Empire of Ashes

Chapter LXIX - Snap Loose

Tobi came back and motioned for me to get up. I did as I was told. I didn't want to spend another minute in that room if I could help it. Once I had found my feet, I dared sneak a glance at the king. He was not even looking at me. Instead, he was looking at the queue of petitioners and he beckoned one forwards even as I watched.

"If you would come with me..." Tobi began. "Lyra, was it?"

I looked at him properly for the first time. He was young for a royal guard — nineteen or twenty — but his face was as hard and gaunt as any of the others. He had been gentle with me, so I doubted he was a cruel man, but he served the king, and that made us enemies.

I nodded. And when he led the way to a side chamber, I followed at his heels like a dog. Another soldier fell into step behind us, his footsteps like a drumbeat at my back. They were playing at niceness, and I was not wearing any chains yet, but I was under no illusions that I was a prisoner now.

No, not a prisoner. A slave. I had been handed back to my first owner, and all those weeks of freedom with the northerners meant nothing because I still wore the king's brand on my shoulder. I was back at exactly where I had started. At that thought, I felt the brand itching beneath my tunic sleeve, stirring for the first time since Canton.

We had been walking for minutes when I next paid any attention to my surroundings. The spacious corridors had changed to narrow stairwells, and we were climbing steep, paved steps. I was glad, at least, that we were not going down, because down meant dungeons.

At the top of the staircase, Tobi turned left and then sharply left again. We were in a small chamber, perhaps the size of a horse stall. There was a small window set high in the wall, there was a second door leading to the right, bolted shut, and there was a bench at knee height, and that was all.

The room did not have an obvious function, but it appeared to be well used. There was no coating of dust on the floor, and it smelled of several different perfumes. A waiting area, perhaps? For whom?

"I apologise that this is necessary, but I must ask you to place your hands on the back of your head and keep still," Tobi commanded. The man behind stepped a fraction closer. I could hear his rough breathing at my shoulder.

They were going to search me. That was only sensible — the men at the keep entrance had not been very thorough, and I could have a knife strapped to my thigh for all they knew. But while I wasn't armed, I did have something to hide.

I slipped a hand into my pocket and tucked the resin bead into the crease between finger and thumb. And then I touched both palms to the back of my head, staring out of the window while Tobi positioned himself in front of me.

"We can fetch a woman, if you prefer," he murmured.

Why were they being so nice? It didn't make sense, and I didn't trust it, and I didn't care, anyway. He would not be the first of the royal guard to­— No, don't think of that. The captain was mine to kill, where and when I pleased. The things he had done did not matter anymore.

I shook my head.

So the soldier ran his hands carefully along my arms and legs, across my back and stomach. He checked my shoulders and beneath my belt, but he avoided my chest, which I was grateful for. And when he was done, he apologised for the second time. I slipped the resin bead back into a pocket.

"Wait here, please. We will bring you food and water if you are left longer than an hour."

Wait. As if I had any choice. When they left, they bolted the door behind them. I heard the metal rod scraping into place. And though I tried the other door, it would not budge an inch. My next stop was the window, which looked out over a lawn. There was nothing interesting to see, and it was too narrow to escape through even if I had not been thirty paces above the ground.