Chapter One
Jacinth
Darkness was the best friend of many a thief, but as I gazed out over the castle before me, waiting for the sun to set, I couldn’t help but curse it anyway.
Darkness meant another moment closer to losing Ula. Every minute spent not getting her a cure did, and I couldn’t lose another damn person.
Never again.
It felt like it took hours for the sun to finally sink behind the horizon and for the castle to wind down for the night. If I hit it too early, the guards would still all be present and accounted for. If I hit it during the shift change, however, there would be fewer men on the doors and perimeter.
Especially the door to the kitchens.Thatdoor led to a hall that contained a hidden trap door, one that would lead down into the bowels of the castle. Overlooked and forgotten for the most part, but a vital shortcut to the interior maze. I pulled out the map I’d traded for, hoping it would pay off. Checking it over, my finger traced along the path I needed, burning it into my brain.
When the time came, I watched the guards disappear inside, and moved to finally scale the perimeter wall. My hands and feet found holds to boost me up before I dropped softly onto the grass inside the grounds. Looking in each direction, I ensured the new guards weren’t yet approaching, and no one had seen me. Some good news for once.
I sprinted as quickly as I could across the lawn to the castle, putting myself flush against the stone. Ruby Court still had a proper castle instead of a palace. While most courts had grand palaces instead of ancient stone castleslike this one, the ruling family here seemed to like the traditional aspect of it, at least from what I understood.
I paid close attention to politics in the realm, eagerly gathering every bit of knowledge I could. Unfortunately, Gemaria was expansive, making it difficult to get as much information as I liked, especially for someone in my position in society.
Even with that difficulty, I was still fully aware that Lord Carnelian, the Lord of Ruby Court, didn’t like new policies, new palaces, newanything. He was a creature of old traditions, and his castle reflected that.
I slunk along the side, sticking close to the stone wall of the castle, and noticed the red flecks shining from within them, rolling my eyes at the realization. Of course, they didn’t use regular stone; obviously, that would be toocommonfor the lords of Ruby. At least it gave a glint of color to all the drab grey. A branch snapped to my right, and I instantly froze, quickly looking to see where it had come from. I couldn’t see anything within the darkness of the surrounding wood, and when no guards appeared, I figured it must have been an animal. Still, I waited for a beat more to be safe before I continued.
I thankfully made my way around the side with little issue, finding the door that led into the corner of the castle that held the kitchen. Only servants came to this section, and at this time of night, there should only be a couple of people preparing for tomorrow, if anyone at all.
Peering in the closest window, I saw one lone servant remaining, her back to the door as she stood within the kitchen, rolling some kind of dough. I opened the door and shut it quietly, not letting it make a sound, before I quickly turned down the hall with silent footsteps that ghosted along the floor.
Sure enough, the small hall was all but deserted, and I was able to locate the painting that concealed the level to the trap door with ease. I swiftly triggered it and lowered myself in with no issue. That was the easy part. Now, I had to find the crumbling hole that would lead me to the heavily locked and guarded area that contained the vault itself.
It was only thanks to a servant discovering this hole and blabbing drunkenly at the right person that I had this chance. I hoped his instructions were correct, or I was going to kill him for this. Getting caught here would be a death sentence, but I had to do this now. The servant had already informed his lord about the issue, and it was due to be fixed within a few days.
I had only the tiniest window of time to get my hands on the coin of the wealthiest lord in Gemaria.
I made my way down the hall, keeping my footsteps silent and my pointed ears perked for any noises. As I hit a four-way intersection of halls, I reached up and ran my hand along the seam where the ceiling met the stone wall. The feeling of the mortar changed about halfway through, and I ran my hand down from there to find the loose stone. I nearly cheered when I discovered it before catching myself and merely pressing on the stone to trigger the mechanism.
Slowly, a section of the wall peeled open, revealing the hidden door in its entirety. Darting through it carefully, I found another hall, but it was one that only led in one direction. I wasn’t a fan of not having multiple exits, but I knew going in that this would be a tight fit. I just needed to breathe through it.
As long as I was mindful of my breathing and gave myself a focus to keep my mind out of the past, I shouldn’t panic while stuck in the enclosed space.
The crumbling hole I needed to find next was about halfway down the hall, and I smiled in victory as I spotted it. Contorting myself through it, I put one leg in before ducking and swinging my head through, pulling my remaining leg deftly through the air and out of the hole, putting me in the new space fully. I stood up, looking at a nearly identical hall.
A maze, indeed. At least I had the damn map, or I’d never find my way through.
Creeping through the tiny stone hall, however, my instincts began screaming at me that something wasn’t right. Something beyond my aversion to being closed in. I’d stolen into enough places to know to listen when my intuition flared, so I paused on silent feet and cast my eyes up and down the hall.
Nothing.
Only a faint wind whistling through the cracks in the old stonework, the dust floating in the air, and my own breathing.
It was times like this that I wished we Elves had the same magic the Fae or Pixies did. If I could summon shadows or fire, or even red destruction magic, I would feel a lot better.But no.Instead, Elves got the short end of the stick.
While our magic might be more varied, it was much more complicated and had to be prepared in advance. Not to mention, you had to be able to afford the materials for it.
Or steal them.
But I hadn’t stolen enough recently to afford the gems I required. I desperately needed to reup my supply, especially with Ula sick. Living on the streets didn’t exactly lead to the healthiest of conditions, and Ula only got more ill as time went on. We needed to get our hands on some opal and onyx to fix whatever ailed her before it was too late.
Which was what had brought me to Ruby Court in the first place. Finding the servant was a stroke of luck, admittedly. I’d been hanging around trying to find anything I could use, which was the only reason I was in the right place at the right time to hear about the weakness in the castle’s vault.
