This blasted fortress must have been a den for insomniacs.
Abel stuffed her head beneath a pillow and groaned in frustration. It was difficult to force herself into sleep when, each time she closed her eyes, she saw the glowing veins of the two fae warriors, felt the rumbling of the tunnels as the ceiling had caved in, could hear Melvin's shallow breaths as she had half-dragged him from the rubble and back into the fresh air. There had to still be dust and dirt caked into her nostrils and ears.
What had happened in those tunnels?
She stared down at her hands.
It hadn't been Sebastian who had brought down that tunnel. She knew that much, at least.
Her fingers shook, so she stuffed them under her thighs.
Queen Davina and her Iced Guards had only announced the all-clear hours earlier after Astrid, Sebastian, and Captain Stick-Arse had burst into Halorian Square covered in all matters of grime and blood. Her relief at finding Sebastian unharmed had been short-lived, however. His overblown pupils had jumped, harried, from her face, to his dirty hands, to Astrid's barking lips, and Abel had known instantly he had witnessed something horrific.
Apparently, the intruders had escaped the collapse of the tunnels, and Sebastian had just begun rambling about portals, palm trees, and Soleita when Astrid had grabbed him by the wrist and had ordered to be escorted to her mother. She hadn't seen Sebastian since, and he hadn't come to find her.
Abel frowned at the ceiling, her ears ringing.
Noise surrounded her, whispers of it, clangs of it, and her ears buzzed painfully against it all. The walls closed in on her. She clutched the pillow tighter. How could anyone possibly sleep in such a thin-walled mountain as this one? Mount Halum had always seemed so impenetrable from the village she had grown up in, always looking up at it from where she lived at its base, insignificant. If she had known the mountain rock was truly thinner than leaves in winter, she would have tried sneezing at it to see if it would collapse years earlier.
Part of Abel wondered if Her Royal-Bloody-Highness had somehow magicked the room to amplify sounds as punishment for Abel manipulating her way into Astrid's Icicles. Truly, it was a ridiculous name for soldiers, by all accounts, and yet here she was, traipsing around the fortress and being pulled into all manners of wondrous, magical events all under the princess's sharp, rather pointed nose.
But Sebastian wasn't here. He was with her.
She frowned at her own pettiness and threw the pillow at the opposite wall with a muffled growl. It had cracks that whistled shrilly with each pass of the chilled, mountainous wind, and the sound cut through her like skinning knives.
Truly, this room had not been so loud until now.
Astrid Salvera must really despise her.
Abel grinned at the thought, for she didn't very much like Astrid either. Especially in the way the impetuous girl watched Bash, as if he were someone she would love to dissect and study and then put back together again in a vision of her own making. Abel supposed she should take comfort in the fact that Sebastian had magic now and, if she had learned anything from watching him in the first task of the tournament and down below in the tunnels with ancient foes, it was that Sebastian could hold his own against Astrid. But the realization had come with a sense of shock as if her Bash, the one she had protected and loved since childhood, had grown into an entirely different version of himself without Abel having been there to witness its origin.
Unfortunately, Abel lacked a magical skillset to offer the assistance Bash now needed, and Astrid seemed only too eager to chomp on the bit to provide it in her stead.
With a heavy sigh, Abel leapt out of bed and landed on the balls of her feet as lightly as she tracked game through the forest. She longed for the solitude of the woods; she imagined the scattered items she had thrown in frustration throughout the night as obstacles to overcome on her quest to retrieve her pillow. An upturned bottle of ink became a rushing river that she bounded over in one, lithe step; her discarded tunic was a doe's hide that she knelt beside to search for prints from its hunter. She stalked across the floor of her cramped room, her bare feet nimble and sure. When she made it to her fallen pillow, she twirled on her toes in victory, but then froze.
"...strange memories. Others report similar happenings. Silva—she's that young girl who works above the alchemist shop, you know the one?—she swears to have seen a dragon the other night."
The voice seemed so close that Abel spun towards it, one hand reaching behind her for an arrow on instinct. Her fingers came up empty, of course, since she wasn't truly stalking game through a forest. Instead, her bow hung from the bedpost. Abel lowered her arm but quirked her ear toward the door.
"—sounds like a tale from a pretty barmaid hoping to impress you straight into the sheets. If it was night, how could Silva see? Probably an owl."
"They breathe fire, I've heard."
Someone scoffed. "From who?"
"Up here! In my head. I told you. I have some of those forgotten memories!"
The conversation faded as it moved further away through the mountain. Only snippets could be heard:
"—pint of ale—"
"—people are still talkin' about the princess's human ice kabob—
"—rumor's the next task is—"
Abel pressed her ear to the door, but the words disappeared, only to be replaced, once more, by the shriek of the breeze needling its way through the stone's cracks and the undeniable sound of a guard's helmet, snapping back into place.
Dragons?
