A quiet knock came just before the door opened. Aerity lowered her hands and saw Duke Gulfton, his watery eyes peering through the barely opened door.
“Come in, good sir,” she said.
He did, and as the door opened she noticed an empty hall.
“Where have my guards gone?”
He closed the door behind him. “There was smoke in the kitchen and a disturbance at the servant’s entrance.”
Aerity stood in a rush, but Duke Gulfton held a hand out as he walked to the desk.
“Everyone is on edge. Most likely burned bread and a fight between messenger boys. It is fine.” He leaned both hands against his staff. The man appeared heavily burdened, his eyes sagging and dark circled, his back more hunched than ever.
“I thought you had returned to your land,” Aerity said.
The duke nodded. “I did, briefly, but I am back. It does not feel safe there. As you know, my property neighbors the Kalorian border.”
“Of course.” Aerity shook her head. How had she not thought of that? Her father would have insisted the duke and his family stay in the castle or in a northern property.
“I hope your family has fled to safety,” Aerity said.
His face drooped, and it took him a moment to respond. “What will you do now, Your Majesty?”
Aerity swallowed. “Though it goes against my every instinct, I think I must leave until the war is over. Not to the Isle of Evie, though. Some place different. Do you have a suggestion?”
She expected him to be relieved by her choice, but he continued to look frightfully downtrodden. His voice was dry and raspy, and he appeared to fight for strength to speak.
“Your Majesty. There are certain things your father meant to tell you when it was time for you to reign someday. Secrets of the castle. I’m sure he thought he had more time. . . .”
“Like the underground tunnels?” she asked.
He nodded. “Aye. And a vault of safety here in this very office.”
“Indeed?” Aerity perked with interest as the man began to shuffle toward the bookshelves along the wall behind the desk.
His hands shook with tremors as he grasped the top of three books and pulled them down with a creak—the books appeared to be stuck together, and moved like a lever—then he pushed with a weak grunt. Aerity moved forward to help him. She expected to see a dusty cavern but what she found was a simple elongated space that was extraordinarily clean.
“Why did he never tell me?”
“Children tend to think of secret passageways as playthings, but they are old and dangerous.”
Aye. He likely hadn’t wanted word to trickle down to Donubhan.
The room appeared to have supplies in the far corner. She walked to the corner and bent to examine the jugs of water and bag of food. All this time the room was here, ready in wait to keep her family safe. If only they could have used it. A shuffle and click sounded from behind her, and Aerity was suddenly immersed in pitch-darkness. She sucked in a breath and yelled.
“Duke Gulfton?” Aerity’s heart pumped hard as she felt along the wall. There had to be a handle of some sort. “Duke! The door has closed!” She pounded with her fist and pressed her ear to the wood. “Hello? Open the door!”
The man was old and weak, and had moments where his mind seemed absent, but he had to know the door had closed with her inside. Surely if he didn’t have the strength to open it again himself he would get help, right? Aerity pressed her palms against the door. She felt disoriented in the dark as if she might suffocate. Her heart, her breathing, were both ragged with panic. Again she pounded and smacked at the door, kicking it until her toes throbbed.
Seas . . . the vault walls were too thick for her to be heard.
Aerity pressed a hand against her chest, trying to calm herself. Why was this happening? Had Duke Gulfton gone mad? Did he think he was protecting her? But she’d told him she was going to leave. Why would he do this?
Her stomach suddenly turned and Aerity slid to her knees, overcome with nausea. The duke . . . was he the traitor? She shook her head, whispering, “No. No. It can’t be.” He was the wisest in the council. The most trustworthy. Why would he do such a thing?
Paxton would come. Vixie. Wyneth. Harrison. But they didn’t know about the vault. Surely someone in the castle would know. The military? The guards? Someone had to know! Aerity crawled forward to the door. She started feeling from the bottom, slowly running her hands over the door, taking her time to feel every single inch. Her fingernails dug along the crevices where the door sealed itself.
There was nothing. Why would they make a vault where the inhabitants could not get out? Aerity felt short of breath. Perhaps it wasn’t for safety at at all. Perhaps it was a holding place for captives.
