Yet as the knights continued to force him down the hallway, nothing happened. I hadn’t known if life-oaths taken by the real duchess would affect me or not, and I hadn’t known about this life-oath at all.
No invisible chains tightened around my heart. Apparently life-oaths affected the person who’d sworn them, not their body. Wait, did this mean I wouldn’t be able to ditch my life-oath to Araceli by fleeing back to my own body? That could be a problem. Um, this didn’t mean my real body had dropped dead, did it? Probably not since the duchess hadn’t broken the oath, but I was treading on completely unfamiliar territory.
“The Conclave of Kings will hear about this!” Arrand shouted before being dragged around a corner.
That could be an even bigger problem. The Conclave of Kings prevented any members of their organization from attacking another member through strict life-oaths. They’d want to know why I hadn’t fallen over dead after arresting a representative of the Guild of Indentured Servitude. Then they’d be required to take action against me.
What had I done?
Araceli ran down the hallway, a sword and scabbard clashing with her maid’s uniform. “There you are! Donya sent me to take you out of the palace.” Her mouth flattened into a grim line. “The rioters are about to break in.”
Chapter Ten
The Conclave of Kings would never get a chance to kill me if an angry citizen with a rock bashed my head in first. Rather than something witty and philosophical about this irony, “Murmph?” emerged from my mouth.
Araceli seized my arm. “Follow me. I’ll take you to a carriage.”
“What … how … wait!” I jerked my arm free. “How could rioters get past the guards so quickly?”
“Countess Donya refused to employ the guard against them,” Araceli said. “I respect her for that choice. It’s not ideal to let a riot break down the palace gate, of course, but people who have been tricked into indentured servitude are angry for a good reason. Ever since the duchess arrived, this city has been on the edge of a revolution. One wrong move could turn this situation into a bloodbath. The rioters have exclusively focused their anger on the Blood Duchess, since they correctly blame her for selling their debt to the slavers. If you’re not here, they might dissipate.”
As the person currently stuck in the Blood Duchess’s body, this failed to comfort me. “Wait. The real duchess had a plan with the former slavers’ guild. They brought Gifted Knights here to quell the populace. I took the representative hostage to stop them, but someone has to tell his Gifted Knights or they might attack anyway.”
“Good move on your part.” Araceli stopped trying to grab me. “I’ll find the captain of the guard.”
“You think I did the right thing?” I asked, desperate for reassurance.
“There will be ramifications for this, but I don’t think you had much choice if he was about to start a massacre.”
That wasn’t the reassurance I’d hoped for, but it was better than nothing.
Araceli frowned at the look on my face. She grabbed my shoulders. “Bora, I promised to protect you, and I will.”
A palace guard ran down the corridor, shouting, “The royal stables’ staff have revolted! They’re refusing to provide a carriage for the duchess.”
Araceli winced and bit her lip. “That’s going to make it harder, but I’ll still find a way for you to escape. Somehow. Huh, protecting people is a lot harder than assassinating them. I could kill you half a dozen ways, but getting you past a mob will be a lot harder.”
“People are angry because King Uctor owed them unpaid back wages, right? Why don’t we pay them back? There are so many fancy things here.” I gestured at the portrait on the wall and the golden candlesticks next to it.
“Even if you sell everything in the palace, it won’t pay off the entire royal debt. The late King Uctor had a spending problem well before the World Games.”
Even so, I wanted to help the people I could. “If I don’t at least sell off what I can, then won’t the debt be even larger?”
She hesitated. “You’ve got a point. Frankly, I’m out of ideas.”
The guard listening to us in confusion finally interrupted. “That’s a portrait painted by the late and great Jdalj. You can’t just give away our cultural heritage! It will end up pawned for a cheap price and sold off to a foreign country where we’ll never get it back.”
Ugh, I didn’t have time to sort out cultural heritage from expensive junk. “How about the duchess’s jewelry?” I suggested. None of that actually belonged to me, and it didn’t belong to Arahasnor either. If there was any heritage in there, it wouldn’t be ours.
“You start gathering the jewelry while I head off the slavers’ Gifted Knights. Don’t do anything before I arrive.” Araceli then spoke to the guard, giving orders.
* * *
Back in the duchess’s bedroom, I headed straight to the jewelry box. Something hard slammed against the window, making the glass pane rattle. I jumped, nearly dropping the box. Another impact followed moments later. It sounded like a rock. This time, the glass cracked with a groan. Though I knew it was risky, I pulled back the curtain to peek.
A crowd of angry citizens stood below. Their voices rose in an incoherent shout. A group of men clustered at the front held a makeshift battering ram made of logs tied together. They thrust it at the palace gate. The iron groaned in response.
Donya stood on a balcony, trying to speak over the crowd. She was completely alone, without a guard to protect her. “I won’t let the slavers take any of you! I promise!” she screamed into the wind.
