Page 71 of The King's Omega
Marjann’s eyes went wide. “You’re right.” Before she could panic, Vinca returned with a tray full of food.
“We’ll go find your dress together,” Marjann said, as I began eating. “The guards must stay. You’ll be safe inside.”
I thanked them both. “I’ll be eating, then sleeping, as my mate instructed. Come back soon!”
I waited three minutes after the door shut, then wrapped all the food—and the washcloths and sponges from the bath—into two bundles. I made a mound under the blankets with the stacked pillows and sheets that lined one wall. “I’d never make a nest for that snake,” I hissed at the door.
Then I slipped into the privy room, pulled back the tapestry, and vanished into the tunnels to find my men.
Vali
Ithink I saw almost every floor of the castle as I searched for a way to the lowest level. I’d stumbled, tripped, and made plenty of noise if anyone was listening. The Goddess had obviously been protecting me since no one had come crawling after me with a sword. I hoped She kept doing so.
The last ladder had been metal, and more solid than the others, so I guessed it was older. At the base, there hadn’t been a thick tapestry, or a clever double wall of stone like on the other levels. This one, as far as I could tell in the dim light, was a door. I groped for a latch and found hinges instead. On the other side, there was some sort of recessed handle. I almost broke my nails trying to grasp it and was panting with exhaustion from pushing at it.
Finally, it moved about six inches—not enough for me to squeeze through. “If this door isn’t to the dungeon,” I whispered. “I’m giving up. I’ll find a knife, and I’ll stab that stupid evil king right in his stupid fa—ahhhh!” I squealed as someone yanked open the door and pulled me into the room.
No, into the dungeon. I had found it!
“Lorn!” I whispered the name of the man who had me in his arms and tried not to flinch at the sight of him. He was even more injured than he had been earlier, and Tarn… “Tarn!”
I pulled away from Lorn and ran to where Tarn lay propped against the wall, his face a mass of bruises and lacerations. I glanced around quickly; there was no water or any clean linens here. The walls were damp, filthy stone, a smeared dark gray from years of mold and dripping water. The cell itself was long, and so dimly lit, it was hard to tell where it ended. An enormous wooden door with a closed window near the top stood on one side of the wall opposite us, letting in some torchlight, but shadows obscured the farthest reaches of the cell from view.
It was a good thing I had come prepared. “Bring the cloths,” I ordered, and Lorn reached into the wall and retrieved my fallen bundles. “Close the door behind you,” I hissed.
“No,” Lorn said. “It only opens from inside the wall, or we would have escaped before now. We have to keep it propped open.” His voice sounded strange, like he was trying not to shout. “What are you doing here?”
“Saving you. I thought that was obvious.” I crouched down next to Tarn and began to clean the crusted blood from his face.
“After I doubted you?” He kneeled at my side. “I’m so sorry, lass. I thought… I believed the worst.”
“Until I said Mittens, right?”
He nodded.
“Well, good. You should know I’m not like that evil Selene. Also, tell Vilkurn I would make an excellent spy. I’m stealthy and cunning, and full of bold, spy-ish ideas.” Lorn sighed, the scent of cinnamon that usually surrounded him smelling burnt. Maybe that was what guilt smelled like. Or pain. He was injured as well, bruises and cuts marring what I could see of his arms and his haggard face.
Tarn wheezed, reminding me of my most urgent priority. “Before we talk about anything else, I need to bandage Tarn up. Is Axe here?”
A low scratching sound came from one end of the cell. I looked away from the still-damp cloth I was using on Tarn’s fevered face and glimpsed a colossal form in the corner.
“Axe?” Another scratch. “Lorn, is Axe worse off than Tarn?”
“No. He’s starved like the rest of us, but also chained. He escaped twice before they figured out they needed three times the metal to hold him. His bones are iron, just like his stubborn head. He should have stayed free, but he came back when they caught Tarn and whipped him in the courtyard.”
I swallowed around the lump in my throat. There was no time to cry. “Starved?” I untied the bundle that held the food. “You eat, and feed him. I hope I brought enough food. How are you starved when we only arrived today?”
“The bitch must have started poisoning Rigol the day you left. Six days ago, he fell unconscious, and she began making wild accusations. Said we were suspects in the king’s illness, that Vilkurn had told her not to trust us. She had a few of the officers believing her, and they locked us up.”
“Of course they believed her. She’s the best liar I’ve ever met.” I glanced at Lorn, who was feeding small bites of food into Axe’s mouth. His eyes glimmered in the dull light with something feral, half-crazed. “She’s also Verdan’s most successful assassin, Vilkurn told me.”
“Vilkurn’s alive? How do you know?”
“He’s not here yet?” That was concerning. Had I done wrong, asking him to help rescue Milian’s Omegas? What if he had been captured? “I ran into him at the palace in Verdan. I assumed he would get here before me. He was going to try and get an antidote into Rigol…”
“Thank the Goddess. Maybe we do still have hope of escaping.”
“We’re not escaping,” I said calmly. “We’re not running away. We’re going to fight our way out.”
