Ria recognized where they were. “Why are we stopping so near the palace?” Her voice was low, her eyes darting to the horses when one of them snorted. The noise seemed overly loud in the sheltering copse of trees. She was painfully familiar with this area of Eiji Forest.
It haunted her dreams, in fact.
Worse, she was fairly certain there was a patrol route near here. “I thought we were going to the village. I thought we were going to have a plan before going back to get the Emerald Lady.”
The men in front of her looked up from what they were doing. Theron had cleared an area near where she stood and Mako was securing the horses. She nearly smiled at the mirrored expressions on their faces, were the rest of the image they presented not so worrying.
Travel stained and weary looking, they moved in a way that showed muscles were aching. Watching the hitch and wince in the guard when he reached up to unsaddle the gray, she felt those same muscles in her body, tight from being in one position too long. With a hand on her lower back, she stretched, feeling the burn at the base of her spine. Asleep for a good part of the ride, she’d had it easiest of the three of them, but she didn’t feel rested. How long had they been riding? She looked at the horses. Their heads were drooping, they were half asleep already.
Neither of the men were answering her. She wasn’t sure if it was because she hadn’t spoken loudly, or if they didn’t have an answer for her. “Protector. You spend most of your time with the lady. Did you know that there is a patrol route very near here?” When he looked blankly at her, she said, “Mako, you know this, right?”
The former guard looked up at the question and shrugged. “I don’t know the patrol routes by heart. I was assigned to guard the palace, not the grounds.” He never really looked up from his task as he said it, his words short and clipped at the edges. Ria had the uncomfortable sense that he wasn’t telling the truth.
The Protector didn’t seem to notice, nodding absently. He moved in the direction she indicated, asking, “You’re certain?” A few moments later, though, he reached a break in the trees. He took a quick look around. “Yes. The path is pretty worn here.” Crouching, he examined the ground and looked North, apparently following whatever tracks he’d found. “It runs across to the East.”
There was mud on her shirt, she must have brushed up against the side of the horse when she dismounted. It was making the cloth stiff and uncomfortable. She was scrubbing at it with her fingernails as she offered, “I know a place that would be safer.” There. It was starting to come off now. “There’s a place the guards don’t know,” suddenly realizing what she’d been about to say, her eyes snapped up to Mako. His task forgotten, he was looking right at her.
“And what place is that?” Mako asked.
“One of the many places I found to get on the palace grounds,” she finished. From the corner of her eye, she saw the Protector’s smile before he hid it.
“Don’t worry, village girl. It doesn’t matter now anyway,” Mako said, “It’s not as if I can ever go back.” He was moving before he finished speaking, gathering their few items and saddling the horses. Standing closest to her, he didn’t see Theron’s observation of him. Heaving a breath, Mako nodded at her. “Lead the way.”
They made the move quickly, stopping only to remove any trace of their campsite. Soon they were far enough away that any patrol wouldn’t be able to hear them. They were still too close to that area for Ria’s comfort. It was hard for her to admit that she felt that way, when she still felt the pull of the palace, just beyond it. But they were too close to the home of the ryouken and the Emperor that wanted them dead. She wanted to be near the palace, but she also wanted to live. “Now that we’re here, how are we going to get her out?”
“We are not doing any such thing. I’m going alone.”
She didn’t respond for a moment, disbelief that he was even considering such madness stilling her tongue. Finally, she said, “If that’s your plan, I won’t tell you the safe way in.” It was a vain effort, she knew what he could do. He’d have no real trouble getting in. It was the getting out that was the problem. It didn’t matter to her that he’d done it before. That even with all of the Imperial Guard after him, he’d managed to get the two of them out. But at what cost? She still remembered those moments in the storage room, knowing they would be discovered. Knowing death was waiting for them. She still remembered the sound of claws on stone and the echo of the desperate battle in the tunnel. Those instants of certainty that here or here, at this moment or the next, she and Theron would be caught and killed. He’d spent almost two days unconscious after that. No, she couldn’t let him go by himself.
He didn’t get angry, though he could have. Maybe he saw some of what she was thinking, because he just smiled at her, nodding as if he understood. “You don’t need to tell me the way, Ria. I may not have the patrols memorized, but you won’t need to worry about my being seen.”
It was later, not long after the Protector had worked his way silently into the undergrowth, that Mako finally spoke to her. “You may as well go now, before he gets too far ahead.”
“What?”
“You are planning to go after him, aren’t you?
She didn’t deny it. “And what about you?”
The large man looked over at her, his face strangely blank. Something ugly flickered there for a moment and was gone. Ria blinked.
“I’ll hang back with Kit. Someone should guard the camp. Make sure it’s safe when you return. When both of you return.” He smiled then, the expression both reassuring and wry at the same time, and Ria wasn’t sure that she’d seen anything behind his eyes at all. Shaking off her uncertainty, she nodded. Quickly gathering up a small bag with a few items, she melted into the greenery.
˜ ˜ ˜
The hollow echo of his steps made him slow his stride, looking around to see who might be watching. He could see no one and hear nothing but his own breath. He hadn’t been lying to Ria. Though it had been challenging, no one had seen him. He had avoided the patrols of the guards by sticking to the shadows whenever possible. It helped that he was familiar with the patterns of the patrols, at least on the palace grounds.
