Towers [BOOK ONE]

Chapter Forty-Seven

It was a week before I could concentrate clearly. Even then, I wanted nothing to do with the outside world, but I knew that I couldn't stay locked up in my chambers forever.

Melody needed me. The kingdom needed me.

I couldn't let myself turn into the cold, lifeless, damaged creature that the Queen had become.

I knocked on the princess's door that evening, and she opened it. Her eyes were pools of sympathy. I didn't look at them; I didn't need to be reminded.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter," I replied. "We already decided to do this. I'm going to follow through."

She nodded. "Right, then." She carefully closed the door, sealing us in. "We'll need black clothes, and I'll have to cover my hair—it's too bright and easily recognizable." There was still a sensitivity to her voice. She was walking on thin ice around me.

I'm all right, I thought. I'm all right. But I've changed. I wasn't the same as I had been, all bright and reckless and full of dreams. I...I'd learned. I'd experienced something that was one foreign to me. I understood. And for that, I was grateful, thought it came at a terrible cost.

"Have you tried to visit your mother?" I asked. "They won't let me in to see her."

"I have the same problem, I'm afraid. I've been meaning to ask her about the attempts on her life in the past, but it's no use—the guards won't even let me near her room." Her eyes squinted, and I could tell that she was angry. "They even escorted me back to my chambers on one occasion, like a child being put into time-out."

"'By order of Commander Vang,' they say."

She nodded, taking a deep breath and then slowly letting it out. "It's too late now."

We slipped into simple clothes—black tunics, gloves, and wool leggings—before pulling our boots on and slipping out of the room.

I should have brought the invisibility potion. Then I turned away from the thought. The vial had been sitting on my desk, untouched, for days. Eventually, I told myself.

We crept down the side of the corridor, keeping our footsteps as soft as a breeze. At the corner, we stopped and peeked out. A guard paced back and forth not ten strides away from us.

We'd timed it perfectly; after only about a minute, a nearby clock tolled out the time, and the guard left his post. A new one would come soon. We had to be quick.

As swift as fleeting shadows, we stole across the way and stopped beneath a tall stained-glass window. "Here," whispered Melody. She traced the stones with her fingertips, finally coming to rest on a particular one that was about shoulder-high on the wall. She pushed it in, and something locked into place.

I watched with a small, wondering smile as a door-shaped section of the wall slid inward, opening up a new passageway for us. The castle's many secrets would never cease to amaze me.

"No more claustrophobic crawling?" I asked hopefully.

Melody laughed, scarcely louder than a breath. "No more claustrophobic crawling."

We ducked inside. The ceiling was low, and the tunnel was narrow, but at least we could stand and walk freely. Together, Melody and I struggled to push the heavy door shut; it grinded back into place. Then we began our journey onward and downward.

The tunnel didn't remain straight for long. It quickly transformed into a steep, zigzagging staircase that led us rapidly down the castle's spine. Surrounded by the all-consuming darkness, I couldn't see a thing. We felt our way down the steps. The sides seemed to close in around us.