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Arie woke with her jaw throbbing. The faint light from the nearby street lantern streamed through the window of her bedroom in between iron bars that had been put up while she was unconscious. She winced as pain shot through her head, but it was nothing compared to the heaviness of her heart.
She had failed.
“I see you are awake,” her grandmother snapped with impatience. “That was a stupid stunt. I don’t know what you two girls have been conspiring behind my back, but you have failed. Once we catch up with Maddi—wherever she disappeared to—she will be dealt with. You are lucky we have enough pigments to conceal that terrible bruise. Though it is no less than what you deserve, I do wish it wouldn’t have happened on the day of your joining. A bruised bride is an embarrassment.”
“So sorry, Grandmother, for being a terrible inconvenience and embarrassment,” Arie said, a mocking smile curling her lips despite the pain shooting through her face.
“Do you have no shame for leading your cousin into such betrayal?”
Arie leaned back against her pillow. “Maddi did as she felt was right. I had little to do with it.”
Her grandmother sneered. “Before you came into this house, that girl was meek and did as she was told. She never would have plotted to run away from her family and disgrace us in such a way.”
Arie fell silent, unwilling to discuss anything further with Lady Vera. She had no way of knowing what could be used against Maddi. It would be better to say nothing at all. It was bad enough that Arie had failed to escape and assist her cousin, she wouldn’t betray her confidence. She could only hope that Maddi fared well on her own.
She moved her hand and felt it jerk against resistance. With a startled yelp, she looked up at her left hand and found a metal cuff binding it. Leading from it was a strong length of chain secured to the bed with just enough line to allow her a short range of movement. She yanked against it, her movement furious, to no avail. The chain was strong. She didn’t have a chance of breaking it.
The brittle laughter of her grandmother assaulted her ears. “I’m afraid you won’t be enjoying the freedom that I so graciously allowed you before. Until it is time to prepare for your joining ceremony, you will be confined to your bed. You won’t get a free run of your room, much less the house, nor will you enjoy any meals as you contemplate the errors of your ways. I will leave you to your thoughts. If you are wise, you will make peace with your situation as I previously advised you. I guarantee that Edwar will not treat such attempts lightly or with as much forgiveness.”
Her grandmother turned to walk away, pausing at the doorway only when Arie shouted at her back.
“Hey, what if I need to pee? Do you want me to just soil the bed?”
“The guard and maid will assist,” her grandmother said, brushing her hand irritably over her skirt as if she were swatting at a fly.
With a snap of fabric, Lady Vera left Arie alone to helplessly vent her anger. She screamed as she attempted to pull on her restraints. She even turned so that her feet could kick at the headboard, hoping that if she kicked it hard enough that the wood would break, and she would be able to slip the chain free. She even beat the cuff on her wrist against the side of the bed.
She didn’t manage to do more than painfully bruise her wrist.
The guard now stationed in her room—instead of outside of her door—watched every attempt, every scream, and the free flow of her frustrated, desperate tears dispassionately. He might as well have been made of stone. After a time, he was replaced with another guard.
Every now and again a maid was allowed entrance, but the entire time she was in the room she was carefully watched. Even if Arie could have garnered the sympathy of the maid there wouldn’t have been anything she could have done for her. The maid was checked thoroughly upon entering and leaving. Not even a crust of bread would have gotten by the guards to slake Arie’s hunger against the orders of their mistress.
As the day drew on, the fight slowly left her, and she found herself staring morosely out the window. She hoped that Maddi had found safety, wherever she was. Despite her cool words to her grandmother, she worried about her cousin. She hoped that Maddi’s optimism wasn’t misplaced.
Chapter
Thirty-Five
Among their triad, Warol was usually the impetuous one, and the one who disobeyed orders. It was not like Kyx to act rashly, and yet he found himself doing just that as he slipped unseen out of the tunnel. The Court of the Thieves Guild had been hospitable and given them shelter over the last several days but as far as he could see, it brought them no closer to finding Arie. He’d hoped that the bit of gossip among the females would have born results by now, but there was nothing.
Lara had bemoaned the fact that no one seemed to know anything. No one except First Elite Edwar, who was keeping his secrets close to his chest. Lara suspected that anyone invited to the ceremony wouldn’t know but perhaps a mere hour before the ceremony by way of a special messenger.
This world confused Kyx. It was overcomplicated, thick with betrayals, secrets, and guile. He yearned for their den and the peace of their solitude far away from human machinations. He felt he was suffocating, unable to even do something as simple as run freely. Ragoru were not like humans who could be content with passing their days in small, confined spaces. The den provided comfort, but Ragoru needed space to breathe and to run. Days passed in the subterranean world of the court felt unnatural to him. Between a sense of what Lara had laughingly called a bad case of claustrophobia and his own impatience to find their mate, Kyx found himself driven for the first time to disobey a direct order from Rager.
It was a moonless night, and the streets seemed even darker than usual for it, despite the lamps that lined the main roads. Kyx could have kept to the dark alleys but knowing that even in the shadows there was a good chance that someone might notice the glow of his eyes, he took to the rooftops, clinging to them with his four hands as he jumped from roof to roof. Despite the reduced vision at the edges of his right eyes that made certain parts of his vision hazy, giving him a vulnerability on that side, he navigated the roofs without error. The Citadel looked so different from higher up; it was like the network of a large hive with all its twists and turns. From there, Kyx could find a sort of fascination for the Citadel that he was unable to appreciate navigating the narrow alleys.
There was a strange beauty to it, none less so than a large building that rose in the center of the city like a massive monolith despite its graceful lines. The low light of the lamps occasionally caught parts of the temple, making colors shine faintly. He wondered what building it was to merit such special construction. It was surrounded by gardens and small artificial ponds in a manner that was serene compared to the rest of the Citadel. He marveled at what it might look like in the full light of the day as he circled around the perimeter until the silhouette of a lone hooded female caught his eye.
His heart picked up with anticipation when he caught her scent, but his excitement was short-lived. The female’s scent was no doubt sweet enough to be close, but it was not his mate. His heart fell, and he almost turned away, but his curiosity got the better of him. What was she doing walking around like that? She circled the building, pausing every few steps to look around as if she were searching for something. He crept closer, indecision warring with curiosity.
As he dropped silently into the nearby bushes, her body stiffened, and she whipped her head around, a wave of fear tainting her scent.
“Hello? Is anyone there? If you are one of those aligned with the Thieves Guild, please—I need your help.”
Keeping to the dark of the shadows, Kyx felt compelled by pity and his unshakeable curiosity to respond. “What aid is it that you seek?”
She stepped back warily from his hiding place. “My, your voice is deeper and a bit raspier than I would have suspected,” she laughed nervously as she made an obvious attempt to control her instinctive fear. Kyx felt a measure of respect for that. “Please, I need to speak with the Master of the Guild. It is a matter of the utmost importance if he still wishes to see the fall of the Order.”