She quickly crawled to the corner and fumbled for the supplies, hoping they would have something, anything, that she could use. She found a wooden pail and pushed it aside. Then she grabbed the bag and fiddled with the strings to open it. Cloths. A blanket. A bag of something heavy. She tugged the strings and pushed her hand inside. Oats? Useless! She pushed the bag away.
Aerity crawled until she felt the door, and sat, leaning her head back against it. She listened hard but could hear nothing except her own ragged breaths echoing in the room. And suddenly this was the proper time for that breakdown she’d been holding back.
Chapter
38
The feeling of nervous anticipation never left Paxton as he bathed and shaved. His skin felt rough from his time in Kalor. He grabbed a clean tunic and brought it to his face. The scent was fresh and reminded him of home. Paxton strapped his daggers to his chest, then put the tunic over his head and shook out his damp hair, all the while wondering how his parents were faring.
Seeing Tiern had been like cool rain on his face after trudging through a desert. He’d missed his brother more than he’d let himself admit. He also wouldn’t admit how much he wanted to pack up Aerity and the others and force them to leave. Paxton grasped the sides of the washbasin and leaned forward, closing his eyes.
Deep seas . . . let Aerity make the right decision. He wouldn’t force her, but surely she would see reason. In a matter of hours, five or six at the most, they would be under attack. The time for her to leave was now. Paxton readied his bow and quiver and set out to find his princess.
The halls were busy with staff and guards rushing around, preparing the castle. Tensions were high. Everyone was fully armed. Even maids had bows and quivers across their backs and belts with blades. He was glad to see it.
When he came to the king’s office a single guard was outside.
“I need to speak with her,” Paxton said to him.
The guard shook his head. “She’s not inside.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“No, sir.”
Paxton went to Aerity’s chambers first. The guard at her hall said she wasn’t there either, but Paxton passed him and knocked at her bedroom door anyway. No answer. It was evening now, but he didn’t expect her to be sleeping. He doubted anyone in the castle would sleep that night.
He went next to High Hall, then the dining rooms, which were all empty. Where was she? A flicker of worry began to spark. Paxton saw her maid rush past with a stack of towels.
“Have you seen Prin— er, Queen Aerity?” he asked her. The girl’s eyebrows furrowed.
“Nay, Mister Seabolt. Have you checked the office?”
“Aye.” He left her and jogged down to the far halls. He looked in the library, then in the archery room. Wyneth, Harrison, and Lief were all there with a handful of staff members, feverishly practicing. Furball sat on a mat in the corner. They all turned to Paxton.
“Have any of you seen Aerity?”
They looked around at one another and shook their heads.
“I’ve looked nearly everywhere,” he said.
“I know that Vixie was going to the kitchens,” Wyneth said. “Perhaps there? I’ll look too.”
; They joined him, with the beast on their heels. They jogged through the castle, calling her name, asking every guard and soldier they passed, telling everyone they saw to search. He went to the tower where Mrs. Rathbrook had returned, but Aerity wasn’t there.
Paxton was unnerved by the time they reached the kitchens. Only one man was in there, a robust baker with a red face, pulling trays of bread from the oven as if winning the war depended on feeding the masses.
“There’s Vix!” Wyneth pointed to the far corner, where Vixie sat at a table, absently dabbing at half a coconut cake with the tines of a fork.
“Have you seen Aer?” Wyneth called.
Vixie shook her head and slid off the stool, coming to them. “You can’t find her?”
“We’ve searched the castle,” Paxton said.
Vixie pushed past them all and ran into the hall. They sprinted to the doors at the back of the castle where the gardens were. Paxton’s stomach turned. These were the doors he was to keep unguarded and unlocked for Prince Vito. As Wyneth, Harrison, and Vixie ran, Paxton saw an old man sitting alone on the corner bench in the hall.
“Duke Gulfton,” Vixie called. The man slowly lifted his head. Paxton and Lord Alvi went to him as the girls jogged to the doors.
“Have you seen Queen Aerity?” Lief asked.
