Page 10 of The Time Of Kings

“BANDIT!”

“Er… I’m a what now?” I said before she went off running and screaming blue murder throughout what I imagined was the whole castle.

“Oh shit, this is so not good,” I muttered aloud while getting up, now wondering how the hell I was going to get out of this mess. Of course, just running out of the door and back to the road was not an option. Not considering, the second I heard a commotion, I realised it wasn’t just those inside the castle that had heard her. Something I quickly confirmed when I stuck my head out the door and saw what was left of the knights now charging to the maid’s mad desperate bandit call.

Seriously, a bloody bandit?!

I would have shook my head in exasperation had I not been too concerned with quickly slamming the door shut and locking it for good measure. Meaning I had no other option but to try and lose them inside the castle. Something that I admit, was less than ideal. Especially with a witless banshee screaming through the place that some thief had infiltrated the walls.

“Christ, could it get any worse?” I said to myself, before making my way through what looked like the servant quarters and trying to blend into the shadows. Something that wasn’t hard considering I was caked in mud and wearing black. Also, having the song‘The Look’byRoxetteplaying in my head on repeat wasn’t helping matters every time I caught my pitiful reflection. Thankfully, there were enough alcoves and big furniture in this place, that every time I heard footsteps, I at least had a place to hide.

“Jeez, and I thought Afterlife had enough antiques.”

Of course, the stupidity of this statement hit me, as most of the stuff in this place was most likely brand new.

“And I go la la la la la na na na na na na, she's got the look… damn it, Keira, so not the time,” I scolded myself as I finally found what I thought was an exit, only coming to an abrupt stop when I heard the roar of anger from outside. As if someone was about to tear someone’s head off. Then I saw maids go scrambling, obviously getting out of the way from being next in the furious firing line, so I made my move when the coast was clear. Now fearing that whoever it was that was so incensed would soon walk back inside and find me.

Unfortunately for me, this meant the only place left for me to go was up the wide staircase. Its stone arches above reminded me so much of Afterlife, that it actually hurt. There were so many things that reminded me of my home.

Although, it had to be said that, rewind thirty years ago, there were most definitely times when like now, it felt like the very building had been against me. Times I had felt like a rat in a maze I had been desperate to escape from. Just like the night Draven first kidnapped me and held me captive for my own safety. Just like when I had foolishly made my way down into his prison and had desperately tried to survive it. And now here I was, right back to doing the same old shit and asking myself, how did I get myself into this mess so quickly?

“Seriously, Keira, it’s like you have never even seen a horror movie,”I muttered as I crept up the stairs like I was expecting the stone steps to creak. Of course, the second I heard the doors slam behind me, I jumped. This before my whole body froze in its tracks when the wailing servant girl dropped me in it, by shouting for her Lord.

“A bandit! I saw a thieving bandit enter the castle, my Lord!” she shouted, making me roll my eyes and mouth,

‘Thieving… really?’

Deciding that hanging around wasn’t the best plan, I legged it up the rest of the stairs, thinking there must be somewhere I could hide until the coast was clear. After all, didn’t these places have like a bazillion rooms that were never used? Maybe that was just Afterlife, as even after all this time living there, I was still finding random rooms before rolling my eyes at my husband. This before asking him why in Gods mighty ball ache (thank you, Pip, for that one) did we have so many?

Gods, I missed my husband.

In the end, there was nothing for me to do but push down the ache I felt in my chest and get on with the only option I had left. So, I ran to the first landing and looked straight ahead, then to the left, which had another staircase going up to the next level.

“Damn it!”I cursed quietly, not knowing which way to take.

“Ah fuck it!” I swore before running up the next staircase. However, when all the rooms on this level were locked, I panicked and decided to go back on myself and down to the first landing. Then I ran up the next few steps before coming face to face with a very long corridor. The floors were a high polished wood with the walls panelled to waist height. Above this I found long, thin tapestries no more than a foot in width, each showing a particular scene in history.

In one of them a castle looked to be on fire, with people running from the flames and one Lord looking on in anguish. While on the opposite end of the destruction, there were angels looking on. I couldn’t help but question what it meant. Especially now I was fully immersed in Draven’s world. Before it may have freaked me out. but not now. No, now what freaked me out was the unknown, as I was asking myself once again…who owned this castle?

Why would they want me? It wasn’t like Draven knew who I was, nor had he seen me, so it couldn’t be him. No, the only thing I could think of was that the man whose cottage it belonged to had gone to the Lord of this area and told him of us. But then I couldn’t help but question, why just me?

Why just the blonde?

Could it really be?

I quickly shook these questions from my mind and focused back on hiding. Especially when I could hear the commotion downstairs, thanks to the maid and her claims of a bandit in the castle. But now the question became, where to hide? The first two doors along this long hallway were like all the rest…locked.

In fact, I didn’t know how many I ended up trying in my panic, until I finally found a room that wasn’t locked. After tossing up a quick thanks to whoever was listening up there now answering my prayers, I opened the door.

But then as I stood in the middle of the lavish, medieval style room, I not only realized that it was fit for a King, but I also looked down at the floor in horror. Because it was only now that I just realised my stupid mistake. Doing so first by looking to the dirty footsteps on the floor and then back down to the cause of them…

My muddy feet.

“Oh shit,” I said aloud, before covering my mouth the second I heard angry sounding footsteps coming down the hall. Because I had stupidly just led whoever it was who owned this castle straight to me. Which was why I quickly ran to the window. After opening it, I kicked off my muddy shoes. Then I bent down to grab them and made a mad rush over to the bed. This I did in hopes of fooling whoever was coming for me and making them believe I had managed to pull a Spiderman and survive the jump before running for it. Okay, so even for me, it was a long shot, but at this point, I didn’t really have much to lose…other than my head, that was.

So, I shimmied under the high ornate, carved fourposter bedframe and pulled myself in a ball at the centre, hoping this would be enough to hide. And with not a second to waste either as the door barged open before being slammed shut.

Naturally, I couldn’t help jolting at the sound, and nor could I help but raise my head to look. I watched as a pair of men’s riding boots stormed over to the window, and it seemed that at least part of my plan was working. Especially when I heard a snarl of anger, followed by a smashing sound as something was thrown and exploded as it landed against the stone wall. I tried not to react but the small yelp that escaped me was one I could only hope was masked by the destruction.

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