Cedric blinked. There was a shuffle, metal shifting. The guards—bless their rulebook-loving hearts—moved away at once.
He had no idea what kind of chaos was unfolding beyond the door, but he wasn’t about to question it. With expert speed, Cedric slipped the false scroll into place, tucked the real one inside his jacket, and padded silently to the hallway.
Empty. Not a single guard or kid in sight.
He walked, sweating like a sinner in the chapel, toward the meeting point. A tucked-away corner behind the southern wing, where all good conspiracies and worse ideas were known to end.
And there, striding toward him like he hadn’t just hurled half the castle into panic, was Alaric.
“You have it?” he asked, as breezily as if inquiring about the wine list.
Cedric gave him a look. “Yes. And I’m alive. Thank you for your concern.”
Alaric grinned. “Oh, I had complete faith.”
“Which explains why I nearly pissed myself swapping state secrets in an archive guarded like a dragon’s arse,” Cedric muttered.
“Did you?” Alaric asked, visibly enjoying himself.
“I didn’t. But it was close.”
Alaric chuckled, then unrolled the scroll. His eyes skimmed the ink with sharp interest.
“Were you looking for something?”
Dead. They were so very dead.
Cedric turned slowly, as one might turn to greet Myrris.
Thalen stood behind them, hands clasped behind his back, expression pure as a monastery window. Which only made it worse. His eyes flicked between them with all the innocent curiosity of someone moments away from blackmail.
“I saw you acting strange,” Thalen explained, chipper, “and decided to help.”
Cedric resisted the urge to bang his head against the nearest pillar. Alaric, to his lack of shame, slid the scroll behind his back like that would help. “We… I… actually, it’s—”
Cedric was just about to fake a coughing fit and run when Thalen turned to Alaric, dead serious.
“I gave you a map,” he observed.
Alaric blinked. “You did.”
“There’s a passage,” Thalen continued, tone now bordering on wounded authority. “Hidden in the back corridor. It leads under the north wing. I marked it. It’s in the upper left corner.”
Cedric stared at him, mouth slightly ajar. Alaric opened his eyes like the boy had just confessed to building the palace itself.
“Excuse me?” Alaric stammered.
Thalen’s frown deepened. “What did you think? That I made it up? That map took memonths. It’s a very accurate map. It even has the tunnels that got sealed.”
Cedric felt something unhinge in his brain.
Thalen sighed, full of disappointment. “I really do hope I’ll be smarter when I grow up.”
Then he turned on his heel and walked off, leaving the silence bloated with shame and incredulity.
Chapter 54
The castle had returned to normal. Or at least, the performance of it. Preparations for the wedding surged forward with renewed intensity, as if bouquets and seating charts could erase blood on the stones. The ceremony would proceed as planned. The investigation, interrogations and executions... all neatly shelved for later.
