Page 56 of The Uncrowned Prince

At the very top of the spiral she stopped, listening intently until she heard the sound of footsteps coming up—the guard who’d been summoned to search the gallery.

“I need you to stand here against the wall for a moment,” she murmured to Niell, and removed his arm from her shoulders.

His lips thinned, but he did as she asked, just as the guard reached the top of the stair.

Karreya did not give him time to cry out. It was dark, and he was not expecting to find anyone, so she caught him entirely by surprise, coming up behind him and trapping his neck between her bent right elbow in front and her left forearm behind. A gentle flexing of her arm muscles and he fell to the ground, utterly limp.

And after a few moments, against all her instincts, she let go.

With one of the daggers she’d concealed beneath her servant’s tunic, she sliced the golden cord from the shoulders of his tabard and used it to bind his hands and feet. Another quick slice of the dagger produced a strip of his own shirt that she stuffed into his mouth—enough to silence but not to choke. Then she crossed the floor and shut the portal in the wall, hoping it would be sufficient to convince the men below that their bidding had been carried out.

Stepping over the limp form of the guard, she returned to Niell. It was too dark to see his expression, and she was glad of it. She did not want to know whether he was judging her.

“He isn’t dead,” she told him, wishing she didn’t feel the need to defend her actions. “He will wake soon, but hopefully no one will find him until we are well beyond the palace walls.”

Niell just pushed away from the wall and took the first steps toward the stairs, so Karreya grasped his arm again, forcing him to lean on her as they descended the narrow spiral. Somehow, they did not trip or unbalance one another. Somehow, they seemed to move as one, even without speaking. And when they reached the foot of the stair, there was no one else in sight. The doors of the council room were closed, which meant that their first test was the guards posted at the entrance to the atrium.

Karreya took stock of their surroundings and cataloged them automatically. The atrium left nowhere to hide. It was open, and brightly lit by brass lamps hanging from the walls.

On her way in, she’d noted six guards, all armed with halberds, none wearing functional armor. Should she be able to get past them, she would then need to cross the garden courtyard, but at least the greenery offered cover. From the courtyard, there were three possible exits, but two of them led to the outer palace garden, and Niell was in no shape to climb the wall again.

“What are you planning?” he asked in a low voice. “And how can I help?”

But she had no answers for him yet. Potential hiding places flew through her mind, even as she stepped out of the stairwell. Niell’s arm tightened around her shoulders, while her pulse and her breathing began to slow as they approached the center of the atrium. Preparing for battle. Any moment now, they would enter the guards’ peripheral vision.

Any moment now, they would issue a challenge…

“Stop there!”

Within a handful of heartbeats, they were surrounded, five gleaming halberds aimed straight for her chest.

Karreya lowered her eyes meekly to the floor.

“The guest is intoxicated,” she said respectfully. “After bringing refreshments for the council, I discovered him here and have been attempting to convince him to leave.”

“Guest?” One of the guards eyed Niell with disbelief. “That is not a guest. That’s a vagrant. Or a spy.”

“I do not know, sir.” Karreya ducked her head, but kept watch on the guards’ feet. Those would betray their intentions well before they attacked. “But he has drunk so much, he cast up his accounts and cannot stand on his own. I was hoping to remove him before any of the other guests were forced to endure such a sight.”

“Where did you find him?”

“Over there.” She jerked her head towards the set of double doors across the atrium, praying no one would check. “The door was open, so I went to close it and found him on the floor.”

“Hmmm.” The commander of the group eyed Niell with distaste before shaking his head. “However he came to be here, we cannot allow anyone to just wander in and make themselves at home. Lock him up until he’s sober, and then we’ll ask him a few questions.”

Karreya sighed in resignation. She’d thought there was a chance they might believe her, but that wretched coat ruined everything.

Now, she was going to have to work very, very carefully.

The left-most guard lowered his halberd and reached for Niell, but a shove from Karreya sent Niell sprawling, just out of reach. While the guard was still overextended, Karreya kicked the halberd out of his loose grasp, flipping it through the air to land in her outstretched right hand.

Spinning it to the side, she took a two-handed staff grip, and plowed into the remaining guards with a stern lesson in keeping a proper hold on one’s weapons.

Thrusting the pole end to the left, she tripped the closest man before twisting to the right and bringing the axe-blade down on the center of a halberd that was plunging viciously through the spot she’d occupied a moment before.

The enemy’s wooden haft snapped, and Karreya barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She would have to be careful with her own weapon, as it appeared they were far more decorative than functional.

A swift jab with the butt of her halberd landed in the center of another guard’s chest, leaving him gasping for air as she ducked under a wild swing and caught one of his fellows across the temple. He dropped like a stone and did not move, drawing a cry of alarm from the man beside him.

---