Chapter 125

Grabbing ahold of Pierce’s forearm, Kit shouted, “In here!” and pulled him over to the wall.

“In where? Isn’t there a sword? Why is he using an ax?” Pierce seemed completely confused, like he couldn’t believe this was real.

Kit had practiced opening the secret door into the safe room dozens of times but never with her hands shaking. Behind her, Merek continued to attack the door. There were shouts in the hallway, and she was certain she heard Eli giving commands. Just about the time she heard more boots in the antechamber, she managed to get the door open. Pulling Pierce inside, she slammed it shut, triggering the locking mechanism only she knew how to release, just as the ax made its way through the door. Peering through a small slit in the safe room door, Kit could see the aftermath. Splinters and shards of wood went flying into the bedroom, and Kit covered her mouth to stifle a scream. If he managed to get in, she’d have to be quiet so he couldn’t detect where they were hiding. Her mother had assured her that the door to her hiding place couldn’t be cut by anything, but she wasn’t willing to take that chance.

Pierce was backed against the wall in the narrow space, trying to make himself as small as possible. Kit couldn’t blame him as she was petrified herself. But she realized the ax hadn’t come flying back toward the door again. The sounds of a scuffle in the antechamber were evident, and she wished she could see what was happening. She heard Eli then, shouting for Merek to drop the ax, which he apparently didn’t do because she was fairly certain she heard the sound of a wooden handle ricocheting off of a sword. Furniture was sent sliding across the floor, a body hit the door hard enough to shake it, the floor seemed to vibrate as well as the two sides crashed into each other.

Merek let out a horrific growl that sent shivers down Kit’s spine as she prayed to every goddess in the heavens to keep Eli safe. The commander made a bleat, the kind Kit had only heard once before, when he’d broken his leg falling off of his horse. She glanced back at Pierce who had his hands folded in front of him like he was praying or begging for mercy. Neither was particularly helpful.

Another resounded clash echoed off of the walls before she heard another groan from Merek, then a slicing sound before the floor shook with another momentous crash, and everything went silent. All Kit could hear was the sound of her own breathing and her heart beating out of her chest.

What seemed like minutes later, though it was probably only a few seconds, there was more shouting. Kit recognized Galter’s voice, though she couldn’t quite understand what he was saying. She waited, praying she’d hear Eli’s voice again. Then, faintly, she heard him say something to Galter and hoped he wasn’t weak because he was dying. Her fingers reached for the locking mechanism before she realized what she was doing. If he was injured, she needed to be there.

“What are you doing?” Pierce whispered. “Don’t unlock it! What if Merek’s not dead?”

“What if Eli is hurt?” she countered, ready to punch in the code she needed to open the door.

“To hell with him,” Pierce replied. “He’s just a stable boy, Princess Katrinetta.”

Kit turned and glared at him in the darkness, ready to slap him, but then she heard Eli calling her name, and nothing Pierce said mattered anymore. “Kit? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine!” she called as loudly as she could. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine as well. Listen, it’s quite messy out here, and I think you’d do better to stay in there a bit longer until we get it cleaned up.”

“May we come out of the safe room?” she shouted even as she was opening the door.

“I don’t think you should just yet,” he was saying, but by then it was too late, and Kit had already stepped through the doorway.

She could see why he was concerned immediately. There was blood on the floor, and it was seeping underneath the door, its thick, scarlet stain spreading rapidly toward the bed. It looked like too much blood to belong to just one person, but then Merek was a large fellow. Perhaps there had been others, and she just hadn’t heard them. Perhaps some of her guards had fallen as well. She thought back to the way Tem had sounded when he’d shouted for her to take cover. She’d thought his voice sounded as if it had come from deep under the ocean. Maybe it was a different sort of fluid obscuring the tenor.

Behind her, Pierce made a gagging noise before he rushed for the latrine. He didn’t quite make it, and now the floor had another bodily fluid all over it as well. Between the two odors, Kit found herself longing for fresh air. The princess needed to exit the room.

“Eli, I need to get out of here,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm.

“Princess, you’ll have to wait. I don’t want you to see this.”

There were several cuts in the door where Merek’s ax had broken through, though none of them large enough for her to see through without stepping in the blood. At this point, she didn’t care. Sticky and slimy all at once, she raised up her robe and stepped into it, looking through the largest ax cut. “Eli, I need out of here. Now.”