If fae and elves truly existed, why not dragons? Abel wished she had a window from which she could search the skies. She'd always been a mystic, so the possibility of such creatures existing had never seemed completely implausible, especially now with the resurgence of magic...Wait!
They had mentioned the next task.
She pressed her palms against the door as if she could call back the speakers she had overheard. It must have been a group of guards; one of them had sounded brash enough to be one, at least. Maids and servants would not speak so boldly around the queen's fortress. So, if it had been guards, possibly Astrid's own Icicles, would they truly know a rumor concerning Queen Davina's next dangerous concoction for the tournament?
Perhaps Abel didn't have magic, but she could certainly help with this.
Knowing there was most likely a guard or two outside her room, Abel tested the door handle, rotating it slowly so that it made no noise. As she'd suspected, it was locked. She bent her knees to peer into the keyhole before retrieving one of her slimmer arrows and carefully inserting the pointed tip of it into the lock. For a silent second, she twisted it expertly back and forth, having had plenty of practice doing such things while growing up with a father and three brothers who'd hated her. When she'd been but four years old, Damion—her eldest brother—had locked her beneath the lower meat compartment of a fisher's boat, smashed three or four holes into the hull, and then set it loose out to sea in the hopes it would sink with Abel trapped inside it.
Much to Damion's chagrin, she'd made it back to shore before he had even returned to the house.
So, in retrospect, picking the lock of this room should be rather simple.
She sat back on her heels, listening to the clicks of the mechanisms her arrow maneuvered through until she finally deciphered the winning one. Her free hand turned the handle slightly to the right as she dropped the arrow to the floor beside her. With a smirk to herself, she raised up on her knees, placed an ear to the keyhole, and then blew a quiet breath into the lock.
It released, and the handle swung loosely between her fingers.
Abel leapt to her toes and grabbed up her bow. She swung the quiver over her shoulder so it hung from her back before she slipped through the smallest crack she could afford to make between the door and the wall. She entered the corridor without raising an alarm, keeping to the shadows cast by the dull, flickering sconces. At least, they were dull at first, but as Abel passed beneath the nearest one, the flame flared brighter as it sensed her presence.
She snuck around it. The light dimmed once she was beyond its immediate circumference. How odd. She knew Halorium had famed alchemists who created compounds and substances that could almost pass as magic, and she wondered if these sconces were some of their creations.
Her ears perked up at the muffled sound of boots adjusting position, and she stilled, flattening her back against the wall.
Two guards stood on either side of the corridor, blocking her exit. Well, at least this escape plan wouldn't be a complete bore. She silently crept closer, her feet sliding along the dips and swells of the uneven mountain floor without a misstep. When she was within close range, she slipped her hand into the pocket of her trousers and retrieved the small, dense pearled button she had stashed there since being dragged out to watch the first tournament. It had felt largely satisfying to rip it from the frilly dress they had forced her into for the occasion.
Abel twirled it between her fingers, sighting her aim just as she would with her bow. The end of the corridor branched out like roots of a tree in three asymmetrical directions. Well, at least she had a third of a chance to choose the best one. Besides, even the smallest odds always played well in her favor. After all, something small could prove to be quite a large distraction if used with the correct amount of force; she had always been a force to be reckoned with. She grinned, tossed the rounded pearl into her palm, and flung it low. It arched directly between both guards' hips before clattering against the ground of the opposite hallway.
Both guards jumped to attention.
"What was that?"
"You don't think another tunnel has exploded, do you?"
They both looked at the ground skeptically. "It sounded smaller than that."
One of them stepped away from his post to investigate the noise, motioning for his partner to follow. Abel couldn't help but roll her eyes. The resurgence of magic had definitely made these royal guards antsy. Light as a snowfall, Abel waltzed behind their turned backs and slipped into the adjoining corridor.
An impossibly hideous tapestry greeted her. She wrinkled her nose at it. It hung from the top of the ceiling to the carpeted floor and depicted what looked like a map of the seven realms. The ridiculous thing wasn't even accurate: two of the seven realms were in the wrong place, Soleita was no longer an island but attached to the mainland of Demue, and Rainier was missing entirely. Abel scoffed at it when something caught her eye. Some of the tapestry's threads were moving, twisting into creations, building new borders between Belsynen and Holalethe Lake, the body of water that separated the rest of the realms from the prison of the gem mines.
Strange.
She had just reached out a hand to touch it when the guards she had left in the other hallway muttered to each other. Abel slunk back into the shadows and watched as they returned to their original posts. Abel snorted and then saluted the tapestry. As she passed, she swore it made a noise like a breath. Like it was alive.
"Ah!"
Her yelp lodged in her throat as a bodiless arm snapped out from behind the tapestry and grabbed her around the waist.
Another disembodied hand closed over her mouth, muffling her shout.
The hand dragged her through the tapestry and into a hidden passageway beyond it. She fell, mildly disoriented, but not jumbled enough to keep her from kneeing her captor between the legs.
