‘Are you thinking of a different Juri to the one with the silver crossbow?’
Raleigh waved off the reminder.‘If Juri had killed me in Orlfen, it would have looked like I simply disappeared again.Even if his little hunting party found us on the roads, none of them would expose him when Vienna inevitably starts investigating my disappearance.But if the mob attacked the castle, the investigators would find signs of revolt and execute your father without trial.’He seemed to be relishing the thought.‘Dear Emperor Francis isn’t exactly sympathetic to revolution, and I spent quite a bit of time convincing his grandmother to outlaw vampire hunting, so if Juri tried that defence he’ll die either way.’He looked pleased with himself.
‘Does Father know all that?’
‘Why else do you think he’s let me live this long?’
The idea that Father might be the one letting Raleigh live made me want to laugh.
‘Anyway,’ Raleigh said, ‘if they did try to attack we would only need to barricade ourselves in my tower and wait for them to give up or starve to death in the halls.’
I wasn’t especially reassured by this idea but decided to say no more on the matter.
We reached the castle right on the cusp of dawn.My slippers were reduced to tatters by the time we crossed the empty moat, and I was sure I was walking on more blister than shoe.An acid bloom had spread across my shoulders from lugging the crucifix, made ever worse as the bruises from Raleigh’s grip set in.Every part of me he’d clung to felt larger somehow.I resolved to wash as soon as I was back in the castle, though my mind insisted on returning to that moment again and again.
Even Raleigh struggled over the final rise.While he was always pale, now he looked sickly, and he gripped his shoulder tightly with his opposite hand.We entered through the servants’ entrance, but while I turned to leave the kitchen, he lingered behind.
‘I … need to make a trip to the cellar.’He didn’t need to elaborate on what that meant.‘Will you be all right to get back to your chambers?’
‘I’ll be fine.But if you find me sleeping in the hallway, it’s because I regret not letting Father finish you off.’I was about to leave, then stopped.‘You take care too.’I gestured to his bloodstained shoulder.‘Don’t die before you get down there.’
Exhausted as he was, Raleigh smiled, and as I left I could have sworn I heard him whisper, ‘Thank you.’
Twelve
IT WAS WELL INTOthe afternoon by the time I could bring myself to open my eyes, and later still when I mustered the energy to drag myself from bed.My body had that leaden weariness I associated best with having drunk too much wine, but there were no joyous escapades to look back on, only sore limbs, blistered feet and the dawning reality that I could never return to my old life.
My shoulders hurt more than they had the night before, but the pain was a welcome distraction from the memory of everything that had happened.I twisted my body into every angle imaginable to crane a look at the rosy souvenirs.My skin was mottled with bruising, sharp red moons jutting through the blooms where Raleigh’s nails had pierced flesh.Moira would have a heart attack if she saw.So I dug out one of the more modern gowns Raleigh had given me and was relieved to find it covered my neckline entirely.After a much-needed freshen-up, I dragged my aching feet in search of something to fill my stomach.
I was unsurprised to find there was no breakfast laid out for me, though I supposed by now a late lunch would be more accurate.What did surprise me was that the dining room was pristine.The table was usually tidy enough, but I’d grown used to the dust on the mantle and the cobwebs in the corners.Was Moira an anxious cleaner?Somehow I doubted it.She’d never struck me as a woman prone to stress.
My stomach growled, driving away all thoughts of housework.I hadn’t eaten anything since the previous night, and I was no longer accustomed to starvation.I took myself to the kitchen without a second thought, but when I arrived I realised that something was terribly wrong.
The air smelt dazzling, delicious.Like real, flavoursome cooking, not flour and boiled meat.I hadn’t smelt anything so wonderful since the last time Father took me to the markets, and that was an ancient memory now.Moira had outdone herself.I stepped through the doorway, ready to lavish praise on her.But she wasn’t there.
There was a stranger in the kitchen.He was well built, with tightly coiled dark hair and a moustache I hoped at least he thought was becoming.He scowled at the sight of me, as though I was the stranger and he had lived in the castle the whole time.‘So you’re the princess who turned her nose up at my meals.’
‘I … just awoke.’I stepped back instinctively.
The man grunted.Unsure what to do, I scooted around him, feeling his gaze follow my every move, and sought out the larder where Moira kept the bread and cheese that usually comprised my lunch.To my dismay, if there was bread and cheese in there they were buried, lost under a sea of fresh ingredients, many of which I couldn’t have named if I tried.
‘You’re getting in the way,’ he said.
‘I just wanted something to eat,’ I said weakly.As the words left my mouth I realised how I sounded.To him, whoever he was, I wasnothing but the spoilt lady of the house, swanning down in a fine gown to demand refreshment after sleeping away half the day.
‘Then you can eat the meals I make for you when I make them,’ he said, and before I knew it, he had ushered me out of the kitchen and stormed away.
I alternated between fury and confusion, settling on the former before retreating to the dining room.I could have marched back in and demand he serve me, as was my right as the prince’s betrothed, but the mere thought made me recoil in such embarrassment that I slunk to the library to distract myself instead.
I didn’t last long.After my late-night adventure, I couldn’t make my eyes focus on the page for more than a few lines.I found myself staring blankly at the parchment, willing the inconsistent letters to make sense of themselves.If the scribes of old were men of such genius, why couldn’t they decide on one form for the letter D?And why couldn’t they invest in better parchment?In the end, I wound up doing little more than watch the wax trickle down the side of my candle until I decided I needed fresh air.
With the strange man barring the kitchen door, I didn’t know how exactly I was going to get outside.The main entrance was a grand set of double doors, built for a castle full of servants and too heavy to open on my own.But surely there was another way out.I left the library without tidying up, brainstorming different places I could check, when another idea occurred to me.
‘Can you hear me?’I said into the empty corridor.My voice rang out on the stone.‘Is there another way out of the castle?Notoutout,’ I quickly corrected, ‘Out onto the grounds.Could you help me?’I put my hand onto the wall for good measure.‘Please?’
Nothing happened.I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed, even though there was no one there to hear.Deciding to take my chances with the strange man in the kitchen, I set off once more.Then stopped.
There was an opening in the wall I had never seen before.That in itself wasn’t remarkable: most of the doors in the corridor changed day to day according to Raleigh’s whims and, with every candle lit and surfaces polished, the halls were already barely recognisable.But I would have noticed an opening in the stone.The wall itself had slid open, a dark corridor beckoning beyond.I stepped inside.At once light sprang to life along the sconces, illuminating a path down a set of uneven, but barely trodden steps.