He didn’t look so good himself. His face was pale, like it had been when she’d met him at the infirmary after Jecob’s trial. Only, this time it seemed an even whiter shade, and she realized his arm was bleeding badly. Forgetting their recent squabble, Kit unbarred the door immediately, pulling the splintered timber open, no longer thinking about her slippers or her hem. “Eli, what’s the matter with you?”

“I’m fine,” he assured her, though it was evident he wasn’t. “I thought I told you to stay inside your chambers.”

“Let me see.” She made a move toward his injury, but he turned away. Catching a glimpse of torn, bloodied fabric she could see only a hint of the wound itself, but she knew what had to be the cause. “Is that an ax cut? To your arm?”

“I told you, I’m fine,” Eli insisted, stepping back away from her toward the disheveled settee and an upturned table. “Kit, we need to get you out of here as soon as possible.”

“We need to get you to the infirmary!” she insisted. Guards were moving into the room now, and Kit glanced down to see what they were collecting and almost lost the contents of her stomach.

Merek’s headless body was being carted off on a sheet. It took eight of her guardsmen to properly lift him, and one more stooped to pick up his head and rest it atop his large abdomen. Kit covered her mouth as Eli’s arms came around her, pulling her back into his chest.

“This is why I didn’t want you to come out yet.”

She took a deep breath, trying not to focus on the odor and was thankful to see servants arriving with mops and buckets. There was more blood in the hallway, and Kit realized she needed to ask an important question, though he was certain she didn’t want to hear the answer.

Turning to face Eli, she stopped just short of burying her face in his chest. “Are they...?”

“Yes.”

She looked up into his eyes, hoping she’d misunderstood. “Both of them?”

“I’m afraid so, Princess. I’m sorry. Tem and Lok both gave their lives to protect you. They fought bravely but were no match for a madman with an ax.”

The sting of tears in her eyes blurred her vision as Kit thought about both men. Tem had a family, and Lok was so young. It wasn’t fair. As far as she knew, they were the first guardsmen who’d ever given their lives for her. She prayed they’d be the last.

“Commander, you need to get to the infirmary,” Galter called, stepping back through the doorway. “I’ll see the princess gets safely to her chambers.”

“I will escort her.”

Kit had forgotten Pierce was even there. She turned to look over her shoulder at him. Sweaty and pale, he looked as if he might’ve been injured himself, though she knew he wasn’t.

“Pierce, I think you should go back to your room,” Kit said. “We’ve had enough excitement for one night.”

“Not of the variety I came for,” he reminded her, and Kit’s eyes enlarged at his suggestion. He couldn’t be serious....

“The princess has made herself clear,” Eli said in a voice that indicated he was not messing around.

Pierce smirked. “I don’t think you’re in any position to decide what the princess wants,” he replied, glancing at Eli’s arm.

Kit was well aware that Eli could best Pierce any day of the week, even while bleeding profusely from one arm. But this wasn’t her commander’s fight. Turning to look directly at the other Representative, she said, “Pierce, go to your room at once. Do I make myself clear? If you should seek to defy me, I swear to you, it will be the last time you do so.”

Pierce stared at her for a moment as if he had no idea what to say. His eyebrows raised before dropping down, along with his eyes. He saw the blood on the floor and moved to gag again before shooting out the door, through the blood in the hallway and around the corner.

“I don’t like that one,” Galter muttered, watching him go. Then, offering his hand to Kit, he said, “Princess?”

She turned back to Eli. “I need to make sure you actually get to the infirmary.”

“If your mother finds out that you’ve escorted me to the infirmary, she will not be pleased. Go with Galter. I promise you, I’ll go.”

She swallowed hard, wanting to argue but not seeing the point. Turning, she saw Galter’s hand still extended.

“Go, Kit.” His voice was much softer now, as if they were children again, and he didn’t want her to miss the time she was meant to be back in her room.

With a deep breath, Kit took a step toward Galter. Turning back to Eli, she said “I... uh... thank you.” She wanted, needed, to say so much more. It occurred to her that they had several topics to discuss, and none of them should be brought up at the moment, though she was tempted to continue.

“It is an honor to serve you, my princess,” Eli replied, his eyes completely unwavering.

“We... need to talk about a few things.”

“And we shall. But not tonight. Go, Kit.”

She nodded again and felt Galter’s hand on her shoulder. With one more glance at the blood, and then another look at the face of the man who’d saved her life, Kit turned and walked out of the room, keeping her head up not only because she was meant to be a queen but because if she had one more glimpse at a pool of blood, she was liable to lose the dignity she’d worked so hard to maintain.