Queensmen

Chapter 54

~Headfirst~

Oris was startled awake by the sound of shouts and banging. Immediately, she sat up on the bed and pulled her hand away from the strip of cloth tied over the wound on her neck. She hadn't actually been sleeping but thinking about what was to come—and even then she was worrying more than she was thinking.

On hearing the commotion, the first place her eyes went to was Aella's corner. The woman was as silent and undisturbed as always. Sometimes it was as though she wasn't there at all.

"It's finally happening," Oris got to her feet and made her way to the bars keeping her locked in the cell. Despite the pain and heat coursing through her body, she still managed to catch glimpses of guards hitting cell doors with their sheathed swords. The flickering torchlight reflected pleasantly off their red chainmail, making them look more ethereal than human as they shouted out intelligible orders to shackled prisoners.

Oris blinked back the hazy image and focused her gaze on what was happening in the barely lit passages. The moment she heard the sound of cell doors squeaking open, she knew that something wasn't right.

She pulled away from the scene and turned to face where she knew Aella was patiently waiting. "They are getting criminals out of their cells. Why?"

"If this is all to get to you and not just a coincidence, then it only means one thing," the queen said after a moment.

"The Empress Dowager can no longer kill me quietly," Oris said, feeling relief flood her limbs and renew them with strength. "That means that the Emperor knows. My plan worked."

"It has also become more dangerous," Aella said as a reminder. "You are not going to be quietly executed under the cover of night. Everything has to play out as chaotically as possible if Wei Wei wants to wash her hands clean of your death. From this point on, anything can happen."

"Catch the assassin!" the voices grew closer and clearer. "Search the prisoners' cells!"

"Assassin?" Oris repeated, now able to hear the orders the men were shouting. Someone had tried to kill in Hermes' palace? "Which assassin tries to escape by entering the dungeons?"

"One with a death wish," Aella muttered darkly. "You have to be careful, child. Do not give anyone the chance to kill you or put the charge of assassinating a member of the royal family on your head."

"You are in more danger than I am!" Oris took a step towards the corner in panic. "That assassin might be here to kill you. You cannot go out there."

"We can't worry about that now. Your life is more important than mine."

"You are the Emperor's mother, how can you—"

A loud bang on the cell door made Oris jump and turn in that direction. She saw a guard with a torch standing in front of it.

"Stay away from the door," he ordered gruffly then started fiddling with the door's lock.

Oris glanced anxiously at the corner, hoping that Aella continued hiding herself. From what she heard, all cells were being searched. How would she stop the guard from searching this one?

"Milord, what is happening?" she asked the moment he stepped into the room. Maybe if she distracted him, he would forget to look around the seemingly empty cell.

"None of your concern," he said as his gaze scanned Oris from her head to her toes.

It was only now that she was conscious of how little she had on. Her dress had been reduced to immodest bits and pieces to accommodate the movements in her dances. It was certainly not what a proper lady would be caught wearing.