Red Gauntlet

Chapter 7: Red Gauntlet

Avern

We hurry inside the kitchen doors. Gwen goes in first, wiping periodically at her clothes as if that will keep her mind off the life she took. Due to the fact that I stopped the guards from a good distance on the tower, I have no blood on me.

Unfortunately, the left hand of Gwendolyn's arm is soaked in blood from the woman she killed. The blood doesn't show much on the dark fabric, though it can't feel nice to have the soiled fabric rubbing against her skin. A few of the servants inside give us odd looks, but none try and stop us. The slight limp that Gwen is walking with earns a few extra glances, though I'm quick to hide her from sight.

Even with the unexplained injury, she walks ahead of me, twisting and turning at all the right places down the hallway. After wandering around for almost fifteen minutes, we stop at a set of intricately carved doors. Gwendolyn reaches out a hand and checks the handle, which doesn't budge from it's locked position.

In all honesty, I have no clue where we are. Stealing is not usually my line of work, but I have to keep up appearances around my new partner. The time I spent studying the layout seems to have drifted from my mind and my only choice is to trust in Gwen's sense of direction.

"I think this is the Queen's library," she whispers. "We should check and see if there's anything important inside."

"What for?"

She bits her lip. "I want to know more about the Red Gauntlet before we try and steal it. After Darius failed to tell us his plans for it, I feel like we deserve some answers before we continue to risk our lives for the damn thing."

"I understand," I replied with a curt nod.

Gwendolyn looked shocked by my response. "You do?" she asked uncertainly.

"Of course." I nodded my head to the door. "If Darius won't give us answers, then we'll have to find them ourselves. But we'll have to be quick here, or risk being caught," I warned. "Curiosity is good, in limited amounts." 

I've been wanting to know why Darius is after the Gauntlet myself, so this seems like the perfect chance to see his motivations. It might be a slight detour from our plan, but the chance for information is too great to pass up.

"Right." She went silent at the thought of being captured. She shifted weight from one foot to the other, wincing in discomfort when she added too much pressure to the injured one. "Now to break in," she mumbled. She glances at the latch and frowns. "I've never seen one like this before." She studied the door with interest. "It's got to have at least six chambers inside this device. Someone wants to keep the contents of this room a secret."

"Do you need me to take a shot at it?"

She sets her jaw in a determined scowl. "No, I got this." Scrunching up her nose at the intricate door, she places the thin metal strips inside the lock and turns them. After a few minutes, she's no closer to getting the door open. "This will work," she whispers to herself. "It has to."

More time passes, and with each second I expect a guard to catch us. But no one appears. All of the servants must be cleaning up rooms, and the patrol should be investigating the walls we scaled right about now. Our loud entrance bought us valuable time, even if we injured a few people to get inside the castle walls.

When the door finally clicks open, Gwendolyn lets out a whoop of joy. A second later she clamped a hand over her mouth to silence the noise. "Sorry."

I look around the empty hallway and let out a sigh of relief. "No one is here, don't worry." My eyes fall to the lock, which has scraps and nicks from Gwendolyn's attempts at opening it. "Let's just hope no guards walk by here soon. If they think this room has been broken into, we'll be caught for sure."