Page 143 of To Touch A Silent Fury
Fuck. He had actually gone through with it, the letter to warn King Odenor about the coup.
My breath came fast. I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t do this without him. Arrested? It could not be. We were supposed to run tonight, and now my one ally was under lock and key. I couldn’t allow it.
My hands shook. “Where is he?”
Foxlin glanced back to the door with a grimace. “He’s in the eastern tower.”
I nodded, and turned to the mirror, pulling my haphazard hair free. I started to rebraid the mess against my head. My roots were growing, and I could now see them from a few feet away, but only if I specifically looked for them. To be safe, I’d taken to dusting my parting with some brown cosmetic powder, but I hadn’t done it today.
“No,” Foxlin said, and I saw his warped reflection in the polished metal before me. “You aren’t going anywhere near there.” I raised an eyebrow and kept braiding, halfway down my head now, twisting my hands faster. Foxlin folded his arms, leaning against the wall. “I know your plan, my lady. Lang told me I was not to stop your leaving.”
I froze, my fingers twisted in my hair. Turning, I took in his expression and found there was nothing unkind there. “Then do not stop me now.”
Foxlin tutted. “Do not waste everything Septillis has done foryou by visiting him.”
By the Twins, I hated this place. It was nothing but people doing horrid things to each other. At least in Gossamir, the deadliness was natural. The cold, thirst, starvation, beasts. You saw your end plain. This, this was not nature, this was twisting ugliness, pervading every stone of Droundhaven. I wanted to scream.
“I can’t just let them imprison him,” I said. Frustration bubbled into rage, and I paced across the room. I spun back to Foxlin. “Surely, his mother will speak with the guards.”
“His mother was the one who called for his arrest.” Foxlin raised his hands in exasperation. “There’s nothing you can do.”
Derynallis had imprisoned her own son? Had she no heart at all?
All of me shook with it, an anger I had never felt on myself. An anger that felt like thunder and every broken thing. An anger bigger than the Wragg’s, an anger to destroy worlds. Then it died, as if washed from me, and all I felt was an irrepressible urge to cry.
The wind dropped from my sails. I fell back, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I can’t leave without him.”
Foxlin stepped to the window and stared out the curtains. Then he quickly looked back at me. “I’m telling you this because he left word with a guard that you should pick up yourfoodfrom Kallie.”
I blinked. “Kallie?”
“The cook who’s been delivering your food for the last few days. I believe you’ve met.”
I recalled the cook I’d met maybe a week ago, down in the kitchens. From Foxlin’s emphasis, this was not a normal food retrieval. Seth had used his last warning words to tell me the next phase of the plan, so I could still escape.
“You expect me to run anyway?” I asked. “To leave Seth behind?”
Foxlin sighed. “It is your only choice. Pick yourfoodup now, and follow his instructions to the letter.”
Seth had put in so much work, and I knew the worst situation he could imagine would bebothof us ending up arrested. And yet it seemed so cruel that he would be caught on the eve of our flight. There had to be something I could do. Or something Lang could do. If the man wouldn’t marry me, maybe he would at least release my first true friend in this world.
I stared down at Hanindred, and the practicality of him reduced the scope of my world for a moment. I breathed, making myself think. He would need feeding, and Kallie would have some actual food for him. Keeping myself and Hanindred alive had to be the first priority.
I would follow Seth’s instructions; I would find the cook and get ready to leave. But I wasn’t giving up on him, not yet.
I walked up to the guard and touched his hand.
He blinked in confusion, shifting his hand away. “My lady?”
But it was enough. Enough to trust him for now. I flicked my head back at Hanindred. “Will you watch him? Guard him?”
Foxlin nodded. “I will. I’ll stay until you return.”
What I had felt on him was enough for me to believe it. “Thank you,” I said sincerely.
“It is my job.”
“I don’t think this is your usual appointment. Besides, it was Wainstrill’s job, too. And I did not thank him.”
