“Someone must have seen you.”
“They didn’t.” I sigh. There would be no convincing her, even if I were being fully honest. “Don’t worry. They won’t keep us here for long.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he won’t stay away from me for long.” I let that sink in for her. Let her remember what I’m sacrificing for her plan. What she thinks I’m sacrificing.
“Did you ever find the servants’ passages? There’s a meeting I can’t miss.”
I want to ask her with whom, but I know I can’t without arousing her suspicions. “There isn’t one directly into this room. The nearest is in the hall just outside. You’ll need to get past the guards. I could distract them, or you could take them out, but then they’d know what you were doing.”
“Fuck,” she says, shaking her head.
“What about a note? One of the servants, maybe?” They know to intercept anything she tries to send. It should be safe to let her try.
She rubs her face, thinking. “Maybe. It seems reasonable that we would want to communicate with someone while we’re locked up. We have our code, but if I could find a way to get it to Larus or someone where I wouldn’t need to explain who it’s meant for…”
Felix, maybe, although I didn’t think he’d returned from the Islands yet. Perhaps there’s someone else she’s working with. And from the sounds of it, Larus knows. I need to encourage her to write the letter, but I won’t do it immediately. The plan is to keep us here until they’re able to find Larus and arrange the meeting with Felix, which could take a few days.
So I have a few days trapped in this room with her to convince her. A few days to build up her boredom and paranoia. A few days to let her believe her precious plan might get derailed once more.
And I plan to enjoy them.
The next day, I give a note to the guards to ask Ronan to check on me. Adria believes he’s obsessed with me, so I need him to act the part, or she’ll get suspicious. He arrives shortly after, and I greet him at the door, not inviting him in.
I pretend to pretend to enjoy his company, my lies layers deep, now that I’m lying for Adria’s benefit alone. I let her think that I’m deceiving him, that I’m acting as if I want him, but I’m not.
Sleeping alone last night after the evening we spent together was terrible. I don’t know how I can bear being apart from him for days.
I tell him that. I tell him because Adria thinks it’s me looking for a way out of our confinement. And it is, but not for the reason that she thinks.
I spend the rest of the day thumbing through books he brought me, several more travel guides that we didn’t have time to review the night at the library. I alternate my reading with poking at Adria, asking her questions about the state of things and how much this impacts them until she finally writes the damn note.
Dear Larus,
I won’t be able to have dinner with you tonight. In case you haven’t heard, I’ve been delayed. Please accept my apologies. I’ll need to reschedule to the end of next week.
Yours,
Lady Adria of House Verran
It’s not her best work.
But perhaps there is something useful in it. The only time she references is the end of next week. That’s earlier than we’d been anticipating for the attack based on what she and Larus told me last.
Of course, she may not be referencing the actual date of the siege. It could truly be a meeting, as she said. But it’s something to go on.
Stella, who is back on shift outside our door, agrees to have the note delivered to Larus, once they find him.
Which they haven’t yet. That little piece of news concerns me. He didn’t mention going away when I saw him last, and if he somehow caught wind of us being confined in the palace, it seems like he would come to us to try to secure our safety rather than flee.
Maybe he’s meeting with whoever Adria was planning to meet.
Either way, I’ve done what I can. I spend the rest of the evening thinking about whether there’s anything I can do to change her mind before they throw her in jail for sedition. Anything I could say to her without making her realize where my allegiance now lies.
But there’s nothing. If I want to live, I need to keep my secret.
I wake the next day to movement on my bed.
