Precious

Chapter 12

Now I only have to find a way to deliver them.

* * *

From the window, I see it happen. First the guards walking along the ramparts crumple to the ground. The forest quakes in its frenzied attempt to reach the castle, but meets invisible resistance that prevents it from breaching the walls. Then a man with silver hair down to his jaw walks through the gates.

Horror freezes me to the floor. He found a loophole. But how? The wards should protect against anyone intending Bryre harm. How could he hurt the guards?

Unless he didn't. Some of the men move a little, as though they're only sleeping . . . Outside the door of my room, I hear a gasp, and then a thud. The guard.

Whatever the wizard did to the guards at the gate, must have affected all guards throughout the city. Only one thing can be so specific and travel so quickly to do its work.

Magic.

The enchanted forest. The trees have been trying to get through the walls all day. Could their attack have weakened the wards enough that he was able to slip through? I can only guess at exactly how he's doing it, but if the wizard found a way around his wards, he must be intent on something other than hurting Bryre.

I shiver.

He could only be that focused on one thing: me. Claiming what was promised him. If he gets his promised reward, he won't be able to use that loophole again; the wards will hold against his malice in the future.

It's time for me to go.

I set about picking the lock on my bedroom door. If I had a secret passage in my room this would be much simpler. I pore over my jewelry case until I find a brooch with a pin thin enough to work. Mama took all the hairpins that I used the last time. It takes a fair amount of jiggering, but after several minutes I'm finally rewarded with a click.

I collect my letters and open the door to my fate.

The castle sleeps, which serves my purposes well. I go to Delia first, slipping into her chambers. She's curled on her bed in a pool of moonlight, blond hair spilling over the pillows. She looks serene and utterly unaware of the terror that creeps outside our gates.

A wave of sadness crashes over me. She won't be serene for long after tonight. I'm sorry for it.

I gently press my lips to her forehead and whisper, "Good-bye, sister." I place the letter on the pillow next to her so she'll find it when she wakes. I close her door with a heavy heart, then lock it. The wizard may not know about my sister, and if she wakes up too soon, I can't risk her wandering the halls in search of me.

Ren's note will be trickier. Indeed, I'm not sure where he lives, having never been to his house. But there is one place I know he'll check.

My garden.

With no time to waste, I run soundlessly through the halls in my slippers and take the stairs two at time. In minutes I'm outside, the cool night breeze wrapping around me as if to say farewell. When I reach my hidden garden plot, I'm greeted by the familiar shapes of the rosebushes on either side, the lone surviving sunflower, and the barren patch where the Crown-of-Roses seeds are planted. Sadness plucks at the backs of my eyes. I'd hoped to see what they looked like. Ren will have to care for them for me. I tuck the letter into a rosebush, then hurry back to the palace.

When I enter through the wide double doors of the solarium, a scream reaches my ears and squeezes my heart. Am I too late? Did I spend too much time saying good-bye? I run through the halls, searching for the person who screamed, still clutching the letter to my parents. I stop short in the main hallway. Two guards sprawl unconscious on the floor, and a maid and a butler hover over them.