The Heir of Red and White

Chapter Thirty: Greyson

What the nobles didn't know about the vermin was that we knew all their secrets.

Whether it was the scorned past of a jilted lover or the knowledge of their more illicit proceedings, gossip thrived in the underbelly of the manor. While I wasn't one for spreading rumors, I thanked my roommate for being a horrible gossip. If it weren't for him and his obsession with such secrets, I'd know nothing about the tunnels hidden throughout the estate. Specifically, the ones that led to the secret rooms scattered throughout the basement.

While the passageways on the upper floors had been used primarily for servants and sanitation workers, the hidden rooms in the basement had been used for an audience. Any noble, aristocrat, or person of esteemed favor could pay their way into one of the rooms and watch as a prisoner in the isolation block was tortured, whipped, or killed.

According to my roommate, such activities were now discouraged and considered barbaric practices of the Old Era, but the rooms still existed. And since Leanne was a high-stakes prisoner, I knew for certain she would be connected to one of these hidden rooms.

The tunnel toward the cells started from the first-floor kitchen, hidden behind the shelf of spices, and descended into a large circular room. I held a small brass candle, one I had stolen from the kitchen, and as I lifted it, I noticed several paths led away from me. I had no map, and no frame of reference to discern which passage was the correct one, so I decided to check all of them.

The first led to a set of stairs that spiraled upward, and the second had been a dead end. The third yielded much better results.

I knew I was going in the right direction when the eerie silence I had grown accustomed to was replaced by the sound of soft sobs and painful moans. The tunnel soon thinned into a small hallway that led me into a small, rectangular room. It was bare of furniture and lined with cement on all sides. One electric bulb hung overhead, but aside from that, the room resembled the cell it faced. The only exceptions were the multiple holes drilled into the wall at varying heights that allowed onlookers to peek in on the prisoners being tortured.

Ignoring the queasiness that writhed in my gut, I continued forward. Several of the rooms were lined with small doors that led into the cells, likely to allow the guests to participate in the torture. I silently prayed Leanne's room would be the same.

I explored the basement for what felt like hours, stopping in each room to glance inside the cell, hoping to see Leanne's familiar sheet of dark hair. I was surprised by the sheer number of inmates being detained in the manor, and the only reason I found Leanne was because of Ana.

Even from a distance, her voice wound its way around my heart and pulled. I hadn't expected to find her in the isolation block, but I realized she would have wanted to meet the woman she believed had killed her mother.

For earth shattering second, I wondered if she had come to torture Leanne, just as I'm sure several guards had done already, but when I gazed out the peephole, I was grateful to see I had been wrong.

Leanne sat in a tarnished wooden chair, her hands and feet shackled to the frame. I could only see the edge of her silhouette, but her hair hung wildly around her shoulders, and her head was slanted to the side as if she were unconscious. Ana stood behind Duchess Azure, glaring at the back of the duchess's head like she was tempted to strike it.

She stormed out of the room without saying a word, and the duchess watched her go, barely managing to conceal the hate in her eyes. After Ana left, Duchess Azure turned back toward Leanne, her two guards behind her with their hands on their swords.

"What did you tell her?" The duchess demanded, and as if she had been resurrected from the dead, Leanne slowly lifted her head and shook it.

"Nothing, My Lady."