20
1939 Words
Once Alexanne is out of sight, Antonin opens his mouth. I just hold up my hand and shake my head. We both know the truth. We don't have anything to discuss.
Antonin is with Grace. I have a courter. That's all there is.
Antonin nods and leads me down the hall to Henri's room. I knock once on the door, as lightly as possible. A part of me hopes that he won't hear it. As much as I would love Henri to come, I don't want to get him involved. He's just another person that Alexanne can use against me.
Almost immediately, Henri's door flies open. He's dressed in dark, loose pants and an even darker shirt. I raise an eyebrow.
"What?" He hisses, defensively crossing his arms.
I grin, "Nothing. You realize that we are searching a jail, not robbing some merchant."
"Of course. Maybe dark colors just look nice with my hair." He matches my grin.
I roll my eyes and we continue sneaking through the castle. Though Henri's color of clothing might be good for sneaking, he certainly has no skill with being quiet. His footsteps pound against the floor, his breaths echoing throughout the hall.
Antonin and I both turn back multiple times to shush him. His cheeks turn bright red and he throws his hands in the air, silently mouthing, "What?"
Luckily, Antonin knows how to avoid the heavily guarded sections of the castle. Within minutes we break out into the cool night air. We stride through the grass of the grounds, going to a small gated exit out of the castle.
There will likely be a guard or two at the gate. Antonin must plan to wait for the shifts to change and hopefully pass when there are no guards.
As we wait behind a tree, I whisper to Antonin, "Do you have the key for that gate?"
I know from experience with Emilienne that those gates are secured tightly. We never managed to find the set of keys that belong to the gates. We often had to climb over the gates, cursing our dresses and our clumsy selves. Once Emilienne fell off the gate, landing hard on her arm. She laughed it off, too proud to admit to pain, but cradled the arm at her side the entire night.
Antonin shakes his head, "I don't have the keys."
"How will we get through?" I ask.
He just smiles.
The guards change shifts, but Antonin doesn't lead us towards the door to sneak through. Instead he waits until the guard has settled into his post. Then, Antonin leads us forward. The guard watches as we approach, his eyes wary.
"What is your business, sir?" The guard asks.
Antonin says, "Only to take these two servants to the city."
I turn my eyes to the ground, hoping that the shadows hide my true identity.
The guard asks, "What is their business within the city?"
"They are retrieving goods for the next day. Alexanne has requested them."
The guard nods and pulls a ring of key out of his pocket. My fingers itch to steal them, thinking of Emilienne. Instead, I watch as he shuffles through the keys and unlocks the gate. He swings the door open and bows as we pass.
He begins closing the doors behind us when he stops to squint at me. I turn around, focusing on the ground. Can he still see my face? Has he recognized me?
The guard says, "Princess Admira?"
I curse in my head, but don't turn around. I desperately look to Antonin for what to do, but his face is hid by the shadows of the night.
The guard continues, "Princess Admira? Is that you? What are you doing with a commander of the guards and a servant?"
I stay silent.
"I need to go alert the Queen. Does she know that you are going out at night with company like this?"
Antonin groans, "Honestly, Blaise, you had to do that? I told you not to mention it."
The guard bursts into laughter, "Ah, you knew I was going to."
Antonin grabs me by the shoulder and guides me towards the city, "Don't listen to him. He's a trusted friend of mine. He just doesn't know when it is the time for humor."
The guard continues laughing, "I wasn't aware that now wasn't the time. This may be my one chance to prove to a princess how charming I am." He throws in an exaggerated wink.
I can't help but smile as Antonin leads us further away, the guard's laughter fading away.
●◊●◊●
I step into the city jail, thankful for the warmth of the building. After walking through the spring night, shivers run continuously over my skin. Along the walk, Antonin gave me a head scarf in hopes that it would help hide my identity. I wrapped it tightly around my neck, yet the wind still found a way to slip against my skin.
The entrance room is filled with candles, the flickering light attempting to hide the dirt clinging to the walls and the floor. A wrinkling man hunches behind a wooden desk, staring blankly at us.
Antonin steps forward, "Excuse me, sir, we need to see the cells."
"Why?" He grunts.
Antonin bows, "I am a commander of the Queen's guards."
He frowns, "I don't think that answers my question. Why are you here?"
"The Queen's business is not yours."
The man shrugs, "Fair enough, I can't say I care either way."
Antonin bows again, "Thank you, sir."
