The palace gates were still locked when we drove through the checkpoint. The guards moved with the tense urgency of people following orders they didn’t understand.
"Where's Corporal Danis?" I said, out of the car before it had fully stopped.
"He is at the command post of the east garden, Your Highness—"
I didn't wait for him to finish. Keith caught up with me at a jog, and we crossed the courtyard fast enough that two separate guards startled out of the way rather than announce us properly.
The east garden gate stood open now, propped that way by a length of security tape, and Lady Lila was standing just inside it, her arms wrapped around herself, face pale in the floodlights someone had rigged up.
"Your Highness." Her voice cracked on the title. "I don't— I should have been watching
