The Purple Jade Palace: The Hummingbird's Plan

Informant

Ladet gazed out to sea from the palace wall he was standing on. Since he had arrived at Dalenia, the ocean had both captivated and terrified him. There had not been much opportunity to learn how to swim in the Keglar Kingdom with its tendency for a cooler climate. He had learnt upon his arrival to the Talbecan Empire, and right at this moment, down in that water was where he wanted to be.

He did a slow turn, searching the wall and the courtyard below. Teal was meant to join him as he had always done since the Emperor and Jale had left the palace. He doubted even a sleepless night would keep Teal away. Teal was always punctual. Whatever task it was that was keeping Teal away from doing his rounds, must be important.

Ladet heard a shout from another soldier directed to gain his attention. He turned to see a soldier pointing off from the wall, and Ladet's line of sight followed the direction of the man's hand. His eyes fell on a figure, the figure of a young woman, off in the distance, balancing unsteadily along one of the inner palace walls.

"What in all the hells?" Ladet muttered. "Doesn't anyone know how to use the palace paths anymore?"

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In hindsight, Lady Annalei chided herself, she should have gone about this differently. For instance, she should have determined whether the height of the walls was going to be a problem. She never thought herself to be someone who was scared of heights, but the walls of the palace were high and inside the palace grounds, quite thin.

Also, she should have considered how she was going to get down when she needed to make it to the outer wall of the palace where she had seen the Lombock start his rounds. And then, she should have realized that the Lombock had walked the walls at night where it would have been difficult to be seen. As it was, she had already caused quite a commotion from different people who had spied her on her travels. Now, she had a trail of guards following her to determine where she was headed.

Fortunately for Lady Annalei, she was fit and quite strong, work on her family's farm had ensured that. If she climbed over the edge and lowered herself down while holding onto the top of the wall, she was sure the drop to the ground wouldn't be too bad. Two metres at most? She swallowed down her nerves. That was actually quite high. Why hadn't she thought of this beforehand?

She stopped unable to go any further on this particular wall. The ground was indeed further than she had originally thought. It was too late now. She lowered herself slowly to not lose her balance and sat down.

"I wouldn't try that," a guard called up to her from the ground.

Lady Annalei ignored him and began to manoeuvre herself around. She heard another shout of warning and noted that a ladder was being placed along the wall beside her. Persistence was one of her many virtues, and with her fingers digging into the brick, Lady Annalei started to move her body over and down the side of the wall.

Footsteps on the ladder reached her ears, but her focus was on maintaining her body steady as she lowered herself down. This was going to be harder than she thought. Despite climbing trees, her fingers ached and her arms shook as they started to take her weight. All of a sudden, firm hands clasped around her body.

"I'm capable of getting down, thank you very much," she said haughtily, her voice shaking from the exertion she was placing on her arms.

"You might be able to My Lady. However, I don't want you to hurt yourself just in case."

The solider easily retrieved her from the wall, and with one strong arm wrapped around her waist, he started to descend the ladder. Within a few seconds, she was back on the ground. Embarrassed, she straightened her clothes and glared at the soldier who had carried her. He took a step back with his hands in the air, indicating he was only doing his job.