The duke’s eyes wandered aimlessly to the doors where Vixie and Wyneth screamed for Aerity outside. “They are coming. . . .”
“Yes, we know,” Lief said impatiently. “We need to know if you have seen the eldest Lochson girl, the Queen.” Vixie and the others came back inside, shaking their heads. They all looked at the duke.
“I daresay we have all seen the last of Aerity. Seas forgive—”
Paxton grasped the man by his velvet robes and heaved him up until they were face-to-face, and shook him. “What do you mean by that?”
The man moaned helplessly, his eyes fluttering shut.
“Pax!” Wyneth grabbed his shoulder. “He’s mad. He doesn’t know what he says.”
Paxton dropped the man back to the bench, flexing his trembling hands into fists.
“Great oceans deep and wide,” the old man murmured. And then he dropped his head and began to heave great sobs.
Vixie looked at the nearest guard. “He should probably be brought into the tunnels to be kept safe. He needs to lie down.” The guard nodded and bent to put a hand under the man’s arm, but Duke Gulfton suddenly seemed to come to his senses and pushed the man away.
“Leave me be! I’m staying right here until it’s time.”
Vixie gave the guard an exasperated look. “Leave him, then.”
Paxton began to pace an angry line back and forth across the hall. “Something has happened. She wouldn’t run off without telling any of us. How is it that not a single person in the castle has seen or heard anything?” He raised his hands and shouted, “Where is she?”
Harrison and Lief both nodded. “I’m going to alert the military in case she left the castle so they can keep an eye out on the grounds.”
Paxton eyed Wyneth and Vixie, who clutched each other’s hands. “I think it’s time for both of you to go into the tunnels until we find Aerity. If there is a threat in these walls, you’ll be safer there.”
“But—” Vixie began as Paxton cut her off.
“Please, Princess. Please do not argue.”
She pursed her lips tightly, but something in the sincerity of his voice seemed to deflate her. “All right. Fine.”
“I’ll take you,” Harrison said.
Wyneth, Vixie, and a lumbering Furball followed Harrison, and Paxton looked at Lief.
“We need to decide a strategy while we search for Aerity,” the coldlands man said. Paxton nodded and began walking. “I say we clear the castle of staff, send them north so they’re out of the way, and then we fill the castle with as many soldiers as can be spared. Rooftop, balcony, windows, and parapet lined with archers.”
“Aye,” Paxton said, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Aerity, still in disbelief that he couldn’t find her. He led them back to the office where that same guard stood. “This is the last place I saw her,” Paxton said. “I’d like to have a look.”
The guard moved aside with a wave of his arm. Paxton and Lief went into the silent office. An eerie sort of presence filled the room, perhaps an ancient power of some sort. It was strange to be in the room where kings of Lochlanach had held countless meetings and made centuries of the kingdom’s decisions. Paxton looked under the desk and opened the largest cabinet doors. He shook his head. Where are you, Aer?
A light series of bangs sounded and Paxton stilled to listen. “Did you hear that?” he whispered. It sounded close, but faint. Perhaps knocking from somewhere else within the castle? Lief stopped and inclined his head toward the wall to listen.
BANG.
Outside the window the night lit up in a display of bright orange.
“Great skies!” Lief ran to the window with Paxton just behind him. The naval yard was under attack. Another boom sounded, this time farther away, in the opposite direction, perhaps at the royal gate?
“They’re early,” Paxton said in disbelief. He’d been duped. They must have left mere hours after him. He gritted his teeth in anger. And where the curses was Aerity?
The two men ran from the room as a closer boom shook the floor, rattling the windows. Screams rang out inside the castle now.
“Get below!” Paxton shouted to terrified staff members who ran into the halls. “Take your weapons!” He stopped and faced Lief. “Listen. They think I’m one of them. I can stay. But there’s no time to get the military inside the castle. The people in the tunnels are going to need a strong leader, someone who is ready to strike when the time is right.”
Lief narrowed his eyes and leaned into Paxton’s face. “If this is a trick, you will be the first one I kill.”
