A Princess Torn (Alys Book #2)

Chapter 22

After the meeting, it was difficult to find an opportunity to speak with her father privately. Advisers came and went with random things for Caldor to sign or decide, and he was never alone. Endolynn ended up deciding to table her concerns for now; it would not be good for her father's health to stress him, especially if it turned out to be nothing. Her time in Destrian's court had made her paranoid; between Gax, Leoford, and the other spies in the palace, who would not be?

No, it was best not to worry her father. If she got the chance, she would speak with her grandfather about it.

After the evening meal, Endolynn retired to her chambers early. Something in her stomach was off, and she suspected something in the food had aggravated it. Likely meat that was left out too long, she figured. Her father retired after they shared a brief cup of tea brought to them by a servant, exhausted from yet another coughing episode, so she said goodnight to her grandfather and cousins and went in search of Krea to draw her a bath.
The bath seemed to do the trick. Even though the pain in her stomach was still present, it had been dulled down and she was sure the worst had passed. Thankfully, it was not bad enough to keep her from sleep.

"Endolynn!" A voice whispered intensely in the night as she was shaken from her sleep with a rough shaking of her shoulder.

Alarmed, Endolynn sat up and sleepily opened her mouth to call for her guards. How did someone get into her chambers?

"It's Sadon," the black figure sitting on her bed by her legs whispered, cutting her cry for help short.

Shocked, Endolynn rubbed sleep from her eyes. The pain in her stomach was still present.

"What in the skies is going on?"

Sadon stood, grabbing her hand, "You must come with me now!"

"But-" she sputtered as she was pulled out of bed and onto her feet by surprising strength of the older man, "I am in my night dress!"

"No time. Grab a robe." He dropped her hand and moved quickly to her window. Endolynn watched him anxiously scout the moonlit courtyard as she wrapped her robe tightly around herself. Something was not right.

"You are scaring me, Grandfather. What is going on?"
Satisfied by whatever he did or did not see in the courtyard, he turned back to her.

"Come with me. Do not say a word, and try to step as quietly as possible."

Confused, Endolynn nodded her compliance in the dark and followed him quietly out of her chambers into the dark hallway.

Something was wrong. Sadon carried no source of light, and all of the lamps in the hallway outside of her chambers had been smothered out. They were walking in the dark, completely by memory. Not a guard was in sight until they arrived at her father's chambers, where a mass of dark bodies stood as a firm barrier.

Endolynn felt her body go cold: surely this extreme secrecy and need for this many guards meant something sinister. Had her father passed?

"Let me pass," Sadon whispered, and the black wall of guards moved to create a slight gap so that he and Endolynn could enter the king's chambers.

His sitting room was pitch black, but a slight light came form his bedchambers, where the two visitors quickly hastened to. As they entered the room, the air filled with the sound of muffled vomiting. Endolynn quickly noticed that all of the curtains were drawn and the only other person in the room besides her father was his personal healer.

"Father!" Endolynn ran to his bed and knelt down, reaching for his hand.

"Endolynn-" her father started vomiting into the bucket that his faithful healer held out for him.