Page 53 of Heartless Enemy

Alright, we had gotten inside.

Now, we just had to find the healer.

Chapter21

As we snuck through the massive castle, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of it was White’s doing and how much had just been left over from the previous owner. Christian White didn’t exactly strike me as someone who spent any extraordinary amounts of time thinking about interior design. And yet, the castle was beautiful.

The floor and walls everywhere we went were made of white marble that almost seemed to shimmer in the light from the oil lamps. Frescoes depicting various nature scenes, often snow-covered landscapes, had been painted on the ceiling of practically every hallway and every room we had passed. That combined with the white wooden furniture and the silver decorations made it feel like we were journeying through some kind of winter wonderland straight out of a fairytale.

I couldn’t spare it too much attention, though. We had gambled on the fact that White would be in Malgrave searching for us, but since he was a worldwalker, there was no way to know for certain where he was at any given time. Technically, he could just worldwalk to Malgrave and then back here several times an hour. But something told me that White was a bit more methodical than that. Still… we had to be careful.

Keeping our ears open for any signs of White or his guards, Eve and I moved quickly and efficiently through the vast castle in search of the healer. Occasionally, some of White’s servants appeared. But they never moved fast enough to catch us off guard, so by the time they arrived, we had always managed to hide in another room.

What troubled me was the fact that we hadn’t seen any guards yet. We knew that some of them patrolled outside, but there were bound to be more battle mages inside too. It wouldn’t make sense for White to leave a huge castle like this practically unguarded. But then again, the old lady we had met on the road had said that no one was stupid enough to go here willingly, so maybe White had gotten too confident. Had started to rely on his reputation too much. I certainly hoped so, since that would make our job a lot easier.

“Wouldn’t it be more logical to have a healer live somewhere in the middle of the castle?” Eve grumbled from next to me as we snuck down yet another white stone corridor, leaving the center of the castle behind after a thorough search that yielded no results. “That way, everyone could reach him quickly in an emergency.”

“For someone who cares about others, yes.” I shot Eve an amused look. “Did White really strike you as someone who does?”

“No,” she admitted.

“My money is on a place somewhere close to White’s own room.”

“And where do we think that is?”

Silence fell as we reached a wide curving staircase. Trailing to a halt, we turned to look at each other.

“Upstairs,” we said in unison.

She grinned at me and then started up the steps on quick and silent feet. I followed.

We had to dodge some more servants while searching the next few levels, but eventually, we reached a part high up where the hallways grew grander and the rooms more far apart. Eve and I exchanged a glance as we moved down a wide corridor. There were two massive double doors at the end of it. This had to be White’s private wing.

Apart from the ones at the end, there were only two other doors about halfway down the hall. The first one turned out to be an elegant but deserted study. Which meant that the next door had to be where the healer was. It had to. We had already spent far too much time searching the castle. We needed to find this damn healer and get the hell out before it got too dark to ride through the forest.

My heart pattered in my chest as we snuck up to the other door.

Eve let one hand drift to the sword at her hip as we came to a halt in front of the pale wooden door while exchanging a glance. I placed my hand on the metal handle and pushed down carefully, expecting it to be locked. Surprise flitted through me when it wasn’t. After another glance at Eve, I pushed the handle all the way down and edged the door open. She peered inside.

Her brown eyes lit up as she turned back to me and mouthed, “This is it.”

I pulled the door open fully.

A small bedroom materialized on the other side. There was a narrow bed pushed against the wall to our left, and a closet along with a bookcase on the other. Straight ahead was a window that showed the gray sky outside, and below it, a desk and chair made of pale wood.

My gaze fell on the man seated at the desk as Eve and I slipped into the room. He looked to be of average height, but was far too skinny for a man in his forties. The brown robe he wore hung like a tent on his slim frame and was cinched around his waist by a black sash. From behind, his brown hair looked matted and messy. Even though I hadn’t seen his face yet, he matched the description I had gotten from Maggie earlier. The description I had given to Christian White.

I closed the door behind us once Eve and I had made it across the threshold.

At the soft click of the door, the man shot to his feet and whirled around while raising his arms as if to protect himself. It stunned me enough that I didn’t process the sound that his movement had created. Then my mind caught up.

Metallic rattling.

I snapped my gaze down to the man’s feet. He was barefoot, but that was not what made disgust crawl up my throat.

He was chained to the floor.

An iron manacle had been snapped shut around his right ankle, and a thick metal chain ran from it to a sturdy ring set into the stone floor. The chain rattled across the floor as the man edged backwards, his thighs bumping into the desk behind him hard enough to make it thud against the wall.

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