by Tikiri
I thought I heard a dismissive sniff, but couldn’t say for sure. She reached for her glass of wine with her gloved hand and took a sip. It was like I wasn’t even there. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Chloe move closer. I could feel her eyes boring into my back.
“Does this young lady work for you, Madame Bouchard?”
I looked up, startled. The chairs were close enough and Chef Pierre seemed to have the ears of a fox.
The Diplomatic Dragon Lady replied in a crisp tone. “Many work for me around the world, monsieur. I do not recall every one of them.”
I felt a breeze of Arctic air from somewhere, and a shiver went through me.
“Well, this young lady has a special talent, I can tell you. I might steal her from you, madame, if you don’t watch out.” He gave a hearty belly laugh.
“I am not the least bit concerned, monsieur,” she said, putting her glass down with a gesture of finality. “I prefer help who know their place.” She paused. “Especially at official foreign functions.”
A hand slammed down on my shoulder, and I was pulled away. It was Chloe.
“Mademoiselle!” She turned me around violently. “Please return to your station,” she said in a sharp whisper. “Now!”
“But—”
“I’ve tolerated enough!” she hissed.
Bang!
The room fell silent. Chloe’s hand dropped from my shoulder. Everyone whipped around in their seats, and a murmur rippled through the crowd.
The two foot guards who’d been standing like statues at the doorway rushed toward the baroness. One of them whispered something in her ear and helped her out of her chair. Within seconds, she was whisked away through the doors.
Bang! Again. This time, it was clearly a gunshot.
Inside the dining room, chaos erupted.
“Oh my god!”
“What’s going on?”
“Terrorists!”
“Someone do something!”
“Don’t panic!” someone yelled with a distinct note of panic in his voice.
Chloe tried to take charge. She walked over to the baroness’s empty chair and waved her arms. “Mesdames et messieurs, please take your seats. S’il vous plait. Security has been called. Please. We must stay calm.”
But no one was listening to her. Half the people were getting up. Some walked over to the windows and peered out. A smattering of guests had decided to walk out of the room altogether, and a few sat frozen in their seats, looking like zombies. The Diplomatic Dragon Lady was on her phone, talking urgently, maybe to her own security detail. Chef Pierre was fanning a purple-haired woman next to him who’d just fainted.
Where’s Katy?
I dashed out to the mezzanine, dodging an elderly couple scurrying out of the ballroom, and two guardsmen running into the room. Katy was standing at the top of the stairway, holding on to the railing, peering down with a troubled look on her face.
“What’s going on?” I asked when I caught up to her.
“Don’t know,” she said. “But I heard it come from downstairs.”
We looked at each other.
“Do you think—?” She stopped, her face pale. Tetyana’s gun flashed to mind. A sinking feeling in my stomach said this had something to do with her. With us.
“Let’s go find them,” I said. “This way.” I ran down the stairs.
“Oh my god, I hope they’re okay,” Katy said, scrambling after me. We got to the bottom of the landing, just as a small figure ran up to us.
“Greta!” Katy and I called out at the same time.
The girl’s face was flushed. She pulled at our elbows and said something urgently in German.
“What is it Greta?” Katy asked. “What’s going on?”
The girl spoke rapidly, gesturing madly toward the castle kitchens. The only word I made out was police.
“Hold it, Greta,” I said. “Tetyana? Okay?”
She shook her head.
Oh no.
“Luc, okay?”
She shook her head again.
Katy and I looked at each other.
“Win? okay?”
She shook her head again.
I felt sick to my stomach. The sound of men hollering came from the other end of the corridor, where Greta had run out of. She grabbed us and pulled us into the shadows under the stairway. And there we remained quietly as a group of men stampeded up the stairs, shouting, Police!
They’re after us! What have they done with the others?
When the men reached the top floor, Greta pointed at a corridor nearby and pulled on our arms urgently. I threw down my chef hat and undid my apron. Katy followed quickly. We tiptoed out from under the stairway and turned into the corridor, following our young guide. It seemed like a commotion was happening upstairs now. A woman screamed. A man shouted.
What in god’s name is going on?
Glancing behind us every few seconds, Katy and I followed Greta. She walked softly but swiftly, keeping close to the wall. Thankfully, the carpet softened our footsteps. On one side of this corridor were full-length stained-glass windows, and on the other side were doorways that led to the libraries and sitting rooms of the castle. I could smell the expensive cigars and velvet luxury as we walked by them. No one was in sight.
Greta kept moving forward, a finger on her lips, stepping softly, panning the area, like a young warrior on a mission. Katy and I followed silently, perplexed. We had no choice but to trust her right now. The noise had begun to recede and we hadn’t seen anyone else.
At the end of the corridor was a massive wooden door, which was where Greta seemed to be leading us. When we got to the door, I reached to open it, but it was locked. But Greta wasn’t even looking at it. She opened a much smaller door nearby with a sign that said, “Härentoilette,” and stepped inside, motioning us to follow her.
Katy and I stepped in after her, wondering what rabbit hole she was taking us into. We were in one of the castle toilets, and around us were the plushest stalls I’d ever seen in my life.
