Marie-Fey climbed into the observatory and dropped to the floor in a puddle of skirts as Zaydan gently closed the trapdoor.
She looked around the room, a numbness settling in her.
The room was in chaos.
Books and star charts were torn from their neat placements and strewn around the room, every box and folder upended in the remnants of a frantic search.
She glanced at Zaydan as he sat down beside her, crossing his legs and looking around the room as well, like it was the first time he had seen it himself.
"Sorry," he said quietly, "I didn't know what the constellation on that card was and I had to hope it had been stored in here, but I didn't know where to look. So, I looked everywhere. It took a lot of time, but I finally uncovered an old chart... though I'm sure you wold have made your way back here by yourself even without me coming after you."
Marie-Fey looked at the chaos around them again. "Yes, probably," she said, "Almost certainly. So long as I made it to that city in one piece, I could organise travel here... but I am glad you did come after me."
"Yes?"
"If the men betrayed us again, I have faith that you would not turn on me as well."
Zaydan looked at her for a moment, then held out a hand.
She took it without looking and he squeezed it gently before looked towards the stars above.
"Did you actually want to look for that hidden door?" he asked.
"Eh," she muttered, with a shrug, "I just wanted whoever it was trying to kill me to know that I would be in a secluded corner of the palace. I didn't think it would work, I certainly didn't think it would be... would be the mastermind of the operation, but... well, one nuisance out of the way... assuming she is... was the mastermind."
"I believe so," Zaydan muttered, "I don't believe this had roots within the main palace, I never found any evidence."
"Good, then I shall announce the death of a traitor and travel to the capital unimpeded."
"You really wish to try again?"
"I don't see why I shouldn't."
Zaydan sighed, then nodded, pulling his hand from hers.
"What scared her?" Marie-Fey asked after a moment. Zaydan looked at her and she climbed to her feet, smoothing her gown and beginning to pick up the scattered parchments. "Before she saw you, I believe she would have accepted exile. And then you appeared and she chose death."
Zaydan stood and began to help her, collecting up the books as he went. "I can't explain it."
"Because of your curse?"
"Yes."
Marie-Fey considered that for a moment, rolling the parchments up. "Would you have reported it to your brother? Despite me saying it was a matter that related to my palace and was thus my problem and mine alone?"
"I would not have reported to him."
"And yet he would have known?"
Zaydan didn't reply so she took it as yes.
"This means... what? He is able to keep track of things... through you... without you saying a word?"
Zaydan remained silent and she turned to look at him. He was looking at her and she could see the fainted glow of warning from his neck.
He reached up and gently touched just under one of his eyes before turning away, wincing, fingers going to his neck.
Marie-Fey stared at him, turning away.
His eyes?
What did that mean?
Her husband could see through his eyes? Or something else?
Regardless, this meant that everything she had ever said to him could have been privy to her husband.
"Does he know everything?" she hissed.
"No," Zaydan said, his voice firm and uncompromising. "Absolutely not. He had to be made aware of who was behind your attacks. He... he doesn't know anything you've told me."
Marie-Fey shoved several rolls into their assigned vase, considering how readily she was willing to believe him even though she had no idea how this type of magic worked, when she turned around and forgot what she had been concerned about.
She blinked and Zaydan looked blankly back at her before looking over his shoulder to see what had her attention.
He turned just in time to see the shimmering flow of a ghostly gown vanish through one of the bookshelves and jumped as Marie-Fey shoved him aside, studying the bookshelf the ghost had gone through.
"I might not have actually intended to find that secret room, but if they're going to make it easy," she said as she moved the remaining books aside. Zaydan came to stand beside her, reaching out to pull a book off and his skin bumped the wood, a button sinking into the shelf.
Intricate blue carvings, that most certainly had not been there the second before, began to glow, imitating the ghosts and the phantom chains around Zaydan's neck, and both he and Marie-Fey jolted back as the bookshelf began to shake.
They automatically reached for each other as the shelf started to sink into the floor and then they were finally staring into the darkness of a hidden room.
They gaped for a moment, then Marie-Fey yanked out of Zaydan's hold, dragged a torch off the wall, lifted her skirts and walked into the darkness.
"Fey!" Zaydan snapped, scrambling to keep up, blindly catching her hand as the torch revealed a small empty room.
"Here, look," Marie-Fey said and focused his attention on a near-invisible latch on the floor, almost invisible apart from the fact that it faintly glowed as well.
Releasing her hand, Zaydan knelt down, slipping fingers into the small crevasse and heaved. It was shockingly heavy and he felt like he would tear something before he hauled up an entire section of the floor and dropped it aside. He and Marie-Fey peered into the depths of darkness and saw the outlines of steps.
Marie-Fey handed Zaydan the torch so she had one hand free to hold up her skirts, her other hand taking his and they carefully made their way down the steps, which curved down onto a tiny, enclosed landing, and then another set of steep steps which led upwards.
"Well I would have never found this without you," Marie-Fey said when they reached the top, walking up into another small room with a single, tiny window. The one window no one had been able to find.
