Warrior's Mind (Book 2 of The Warrior Chronicles)

Chapter 57

It was the bell that woke her.

Ringing past the dull thud in her head, it made Leyla push up, onto her arms and open her eyes. The darkness struck her the moment before she realised she was not in her bed. How much had she ended up drinking? She couldn't remember...

"Stop ringing the bell!" Someone shouted.

Leyla blinked, trying to clear her blurred vision. Torches moved on the parapets, splitting into two then coming back together in a dizzying dance. Parapets? How in Four Kingdoms had she ended up on the floor between the keep and the outer walls? How much did I drink? Pain struck her temples and turned her stomach. There was no one around, but a sudden sense of foreboding pushed her to move.

Standing on shaky legs, Leyla walked unsteadily towards the sounds of commotion in the distance. Taking note of a strange stinging pain along her legs and back, she was almost at the archway that led to the inner keep when a line of Light guards filed out, surrounding her in an instant.

Leyla shielded her eyes from their bright torches as Raphael walked into their midst.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, concern evident in his voice.

"I'm not sure," Leyla grimaced. No matter how much she drank, how could she not remember anything? She rubbed her temples, "I heard a bell. Whats going on?"

Four guards rushed past them from the direction of the outer walls, carrying a large weight between them. A fifth man ran to stand beside the Prorex.

"Leader, two guards have been knocked unconscious, one of them is badly wounded. They are being taken to get treatment, but sir, it looks like someone was trying to get out of the gates."

Raphael's body went rigid. He looked only at the guard. "Did you find anyone else in the vicinity?"

The guard cast her a quick glance, then looked at his feet to deliver the rest of his information. "No. The two guards at the watch towers closest to the gate said they saw a woman running from the gate towards the keep."

Leyla knew what they were all thinking even before Raphael turned cold eyes her way. "Consort, I will ask you once more. What were you doing out here in the middle of the night?"

"I don't know." She held up her hands, trying to slow down the line of thinking. "I'm not even sure how I got here, but you can't believe I have anything to do with injuring those guards! I would never..." Her words trailed off when she noticed Raphael was no longer looking at her face. Instead, he and several guards nearby were all staring at her hands. Her hands, that were covered in red.

Leyla took a horrified step back, looking at the blood in shock. "No." Her head hurt as she tried to make sense of what was happening. She couldn't remember. She couldn't remember anything! "This can't be."

Raphael's voice was hard as he gave his next order: "Take the Consort back to her room, and make sure that she doesn't leave it."

"Wait, Raphael. Listen to me, this is all wrong." Leyla took a deep breath trying to calm her mind. When two guards stepped forward to take her arms, she didn't struggle. "Speak to the injured men, they will tell you it wasn't me!"

The guards walked her away, but Raphael didn't turn to look at her. His jaw clenched tight, he stared out over the courtyard to the kingdom gates.

Time passed slowly. Leyla washed the blood away in a basin of water, then paced the floor. After a while her head began to clear, but her memories were still foggy.  She recalled being at the pagoda. After Raphael left,  she had poured herself some of the pomegranate wine and then felt sleepy...and then?

Blank. 

There was a blank spot in her memory. It was like that time she woke in the Greenlands beside Alec's wounded body. The Green King had had them both drugged - her eyes widened as her thoughts clicked into place. The wine that was made only for her. Finding herself beside the walls right when two guards were attacked. Bloody Diya, this was one elaborate scheme.

Suddenly, there was a commotion at her door and she heard Michael's angry voice shouting at the guards. Curator or no, they were obviously not going to let him in.

"La-la? La-la do you hear me?" He called from the other side. "Don't worry, ok? I'm going to get you out of there soon."

"Michael." Leyla pressed her palms against the door. It felt good to hear his voice. She switched to Asch when she spoke next. "Stop fighting with the guards, they are only doing their job."

"Their job should be to find the real culprit, bloody idiots!" He fumed, "La-la, were you hurt? Do you need anything -"

"Listen, Michael," she cut him off.  "I think someone drugged me. The last thing I remember is drinking the pomegranate wine Delphine brought from the kitchens."

"The pomegranate wine? Alright, I'll look into it. But you have to promise me you wont worry. We are going to sort this out."

Leyla leaned her forehead against the hard wood, smiling despite herself. Michael's faith in her warmed her in a way the fire in the grate had failed to do. "Little man?"

"Yes?" came the muffled voice.

"Thank you for believing in me."

There was a moment of silence, then Michael's jovial voice was back. "Just take a nap, this will all be over soon."

Leyla listened to his footsteps recede, before turning back to the room. Still in a slight daze, she managed to knock her leg against the edge of the settee. The pain that travelled up her leg reminded her of the stinging she had noticed earlier. Pulling up her dress, she saw that there was a long red scrape along the side of her leg all the way up to her hip. She ran her hand up her side and back and felt several more scrapes.

Whoever had drugged her, had obviously dragged her along the floor, although it couldn't have been for long since her clothes were mostly undamaged. That meant she must have been transported from the pagoda to somewhere close to the keep wall in a vehicle of some sort...a cart perhaps or wheelbarrow? It was either that or there had to be more than one person carrying her. Then once they got her close enough to the wall for the wheels to be heard, one of them had dragged her the rest of the distance.

Her scars coupled with the fact that the lookouts saw a woman running away from the outer gates, led Leyla to believe that at least one of the perpetrators was female. Her mind immediately jumped to the obvious conclusion, the one that had been lurking in the back of her mind for several hours, but she refused to believe it. She couldn't let herself believe Annabelle had done this or she risked closing herself off from clues that might point elsewhere.

Sometime later, the door opened and the guards brought in a tray of food. Leyla ate quickly, then continued to wait. There was no sign of Michael, no sign of Raphael, but Delphine came to the door to try and reassure her that no one believed she had committed the crime. Leyla pretended to be convinced, but she knew well that that was not the case.

Michael and Delphine may believe she had nothing to do with it, but the only person who had the power to pass judgment right now, thought Leyla was more than capable.