Alliance by Marriage

Chapter 30

"Open now!" I bawl, smashing my fist into the hard wood one more time.

The metal plates on my gauntlets are already dented in a few places, but the thick door was built to withstands the fury of prisoners, so it faces my assault with ease.

I pause and strain my ears. If there's any noise outside, I can't hear it.

"Open!" I roar again and slam my foot into the door.

This is impossible. This whole situation is insane—someone locking up a king when an enemy army is about to attack. Was it the guard? I try to remember what little I saw of him before I entered. He didn't look familiar. Could he be a turncloak?

"Damn it!" I stomp my foot and whirl around.

Emilio is standing in the farthest corner of the room, looking at me with horror.

"Do you have a part in this?"

"No!" He shakes his head vigorously. "How could I, possibly? I didn't even know you'd come here to see me!"

"Do you know who's behind this?"

"I don't!" He pauses, frowning. "But who have you come with? Wasn't anyone waiting for you outside?"

"Nobody. Just the guard."

"You came without your bodyguards?" His eyebrows go up, and I feel a rush of embarrassment, followed closely by an impulse to kill him here and now for just daring to look at me like this.

"Are you questioning my decisions?"

"Well, yes." Seeing that I have no immediate intentions of attacking him, he stands a little straighter. "Why would you walk around alone at times like this?"

"Because we're at war against a common foe, and I didn't expect anyone on my side to..." I trail off, grabbing my hair in frustration, but the gauntlets are ill suited for the job, so I let go. "Damn!" I squeeze my eyes shut and press my fists to my forehead, trying to think.

In the ensuing quiet a faint distant sound reaches my ears.

"What was that?" Emilio whispers.

"Shhh." I open my eyes and listen.

The sound comes again, and then one more time—very distant 'pop' noises, barely audible. Their quietness doesn't fool me, though. They're reaching us through the tiny ventilation holes under the ceiling, but in the open, they must be deafening.

"Cannons." I press my face briefly into my hands, the metal of the gloves cool and sharp against my skin. "The fighting has started." In fact, we could have missed the beginning of it while I was kicking the door and screaming at it. For how long have I been doing that?

"Oh," says Emilio. "That's...not good."

I move away and sink heavily to the floor by the wall. There's nothing else I can do right now. The dungeons are notoriously impossible to escape, which means I'm stuck here until whoever has locked me up decides to make an appearance. Hopefully, my people will show up before that. Sagaristio knows where I headed to, so it won't take long. Perhaps since the attack has started, he's been too busy to go look for me, but he's sure to send someone soon enough.

"It's not bad for you," I say, not looking at Emilio. "If Bawdrick wins, you could go back under his wing, possibly even be rewarded for performing your duty well."

"I didn't like it under his wing all that much." He moves to sit closer to me, although still maintaining a safe distance. "As for performing my duty, they didn't just want me to replace the real prince, you know. They wanted me to kill you."

"Seriously?" I glance up at him. "What a poor choice of an assassin."

"Given that they needed the assassin to also be the prince's lookalike, I was the only option. And, frankly, I had plenty of opportunities to slit your throat while you slept."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because I'm a fool." He pauses, looking away. "Because you treated me kindly."

I roll my eyes. He keeps mentioning my kindness, but it's like picking at an open wound. I wasn't kind. I was stupid.

Still, even though the topic is unpleasant, my questions start surfacing again.

"On the ship," I say. "When you tried to kill yourself—was it just an act?"

He shrugs. "Life didn't seem worth living at that moment, that much was true. Yet I don't think I had it in me to go through with it and kill myself. So there was some pretense in it."

"Why pretend? Why play hard to get?"

He smiles a little. "Because I could tell you liked a challenge."

It does make sense. This must have been a part of his job, a survival skill even—recognizing right away what kind of person he was dealing with, what did they want and how they wanted it. He knew I'd lose interest if he was an easy catch—so he made it difficult. Such pragmatism is almost admirable, but since it's been directed against me, it only feels like one more blow. I'd rather not think about it now.

"That servant of yours...did she really mean anything to you?"

"Oh yes, she meant a lot." He sighs, his brow creasing. "Lucia has been like a mother to me. She was the only one who's looked after me growing up—as much as she could, that is."

"I see." I nod. "So, she was just another whore like you, only older and with breasts."

"She was good." He shakes his head, staring at his fingers interlaced on his knees. "I saved her from you, but Messenio took us both by surprise."

I study his face in the unsteady light of the torch. His expression of grief seems real. Maybe he's sincere in it. But then, maybe he's not.

"You're a good actor," I say. "You've played me well."

"Not everything was acting, you know." He glances at me askew. "At first, I hated you, but the more I got to know you --"

"Stop it." I can feel the blood pulsing harder at my temples. Here it comes, the weak attempts to fool me again. "You can't possibly expect me to believe you now."

"No," he says quietly. "I can't. But it's still the truth, you know?"

Suddenly, there's a clanging sound on the other side of the door. Before Emilio even understands what's happening, I'm on my feet, my sword unsheathed. The door opens and I almost lunge at the entering man before I recognize Sagaristio.

"What are you doing here?" he shouts, rushing in, his sword in hand, his armor stained with what I can only assume is blood. "We've been looking for you! What happened?"

"Long story," I say, striding past him towards the door. The time is of essence now. Must go upstairs, get the updates, see how the battle has been progressing so far...

It is a split moment before I reach the door that I notice the body of the guard in a pool of blood on the floor outside. I slow my step, my brain trying to reconcile what I see with my theory of the guard having locked me up, and that's when Emilio shouts:

"Watch out!"

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