“I need to put food in my mouth and a roof over my head just like the next woman.” There was a trace of bitterness in her voice.
“You’ll have that and more, I promise you that.”
She snorted. “As long as you don’t promise me honey and ambrosia, I might believe you. Now stop talking.”
Dev closed his mouth before the next question could escape, and he gave her back a speculative glance as she started climbing. It was refreshing to meet someone who was so unabashed about admitting she was acting out of self-interest. He’d take Tansy’s blatant pragmatism over the games some of his courtiers liked to play, any day of the week.
The stairway ended in a trap door, and Dev waited while Tansy crouched under it, her ear pressed to the wood, her face strained as she listened. Dev couldn’t shake the uncanny sensation that someone was watching him, and he kept looking down the stairs, expecting guards to burst through the door and drag the two of them back down. Several seconds later, Tansy’s expression eased, and she slowly pushed the trap door open, just enough so she could peek through. After a moment of looking, she pushed it all the way open and hauled herself up, Dev following in her wake.
What he heard made Dev think someone was on the same floor as them, and he lunged for a wall, throwing himself against it as he staggered and almost fell. Tansy stood calmly over the trap door, looking at him with an inquisitive expression.
“I thought someone was here,” he mumbled.
“Why do you think I looked before I led you up here? Because I enjoy the view?” The words were softened by her faint smile. “It’s coming from the window over there.”
His eyes followed where her finger pointed, and he could just see a slice of the window. Taking a shaky step away from the wall, he headed for the window, feeling more than a little foolish as he realized what he’d heard were the sounds of battle. Horses thundered across the field, footmen marched, and captains rode up and down their lines, shouting orders and encouragement at their troops. Above the din, a battle hymn rose, and Dev smiled, closing his eyes. He’d heard Jess’s troops singing that same song many times, when they had a break from their training. It was ancient, almost as old as the Realm itself, passed down from soldier to soldier. It was the song they always sang to give them heart when they rode into battle, to remind them of the land they loved and the reasons why they were fighting.
“What is that?” Tansy asked, following him to the window and looking out at the field. It was so far from where they stood that it seemed to belong to a different world.
“It’s called The Chant of the First Warrior. You’ve never heard it?”
“And where would I have heard that? In the Reykstend household, where I grew up? Of course I haven’t heard it before, and the troops I’ve known don’t do much singing unless they’re in their cups.”
Dev smiled, feeling a bolt of pride for Lyrane, a Realm he’d come to love almost as much as his own. “There is a song in Lyrane for everything. Music fills the streets, the air. When Lyranian troops ride off to battle, they sing that song and have done for as long as recorded history. I’m surprised you’ve never heard anything about Lyranian song.”
Tansy shrugged, one shoulder rising higher than the other. “Where I’m from, there isn’t much time for glorious tales of other Realms.” Her voice was laced with sarcasm and Dev was abashed, suddenly conscious of his own sense of importance.
“Of course,” he said, the smile falling from his face. They were both silent for a few seconds longer, watching the lines of troops advancing.
“I should like to see such a place for myself,” Tansy said, her voice hushed. Surprised, Dev turned to her.
“You may yet get your wish.”
A new sound filled the air, and Dev’s stomach clenched, all fanciful thoughts driven from his head. He saw a few troops go down, victims of the arrows that now sang from the tower.
“We’d best move. There’s little time left.” Tansy’s voice was brisk and her face expressionless, but the way she hurried told Dev she was concerned, a feeling he shared.
More of the fog cleared, and Dev’s limbs felt stronger as they skulked around the floor. Just as Tansy had said, she led them to another staircase that went down. It was narrow, enclosed between the outer wall and a less thick inner wall.
“Servants’ stairs,” Tansy said in response to Dev’s unasked question.
It didn’t take long for Dev to feel grateful for the narrowness of the stairs, despite the sensation of being squashed between the walls like a bug. He could hold his arms bent at the elbows and brace himself against both walls, which made it a little easier for him to descend on his still-weak legs. There was no more song now. The battle had begun in earnest, and he knew no one had breath to spare for it. Even through the thickness of the tower’s outer walls, Dev could hear the vague sounds of troops shouting, horses screaming, and the clash of weapons. A thundering noise came from below, shaking the tower, which didn’t do much to make him more comfortable on the tiny staircase.
