Chapter 218

Dressed in a military uniform, the man was leaning against the front portion of the battlement on both elbows, near the flagpole Seph needed to access. She had no idea how she might overpower him if he turned and saw her, but despite her less than graceful entrance, he was still facing away from her.

Carefully, Seph dropped to the ground, bouncing so as not to land heavily on the stone landing and startle him. There was a slight thunk when she hit, but he still didn’t turn.

Seph took careful steps closer to him, pulling the knife she’d brought along with her out of its sheath and holding it at her side. She prayed this man would turn out to be a friend, someone who knew Eli, or who would take the side of the princess. But if it came down to a fight with a trained man holding a sword, she didn’t think there would be much she could do to defend herself.

She was within five steps of the man when she realized he was snoring. Seph could hardly believe her own ears. It was no wonder he hadn’t noticed her yet. How a person could sleep standing up, leaning on a stone wall, while on duty, was beyond her. She thought he must be the most worthless soldier in all of the realm. And she was also thankful to the goddesses that he was the one on duty this night.

He was situated a half-dozen or so steps from the flagpole she needed to access. Holding her breath, Seph approached the side of the tower and looked over quickly before her eyes darted back to the guard. He was still snoring, though not as evenly as he had been before, and she was concerned he might open his eyes at any moment.

The flagpole was close enough to the top of the battlement that she could reach it if she pulled herself up a bit and leaned straight over the top of the stone. If it slipped out of her fingers, it would fall several feet to the top of the roof below. Not only would it be gone, but that would surely wake the guard. Still holding her breath, Seph grabbed ahold of the stonework with one hand and pulled herself up slightly reaching through the parapet with the other arm until she felt the wooden handle of the flagpole with her fingertips.

She had to stretch to reach it, and even then, when she got her fingers around it, the pole didn’t come straight out of its holder. Yanking in this position was difficult. On her third try, a grunt escaped her lips, and the guard stirred, wiping at his nose and mumbling something Seph couldn’t understand. She paused, unmoving, until he settled again.

On the fourth try, the flagpole came free. The momentum had it flying up into the air, bouncing off of the palm of her hand twice before she managed to get her fingers wrapped around it. Seph slowly pulled it over the top of the wall, keeping her eyes glued to the soldier the whole time.

She already had the red fabric prepared so that all she’d have to do was remove the flag and then slide the other over the top of the pole. Holding the flagpole between her knees, she removed the Yewforian flag and pulled the red fabric from her pocket, pushing it over the top of the pole as quickly as she could. Her dimensions were correct, and as long as no one in the castle noticed the change before their friends in Eastbury, the signal should work perfectly—assuming she got the pole back in place and got out of there before she was spotted.

Tucking the Yewforian flag inside a pocket in the cloak for now, Seph pulled herself back up so she could slide the pole back into place. It went back in much more easily than it had come out, and in a second, she was finished and on solid ground, standing next to the snoring guard.

Eli had told her not to try to take the flag with her because if she was found out, it could be used as evidence against her. Seph had planned to toss it over the back side of the roofline, but an opportunity presented itself now, assuming this soldier continued to sleep as heavily as he was now while she put her plan into action. Withdrawing the flag, Seph folded it several times, making it as small as possible. The way he was standing, his jerkin was bunched up in the back, right beneath his neck. Carefully, she slid the flag inside the collar. He let out another snort and a few words of gibberish, swiping his hand across his face. Seph stepped away from him, but once again, he didn’t open his eyes.

Seph lightly made her way back to where she could access the ladder. It was difficult for her to reach the top of the wall, so she jumped up, kicking off of the stone, and put her hand over the lip, pulling herself up so she could look over. No one was standing near the bottom, but there were still soldiers off in the distance, and a few walking slowly in her direction. There was a chance one or more of them might be headed to the tower, so she needed to act now.

Seph flung one leg and then the other over the top of the battlement and climbed down the first ten or so rungs before the footsteps grew closer, and she realized she needed to hurry. Keeping her hands on either side of the metal, she took her feet off and slid down the rest of the way until her boots were on the ground. Her hands stung slightly, but she was otherwise fine.

Over her shoulder, she saw the soldiers and noticed they were Queen’s Guard. In order to stay out of their line of sight, she could either hurry around the other side of the tower and hunker down in the shadows the way she had before or kneel behind a barrel she assumed held some sort of provisions. Her time to decide was dwindling, so Seph slid across the stone and cowered on the other side of the large wooden barrel, praying the soldiers soldiered on.

It only took a minute or so for her to find out she’d chosen wrong. “We should have a drink before we go up to wake old Lig,” one of the guards said.

“Stupid son of a bitch falls asleep every night on the job, and his commander still keeps him there,” another said as the voices grew closer.

Seph held her breath as the men stopped on the other side of the barrel, one of them pulling off the lid. A few drops of water sprinkled onto her hood, but she didn’t move. “Probably the least dangerous place for old Lig to be. It’s not as if anyone’s going to attack us anyhow, not with Queen Rona in charge.” He took a drink out of what sounded like a ladle and then handed it on.

“True,” one of the other men said. “Too bad this is only water and not whisky.”

“Then we’d all be falling asleep like old Lig,” the first voice said before Seph heard the pounding of the lid going back into place. They all laughed heartily and then stepped over toward the tower.

Seph didn’t move. If they discovered the flag had been switched out, they’d immediately send out a signal for everyone to start searching for whomever had done it, and while old Lig had the flag, she would certainly be discovered and held as the guilty party. There wasn’t anything she could do at the moment. Until the soldiers moved on, she couldn’t access the stairs she’d come up, and not only were they the closest, according to Eli, they were also the least likely to be full of soldiers. The only way she would get out of here without being captured would be for no one to notice the flag until she escaped.

“Oh, Lig!” one of the men called from a few feet away, over toward the tower. His voice was high pitched as if he were impersonating a woman. “It’s me, Princess Katrinetta. I’ve come to suck your dick!” The men broke out into hysterical laughter, and Seph’s mouth dropped open in horror.

“Yeah, Lig! Won’t you let me lick your balls?” another of the men shouted in a mocking voice before they all laughed again.

Lig was awake now. Seph could hear him making the same noises he had before, only louder, before he shouted, “All right, ye rapscallions. Move it along, won’t you? Old Lig wasn’t sleeping!”

The soldiers continued to laugh as they headed around the back side of the tower, the same direction Seph needed to travel in, still making horrid comments about the princess. Seph wished she’d gotten their names so that, when Kit was queen, she could be sure to punish them accordingly. But at the moment, she had more important things to worry about, like getting off of the roof alive.