Walking forwards, she peered up into the night sky, then down to the ground which was so far below, she couldn't see it in the shadows.
"But why is a small empty room such a secret?" she asked, turning to look at Zaydan before pausing.
He looked unnaturally pale, sick and stressed as his eyes flicked around the room.
"What's wrong?" she asked, quickly walking back to him.
"I... I don't know. I... something's wrong. I know what's wrong but I don't know what's wrong," he muttered, gripping her hand painfully tight as he stared around them. "I can't remember... something... we shouldn't be here."
"Well obviously," Marie-Fey replied, "Otherwise this wouldn't be a secret room. But there's nothing here."
"No, there... there is... this leads to... to somewhere," Zaydan said, walking to one of the walls, dragging her with him.
Marie-Fey looked around them as the light illuminated the stones, then reached up, pulling the torch from his hand.
"Here," she said, yanking her hand free from his before neatly shoving him away, sending him reeling into a wall.
He collided with the wall, giving her a startled look for a moment, before he fell through the wall.
"Humph, why I hate magic," Marie-Fey muttered, studying the markings that blazed for a moment before fading as Zaydan vanished through the brickwork. She reached out, touching the wall but only met solid stone. "Certainly, one way to hide a secret room, hide it behind a wall that... a blood relative can step through, perhaps? Or is it his chains?"
As she was withdrawing her fingers, Zaydan's hand reached through the stone like a ghost himself, catching her hand and wrenching her forwards. Marie-Fey let out a gasp, closing her eyes in case she collided with the wall, then suddenly she and the torch were on the other side, Zaydan's arm slipping around her waist to steady her as the flame lit up his annoyed expression.
"That was unkind," he said bluntly.
"But effective," she replied.
"Uh huh," he muttered, before they looked around. They were on another landing, more steps travelling downwards nearby.
Handing the torch off, Marie-Fey once again took hold of her skirts and Zaydan's hand and they carefully made their way down.
And down and down and down.
"What is this place?" Marie-Fey hissed.
They were undoubtedly below the palace by now and still the steps went on.
"I... I'm not sure," Zaydan muttered.
"I admit, I didn't expect a solid answer," Marie-Fey replied and Zaydan squeezed her hand tightly just as the steps finally levelled out. Marie-Fey looked up at the shadowed ceiling, trying to place herself in the complex. The zigzagging nature of the stairs made it confusing, but she would assume they were currently walking below her palace, heading for the grounds that separated her palace from the woman's palace.
Her foot slammed into something and she jolted, grabbing Zaydan's arm as clattering metal skittered away from them. Zaydan held the torch higher and Marie-Fey stepped around him, crouching to reach for the object that glinted in the light.
A key.
Made out of gold and sapphire, it was a large, ornate, old key. A few deep red smudges of rust scraped off as she ran her thumb over it, then straightened and turned to Zaydan as he approached, holding it up.
He looked blankly at it to her and shrugged.
Pocketing it, they started walking away. And kept walking.
They were beyond the women's palace now. The subtle curve of the tunnel meant they were somewhere between the main palace and the women's palace. Were they under the dividing wall?
"Look."
Zaydan drew to a halt and Marie-Fey looked up.
Right at the edge of the darkness, the tunnel ended in a door.
They stared at it for a moment, then glanced at each other and Marie-Fey pulled out the key.
Zaydan shrugged. "It would make sense, I guess," he muttered and followed Marie-Fey as she approached the door and slid the key into the simple lock.
She twisted it, then tried to turn it harder.
With the complaint of a lock that hadn't been used in a long time, she heard the bolt grind loose but then the handle jammed.
She looked at Zaydan and they switched places, Marie-Fey taking the torch and Zaydan gripped the handle.
With one almighty heave, he hauled the handle down and wrenched the door open.
Marie-Fey shrieked, her hand flying to her mouth as she and Zaydan jolted backwards.
A corpse fell through the door, their lifeless decaying hand still clinging to the inner handle where they had died trying to escape.
Her flesh was rotted and dry, the remains of her hair barely strands, her dress disintegrating from her limbs.
Marie-Fey let out a breath, then scrambled forwards, grabbing the body with bare hands, wrenching it around so she could see the horrific face.
"Don't!" Zaydan cried, dragging her away, the body falling to the ground as he pulled her away. "What are you doing!?"
Marie-Fey choked out a gasp, eyes wide as she trembled.
"I know her."
~~~~~~~
FYI!!!!!
HELLO!
Yes, I am back and I come to you with a completed story and a mass upload, so pay attention!
I'm uploading everything in one go because I want to be rid of this book!
This means that the quality of the book has gone still further down - you have been warned lol. Characters and themes won't get the respect and time they deserve. Things will be inconsistent. They won't make sense. They'll be random and 'WTF?-ish' but we're going to roll with it! Because that is always what we do with a Freefall First Draft.
Everyone should expect by now that i never know what's happen so I shall see this book out as I went in.