Reluctantly, I answer him. “My name is Shadow of the Honey Glade. My aunts Moriah and Mesha are part of the Guild.” He may not know me, but his father knew my aunts well. I wait for some kind of recognition, but none arrives.
“Shadow. Awfully unusual name for a boy, isn’t it?”
That’s all he has to say? He clearly doesn’t remember me or my aunts. My face burns red. “Maybe because I’m not a boy.”
Then I see it—his face lights up for the first time. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a dirty scrap of fabric, holds it up for me to see. A bit worse for wear, but it’s the handkerchief I gave him in Serrone. “Do you know anything about this?”
“Of course I do. I gave it to you,” I say, and his face changes.
“Why?”
“You saved my life once. And now it’s my turn to save yours.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Caledon
“THAT WAS YOU?” HE SAYS. “At the abbey?”
She nods. Cal’s mind is reeling. He can’t reconcile the memory of the strange girl from Baer Abbey with the one in Serrone and the person standing before him now. They were all so different. One a mysterious black-clad combatant, one a demure merchant girl, and now . . . This is who the queen chose as her messenger? Why not send a man from the Guild? The girl’s absurd disguise would barely pass the Guild’s standards . . . It doesn’t make sense to him, any of it, but Queen Lilianna must have her reasons. She always does. And the girl did give him the handkerchief: You’re not alone, she said.
He can see out of the corner of his eye that she’s still shaking. She’s terrified, Cal thinks. And he doesn’t fault her for it. That all could have ended much differently. She’s clearly a novice, but if she’s from a Guild family, she knows exactly who and what he is. He feels sorry for threatening her, but he couldn’t have known. She’ll get over it. She’ll have to if they’re going to get out of here. “Explain the forgery, then.”
“I told you, I had to convince the queen I was worthy, so I had to do everything myself. Now we need to go,” she says. “Listen—I hitched a ride here on a prisoner transport carrying a spy from Montrice. I overheard him talking to the guard, about you and the Aphrasians and Alast. He’s somewhere in this fortress. I think he’s here to kill you.”
A Montrician spy. Of course their enemies have made their move after hearing of the grand prince’s murder. Cal thinks quickly, weighing whether he should stay to take care of this new threat before leaving.
“I know where we can get horses,” she says. “I’ve been working in the stables.”
“You mentioned that.” This is not what he expected when Queen Lilianna said she would send someone for him. But Shadow knows about Montrice. She managed to infiltrate the prison and find him, so he supposes it has to be her. But he can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right, though he can’t be sure if he’s not thinking clearly because of his confinement. “We should deal with the Montrician agent first,” he finally says.
She walks in front of Cal without addressing what he’s said. He follows her into the hall. “Where is he?” Cal asks.
“I haven’t seen him since we got here. But he’s already imprisoned. It’s a waste of time, don’t you think? Why pick a fight we don’t need?”
He’s about to argue, but she’s not wrong, and they need to make their escape soon if they mean to leave undetected. He decides to agree for now.
They descend the tower stairs. “There are two guards stationed at the front,” she says. “But they seem to get bored and wander off a lot. And there’s that card game in the dining hall tonight . . .”
He nods; he’s been keeping tabs as well, and he memorized the map of the castle he’d made when he first arrived. “This way,” he says as he leads them out toward the back.
The sound of out-of-tune instruments playing disjointed songs floats into the dark hallway. “Good,” she says. “They’ll never hear us over all that racket.”
Curious girl, he thinks to himself. The way she’s taking charge, it’s almost as if she thinks she’s the one saving him. Entertaining as it is, he supposes she is sort of rescuing him, even if he could have overtaken the guards and been on his way out of Deersia on his own. But his orders were to wait. Regardless, he’s rather enjoying the charade.
They back up against the wall and inch toward the dining room. Cal nods at the swords leaning against the wall outside the entrance. Shadow nods in agreement. They will take them.
She studies the open doorway and closes her eyes for a moment. Then she opens them and urgently waves her hand down. They both crouch just as a guard walks into the hall. The man glances in their direction but doesn’t see anything amiss. He turns and heads the other way.
Shadow puts her hand over her heart and exhales softly. Cal’s not worried, though—amused is more like it.
They continue sliding along the wall until they get close to the door.
Now they just need to slip past the doorway without being noticed. Shadow gets down on her hands and knees and peeks into the room. Then, in a flash, she’s on the other side, grabbing a sword. Cal stays low and moves next to her, then chooses a blade for himself.
They move quickly through the hallway until they reach a side entrance off the kitchens. Cal’s about to open it but Shadow puts up a hand to stop him. He rolls his eyes and tries not to sigh. He can tell no one is there. He’d hear boots stomping. As he pushes the door open, she grabs his arm, for all of a sudden he’s face-to-face with the guard who’d left the dining hall earlier.
Without thinking, he drives his sword through the man’s stomach, then yanks it straight back out. The man’s exclamation gurgles in his throat, arms flailing wildly. Cal steps away as the man collapses.
Shadow’s breath hitches.
Cal walks through the doorway and continues on the path leading away from the building. He is clearly out of sorts from day after day of insufficient food and movement. If she hadn’t warned him, it might have been him lying crumpled on the floor with a sword through his belly, blank dead eyes wide-open in shock. He looks back. It won’t be long before someone finds the body. But they don’t have time to hide it.
He shakes off the thought, and they creep down the path toward the stables. Shadow leads them around the side. “The stable boys sleep in the loft, so try to stay quiet. We’ll take the horses closest to the door and head straight down the path to the main road. We should make it all the way to Alvilla before anyone notices.” The village is far enough away to make a safe haven.
He nods. They creep inside the barn, trying not to make any loud noises or sudden movements that would startle the horses.