist. “Your Majesty, show your humble servant what you did.”

  “I’ll show you by undoing it. Then we’re going downstairs and sealing that door.”

  Russal gave her a nodding bow, his hands clasped behind his back.

  Kavin, if you please.

  The breeze wafted in the open balcony doors. When she felt it seep into her skin, she concentrated on the panel before her and reimagined the panels separate and removable. With a small push of magic, the panel shifted out of the seam.

  Russal leaped forward and lifted it up and away. In a moment, he had the interior panel out of the way as well. He set them both aside. Eyes glinting, he said, “This is amazing.” He picked up the interior panel and lifted it back into place. “Let’s seal it back up.” In a moment, he had the second panel in place, and Kambry made them permanent.

  “Magic.” He grinned and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”

  They rushed down the stairs together and to the wall. “That’s why you had these windows open. Kavin has access.”

  “Just like the window in the ceiling of the audience chamber. I let Kavin in.”

  He latched the hidden doorway shut and stepped aside.

  Kambry gathered the surrounding air, Kavin magic caressing her skin. The latch, the wallpaper, molding and lathe and plaster behind them became one welded piece.

  “I shouldn’t be surprised, but I find it astonishing. Your actions fit with what I learned. I went to talk to someone whom I think should know about this stuff, and you are running around our chambers sealing off tunnels like it’s of no account.”

  “Would you say we’ve locked Felip out of our chambers?”

  “Yes, I would.”

  “Now what did you find out?”

  “This is what my parents did.” He pointed at the wall. “Beyond the passage is a stone wall that separates the Condori suite from our own.”

  Kambry knew what he meant. She had realized the chambers were next to each other and thought it odd his parents placed their children in an entirely different chamber out of their immediate reach.

  Sudden understanding filled her thoughts. “All they had to do was open the wall, and their children were right there.”

  “I went to see Dorvea. I wanted to ask her if she knew how the king and queen would enter our rooms at night.”

  “She told you they had a tunnel they made using Kavin magic.”

  “She wasn’t sure exactly how they did it, but that’s basically what I came away with. If they needed to reach us, we were a touch of Kavin magic away. They could remove the entire wall if they wished, tuck it aside and step into Dorvea’s room and then into the main apartment. We were never more than a moment away in the night.”

  Chapter Eleven

  He grabbed her hand. “We need to open this passage again.”

  “Huh?” Kambry looked at the wall in the drawing room and then back at Russal. They’d just sealed it.

  “We need to open it back up,” he said, his voice rumbling with excitement. “Let’s enter the hidden corridors and seal up all the doors. We can block Felip Covey and whoever else is running about our castle. We can take away their ease of movement and drive them into the open.”

  “Okay.” She considered how that would challenge those supporting Covey’s plan to be king. By taking away Covey and Maizalyn’s access to the hidden passages, Russal and Kambry would force the two out of hiding. “You open it up,” she said.

  He kissed the back of her hand. “As you wish.”

  Before he had taken a step, Kambry called out, “Wait. We won’t have Kavin Wood to provide the magic once we’re inside the passages.”

  “You’re right.” He half turned to face her when she stopped him and turned back to face the wall. Rapping his knuckles on the solid wall, he followed with his gaze the seam which once outlined the door.

  “There has to be another way,” she said.

  Nodding and giving the wall a last ha
rd rap, he beamed at her. “There is another way. Come with me.” He took her hand and tugged her toward the exit from their chambers. “Why didn’t I think of it before?”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To the map room.”

  “What makes this map room so special?” she asked as they left their chambers, waving at the guards standing on either side of the elaborately decorated door.

  Russal shrugged. “It’s full of maps.”

  “And....” She hurried to catch up so she could walk beside him, their quick steps muffled by thick carpet running along the corridor.

  “You’ll see.”

  Kambry realized his caution had merit. They were planning to block Felip, and those who acted in his place, from a means to go wherever they pleased in the castle. She thought about Felip’s statement that he would protect her from what others had planned, people who thought nothing of removing a finger or killing her to take the ring that gave her the power to contact and direct Kavin magic.

  She sucked in a breath. Had that been the reason behind killing the king and queen? Had they hoped to gain both rings, but had only gotten the queen’s because Russal was wearing his father’s? But Kavin magic was a gift; they couldn’t just take it. Whoever had attacked Russal’s parents had thought possessing the rings was the same as possessing the magic. If they were that desperate for power, pulling them out into the open might just force their hand.

  She pondered further the choices they had before them. Weren’t they desperate long before now to kill for that power? Distracted, Kambry realized just before they stepped over the threshold that they were in the rooms behind the throne. Passages riddled the old part of the castle. Wasn’t that how Russal believed the assassins had gotten in without the guards knowing?

  “Russal, is the map room inside the old castle?”

  “The central tower in the old keep.” He gave her a nodding glance over his shoulder before tugging her down a narrow hallway. Scrapping a long stick match, Russal set about lighting the candles mounted in sconces set at intervals as they walked. The old fortification was not the airy place of the newer additions built around it. In the confined hall, the scent of sulfur immediately tainted the air and seemed to hang there. How would Kavin Wood reach this map room if it was deep within the inner keep and lacked even a hint of airflow?