There was a grunt before her bodiless captor-hand shoved her spine against the wall. An imposing figure hovered over her, and Abel loosened the tension in her chest.
At least the hand hadn't been bodiless, after all. That would've brought up an entirely other host of problems. Besides, she knew instantly who it was.
"You are a rash, impertinent girl."
Captain Stick-Arse removed his hand from her mouth and clamped his fingers around her wrists instead. She grinned up at Matthias coyly. "Whatever do you mean by that?"
"We were infiltrated mere hours ago by fae warriors from the Court of Avylon. Yet, here you are, sneaking around the fortress with your little arrows." His brown eyes narrowed nearly as thinly as his scowl. "You were going to the boy, weren't you?"
She was beginning to doubt if anyone in this fortress actually knew Sebastian's name. No one seemed to call him by it. She blinked at Matthias innocently. "Actually, I was going after some of your sentinels. They were chattering quite loudly and woke me up, but what were you doing?" She made a point to glance around the secret entrance. "Besides loitering in unattended tunnels for unsuspecting girls to walk by, that is."
Matthias's grip tightend. "You are the most suspecting woman I've ever had the misfortune of guarding. One might think you responsible for the breach."
He exhaled at the end of his words, his breath snapping against her cheeks. She doubted he had ever spoken so much at once. With a tight grin, she leaned back against the wall, dragging him with her as he refused to relent his grip. She felt her quiver of arrows between her spine and the rock.
The fool hadn't even disarmed her.
"Bash told me of the portal," she half-lied. "One could presume you were responsible for that. Was it not you who found them?"
"It was I who saved him after he foolishly fell head-first into that which he did not understand—"
"Scholars," Abel agreed with a roll of her eyes. "Curious to death, it seems."
Matthias grunted. "Tell me, does idiocy grow in Eilibir or just rotted fish?"
Abel raised a brow. "I would say both are equal in measure to the amount of drab personalities of your fortress's captains."
"I am the only captain."
"Exactly." She smirked as he scowled. "So, All-Mighty-Dull-One, how much do you truly care for the princess?"
His jaw ticked. "I fail to see how that is any of your concern."
Abel ignored him. "I would reckon it's more than you probably should." She watched him, assessing the pressure of his locked fingers around her wrists for any potential breaking points. "I saw the way you watched her as you tried to keep her from the attack tonight. Not to mention the night of the disastrous ball."
"She is mine to guard."
"And is she yours to love?"
Matthias's expression faltered, and Abel took the advantage. Her wrist twisted violently beneath his hold and broke it. She spun, reaching her freed hand to her quiver hanging from her back. Her sudden, graceful motion caught him off guard, his fingers fumbling for her but catching only air. Not five seconds later, Abel had her bow loaded and poised as she stood on the opposite side of the passageway facing Matthias. She had to give him credit; he already held his sword in his hand, the blade following the potential trajectory of her arrow.
She met his gaze. "Sebastian's mine to protect." Her heart thumped along steadily with her words. "Your blathering guards did, in fact, wake me up. They mentioned something about the next task of this tournament. Do you know what it is?"
Matthias's light brows folded together. "You hoped to follow them and figure out what they knew. You were going to tell Sebastian."
So, he did know Bash's name. Huh. Well, that was one theory dispelled. Abel breathed against the taut line of her bow. "I was. Though, if you let me go without incident, I would be willing to share with you what I discover." She lowered her bow slightly to smirk at him. "Whether you tell Astrid or not would be entirely up to you, of course."
For a moment, the air settled between them, stiff and tense. They stared each other down like some old-fashioned knights' show-down. She could see the battle raging with each clench of his jaw, in the way his knuckles whitened around the hilt of his blade, the rapid flickering of his muddied pupils as he analyzed his options. Unfortunately, he had played his card when he hesitated in answering his feelings for Astrid; he knew it, too. After all, he was Captain of the Royal Guard; he must have understood what Abel had just done, and she supposed he was infuriated with her for it.
Abel straightened and winked at him.
It was all the fuel Matthias needed to ignite him. He growled, the sound vibrating against his chest. With a sharp clip of his boots, he shoved his sword back into its sheath as if it had personally offended him. It was difficult for Abel to hide her satisfied grin. Nevertheless, his glare was fierce as he crossed his arms across his broad chest and peered at her as if she were a troll that had crawled up from beneath a bridge to eat the village children.
It painted a rather humorous image.
His scowl deepened as if he had heard her thoughts. "If you thought, even for a second, I would let you run amuck on your own, you are not as intelligent as you seem."
"So, you admit it, then?" Abel said. "You agree I'm smarter than the Icicles?"
Matthias grumbled in annoyance. "I already regret this."
- - -
Anyone else excited for Matthias and Abel joining forces? :) And when will Astrid and Bash be able to confront Serah and Zev for answers?
Guess we'll have to wait and see... As always, if you're reading this, you're the best!