At last, it clicked open. No flush of success this time. Just a whirlwind of emotions that couldn’t be held back any longer. I threw myself inside my room and locked it behind me. I didn’t make it two steps before I collapsed on the dusty floor.
Sobs wracked my body. I tried to keep them quiet, but I was suffocating. I closed my eyes, gagging.
Gods, Asher pleaded with me like I was his only hope. If I’d known where the gold was, would Father have spared him?
I would never know.
Instead, guilt speared through my chest. I’d lied to Asher, stolen from him, and in his last moments, I’d taken away his final hope.
The bile exploded back up my throat, and I vomited in the corner of my room. Everything I’d eaten at Melaena’s party, every drop of water I’d consumed—my stomach wrung itself dry.
Tears streamed down my face, and I curled into a ball on the floor.
Moments passed. Heartbeats drummed onward. Emotions bled out.
I couldn’t stay here.
I rose and searched through my wardrobe to find another pair of pants. I traded them for my stained ones. No boots. I’d have to wash them somehow.
My head pounded, and my mouth tasted like sewage. But that would all have to wait. Gods, my room atThe Silk Dancerfelt miles away. Had the girls noticed I wasn’t in bed?
And what if they didn’t? I would simply lie, lie, lie my way back in.
My life was nothing but lies now.
I opened my door to find Everett on the other side, his fist raised.
“Kiera?” His pale face tightened with concern.
My face crumpled, and I threw my arms around him. He hesitated for a moment, then hugged me back.
“It’s all right,” he murmured. “It’s going to be all right. I know.”
I sniffled, looking up at him. “Know what?”
He nodded solemnly. “I watched from the peephole—you know, the one in the north wall? I didn’t hear much, but I saw what happened to Asher. May the gods find his soul.”
“It’s my fault,” I whispered.
The corners of his mouth turned down as he shook his head. “We should talk somewhere more private.”
“Not my room,” I said quickly.I don’t want you there if Renwell comes back.“It... stinks.”From my vomit.
“Right. Then follow me.”
He led me halfway down the hall, checked both directions, and pulled a sconce. A latch clicked, and a door popped open in the wall. We slipped through it and sealed ourselves in the hidden passage.
The smell of dust and stale wood reminded me of my childhood. Playing games in these corridors with Everett and Delysia. No maps existed, so we challenged each other to see who could discover the most passageways.
Delysia was usually too frightened to explore much on her own, but I’d thrived on the adventure. Everett had proven a stout competitor with his studious mind. Perhaps he knew more about them now than I did.
Mother said the passageways had existed since the Age of Gods—probably built into the palace by the god Terraum himself. He’d had a great love of tricky carpentry and was an excellent architect, having built the four Temples of Lancora as well.
We often wondered if the Keldiket or Eloren Isles palaces had such secrets. The fortress-like castle in Dagriel had been destroyed in a clan war over a hundred years ago.
Likely, we would never know.
Murky light leaked into the narrow hall from hidden vents and peepholes. We brought lamps with us as children. But Everett’s footsteps didn’t falter once.