The man grumbles something and climbs to his feet. He grabs a ring of keys off his desk and limps towards the door. He leads us through a cramped hall. At the end waits a metal door, a heavy set of locks attached.
The man opens the locks and pushes the door open. Rows of cells unfold in front of us.
The man asks, "Looking for anything specific?"
"No, sir."
The man nods, "You may go then."
We walk past him and begin slowly searching up the rows. As I pass him, I'm sure to keep my head down, the scarf pulled over my eyes.
The jail cells are not nearly as bad as the dungeons. While they are covered in grime and human waste, all the people inside seem to be in one piece. They stare at us, challenge in their eyes.
I can't look into the cells, in case they may see my face. I just trudge behind Antonin and Henri. I feel their stares on me as I pass, but I continue forward.
The first two rows are filled with men. I'm afraid that perhaps the women are in a different jail. However, after those few rows past, the women appear. Their dresses hang in rags on their waist. Their stares are full of brave defiance, their arms crossed over the chest.
There are three or four women per cell, making it harder to look for Grace. She could be curled up on a cot or hiding behind a pair of women. Every time I spot a clump of dark hair, I get excited. Every time, however, it's not Grace. It's just another women.
Grace is safer in a jail like this with women to protect her, than some secluded cabin within the woods where no one can help her.
I push the thought out of my mind. I can't think about how Grace could be anywhere. I can't think about how she might be calling for me right now, but I can't hear her. I can't think about how she could be on her last breath I can't help her.
I can't think about it.
I push forward, stealing glances into the cells when I can.
After we've walked up and down all ten rows two times, the truth is clear. Grace is not in here.
We trudge out of the jail. I try not to let my hopes get too low. It's a good thing Grace isn't sitting in some jail cell, right? It's a good thing we didn't find her here.
But I know it's not true. I don't know where else to look for Grace. There is no logical next step.
As we walk back to the castle, Henri tries to be upbeat, "It's one more place we don't have to look. Where else should we look?"
I shrug, "I don't know. Where else is there?"
Antonin says, "Everywhere. We have to look everywhere, and even then we might not find her." His voice breaks.
Henri frowns for a second, and then his face softens, "I see...you and Grace were...?"
Antonin angrily wipes a tear that had escaped from his eyes, "Yes. We are together. I love her more than anything and I'll never forgive Alexanne for this."
Henri smiles softly, but doesn't say anything more.
I say, "We should keep looking. Maybe if we look in the jail of the next city over..."
"No." Antonin says, "I don't think she's going to be there. She's not going to be anywhere we look. Alexanne is always going to be one step ahead of us. She's always going to know where we are going to look. She knows exactly where to hide Alexanne so that we don't find her. We need to make Alexanne speak."
"How?" I ask.
Henri says, "Alexanne has all the advantages over us. She has everything against us. Maybe we just have to find something against her."
"Like what?"
Henri shrugs, "We do always have that evidence that we used to get you back into the castle. The same evidence that shows that she is the murderer. She thought it was a threat before. It might work again."
Antonin spits, "Or it might just give her more incentive to kill all of us."
I shake my head, "I don't think Alexanne is just going to kill us. She has too many game pieces to play still. She won't just let me die when she has so many ways to torture me. This won't end until she says it does."
"Then we use the evidence." Henri says.
"What exactly is the evidence?" Antonin asks.
"I don't know, and I don't honestly care," Henri says. "As long as it gets Alexanne to do what we want, it doesn't matter."
I shake my head, "I don't know if Alexanne will allow us to blackmail her again. I don't think she can swallow her pride again to do what we want. She'll probably only play one of the cards she has against us. I think we need to find Grace without her knowledge."
"How?" Antonin asks, "We have no clues, no way to move forward."
Henri nods, "However took Grace left absolutely nothing behind. Florentine can't get anything out of her servants. She has no idea who did it. We are at a dead end."
I say, "We need someone who knows what they are doing, and yet someone who has dealt with Alexanne before. Someone who is on our side."
Antonin laughs humorlessly, "Good luck finding that person."
"It might be a risk, but I think I might know someone. It will be desperate, but I'll do it for Grace."
"Who?" Henri asks.
I think back to when I was hiding in Florentine's house. I had to duck into the safety room as Alexanne sent person after person to find us. Only one person did, and he never told the truth as to where we were. I'm not sure if I trust him, but he might be our only chance.
"Victor," I say.
- Writer
