The Shamer's Daughter - A Fanfiction

Chapter 10 - The Deadlike Lady

On her way back to Nico and the gate, Dina came to her senses. She couldn't just flee with Nico with nowhere to go. There was no way the two of them would survive and manage not to get caught without help. Her mother would know what to do. On closer thought, she felt embarrassed about having wanted to escape Dunark without rescuing her mother in the first place.

"Dina? Is that you, I heard a scream is everything alright?" Nico figured he might as well ask, because if it were anyone else, he would be caught either way.

"Yes, I'm alright." she answered as she walked towards the light of the torch around the last corner. She almost threw the cape at him, eager to get it off her hands.

"We need to find my mother before we go." She still had a tiny hope for her mother to explain to the guards and the king's counselor that Nico had killed Lord Drakan in defense of her, but she knew it wasn't a very good plan to put her faith in. They had to escape and the sooner the better. Nico was thinking for a little while before he answered.

"Alright. There's someone I want to find as well, but I'm afraid it will be a bad idea if I leave the corridors." He started looking around the halls, trying to remember every hidden passageway he knew of.

"I'll go find my mother and I'll meet you back here in a little while." Dina said, feeling brave for once. After walking the way back from Drakan's body, she felt like a trip through actual castle halls wasn't such a big deal. And she felt pretty certain she could remember the way to the chambers where her mother was kept.

"Alright, I promise to be here when you come back." He said. He knew he wouldn't be long. "Unless the wrong people find me." He added and then walked left where Dina turned right. He dared to bring the torch as long as he stayed in the eastern wing, which he knew was always empty. If he went up one flight of stairs, he would be high enough to use the old servant passageways in the walls. He could get to Dalie's room. He turned corner after corner and had to go back a few times when he hit a dead end. And when he finally found what he thought was the right door, he heard a dog bark on the other side and realised he was wrong. The passageway got more narrow and he was afraid of burning himself on the torch in his hand. He couldn't help but wonder how Dina was managing in the dark, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He noticed the edge of a tapestry by a door to his right and recognised it immediately. It was the same blue colours he had been staring at on the ceiling when he had spent the night in her room. To avoid the same mistake as before, he listened before pushing the door open. He silently wished for her to be there. It would be so easy if she was standing right on the other side. But when he opened the door, the room was dark. He left the torch in the passage, so no one would see him through the windows and he entered her rooms. The bed hadn't been slept in, though it was closer to dawn than midnight now. The window was open and a spring breeze moved the curtains and gave him goosebumps. Though he was shirtless, the adrenalin and the dragonblood kept him warm. He made a rashed decision and walked to her desk in the corner. He grabbed a piece of parchment and the closest pen he could find. Her parchment smelled like lavender and he caught himself inhaling more than necessary while he wrote. He didn't want anyone to find the note before her, but in case someone did, he couldn't just write that he had escaped with Dina and would be hiding with Magnus within the castle walls. Instead, he wrote an 'M' in the middle of the paper and a small 'N' in the corner, so she would know it was from him. Hopefully she would know what it meant, because he couldn't give her any more than that. To be safe, he left it under her pillow, where he knew she was always hugging it when she slept. The young prince then went back to the tunnels and made sure to close the door properly behind him.

*

The door wasn't locked, so Dina opened it as quietly as she could and snuck in. A big table was placed in the middle of the room and the curtains weren't pulled, so she could see almost clearly in the moonlight, after the almost complete darkness from the corridors. She walked around the table and steered towards the bed by the window. Unlike the windows, its curtains were pulled tightly closed, but she could hear someone sleeping on the other side.