Greta walked up to the small window at the back, unlatched it and opened it wide. We peered outside to the castle gardens. There was no one on this end of the grounds. Using her hands, Greta gestured for us to get out.
“Through the window?” Katy asked.
“Wait,” I said. “But what about the others? Where are they?”
Greta shrugged her shoulders. She had no idea what we were saying. I looked at Katy. And before we could say anything else, Greta had scrambled onto the toilet and was out of the window.
“Komm häihin!” We heard her whisper urgently from outside. “Ech Kommen!”
I climbed out and Katy followed. Greta made a motion to close the window, and Katy pressed against it to make sure no one would notice it had been opened.
We were now facing the woods on the other end of the castle, where Luc had joked earlier that werewolves slept.
From somewhere behind us on the castle grounds, we heard people shouting.
“Laft!” Greta said, pointing to the woods. I stared at her. She gave me a push and pointed at the woods again.
The voices were getting closer.
Greta looked furious that we weren’t getting what she was saying. She stamped her foot down. “Laft!” Another push.
“Police!” I heard someone shout from around the corner.
Katy and I bolted toward the woods, without a glance back.
Part EIGHT
One ship drives east and another drives west
With the self-same winds that blow;
‘Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
That tells them the way to go.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Chapter Forty-eight
We stopped at the edge of the woods and ducked behind a massive oak tree.
Peeking from behind it, I saw the strangest sight. Two police officers were running after a man we’d not seen before. Despite his girth and fancy shoes, he seemed to
have a slight advantage on the officers. They disappeared around the corner, not even noticing the little girl standing next to the castle doors.
When they were gone, Greta turned away and walked around the building, but not before giving a cheeky grin and a wave in our direction.
Katy and I looked at each other, puzzled.
I motioned to her to follow me into the woods, where no one could see us. We treaded carefully among the trees and found a small opening to sit in. Katy removed her heels and rotated her ankles before putting them back on again, wincing slightly. We’d been dressed to cater to a royal party, not run into the woods. The canopy above us was teaming with sparrows, their songs filling the air. They didn’t seem to notice the drama happening right under their beaks.
“How did they know we were here?” Katy asked.
I shook my head. “Can’t be Fred’s goons. These men were in uniforms. Didn’t you also hear the police sirens?”
She nodded. “And two shots,” she said, looking at me with wide eyes. “I hope Tetyana didn’t get into a gunfight.”
“The police don’t just shoot like that, do they? Unless she did something rash….” I had no idea how police reacted in these circumstances. “Maybe she pulled her gun out, when she saw them come.”
“Maybe this is all something to do with her, not us,” Katy said. “We don’t even know where she’s been before, and her story’s a bit strange.”
She had a point. We knew nothing about her, and the little we did didn’t line up.
“But why were they chasing that man?” I said. “What does he have to do with us?”
Katy shrugged her shoulders.
Something rustled among the trees. We turned our heads around. Nothing. The sparrows stopped for a second before resuming their singing again.
“We’ve got to get back,” I said. “We can’t leave them back there.”
We got up, dusted our skirts and were ready to leave when we heard a crashing sound. It was like a herd of wildebeest were stampeding our way. I grabbed Katy’s arm and ran through the trees, pulling her with me.
“Run!” I yelled.
“Stop!” someone shouted behind us.
We heard, but we didn’t look or stop. We kept running, zigzagging our way through the trees. I didn’t know if they were still following us, because all I could hear was my heart pounding inside me like an angry African drum. We must have run quite a bit, but Katy’s heel caught something and she came crashing down with a cry.
“Katy!” I stopped and rushed back to her.
She groaned.
I knelt beside her. She clutched her foot. Her shoe had been flung away when she fell. She groaned again. The sound of others running came closer, and I looked for a hiding spot. The best we could do was to get behind a large tree, but I’d have to carry Katy now, and she was not a small girl.
“Asha!”
“Katy!”
I swiveled around to see Win and Luc appear from between the trees and come running toward us. Win threw her arms around me, nearly bowling me over. Luc plopped on the ground next to Katy panting, and everyone started to talk at once.
“Are you okay?”
“Did you see the police?”
“What happened?”
“Where’s Tetyana?”
“Did Greta tell you—?”
“Wait!” I said, shushing everyone. From the distance came the sound of a dog barking. We looked at each other in alarm.
“Dogs?” I said.
“We have to move,” Luc said scrambling up. “They’ve got guns.”
“Katy, how are you doing?” I asked.
She massaged her foot. “Nothing major. Hurts a bit, but I can walk. I lost my shoe—”
Without a word, Win plunked a pair of red canvas shoes on Katy’s lap. We stared at her as she rummaged around and brought out another pair and handed them to me.
“How did you—,” I said, noticing Luc was carrying two of our bags as well.
“No time to explain,” Luc said. “If those are tracking dogs, we gotta start running.”
“What about Tetyana?” I said, putting the shoes on.
We heard the barking again.
“We gotta run, guys,” Luc said, giving a worried look toward the direction of the castle. “Now!”