So, he hadn’t had to use the Kamiryoku. That was good – their price was too high (to do what a village girl did regularly, with no help at all). For which he was both irritated and grateful.
The freedom he had now wouldn’t last, however. It was obvious he and Ria’s misadventures had made an impression. If he had not been familiar with nearly every inch of the grounds, he would never have made it past the now-increased perimeter patrol.
He was inside now, however, and it was a different story. One he didn’t understand. The palace had been swarming with guards the night he and Ria had escaped, but tonight it was a virtual graveyard. He tried to blunt the spike of worry it caused. It was as if the Emperor no longer had anything here to guard. He had originally planned to head to the center of the building, where he assumed the Emperor would have kept the lady. Now, though, he found himself treading a much more familiar path. Hilma fed everyone in the palace. And heard nearly all the gossip. If anyone knew where the lady was, she would.
Checking first and seeing none of the guard in sight, Theron stepped just into view of the old cook’s favorite work station. The kitchen was quiet at this time of the morning and he watched her rolling out forms for her famous sticky buns for a few moments before she looked up.
“Theron?”
With a small smile, he nodded.
“What are you doing here?!” Hands wringing, the old woman rushed up to him, leaning past him to look up and down the hallway. Placing a hand on his arm as if to keep him from moving, she looked over her shoulder, calling further into the room behind her. “Oi. Yuo, head to the pantry and gather all the vegetables for the mid-day meal.” Theron heard a young male voice respond. He couldn’t make out the words, but he recognized the confused and slightly irritated subtext of it. He understood, it was still before d
awn, mid-day was a long ways off. “I don’t care what time it is. Do as I say.” Her staying hand turned to a firm grip and she pulled him into the oven-warmed room. Giving his shoulder a push, his elder’s brows drew together in a scowl. “Why are you here?”
“I’m here for Lady Lynea.”
She huffed a breath. “Don’t be a fool! There are guards patrolling the halls.” She looked around the two of them again, as though fearing one might materialize from the very words.
“Guards, where? I haven’t seen a single uniform since I entered the building.”
Frowning, she said, “Don’t be so certain. They were everywhere when I was out of the kitchens at mid-day yesterday and there are regular patrols through the halls.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“What do you plan to do?”
He tried to keep his voice calm, but found he couldn’t keep the anger from it. “Hilma. You know he plans to kill the lady. You told me as much. I can’t let that happen. How could you have waited to tell me?”
“I knew no such thing! It was a rumor, lad. Nothing but half-truths from overactive imaginations.”
“And which half was true, Hilma?” She looked down unhappily, as he continued. “The part where his wives are never seen again, or the part where he steals the very life from them?”
“I … I don’t know.”
“I went to see the witch.”
She looked up again, her eyes wider than before. “What did she tell you?”
“She said,” but it was too much to retell and most of it he still didn’t understand. All he knew was, “She did not refute it,” and his hands clenched, thinking about the puzzle pieces he was to gather, and the warning Kitsune had given him about acting without the whole picture. He pushed back the surge of unease those memories brought. “I can’t leave her to die by his hands. I can’t leave her here any longer.”
Shaking her head, Hilma said, “I’m not sure where she is. I had been taking her meals to her here in the palace. Two days ago a guard came telling me to stop.” She held up a hand to stop his reaction. “Since then, I still make up a platter of food for her. A guard comes to get it.” The edges of her mouth turned down. “So no, I do not know where she is, but I do not think she is in the palace.”
“But you must have some idea where she is.” Theron had an idea, in fact, but didn’t know how he would get there. He would be a fool to think he could get in to the tunnels the way he did the last time he was here. The guards had discovered the escape route he and Ria had used. They would surely be guarding that entrance now, if they hadn’t blocked it up.
Her eyes wouldn’t meet his, the pitch of her voice rising uneasily. “There is only one other place close by that he could keep her, my boy. You know that.”
Theron frowned. That hadn’t occurred to him.
Her voice dropped on a worried sigh. “She must be in the dungeon.”
Chapter 16
Hilma was wrong, she had to be. No matter the Emperor’s future plans for the lady, he wouldn’t send her to the dungeon. For one thing, there was the illusion the ruler had to keep going, that she would be the next Empress. The dungeon was too public. People would hear about it if he imprisoned his future bride there and all of his careful planning for the ceremony would be for nothing.
The tunnels, though, were different. A secret even from the servants in the palace, the Emperor could hide her there until the wedding. And there was a room in those tunnels that had obviously been used for that purpose before. That room, with the small table, candle and sleeping mat. It was possible there were other rooms where she could be kept, but some intuition told Theron that Lynea was there.
Now, how to get to it? Theron didn’t want to risk the route he was sure of – the closet with the trap door. But there had been large animals in the tunnels and equally large, the cages they were kept in. Those things had not simply sprouted there, they’d been brought in. Which meant there must be another entrance, a big one.