“We have to hurry,” Tansy said, her tone urgent. “They must be battering the doors. It won’t be long before Ellaria goes looking for you, and it won’t be difficult for her to retrace our steps. She knows this tower better than anyone.”
The words sent a chill of fear down Dev’s spine and prodded him to move his legs faster.
“Do you know of someplace we can hide?”
Tansy shook her head vehemently. “We can duck into some spots here and there, but we’ll have to keep moving or they’ll catch up with us.”
“Then let’s hope we’ll soon find my friends,” Dev said, gritting his teeth as the tower shook again, this time even more violently.
Chapter 44
“That’s five down. Forty-five left, according to Prince Devaran,” Rahib said, wiping his blades clean.
Jess swiped hair from her eyes with the back of her hand. The guards hadn’t been interested in surrender, and she hoped she and her party had dispatched them quickly and quietly enough that the rest of the tower hadn’t noticed.
“Less the twenty archers, that leaves another thirty guards with melee weapons—twenty five,” Jess amended, glancing down at the guards they’d killed. She wondered whether they’d chosen to fight to the death rather than surrender because they held such fervent belief in Ellaria, or because they feared the combined wrath of Mallaric and the royal families of Estoria and Lyrane. She hoped it was the latter and not the former. Things would be much more complicated if Ellaria’s followers were zealots and not simple opportunists.
“I think I found something here, Mule,” Pala said, sounding like she had to force the last word from her throat. Jess felt a flash of amusement that surprised her, given the dire nature of their situation. She’d been jesting when she had suggested the name, but she had to admit it was rather entertaining to watch her loyal guards struggle to call their princess by such a moniker.
Joining Pala, Jess ran her hands over the wall where Pala indicated, and she felt the slight difference too. Exchanging a glance, she and Pala both put their shoulders to the wall and pushed. The false wall swung inward, a staircase spiraling up into the gloom above. So far they’d been fortunate. They were now on the fifth floor of the tower, and it was the first place they’d been forced to fight Ellaria’s guards. They’d managed to make it up to the fourth floor courtesy of deserted servants’ staircases, but they’d been forced to take the main staircase up to the fifth floor, and Holen had earned a deep gash on his arm for their troubles. Still, even though everyone—Jess included—had been wounded in the fight, the other wounds were superficial, and Holen’s gash should heal well enough once a physician saw to it.
Before heading up the stairs, they stripped Ellaria’s dead guards of their weapons, taking what they could and hastily hiding what they could not carry. Holen switched places with Loren, as his injured arm would slow him down, and Jess cast a covert glance at it before following Loren up the stairs. What she saw m
ade her wince, and she knew he hadn’t been honest when he’d told her that the injury didn’t pain him much. If they didn’t get him to a physician in enough time, the wound might fester and he could lose his arm. Jess tried her best to push the thought from her mind. There was nothing for it now. The best thing she could do for Holen was make quick work of rescuing Dev and returning them all to safety.
They crept up the stairs, Jess’s ears straining to hear what was happening above them. There were guards on the sixth floor; their heavy tread gave them away. Fortunately for Jess and her companions, the stairs continued up two more floors before ending in another false stone wall. Pala was so still she looked almost as if she’d been carved from the stone as she pressed her ear to the wall and listened. Jess could see no more than the vaguest outline of her guard as Pala held up four fingers. Flashing four of her own fingers at Pala, Jess waited for confirmation, but it was clear Pala couldn’t be certain of what she was hearing, and Jess gestured to her to remain still while she turned to her other companions, signaling to them to prepare for a fight.
Pala dropped to a crouch and Loren leaned over her, sliding his fingers around the edges of the hidden door and looking down for Pala’s signal before he pulled it open a crack. As it opened, Pala launched a throwing dagger, and Jess heard a gurgle on the other side of the wall, followed by the sounds of confusion. Loren shoved the door open the rest of the way, and Jess and her companions took advantage of their enemies’ surprise.
