Page 20 of Gilded Crown

Jari grabbed his sword, and Aurelius grew quiet. The blankets rustled as he shifted.

“I heard something,” Jari whispered.

He stood and moved his blankets enough so he could peek out. The sitting room fire was dying, and he had forgotten a crystal lantern on low.

The next thud sounded like someone had thrown their whole body against the sitting room door. Aurelius made a noise from the bed.

“Who is that?”

“I don’t know.” Jari stepped out and kept his blade ready as he moved around the couch. Crystal lanterns dangling from the ceiling stayed on in the hall at night, and shadows moved underneath the thankfully locked door. He dropped down and put his head close to the floor. He could just make out dark shoes moving, and one lifted before someone slammed the door again.

Whoever it was must have started beating their fists on the wood. Zylem and Gullveig. The knob rattled several times.

“Jari,” came Aurelius’s ragged voice. He came out with his own blade ready, and a second pair of dark shoes joined the first. A third came. All three pounded the door.

“Come back,” said Aurelius.

They hurried into the bedroom, and Jari locked the door. “What the fuck?!”

The Crown Prince had turned on his lanterns, and he tapped the one on his chest of drawers to make the Norian crystal pieces glow brighter. The rain beat against the glass outside.

“Did you hear any voices?”

Jari shook his head. “No. It was hard to tell from the shoes, but I’m guessing it’s men. Three. I couldn’t tell if it was your brothers.”

Aurelius rubbed his pale face and let his hair fall to cover his sewn-closed eye. “Fuck. If that’s my brothers, they’ve got someone else on their side.”

“Can no one hear that?”

Aurelius bit his lip and narrowed his eye as he thought. The banging didn’t stop. “A lot of the family was right below me on the next floor. They were kicked out, so those rooms are empty. The next floor is guest rooms that aren’t being used. A lot of courtiers are more on the south side, or they’re too far down to probably hear anything. It’s only my brothers on this floor. Father, not that he’s much help, is a couple of floors further down and on the west side in the back. We’re more toward the front, so…probably not.”

“So we’re basically fucked? They get in or we hold out until dawn?”

Aurelius hurried to get his eyepatch from the bedside table. “The door’s pretty damn sturdy. I don’t think anyone could break in unless they had an axe.”

“This might be to scare us.”

“True. It’s more likely that they’re trying to kill us. If they do get in, we’ll move into my privy room. If they get through two more doors, we’ll fight. Other than that, we wait until morning. Or-”

He hurried into the sitting room to pull a rope hanging on the wall by the fireplace. The banging renewed as if whoever was in the hall knew that Aurelius was closer. Elsewhere, a bell would ring which meant a servant should hear and come. If one heard such a commotion on the way up, they’d rush to get help.

The thumping grew worse as Aurelius dashed back in and locked the bedroom door. “The rope is too slack.”

“Huh?”

“It’s been cut. No one heard that.”

“Great. We’re fucking stuck.” Zylem had made sure Aurelius wouldn’t get help.

The slamming started again as if all three were throwing their bodies against the wood. Five times. Ten times. Aurelius tied his hair back. Fifteen times.

“I think I’d be on the floor and in a lot of pain right now,” Jari muttered as he leaned against the closet room door.

Twenty times. How the fuck could anyone keep doing it with such force?

Aurelius glanced at Jari. “That doesn’t exactly sound fairy. It’s more like an animal.”

“There’s no way your brothers could do that without injury. They’d get a couple of slams in at most.”

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