Chapter 33
Her door sounded as if it were moments away from being broken through, but Gideon's ward held. His glamor slipped effortlessly over him again and his human form reappeared.
"We're going to have to take them. Are you ready?" he asked her then.
Lyv swallowed hard, her mind still reeling from the information that seemed to fall on her in the last half hour. But she kept her cool and nodded. "Let's go. Once we are out, I know a way to get out of the palace."
She made a move to put on a glamour herself to hide from the guardsmen who were looking for her, but Gideon shook his head. "Don't. If they don't know it's you, they will kill you on the spot if you attack them. I know it's a risk in itself, but you have to stay alive."
She nodded again.
And the wood panels of the door moaned against the weight being slammed against it.
"Keep close to me," he told her. "Have your knife at the ready and use your magic sparingly. I know with the training it's built up, but I cannot have you burning out on me."
"Then the same goes to you."
He gave her a curt nod. "Of course, my princess."
And with that, he lifted the ward, the door finally giving way. The guardsmen burst into the room, wielding their swords and immediately going for Gideon. He charged, cutting down two of them before they were even close to her. There was no way she was going to let him do all the work, though.
Lyv charged into the chaos herself, her knife going against half a dozen swords. But she knew these men, had trained with them before. She knew their weaknesses and took advantage of every single one until she was the only one left standing and six bodies lay at her feet.
"You're making me look bad, Lyv," Gideon told her. He'd only taken on three guardsmen. "I'm the one who's supposed to be doing the fighting. You know, oath of fidelity and all."
"Well, get over it, sweetheart. Now, let's go."
Stepping over the fallen guardsmen, she glanced down once more at Tulia, eyes glassy and her mouth still open in a scream. Lyv clenched her jaw, said a quick prayer, and led Gideon to their only hope of escape from the palace walls.
As they cut down every guardsman that went for the attack, Lyv was trying to focus and find the right stone along the wall of the oldest part of the palace. There it was, just before one of the guest rooms, with slightest of discoloration, something only Lyv had been able to see. If you weren't looking for it, you would have never found it.
She'd been eleven when the secret passage way revealed itself after she'd pressed on it. It unhinged a painting of one of her ancestors who lived centuries before, which had seemingly been bolted into place beforehand. Her mother even had men try to get it down years before, but to no avail.
Gideon jump back as the painting swung open.
"Go on," she said, pointing him to the small archway even she had to duck to get through.
He did as she said, following behind him a fraction of a second later and swinging the painting back into its locked position as more screams came from down the hallway.
Lyv pushed past Gideon, using the walls on either side of her as a guide since it was so dark, and started counting the steps. She was so caught up with it that she barely heard Gideon speak behind her.
Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine...
"Where does this lead?" Gideon asked, following closely. "And how in the hell did you know it was there?"
Seventy-four, seventy-five, seventy-six...
"I spent my childhood trying to hide from my duties as a good princess and learning the ways of royalty. I know of pretty much every secret passageway there is in the palace. This was one of the last ones I found. And it's in the oldest part of the palace itself, so it leads..."
One-hundred-sixteen, one-hundred-seventeen, one hundred-eighteen...
One-hundred-nineteen...and they reached the two flights of stairs leading down, just as she remembered.
"Careful now," she told him. "We're almost out."
They took the stairs quick and steady. There were twenty-four on each flight, leading to what seemed to be a solid wall in front of them, but Lyv knew better.
She pushed on the stones in front of her, straining to hear rusted metal hinges trying to shift. Gideon joined her a moment later, and together the two of them were able to get it open.
There was no one in sight when they exited into the alleyway between the wall and a lower one between it and the houses on the other side.
"It put us past the southern wall of the palace," she told him, looking around to make sure they were alone. "The only thing is, this path opens up to the main road through the city."
"There's no other way out?"
She shook her head before she started running.
Lyv thought she had mentally prepared herself, but when her city, her people and land, was under siege, there was no preparing for what she saw when the world opened up beyond the alleyway.
Guardsmen were ransacking everything, charging through on horseback and swinging their swords at every man and woman who tried to stop them. A wailing mother held onto her dying daughter, who had undoubtedly been trampled by those horses. Two boys, maybe around twelve and nine, were crouched behind grain bags, their father and mother lying dead in a pool of blood a few feet away. Dozens of bodies littered the street.
But the guardsmen weren't just fighting the citizens. They were going toe to toe with those who still kept their vow to her father, the king. In the end, though, those who were loyal failed.
Somewhere not far from where they were, a fire raged, setting off what sounded like an explosion. Smoke billowed into the air as the sun continued rising on the death and destruction in the streets.
Gideon grabbed her hand, pulling her back into her own mind, and started pulling her down the road. She stumbled over something in their way, a small wooden soldier splattered with red.
She couldn't not do something.
She tugged her hand from Gideon's and ran back, his shouts echoing around her. She sheathed her knife, stepping into the middle of the road as a group of guardsmen made their approach, having turned back when the people saw her, begging for her help.
"Well, well, Princess Alyvia," the one in front grinned. "We were just on our way to the palace for you, but it seems like you will be getting your gift early."
"And what gift is that?" she asked.
Someone dropped behind her. She didn't have to turn to look at the guardsman Gideon had cut down, slicing through his abdomen with one swing and let his insides out.
The guardsmen hesitated as Gideon stood at her side.
And then sent the men behind him forward, along with others who had come out of the shadows of alleyways.
"I've got this," Lyv said casually.
Lifted her hand, palm forward.
Closed her fingers into a fist as embers twisted along the ground, finding every one of her enemies.
And they disappeared into ashes.
The silence was only on their street.
