“Shoo.” She waved her hand more to reassure herself she wasn’t going crazy but that those murky eyes were really focused on her.
The bird didn’t move. Instead, it hopped closer, settling right between Lim’s ears. The horse stomped again but kept its neck still.
It was only when the crow clicked its beak that Gandrett noticed the small item tied to its leg. It cocked its head again, waiting.
Gandrett glanced down the long clean-swept corridors to both sides, finding no soul besides the hay-chewing horses in their stalls.
With quick fingers, she reached for the crow, Lim lowering his head to help, and carefully extracted a small scroll from the cord around its leg. The crow clicked its beak at her, still waiting, so Gandrett unfurled the parchment and read.
If you read this, it means Riho found you alive and on your own. If you want to deliver a message, talk to him. He’ll find me.
Gandrett attempted to control the pace of her heart as her eyes flew over the scripted lines. A message from Nehelon. And a channel to the outside world.
“So you are Riho,” she said to the bird which, again, clicked its beak, expectation brightening its eyes. “I have a message for Nehelon.”
Addie watched Gandrett across the yard from the windows in the stairwell. She looked better than last night. Not as cold, not as bothered, scared even. Her chestnut hair was flowing behind her in soft waves rather than the thick curls from the night before, and her stride, even if she concealed it well, her movements reminded Addie more of that of a warrior than of a lady.
Maybe it was the angle or that she had seen Gandrett sheath that blade in such efficient, professional movements that she couldn’t forget the sight of it.
More—definitely more than she let on.
Addie didn’t linger, her bucket weighing heavier than normal in her hands.
She couldn’t wipe the sight of the young man from her mind; how he had studied her while she’d set down the bucket before the door. How his hand had darted for it that moment she had let go and taken a step back. Eyes like gems. Emerald and glowing even in the dim light of the night.
Addie shuddered and continued walking.
She made it to the lady’s floor and was about to cross over to the east tower when footsteps carried through the usually empty corridor.
Addie stopped in an alcove where a set of steel armor was propped on a low dais. A relic of wars long gone past. Not the type of war that was now plaguing Sives. Addie saw the soldiers leave under Lord Hamyn’s command and small groups riding out under Armand’s command. Whenever they returned, there was blood on their hands and ash staining their uniforms.
She didn’t want to think about what they were up to while they were gone. Who they killed and who they spared. As long as a good portion of them returned safely—including the young lord.
The footsteps stopped, and Addie’s heart picked up pace instead. Invisible. That’s what she was in this court, and it was better than being at the focus of Lord Hamyn’s temper or Lady Linniue’s gossiping. Only the young lord was someone she would like to be noticed by—just once. Even if he wouldn’t see anything more than a dirty slave clothed in rags.
“Who’s there?” a cautious male voice asked.
Addie held her breath, her bucket cutting into the inside of her fingers as she pulled it closer.
“I know you are there.” The voice trembled.
Addie didn’t speak. Didn’t dare as much as think.
The footsteps continued, coming closer until Addie could see a pair of brown boots. The rest was covered by the suit of armor.
But the man wasn’t the only one who had been spotted.
So fast Addie couldn’t brace herself, the man was upon her, hard grasp restraining her, forcing her forward out of her hiding place.
She didn’t struggle. She had learned in the prison in the north what defiance brought with it.
So she held still, letting him drag her forward, water spilling from her bucket as she stumbled along.
“You.” The man blinked at her with emerald eyes.
Addie blinked in response. It was the young man from Lady Linniue’s room.
As he eyed her with what appeared to be relief, Addie dared to take a better look at the sharp angles and broad planes of his face now that daylight brightened his features.
“I thought you were—” He loosed his grasp on her upper arms, probably leaving bruises where his fingers had been placed. Addie didn’t flinch. And the young man didn’t finish his sentence.
There was fear written on his features, distorting them slightly but doing nothing to hide how handsome he was.
His eyes darted in both directions as if making sure they were alone. Then his hand shot out, clutching hers, and he fell to his knees. “Help me.”
His eyes kept staring at her, regardless of her inability to react, his grasp tightening on her hand. But despite the memories of violence the force of his hand induced, he didn’t seem to intend to hurt her.
“Get me out of here before it happens again,” he pleaded, face ashen.
Addie searched for the shreds of courage the prison in the north had left her with and knelt as well, bringing her head to the same level.
She hadn’t given it a thought, but before last night, she had never seen the young man.
“Who are you?” she asked, setting down her bucket and grabbing his hand in an attempt to peel his fingers off hers.
“Later,” he urged and held her gaze. “You’re Lady Linniue’s servant. You know your way around the palace. Get me out of here.” The young man seemed to be about to vomit his guts up.
Addie considered offering him the bucket but then shied away, considering the consequences that would surely follow once the lady found out what she had let this young man do to the water inside.
It wasn’t as if anyone had ever told her what exactly that water was. Why it was so crucial for Lady Linniue to have it available in her chambers at all times, why Addie was woken in the cold dead of night just to make the cumbersome path down under the north tower and back up again. Addie never asked. She knew from the prison in the north what could happen to people who asked too many questions.
That was probably why Lady Linniue had brought her in from there. And she would be eternally grateful to the gods for that small mercy. At least she wasn’t pushed out in the snow at any sign of disobedience.
“Even if I wanted to—” Addie considered. Her chest tightened at the despair in his eyes.
She couldn’t betray the lady. The price she’d pay would be…
What if the lady never found out? What if…
“Tell me your name,” she demanded. “And I might think about it.”
Memories of days that she’d hoped to escape the prison in the north flashed in her mind. She would have given anything for the opportunity to flee. Would have paid any price. Even if no one would ever believe that prison existed. She’d tried in the first weeks at Eedwood castle to find an open ear, find someone who helped her get back home.
But when she had mentioned Lands End, they had only laughed at her. So she stopped. She kept to herself. She no longer looked for a way out. For even if the castle looked like an average one, she knew how well guarded the walls were, how no one entered without permission.