AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘We’ll see, Thalia.’
The door clicks shut, and I’m left alone.
I’m finally able to breathe again as I put my face in my hands. What have I got myself into I wonder as I throw on my uniform and re-braid my hair. I have to do what they say. There’s no other option. At least for now. Where can I go that they won’t easily find me? Alcana is large, yes, but it's still a closed warren. They’d be able to smoke me out like a rabbit sooner or later.
I grasp my painful ribs and slip off the bed. Sinking to the floor beside it, I pull out the wooden box and look through it. I pray to no god in particular that I have something that will deaden the pain I’m in. I come across a waxed paper envelope and sigh in relief, stuffing it into my apron pocket as I rise and slip on my shoes.
I’m early, so I take my time as I walk across the main square, pretending to enjoy the morning air and plodding along as if I’m not in pain in case anyone's watching. I get to the kitchen and am glad to find it’s quiet. There are only two of the other female servants there, Breta and Preety. Both are mostly pixie, I think, but sometimes it’s hard to tell when the bloodlines are mixed. Preety, in particular, has a bit of a greenish tinge to her skin that makes me think there’s some orc in her lineage somewhere.
I nod a greeting and make myself some tea before sitting down with them and grabbing a piece of bread to calm my rolling stomach.
I empty the sachet into the steaming earthenware mug and mix it. Breta catches my eye with an inquiring look as to what I’ve put in the cup.
‘Menses,’ I mutter, and she nods with a look of understanding.
Neither of them speaks. I like Preety and Breta. They don’t talk much, and the silence is companionable with them.
The housekeeper bustles in a moment later and her eyes find us. ‘Preety and Lia, you’re to wash the upper floors today. Breta, clean the offices.’
I don’t quite stifle my grimace because being on my hands and knees scrubbing all day isn’t going to do my injuries any favors. The housekeeper’s eyes narrow at my reaction, but she says nothing as she leaves in a flurry of skirts.
Breta leans closer. ‘I can’t think of anything worse than washing floors when I have gut rot,’ she says. ‘I’ll switch with you if you like.’ She glances conspiratorially at the door the housekeeper just went through. ‘You know she’ll never check.’
I nod gratefully. ‘Thank you,’ I say quietly.
* * *
She hasn’t seen me. Not that I’d expect her to. I’m very good at being unseen, perhaps not as good as Dane, but still passable, and my ability is certainly good enough that some troll girl won’t notice me.
She’s mopping a floor now. It’s been hours of this, and I’ve realized something important. The only thing more boring than servant work is watching it being done. I thought being the Head of the Academy Guard was unexciting, but it’s a dangerous quest through the Breach compared to this.
She stops for a moment and leans on the handle of the mop, her breathing heavy. I’ve noticed she’s been doing that more frequently over the past hour or so. She clutches her side, her eyes closing on a grimace, and I wonder if Yeith got a good blow in before she killed him.
I hear footsteps and watch as she straightens and continues mopping slowly until she finishes. She picks up the bucket with her other arm and deposits it in a small closet close to me. She still has no idea I’m here, and I grin, enjoying myself just a little.
She moves towards the Head Scholar’s closed office door, and my heart picks up in excitement. We’ll know everything we need to soon. This cage we’ve been in since we accidentally came here will soon be opened, and we’ll finally be free to leave this fucking rock in the middle of nowhere.
I watch as she hesitates at the door for a moment before she opens it and goes inside.
I wait from my vantage point in the shadows, keeping my eyes on the door she went through as well as my surroundings. So long as I stay away from the light, I’m transparent enough not to be noticed unless someone’s specifically looking, but it wouldn’t do to be caught in my half-invisible state because I didn’t pay attention to the direction the sunlight was slowly moving in.
She’s in there awhile, and it’s fifth chime when she finally emerges. She’s walking slowly, looking a bit green around the gills.
She goes past me, and I wait until she’s disappeared around the corner before I step out of the dark shadows I’ve been waiting in and let myself become corporeal again.
I follow at a discrete distance, pretending I’m doing my normal rounds whenever someone comes past me. I watch as she goes to the edge of the grand hall that houses the library with its vaulted ceilings that are tall enough for a giant to stand upright in. She takes the wooden bridge across to one of the high mezzanines that surround the columns and the next one over to the third.
There’s a student in front of her. An orc. He’s large and heavy-set. I snort as the wooden beams creak audibly under his weight as he makes his way across, wondering if she’ll wait for him to get to the other side rather than risk putting their combined weight on those straining boards.
She does wait, but when she walks across, the wood doesn’t make a sound. There are no creaks or cracks, and I frown. She must be as heavy as he is, but the beams don’t even bow under her feet.
I follow her, going over the bridge myself, and it even makes a noise when I cross it. She crosses the next one and the next, and I see the same thing again. I try to work out what it could mean. She can’t be as heavy as she looks. I try to remember if I ever saw Yeith crossing these bridges because maybe it’s a troll thing, but I never looked that closely at him or his movements, to be honest, so I can’t be sure.
The bell chimes for the evening meal, and there’s a quick exodus by the students that leaves just the maids and other servants amongst the stacks.
As I watch her make her way down the steps to the floor below at the end of the last mezzanine, I rush down the closest staircase that spirals around the outside of the nearest gargantuan stone column to get there first, hurrying across the room to intercept her.
I dart down the hall and around the first corner before she sees me, and I wait for her to come around the bend before I step out.