It bothered Paxton to the very center of his being that this man didn’t trust him after all they’d been through. Paxton held up his palms within striking distance. Lief leaned away, eyeing his hands.
“If I were a traitor, you would have been the first one I would have killed by now.” Paxton dropped his hands. “All I want is to keep Aerity safe and to defeat the Kalorian army. I was sickened by what I saw while I was with them. You have no idea.”
Lief’s jaw rocked from side to side. “Can you truly say you will be fine with letting Aerity go when we defeat them? That you will not stand in the way of our union?”
Paxton huffed hot air from his nose, livid at the thought. “Nay. I will not be fine with letting her go, but neither will I stand in the way of her responsibilities to the kingdom.”
The floor shook beneath them again. Harrison came sprinting up the hall.
“Any word on Aerity?” Paxton shouted.
Harrison shook his head, panting. “Nay. I’ve no bloody clue where she’s gone! Their fleet is upon us, every sea vessel fights. I think our navy can overcome theirs, but the land battle is a different matter. The royal wall has been damaged and the gates compromised. We thought we had more time. We weren’t in place yet. Soldiers are running amok with no direction!”
Curses! Paxton grabbed Harrison’s shoulder. “Tell your men to be on the lookout at the garden entrance. And then gather as many soldiers as you can spare and go below into the tunnels with the staff. Be sure to get Mrs. Rathbrook. If the prince’s men overtake the castle, I can get exact counts of how many we’ll be up against within the castle walls. I will alert you when the time is right to come aboveground and strike.”
“When they least expect it,” Harrison said, nodding. “Perhaps when they’re celebrating.”
“Exactly,” Paxton agreed. “Be patient.”
“I will,” Harrison said.
They both looked at Lord Alvi’s frowning face. The man let out a low growl.
“So be it. We go below.” Lief stalked away, and Paxton shook his head at Harrison.
“I cannot deal with his hostility
. And where in the bloody seas is Aerity?”
Harrison’s face was tight. “Don’t worry about Alvi. But as for Aerity . . .” He shook his head. “She had to have been taken. There’s been a traitor in the castle for some time now. It has to be one of the guards or soldiers. My men and I are all eyes and ears. I pray to the seas she’s safe.”
“It makes no sense. Prince Vito wanted Aerity to be here. Why would he have her stolen away?”
The ground rattled and the men met eyes.
“They’re getting closer,” Harrison said. “I’ve got to go.”
They grasped hands.
“Seas be with you, Paxton.”
“And you, as well.”
Paxton moved quickly toward the back entrance overlooking the gardens. To his astonishment and dread, the end of the hall was filled with smoke. When he got closer he could make out six Lochlan guards strewn across the stone floor, and the heavy scent of gunpowder. He covered his mouth and squinted to find the doors wide open and Duke Gulfton sitting in the same exact spot as he’d left him. He had to have seen the whole thing.
“What happened?” Paxton shouted.
“Smoke bomb,” the man said. “He’ll be safe now. I’ll have him back.”
Paxton stared at the gnarled metal device on the ground by the old man’s feet, still smoking, and the unmoving bodies of the guards.
“Who is safe?” Paxton asked.
The man smiled wistfully. “My grandson.”
What the seas? He was mad. “Who set this bomb?” Paxton squatted and looked for wounds on the men, but there were none. Had the smoke made them faint? But it hadn’t hurt the duke. He felt for a pulse on a guard, but there was none. Seas . . . he had to get the doors closed. His scalp tingled as he slowly looked toward the doors and saw the back of a castle maid standing in the opening, her hair long and dark brown. She slowly turned and met Paxton’s eye. The scar on her pale face gleamed in the moonlight.
Paxton’s stomach sank. His heart went erratic. Soldiers in bright colors rushed up the steps, led by Martone, who motioned that Paxton was an ally. He moved to the doors, still wondering if he could close and lock them, but it was no use. Kalorians were rushing to the steps. Nicola stared past the gardens, where the prince’s carriage barreled down the path surrounded by Kalorians shooting arrows and holding up shields.