Where would it be easiest to hide another way in? The dungeon. Ironically, the same place Hilma assumed Lynea was being kept. An entrance to the tunnels under the palace could easily be there. They were both underground. The dungeon was rarely visited and there were only three men stationed there (sadistic men that enjoyed their jobs too much). Hidden or even out in plain sight, the dungeon guards were not the curious type. Yes. An entrance to such a place would be easy to keep there.
He would find out soon enough, it wasn’t far. The night was cool and the sky full of stars. He’d call it beautiful if he weren’t so focused on where he was headed and what he might find.
The entrance to the dungeons was unlocked, which wasn’t really a surprise. No one came here voluntarily. The smells of earth, stone and mold were so thick in the air as to be almost suffocating. The deeper he went down the dank hallway, the more those earthy odors shifted to those of despair. Of death. Theron found himself breathing shallowly as the reek of old sweat, unwashed bodies and refuse assaulted him.
He crept forward slowly, down gradually spiraling stairs, watchful for roaming guards. It was early in the morning, there would be very few on duty. If the entrance was here, in some ways that would be good, no one snuck into a dungeon. The guards in this area had more reason than most to be lazy.
The base of the stairs ended in a wide stretch of hallway. One side was lined with cells, the other, a few rooms and more cells. Two interrogation rooms, the guards’ meal room and sleeping quarters. Theron was familiar with the layout. He had been shown this place a long time ago. His eyes fell on the occupant of the first cell, a miserable looking creature. Theron didn’t recognize him, but could see that he wasn’t old. You wouldn’t know that from his clothing, a reeking, ragged puddle of cloth and leather around the limp form. The ragged growth of beard marked him as a man, and only the solid black of his hair said he was young. The man’s face was sketched with lines, lines of remembered pain that made him seem much older than he must be.
Kino had brought him here after convincing the Emperor to appoint Theron as Mamoru. He still remembered the concern in his adopted-father’s eyes, banked and hidden to those who didn’t know him well. But Theron knew him well, and so tried to hide the shock he felt, witnessing the horror of this place. It had been necessary, though. As Mamoru, Theron should know what happened to those who crossed the throne. It was possible at some point Theron would send someone here, if they dared to try harming Lady Lynea. If they survived the attempt.
Now, Theron found himself almost praying that he wouldn’t find Lynea. What if she were here, in one of these cells, instead of that dust shrouded, tiny room in the tunnels under the palace. Either way, what had she been through?
The dungeon hallway was still and silent as a tomb. Except for the faint sound of someone moaning, coming from a cell near the end of the hallway. Theron peered into the guards’ sleeping quarters. There were three beds, two were occupied. He shook his head. How could they sleep in this smell? With the memories and knowledge of the horrible acts committed here? Regardless of how deserved they may be, they were still …
Another moan, sounding far away and desolate.
Forcing himself to move, Theron checked the meal room. Here was another guard, fast asleep in a chair, a half-drained flagon settled loosely in his grip. His lips twisted. He was not a drinker himself, but if he worked here, it would probably be the only way he could sleep.
He had to keep moving. Lynea was trapped somewhere, probably terrified, maybe injured. The Emperor might do anything to her. At this point, Theron was only hoping his reasoned guess was correct and the Emperor hadn’t hurt her. Hilma’s words of regular meals made it sound likely, but he wouldn’t be sure until he could see her. Until then, there was no guarantee that she was even still alive.
Walking quickly, he passed the first few cells. Not all were occupied. Those that were, held resting prisoners, but for one that appeared too still and unmoving for sleep. Frowning, he kept walk
ing. He could not help that man. He would not have been able to help him even if none of this had happened.
He was nearly past all the cells now, and with each step, even under the oppressive weight of the air down here, he felt his heart lighten. She wasn’t here. It made the tunnels more likely, but even the horror of that windowless room was an improvement over this place.
Then the near breathless groan came again, reaching out and pulling the air from his lungs. He knew that voice.
It didn’t take long to confirm. Even in the dim light from the corridor, he could see the familiar profile of his mentor and adopted father, half hidden in the shadows of the last cell in the row. All thoughts of not being able to help one of the prisoners here went out the window. The minutes that followed were a blur. The prison guard on duty was still asleep, the keys hanging heavily on the man’s belt. When he stirred as Theron took them, a sharp jab ensured the man was asleep again, before he could register what was happening.
Theron nearly made it permanent.
The metal jangled in his hand as he searched for the right key. There were not many to choose from, so before long the door was open and the Protector was kneeling by the older man.
Kino was on his side, on a worn and filthy tatami mat that barely shielded him from the insects and garbage that littered the stone floor. His hand hesitated briefly before he laid it on the older man’s exposed arm. There was no hint of a reaction. Theron’s stomach rolled over. He crouched, trying to get a better look at the man. “Kino,” he said. “It’s Theron.” Loose from its typical knot, his adopted father’s hair was down around his face and seeing it so informal outside of his home, in such wretched conditions made this seem that much worse, somehow. “Oto-san. Can you hear me?”
The man shuddered and slowly opened his eyes. It took longer than it should have for his eyes to focus on the young man beside him, but then his forehead creased and he asked, “Theron?”
Splinter (Trapped Souls Book 1) Page 25