Six guards were inside, not four as Pala had thought. Pala’s well-aimed dagger had taken out one, but there were still five others to contend with, and before Jess could stop him, one of the enemy guards brought a horn to his lips and let out a single blast. Rahib leapt forward and slit his throat, but it was too late. Footsteps thundered down the staircase.
“More guards!” Jess shouted to her companions, the element of surprise lost, then she turned her attention to the guards who were already in the chamber. Best to deal with them before reinforcements arrived.
A female guard came at Jess, but she danced out of reach, dropping to a crouch and sweeping one of her dirks across the back of the woman’s unprotected knee. The woman howled in agony, and Ashra finished her off. Scanning the chamber, Jess saw that another two guards were down. The remaining three were injured but still fighting, and Jess’s companions had suffered some injuries as well. Another three guards burst from the stairwell, and Jess heard even more feet heading their way.
The next several minutes were a blur of thrusting, parrying, and leaping out of harm’s way. Jess took a slash to her right thigh, and a glancing blow from another guard’s sword left a line of searing pain across her left cheek, but her companions were never far from her side, taking the bulk of the injuries themselves to spare their princess. Once they’d dispatched Ellaria’s guards, Jess used her forearm to wipe the sweat from her forehead, panting as her eyes flitted from one companion to the next.
“Pala!” Jess cried, stumbling across the chamber and falling to her knees beside the other woman. Pala’s eyes were open, staring up at the stone ceiling, and tears blurred Jess’s vision. Jess’s fingers were clumsy as they moved over Pala’s body, frantic to find some sign of life.
“She’s gone,” Loren whispered, his voice thick. He put a hand on Jess’s shoulder. “I’m sorry but we cannot linger here. Other guards—”
As if his words had summoned them, six more guards dashed into the chamber, and when Jess saw who was with them, an incandescent rage lit her.
“Ellaria,” Jess growled, rising to a fighting stance.
“My, what a prize we have here!” Ellaria crowed. “The gods must smile upon me indeed, for I have not one but two royals trapped in my tower.”
“I’ll see you dead for what you did,” Jess said. She spat on Ellaria’s feet. Loren’s hand fell from Jess’s shoulder, and he took a step in front of her, shielding her right side.
“You and your friends are looking a bit worse for the wear,” Ellaria said, speaking in a strange, high voice, as if she were soothing an injured child. “Lay down your weapons and I may be persuaded to grant you a much more merciful death.”
“That’s an offer I’ll have to refuse,” Jess said, narrowing her eyes.
“Come now, my dear Jessmyn. I have only to call and more guards will join me. You’re wounded and outnumbered.”
“You have ten more guards, at best. True, you have archers, but I dare say they’re a bit occupied right now, and I’ll wager the rest of your guards are somewhere near the bottom of the tower. I heard the door give several minutes ago, so I doubt their chances of ever reaching you are very good. Is it difficult to breathe with the noose tightening around your neck?” Jess sneered.
The smirk dropped from Ellaria’s face and her eyes went wild. “I cannot lose to you! I will avenge my father!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. Even her guards flinched.
“You’d be wiser to surrender. I hear King Mallaric has an excellent headsman. He’ll take yours off with one quick, clean blow,” a raspy voice said. Jess’s knees turned to water, and it was all she could do to remain upright.
“Care for a weapon, Your Highness?” Ashra asked, handing a dagger to Dev, who stepped from the shadow of yet another hidden door, a terrified-looking girl trailing behind him, clinging to the tattered remnants of Dev’s clothing.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Dev said, taking it from her and trying to affect a cocky grin, but Jess could read the exhaustion in every line of his body. He looked half-starved, and the rage washed over Jess once again, making her squeeze her weapons so hard her fingers went numb.
