~.✧ Austora ✧.~ [COMPLETE]

~.✧ eight ✧.~

"Princess," a quiet voice whispered, prodding my conscience. "Princess, wake up."

I stirred slightly, but sleep tried with every might it had to drag me back under. My eyes refused to open even though the voice's tone sounded earnest and pleading.

"Saidy, please."

This caught my attention and I forced myself to wake up, my eyes fluttering open slowly. The room around me was dark and it took me a second to realize where I was. But when I saw Larklind crouching down next to my bed, I remembered we were at the inn in Caliprofra. After we'd finished at the market and had dinner at Lord Toklyn's estate, we'd come back to the inn. I'd been so exhausted from all the events of the day that I'd barely been able to change into my nightgown before falling asleep. The last thing I remembered was hearing Larklind outside of my door, reassuring the guard who said he'd take the night shift as my guard that he could handle a few more hours. I'd fallen asleep with a smile on my face at how seriously he was taking his job of protecting me. It was more flattering and reassuring than I realized a small gesture like that could be.

As I slowly sat up and gazed around, I noticed that it still looked to be the middle of the night, the light of the moon through the window the only way to see by.

My gaze moved from around the room back to Larklind, who still sat in front of me, his eyes flooded with concern and urgency.

I rubbed my face and blinked a few times before I was able to gruffly ask, "What's wrong?"

"Stay calm but we have to leave the inn."

I quickly threw the sheets off my legs, staying anything but calm. "Why? What's happening?"

Larklind slowly stood, trying to alleviate some of my sudden nerves by holding out his hand placatingly. "I've been alerted by some other guards that there are suspicious men in the lobby and they might have to take force. The rest of the royal family is being alerted now, but we must hurry and get you somewhere safer."

My groggy brain was taking too long to process this, but all I knew was that Larklind looked very uncharacteristically unhappy and so I stood, ready to follow. "Okay."

He nodded and then gestured to the corner opposite the door that led to the hall. "We'll have to take the servant halls downstairs and outside so that they can't see us leaving."

Numbly, I let him gently direct me toward the wall. When he pushed on a certain spot and it popped open as a door, I wondered how he knew it was there, but there was no time or thought power for me to ask him now. With me in front of him, we squeezed into the thin hallway in between the walls. Larklind made sure the secret door closed firmly behind us, sealing the darkness in. I was frozen to the spot as I could barely see anything, but his gentle touch on my shoulder put my feet into motion.

"We'll keep following this hallway. At the very end, there's a set of stairs and there should be some lowly lit lanterns to help us descend. Do you think you can keep walking for me?"