We got up and started running, like our lives depended on it. We were deep in the woods now. We ran nonstop, dodging rocks, jumping over roots that jutted out of the forest floor, ducking under low-hanging evergreen branches, always keeping an eye out for each other, making sure no one was left behind. We stopped a few times for ten seconds or so to catch our breath, but we kept running.
Fifteen minutes into our run, I felt a sharp pang on my right side. I stopped and leaned against a tree, trying to catch my breath, waiting for the pain to pass.
“Asha!” Luc cried out and stopped. Katy and Win stopped as well.
“Go ahead,” I said, “I’ll catch up.”
All three stumbled toward me, panting loudly, and plunked themselves at my feet. I slipped to the ground next to them.
“Sorry, have a cramp,” I said, trying to breathe through the sharp pangs. “You guys go.”
No one spoke. Everyone was breathing loudly like we’d run a mile. But we had run a mile or more, I thought, looking at the dark canopy behind us. I can’t believe we came through all that.
“I need to stop too,” Luc said.
“Me too,” Win said.
Katy merely nodded, saving her breath.
“Do you have water in the bag?” I asked Win. She shook her head.
We leaned against the trees for a minute. We couldn’t hear the dogs anymore. It must have been well past eight, but there was still some light left from the midsummer’s day. The forest was quiet, but somewhere nearby we could hear a river.
We were sitting on a carpet of springy moss that had masked our running footsteps. The place looked peaceful, but I shivered. Too peaceful. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but the woods felt enchanted. Vines the size of a man’s arm intertwined with tree branches, looking like prehistoric snakes crawling over the trees. The trees themselves seemed to huddle close together, as if they were hiding things they didn’t want us to see.
Then, in that quiet, a bird suddenly burst into song on a branch above us. I looked up to see a plain brown sparrow with his chest puffed out, like a miniature feathered Pavarotti.
Luc looked up to where the bird was perched, singing its little heart out. “Can you guys climb up that?”
“Climb?” Katy asked.
“It’ll be safer,” Luc said. “And we can rest a bit.”
I looked at the low branches. “It’ll do,” I said.
Win was already up and reaching for a branch. The bird flew away as soon as it heard the rustle of the leaves. “It’s not hard,” we heard Win say from above us, straddling a branch. She pointed at a knot on the tree. “Use that to step up.”
Katy climbed up behind her, and I followed. We got three quarters of the way up, where the branches were still broad enough to sit. Katy even found a spot to lean against. Luc wanted to go higher, but I didn’t trust the smaller branches above. Dogs may still sniff us out, I thought, but at least we’d have some cover from people coming this way.
“What happened to Tetyana?” I asked Luc and Win as soon as they settled in.
“We don’t know,” Luc said.
“Don’t know?” Katy asked.
“We were in the kitchen with Greta when we heard the police sirens,” Luc said, “Tetyana told us to get our bags and meet her at the cellar. She was going to get you and we were all going to run to the woods, because we couldn’t get to our van anymore.”
“So we stuffed everything into our bags,” Win said. “That’s how I had your shoes.”
Luc turned to Katy. “You still have the cash packet, right? We couldn’t find it in your room.”
She nodded, patting her chest. I’d vaguely noticed her breasts had enlarged
in the recent days, and now I knew why.
“We were ready to leave, when Tetyana came running saying the building’s full of cops and she couldn’t get to you. So we asked Greta to find you,” Luc said.
“We didn’t understand everything she was telling us, but she helped,” I said.
“I think she thought it was a game,” Win said.
“So how did you get out?” Katy asked.
“We got to the cellar through the servants’ quarters,” Luc said. “Then we started walking through the tunnels because that was the only way out. When we got to the end and opened the door to the parking lot, we saw a cop standing near the back door.”
“Oh no,” Katy said.
“We couldn’t go back in. The cop had already spotted us and was waving us over. That was when Tetyana pointed to the van and started yelling.”
“She shouted something about a man and a gun or something like that,” Win said.
“When the cop turned to look at the van, Tetyana told us to run to the woods,” Luc said.
“So we ran,” Win said.
“Then we heard the gunshot.”
“Did she get shot?” I asked, my heart in my mouth.
“I looked back, but she was still standing,” Luc said. “So was the cop. They were both staring at our van. No idea what was going on.”
Win shook her head. “It was hard to see because we were running.”
“There was a second gunshot though,” Katy said.
No one said a word.
“She’s a fighter,” I said, more to myself. “She’s gonna be okay.”
We sat quietly for a minute, trying to imagine where she was, what she was going through.
“I feel bad for leaving her,” Win said finally.
“She knows what she’s doing,” I said. “Besides, she’d have got mad if you hadn’t listened to her.”
“Can we go back now?” Katy said. “We can’t just sit here.”
“If the cops got her,” Luc said, “there’s not much we can do right now.”
I peered through the woods. It was dark, and we were in the thick of the forest. “I’m worried we’ll get lost,” I said. “It’ll be better in the day.”
“So we spend the night here?” Katy asked. “And tomorrow?”