Page 96 of Legacy of Glass
They broke into a run, Daphne and Mildred racing behind them. “Why the courtyard?” Daphne called.
“We never showed Olivia all its secrets,” Julius called back, but he didn’t explain further, saving his breath for running.
They careened down corridor after corridor, finally sliding into the courtyard. A man in Strathmore livery turned to meet them, a surprised look on his face.
Cade and Julius drew their swords in unison, and the man went white and tried to flee. He didn’t make it far.
“Maybe we should have kept him conscious,” Cade said doubtfully when the man lay at their feet.
“No need,” Julius said shortly. “We know what he was doing.” He pointed at the bench seat by the fountain.
“I don’t know, however.” Daphne said, puffing as she reached their sides.
“We chose this courtyard when we were boys for a reason,” Cade said. “It has a little-known entrance to the tunnels beneath the palace.”
“Tunnels?” Daphne’s brows flew up.
“Look at all the scuffed dirt.” Julius crouched down beside the potted tree next to the bench seat. “The servant must have only just got the pot back in place when we arrived, which hopefully means we aren’t far behind them!”
He and Cade worked together, grunting, their muscles straining as they lifted the pot and rolled it away. The tree and pot had both been smaller when they were younger.
“Phew,” Cade breathed. “I’m glad we were armed and he wasn’t. That brute must be as strong as an ox to move this thing on his own.”
Before them, a cunningly concealed trapdoor lay in the ground. Julius pulled it up, revealing a dark hole beneath.
Daphne looked into it and shivered. But she didn’t protest when Julius dropped into the hole. Cade eased her down after him and then, at her insistence, half-lifted, half-dropped Mildred down as well. He brought up the rear himself, leaving the trapdoor open behind him.
“Where does the tunnel go?” Daphne asked, as they hurried along the smooth floor in the near darkness. “Isn’t it a security risk?”
“It ends inside the grounds,” Cade explained from behind her. “It doesn’t lead beyond the walls. It comes out in the kitchen gardens by the west gate.”
“The west gate is the most isolated gate,” Julius said grimly. “Zane will know it’s his best way out.”
The traces of light from the trapdoor behind them eventually faded into pitch blackness, but it wasn’t long before the air gradually started to lighten again. They were approaching the other end of the tunnel. Julius broke into a jog up the mild incline, the square of light at the end of the tunnel soon becoming visible.
The floor sloped up to join the door-like opening, and the four of them raced out, blinking in the sunset light. They stood in the middle of a pumpkin patch filled with enormous produce.
Julius’s eyes immediately caught on two figures halfway between them and the western gate.
“Zane!” he shouted, his furious cry tearing through the air and making the people ahead of them freeze.
“Julius!” Olivia’s voice cried, and his heart lifted, only to crash again when Zane seized her arm and shook her roughly. He was clearly making some sort of threat that didn’t carry back to them.
Julius hesitated, trying to work out the best avenue of attack—one that wouldn’t put Olivia at risk. But Mildred—unhampered by strategy—charged forward. With a resounding squeak, she thundered toward Zane and Olivia, looking surprisingly fearsome thanks to her unnatural size.
Zane turned to meet the threat, attempting to push Olivia between him and the mouse, but he moved too slowly.
Mildred rammed him, knocking him off his feet, and Olivia jerked free of his hold. Running from him, she zigzagged through the pumpkins. Julius charged toward Zane, but his former friend was already back on his feet. Dodging Mildred, Zane dashed after Olivia. He knew that Olivia was his only hope of escaping Julius’s wrath.
The pumpkin patch extended up a slope, and Olivia had fled uphill instead of down, away from Zane, but also away from Julius. When she reached the top of the incline, where the ground leveled out again, she turned right and ran along the top of the slope. Zane changed the angle of his run, looking to cut her off, but his new path took him nearer to Julius than he had taken into account.
With a final, desperate burst of speed, Julius caught up with him just as he crested the slope, a short way ahead of Olivia. She had already stopped running and was backing away as Zane turned toward her. Zane tried to move to close the gap between them, but Julius tackled him from behind, sending both of them crashing to the ground.
Zane kicked out at Julius, catching him in the midriff. The blow temporarily winded the prince, giving Zane a chance to wriggle free. He reached for his dagger, and Julius only just managed to grab him again, preventing him from drawing the blade.
They rolled across the ground, Julius’s blow to Zane’s nose being returned with an elbow to the sternum. The pain of the blow made Julius flinch instinctively back, only to freeze as his head rolled out over empty space.
He risked a half second’s glance sideways and down. Blast! When had a miniature cliff appeared behind the pumpkin patch? He was sure it hadn’t been there a month ago.