Then people started to emerge from their hiding places in shops and behind carts. The wailing mother began begging anyone to help her daughter, but they were all looking at her, staring at their princess who had just let out a secret she had been keeping for a lifetime.
And they weren't afraid.
Lyv knew she didn't have the time, but she had to make it. She rushed over to the mother, still holding her bleeding daughter. The color had drained from the little girl's face. Lyv put a hand on her forehead and...yes, half of her ribs were broken, her spine fractured, and she had a bleed in her abdomen that would kill her in less than a minute unless Lyv did something.
Lyv closed her eyes in concentration, feeling her magic sweep over the girl, finding everything it could heal and doing so as quickly as it could...before the little girl started gasping for the breath she hadn't been able to get before. Her color had come back, brown eyes bright as she looked up at her mother and then widened when she saw the princess. The blood on her dress was the only evidence of her previous injuries.
"Thank you!" her mother cried, tears rolling down her face as she leaned down to kiss her daughter's face before pulling Lyv in to give her a tight hug, too. "Thank you so much, Princess Alyvia."
"It was no trouble at all," she said, shaking her head. "Now, you need to go. Get out of the city as quickly as you can." She leaned back before standing to look at the other citizens who had surrounded them. "All of you, get out. Get as far away as you can. When you see guardsmen, hide no matter what. Only move when it's clear, do you understand?"
And with her people looking at her with hope in their bloodied and dirt-covered faces, she knew she couldn't just run like they needed to.
Gideon knew exactly what she was thinking, but to her surprise, he didn't pull her back and tell her they needed to leave. He only grinned, twisting his sword in his hand, and looked ready for battle.
The two of them against an army.
She couldn't have asked for better odds.
The street they came to next looked much like the one before, though more bodies were strewn all over. These Lyv couldn't save, but she could take revenge on the ones who did it to them.
A combination of magic and skill with their weapons, Lyv and Gideon were a whirlwind of force as they cut down any guardsman who crossed their path. Bodies dropped as they reached another street, the one where most of the blacksmiths had their shops. The fire they had seen in the distance before was one of those shops. There had indeed been an explosion from its forge...and it looked like it had done its job. The blacksmith was an unrecognizable charred body, but he had taken two dozen guardsmen out with him.
Steel against steel rang through the street, but Lyv took care of those who needed taking care of. The men and women who had been fighting pausing to stare at the piles of ashes now at their feet.
But this time, there wasn't a moment to breath. Another wave of guardsmen appeared, slashing through everyone who had stopped to stare at her before they even knew what was happening. Lyv froze on the spot, too. Not only because of those around her being killed, but someone who was running out from one of the shops, a sword in one hand, a knife in the other.
"Amory!" she yelled.
Amory turned toward the sound of his name, his eyes widening when he realized it was Lyv who yelled it. He looked drained, as if he had been using too much of his magic in the fight. His face was pale, but that's when she noticed the wound along his side, a slice in his tunic that was stained red and splattered with mud.
Gideon was close, but he wasn't close enough to realize what was going on until it happened.
Lyv yelled, lifting her hand to send a blast of power toward the guardsmen that surrounded him.
And that's when someone stepped beside her, locking an iron cuff around her wrist.
Instantly, Lyv dropped to the ground, her magic stifled to the point where she could barely feel it humming inside her. Exhaustion weighed her down, her eyes growing heavy. Her head drooped to the side in time to see an identical cuff being locked around Amory's wrist by a guardsman who managed to get close. And with a swift knock on the back of his head, he was on the ground, his sword and knife clattering beside him.
Gideon had even been chained, though there was no cuff around his wrist. The iron around his wrists were doing their job, though. Fae and iron did not mix, she knew...but they didn't know he was Fae.
"I told you, my darling girl," a sweet, venomous voice crooned from above her. A blood red dress with a split skirt appeared within her eyeline and she looked up to see the smiling face of her mother. "I have friends in Dalcaine. And with these iron cuffs...well, your magic abilities have certainly developed over the years and I have to admit they are beautiful. And here I thought you only had a handle on your healing magic."
The queen addressed her guardsmen then, pointing to Lyv and Gideon. "Take them to dungeons and put them in the cell beside your coward king and that not-so-deadly guardsman. They should be able to say their goodbyes, don't you think?"
The guardsmen laughed.
"But that one..." She pointed at Amory. "Bring him to the throne room, if you would please."
Lyv was trying to hold on to consciousness when they hauled her up. She was thrown over the shoulder of a guardsman as he followed her mother back to the palace. Gideon was being walked right behind her in between two. Even with the iron chains, he could have taken them and gotten away, but he had an oath to keep and that meant being locked up with her.
And Amory...Lyv lifted her head enough to see him being carried between two guardsmen as well, his boots dragging across the stone. There was more blood at his side, his magic staunched so that it couldn't heal what needed to be healed.
The people of the city were lining the streets, being herded by guardsmen toward the palace gates. Bodies of the fallen were everywhere, which made every one still alive sneer in disgust at the queen when she passed them. But when they saw their princess being carried behind her...well, another riot broke out, but this time Lyv couldn't stop the guardsmen before those who fought were killed.
Darkness swallowed her from that moment until she was tossed into one of the cells down in the dungeons.
She could hear her name being shouted by familiar voices, the sounds of chains being taken off, and someone else landing beside her.
"Lyv," Gideon whispered, his hands pushing back her hair from her face. "Lyv, can you hear me?"
She groaned, trying and failing to open her eyes.
She felt his hands on her wrist then, trying to find a way to remove the iron cuff that was strangling her magic.
"It's no use. I've never seen anything like it."
Those other voices were talking again. Voices she finally put a name to when her eyes slowly opened.
And found Balian and her father staring at herfrom between the bars of the dungeon cell beside theirs.