Midnight in Everwood(80)

Dellara stared at her. ‘Have you rotted your brain? You absolutely cannot meet him, least of all this very moment. Just when everything we – you’ve – worked tirelessly for is within our grasp, you wish to jeopardise it all for the sake of him?’

Pirlipata looked quizzical. ‘Say goodbye to whom?’ She touched Marietta’s shoulder in concern.

Dellara heaved a colossal sigh. ‘Shall I allow you one guess? She’s grown attached to the captain.’ Dellara raised her eyes as if seeking solace from the stars.

‘Marietta, we ought to leave at the soonest opportunity. Is it imperative that you seek out this farewell?’ Pirlipata asked.

Marietta wished it wasn’t. ‘I’m very sorry,’ she said, her guilt hot and sticky. ‘I am all too aware of what a great inconvenience it would be. Yet if I did not, I know in my soul that I would regret it. It would haunt me. Just a simple farewell, a final moment is all that I ask.’

‘Then you must go. We shall change our clothes and prepare before your return. Go and come back at once.’ Pirlipata smiled then. ‘And may your luck taste sweet.’

‘Has sugar-rot laid siege to both your minds?’ They looked at Dellara. She held her hands wide. ‘We’re locked inside this suite. Hence the entire point of our escape. How do you expect Marietta to leave, much less locate the captain?’

Pirlipata’s smile deepened with pleasure.

‘She has displeased me. I demand that you escort her to your captain and head of the King’s Army at once to be rightfully punished.’ Pirlipata folded her arms and stared at the faceless guards who had unlocked the door to answer her command.

Expressionless as ever, they didn’t seek guidance from each other. The slight tilt to their heads was all that unbalanced the illusion of control.

‘Or I shall report you both to King Gelum on account of disobeying your future queen,’ she added.

They launched into action. One removed Marietta from the suite, the other locking Pirlipata and Dellara back inside. She caught a final, fleeting glance of their faces, hoped her plan wouldn’t collapse in on itself, and allowed herself to be marched up the spiral. The higher they ascended, the smaller the steps grew, the greater the plummet down to the throne room, a distant jewel sparkling fathoms below. Her stomach swirled with vertigo. She had never been taken to this height before. Perhaps they had decided against escorting her to Legat and she was nearing some unknown destination instead. Perhaps they would push her from the tip and she would share Lev’s fate.

Door upon door upon door. Some shuddered, bolted closed with iron chains, preventing whatever manner of creature reigned in those worlds from creeping through. Others glittered, the air surrounding them tasting sweeter and wild. Marietta hesitated before one such door, an irresistible urge curling her fingers, tempting her to open it. The guard pushed her, forcing her onwards. A few steps more and the urge suddenly relinquished her from its noxious grasp.

The faceless guard halted without warning, rapped on a small door.

‘You may enter,’ she heard Legat command with relief strong enough to buckle her knees. It had been a most trying day. And the greatest ordeal remained to be tackled. The guard shoved her inside and shut the door behind her. She heard his boots recede down the stairs, sure in his knowledge that Marietta was due to receive the punishment she deserved and washing his hands of her. She was grateful that the doors in this world were thick and impervious to sound; it seemed eavesdropping was as foreign a concept as beds were.

She turned to a startled Legat. A scarlet stain spread up her neck upon realising she had been led to his private rooms.





Chapter Forty


It was a small room nestled within the curve of the frozen sugar wall, a pale moon-glow blue at this height. To one side resided a thick carpet with large navy cushions mountained atop, a battered notebook and quill beside it. A single garnet chaise perched next to the wall. Steam drifted through an open arch, cut into rock sugar, a small bathing pool visible beyond.

‘Marietta?’ Legat leapt up from his chaise. ‘What are you doing here?’ Still in his trousers and boots, his shirt was open, revealing glimpses of his muscular chest.

‘I’m leaving,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I’m leaving tonight. I ought to have gone by now yet something held me back.’ Why had she not departed already? This was sheer idiocy. Her laugh was too bright, her hopes tinged with madness. ‘I simply could not leave without seeing you one last time.’

The glow of the wall cast a soft illuminance on Legat as he approached her. ‘Then this is goodbye.’

‘I cannot stay here, you have been all too aware of that from the start,’ she whispered as he came to a stop, his hand grazing her arm. ‘Staying here would be the end of me.’

‘I know.’ The golden flecks in his irises burnt brighter as he ran a hand through his hair, dwelling on her. ‘The stars have gifted you with such beautiful eyes,’ he murmured. ‘Blue as the rarest ice, pools I would willingly drown in.’

She bit her lip. His gaze swept down to her mouth and her breath caught. ‘I wish you could accompany me. Leave this palace and its cruelty behind. The thought of you remaining, of not knowing what might happen to you, torments me.’ Her voice cracked. It was unthinkable to realise that once she had departed Everwood, she would thus relinquish all knowledge of Legat.