Vendetta

Chapter Four

Most nights, Adrastia barely slept. The pains would take hold of her body, trapping her in agonising paralysis through most of the dark hours.

Tonight her mind, not her body, was plagued. She tossed and turned like a ship in a storm, fraught with theories and imaginings.

It felt like hours later when she conceded defeat. She emerged from the covers; hair rumpled, eyes bleary and stomach clenching uncomfortably. She couldn't tell the hour - whether it was late, or too early. The palace around her was quiet, though she strained to hear noise of any kind.

Her window was open, blowing a cool wind into the room. Adrastia rose to close it, almost stumbling over the end of her bed in the process. As she reached to grab the iron handle, she heard something that made her chest tighten in alarm.

A cough.

Eyes wide, she raked the room - but there was nothing. No feet poked out from under the curtains; no shadow stood out from the ordinary. She even checked the ceilings and corners of the rooms. Nobody clung to the tapestries by their fingernails.

The cough must have come from outside - somebody on the ground. Adrastia pulled aside the drapes, slowly and carefully. She scanned the grounds, but there was no sign of life. Perhaps she was being paranoid... but perhaps her self-preservation had kept her awake - her subconscious aware of spies.

As a last resort, she leaned outwards, checking the walls either side of her window. Not really to her surprise, she gleaned a dark shape moulded against the wall - a storey down and slightly across from her window. The shape held on to a trellis, but she wasn't being watched.

Adrastia tried to follow the spy's line of sight, but it was almost impossible from where she stood. Instead, she tried to work out which bedroom the gaze was directed towards. The first floor, below her wing, and two windows along from hers. It was still part of the eastern column, then.

Very few courtiers had their own wings - they were normally reserved for the most important families. Aside from the second floor - where the Thana family all had large living spaces - there were almost fifty other wings, with twelve in the eastern column alone.

The first floor eastern column boasted some of the most impressive wings in the whole palace - but as they had never really interested Adrastia, she had little idea who lived there.

She could guess, but that was a waste of brain power. It was far simpler to creep down to the first floor, and hope to hear something there. Her plan wasn't entirely fool-proof, but it wasn't as though she was going to get much sleep anyway.

Adrastia pulled a dressing gown over her nightgown, though she didn't expect anybody to see her in a state of immodesty. Just as she was leaving the room, however, she had a thought.

Obviously, this spy was not there to enjoy wall-climbing in the middle of the night. Whatever information they had, they would give to their employer - who could have any kind of motive. Adrastia's family might even be the target. That was unacceptable.

Besides, if the spy was talented enough to scale walls in total darkness, chances were they'd use this skill again.

Adrastia couldn't help her grim smile as she reached across to her bedside table, picking up a heavy, pewter vase. Taking aim, she tossed it, rewarded by the sight of the spy dropping like a stone, into the bushes that surrounded the palace walls.

They might be unidentified now, but Adrastia was sure she would notice them with a large lump on their head.

The staircase was cold as Adrastia tiptoed, barefoot, along it and through the corridors leading to the eastern column. Her progress was halted, however, by the sound of voices coming from another room.