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When we reached the entrance, we quickly hurried into a supply shack. I thought I might recognize the staff member who helped us, but I couldn’t have told them apart from any other servant in my memory, which again made me wonder how many agreed with me and wanted my father out but never had the opportunity or power to do anything about it.
“Here, change into these,” she said hurriedly, handing us the uniforms from a cache built into the floorboards. She looked like any other middle-aged shifter, her age only barely setting in because of the way our bodies worked. “We’ll need to split up. It was hard enough getting more than a dozen different uniforms. It’d be impossible to roam around in such a large group without being spotted.”
“We’ll split this between us,” Aodin said with a polite nod. “I’ll take the servants’ passageways on the upper floors, and you take the lower?”
“Aye, I’m a familiar sight around the kitchen. It isn’t entirely unusual to see me briefing folks about updates to our storage setup in the larder.”
I felt obligated to thank the woman as she was definitely risking her safety, and her position, to help us. It was brave, no matter how one shook it, and I wanted her to know that fact wasn’t lost on me.
“Ma’am,” I started, taking a step toward her, but she just shoved a set of clothing into my arms.
“With all due respect, Your Highness, save it for when you win.”
Well, not the greeting I’d expected, but I could roll with that. Taking the disguise, I hurriedly changed with the rest of our group.
“Darla, you’re running perception around us, right?” I checked in once I was fully dressed as a typical palace cleaner.
“I’ll do my best,” my former sergeant said, her normally full lips pressed into a thin line. “But I can tell you that I’m already feeling interference.”
“Inhibitor bracelets, you think?” Oren suggested, and my heart fell at that. I supposed we shouldn’t have been surprised considering all that’d happened since we departed, but it had been nice having our own personal spy who could actually invade people’s heads.
“Maybe, but it seems more like I’ve been added to all the warding for psychics within the palace. Whomp-whomp.”
“Well, do your best.”
“Of course, sir. I always do.”
Yvonne stepped forward, barely recognizable with her own magic shielding her instead of Aodin’s. Somehow, she looked shorter, her hair a dull gray, and her eyes something like dishwater. Her skin was sagged and wrinkled, like she was well into her elder years, and she wore a uniform that seemingly belonged to the palace seamstresses and tailors. It was shocking, and if I didn't already know who it was, I definitely wouldn't have been able to recognize her.
“Your Majesty,” she said, tilting her head. She was still so needlessly formal considering I was a criminal and a runaway fugitive, but I didn't correct her. “I assume you’re going to lead one team. I would like to offer myself as the lead for the second team.”
“Of course,” I agreed, incredibly grateful for her. Although Ayla and I had done things I never thought were physically possible at the battle of Blath, we would still need every ounce of power we could get for what we're about to do. Even when Ayla fought him with all she had, the Shriek had managed to get away. If he truly was inside my father, we couldn't allow that to happen again. “You, the avian shifters, Seraphina, and Halle should take the lower path.”
“What?” Seraphina objected, and for a moment, I felt a flash of guilt at the betrayal in her eyes. We hadn't gotten to spend as much time together as I’d have liked, but I couldn't let that influence me now. “I don’t want to be separated again.”
“I know, I know,” I said soothingly, pulling her into a quick hug. It wasted what little time we had, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity in case it was the last one we had. “But it’s best there’s only one royal in each of our groups, so that if one of us is apprehended, there will still be a figurehead to continue.”
Seraphina looked as if she wanted to argue, but the practical side of my sister's brain won out. “All right,” she said begrudgingly. “But you’re really going to have to make this up to me once everything is settled.”
“Nothing would make me happier,” I said, giving her one last squeeze before we all straightened up.
With most of my soldiers in one group, and with Yvonne leading the others, we hastily made our way out of the shed we were all crammed in and headed into the palace proper.
As soon as we were inside the doors, we diverged. While I wasn't overly familiar with the servants’ halls that navigated the entire palace, the woman helping us clearly was, and surprisingly, so was Aodin. It definitely caught me off guard that a foreign diplomat knew more about the inner workings of the palace than I did, but I suppose I had been missing for half a decade while he had been building his entire career in my former home.
It just blatantly showed how disconnected we, as in the court, were from the reality of how the palace actually worked. We built our lives and our luxury on the backs of those less fortunate than us while also being blithely unaware of how much blood, sweat, tears, and effort went into maintaining our lifestyles.
At least most of us were unaware. I wasn't naive enough to think there weren't some horrific individuals keenly aware of the power imbalances between the wealthy and the staff who used that inequality to their advantage. My uncle most certainly came to mind.
Ugh, my uncle. That was a man I’d be happy to punch right in the face or even throw off a balcony. I could still see his smug expression when he caught Ayla and me in our tender moment, and the way his thin lips pulled back from his weasel like teeth. He wasn't a wolf at all. He was a rodent.
No offense to any rodent shifters, of course.
Who knew? I might get a chance to deal with him. It felt strange heading into such an insanely important confrontation with no idea of how it would go. But both Ayla and Yvonne seemed convinced that time was of the absolute essence, and the iron needed to be struck while hot. We needed to rush while the Shriek was still recovering to take advantage of all the damage my mate had done to him earlier.
Although we moved together, we made sure we weren't too tightly clustered. That would be far too noticeable at a glance. Instead, Aodin walked ahead of us as he furiously scribbled in a notebook, looking as if he were absorbed completely in his task as he strode along.
Oren and I walked side by side, and I grabbed a cleaning bucket I saw tucked into a doorway, no doubt left by actual cleaning staff on their way to the restroom. I hoped I wouldn't get them in too much trouble when they returned to find their equipment missing, but I figured it was quite strange for two custodians to be walking around without anything to actually complete any tasks with. Oren followed my lead, grabbing a credenza runner as we passed by, then ripping off a good quarter of it before tucking it into his belt as a cleaning rag.