“Tansy,” Ellaria said, her voice like a caress. The girl flinched and cowered behind Dev. “May the gods reserve a special corner of purgatory for you.” Turning her attention back to Jess, Ellaria’s face split into a broad smile. “It’s been lovely to see you, my dear princess, but I must be leaving now.” With that, she turned and fled up the stairs, leaving her confused guards behind.
“The torches! The straw in the cells!” the girl with Dev said, her voice panicked. “She means to burn the tower down!”
At her words, chaos erupted in the chamber. Two of the guards turned and fled, running down the stairs as fast as their legs could carry them. Jess dismissed them immediately. The Lyranian and Estorian forces pouring into the tower would handle them.
“Go!” Rahib shouted, squaring off against Ellaria’s remaining guards.
Jess ran over to Dev and the girl, seizing the girl by the wrist. She wanted nothing more than to throw her arms around Dev and sob her relief at finding him alive, but if they didn’t take care of Ellaria, they might not live long enough to share more than that.
“Take me up!” Jess shouted at the girl, who stared uncomprehendingly for a moment, her eyes wide with terror. Then she nodded and turned, scurrying off toward the stairs she and Dev had just come through.
“Dev!” Jess gasped as they hurried after the girl.
“I knew you would come,” he said, his fingers brushing the back of her arm.
There was no time for more words. Dev, Jess, and the girl pounded up the stairs after Ellaria, pausing just long enough to check each floor they passed to be sure Ellaria wasn’t there. Five floors up they found her at last, and just as the girl had said, Ellaria held a torch to the straw, which smoked but didn’t go up in flames. Jess didn’t intend to take the least bit of comfort from that, though, and she surged ahead of Dev and his companion, slashing out at Ellaria.
“No!” Ellaria screamed, her eyes bulging from her head. She dropped the still-smoldering torch and dashed away, heading for the stairs.
“There!” the girl shouted, pointing. “There are only two more floors before you reach the roof!” She ran over to the straw, stomping on it.
Jess tore up the stairs, Dev’s labored breathing following her every step of the way. When they reached the top Jess hesitated, poking her head out carefully, expecting archers, but they were nowhere to be s
een. Ellaria was alone on the top of the tower, and Jess burst through the door, heading straight for her.
“It’s been a pleasure having you as a guest,” Ellaria said, smiling at Dev like a gracious hostess. Before Jess could reach her, Ellaria spread her arms wide and flung herself backward off the tower. Jess stared at the spot where Ellaria had stood, unable to believe it was all over at last.
“We have to go, Jess,” Dev said, his voice urgent. He gently pried her dirk from her right hand, tucking it into his belt. “The tower may still burn.”
His words jolted her back to reality, and she flung her arms around his neck, pressing herself to him for a few desperate seconds before they turned and tore back down the stairs.
Chapter 45
Smoke billowed up the stairs as Dev and Jess fled. It clogged his already dry throat, and he had to stop several times, bracing his hands on his knees as a coughing fit forced him to double over. Jess urged him on, at times cajoling, at others threatening, and no matter how exhausted he felt, no matter how sick, he knew he had to follow her. He would never again allow himself to be parted from her side.
Shouts filled the tower, but Dev’s head was too fuzzy for him to comprehend what they were saying. Jess looked relieved, though, and she opened her mouth and shouted in response. Dev stumbled as he followed Jess down the next flight of stairs, nearly falling. Several guards waited for them below, and he tried raising his dagger to defend himself, to defend Jess, but his energy was spent. He collapsed on the floor, crying out in pain as his hip slammed into the stone.
“I hope you’ll forgive me for this, big brother,” a familiar voice said, and a face loomed over him.
“Tanvir?” Dev asked, managing to force his thick tongue to form the word.
A grin split Tanvir’s face, but Dev was lucid enough to see the worry in his brother’s eyes. “Yes, it’s me,” Tanvir said, and swept Dev up from the floor, throwing him over his shoulder like he was carrying a sack of potatoes to market. Dev thought about protesting, just for the fun of it, but he was too weary, and the smoke made him cough again. Instead, he closed his stinging eyes and let his brother carry him down the rest of the stairs and out into the fresher air.
[Fairytale 02] - Asleep (2013) Page 26