Dividing Eden (Dividing Eden #1)(68)
“You have to hide until they have called off the search, and I know a place where they won’t find you.”
Quickly, she told Larkin about the hidden room behind the tapestry and the passages in the plateau under the castle. “Errik will have to escort you there. If Lady Imogen and anyone on the Council are behind this, they will have people looking for me in the hope that I’m helping you.” Putting her in the North Tower as a coconspirator for the assassination against Andreus would certainly guarantee her brother gained the throne.
“There’s no way the guards are going to let me into the castle looking like this,” Larkin said.
Damn. Larkin was right. Her pulse pumped. “There has to be a way to get you in.”
“There is,” Errik said. “Where’s your ball gown, Highness?”
“In the basket below, but it won’t fit Larkin.”
“It doesn’t have to fit,” Errik said with a smile. “Go back to the castle, Highness. I pledge my word, I will see your friend safely hidden away.”
She had no choice. Carys took her terrified friend’s hand and said, “Do as Lord Errik bids. He’ll keep you safe until I can find a way out of this for you.”
“And my father, Your Highness?” Larkin asked. “What about him?”
Goodman Marcus. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. Now that she had, a cold dread settled into the pit of her stomach. “He doesn’t have the same connection to me that you do, and he didn’t hear what you heard. He should be safe . . . for now.” They would throw him in the North Tower when they couldn’t find Larkin, but they wouldn’t kill him. Not if they could use him to draw his daughter out of hiding. But the image of the kindly, thin man with his warm voice and gentle hands in those cells pulled at her. She was a princess, a member of the royal family of Eden, and yet she couldn’t be more helpless to prevent his suffering.
Swallowing down the knot of tears, she said, “Worry about getting yourself to the hidden room first, and I’ll be thinking of ways to get you out of this. I promise.” Even though she couldn’t. Not now. Maybe not ever. And if she didn’t come up with a way to defeat the treachery in the castle, everyone she cared about would end up dead.
Carys turned quickly toward the ladder so Larkin wouldn’t see the frustration and tears flooding her. Errik followed close behind. When they reached the bottom, he handed her the other stiletto from the basket and took her arm before she could leave.
“I will help your friend into hiding, Highness,” he said. “But you must know she will never be safe. The Council and your seeress have branded her a traitor. They will continue the hunt for her for years if necessary in order to demonstrate what happens to those who defy the crown.”
“Then what?” she hissed as anger heated the hollowness inside her. “You think I should just let the guards have her and be done with it?”
“No, Highness.” He reached up to her face and brushed away a tear that she hadn’t realized had fallen. “But you might want to consider other options. When a battle is being lost on one terrain, sometimes an army must draw back and find new ground to fight on.” He stared into her eyes for several long moments, then said, “I will get word to you when the package is safely delivered.” He took the dress out of the basket, put her stilettos back in, and shoved a bunch of hay on top before handing it to her. “Now, Princess, you should go.”
She hurried back to the castle the way she’d come, shivering as the wind gusted. The windmills seemed louder with every step. A guard stopped her at the gate and pulled her cap off her head to check the color of her hair.
Carys held her breath and tightened her grip on the basket as the man walked slowly around her. Sweat trickled down her neck and she tried to guess how long it would take for her to reach inside the basket and pull out the stilettos if it came to that. Finally, he gave her backside a squeeze and told her to come to the guardhouse after her kitchen duties.
“Me and my friends will pay you well for your time.”
Carys bit back the angry words that sprang to her lips and instead smiled. “I’m worth more than the few coppers you have in your pockets.”
“Name your price and if you prove you’re worth it, we’ll pay it.”
“A lord once said I was worth a sack of gold.” She smiled. “But I’ll take a sack of silver since you asked so nice.”
Swaying her hips, she hurried away from the guard. Then, ditching the basket behind a hedge in the courtyard, Carys jammed the cap back on her head, clutched the stilettos at her side, and kept her face tilted down as she passed servants and nobles stumbling back to their rooms after the ball.
Nowhere did she see Imogen or any of the Elders. Nor her brother. She would look for him after she changed and steadied herself. She needed just a bit of the Tears to stop her thoughts from tripping over one another.
When she reached her floor, she plucked the cap off her head, shook out her hair, and then walked around the corner as though her attire were typical. A young guard was stationed outside her door—the same one who had walked her from the North Tower. He glanced at her gray gown but said nothing as she let herself into her rooms and sagged against the door after it closed behind her.
Larkin’s scared warning.
The boy’s head falling with a sickening thud onto the polished floor.