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Sir Ector and Dame Halyna had their own residences in the city, but I knew that most of the time, they’d preferred to remain in the private chambers they had been assigned in the barracks. The chambers of the knight captains had a degree of privacy and comfort that the ordinary soldiers and knights did not usually enjoy.
I doubted Fenyx would be sleeping in the barracks, even in a private chamber. No, I suspected my brother had given him rooms in a wing of the main keep.
At least that meant I wouldn't risk running into him tonight.
I moved through the passageways leading out of the dungeon and emerged from a concealed doorway hidden behind a tapestry in a dimly lit corridor. After taking a moment to get my bearings, I moved down the hallway as silently as I could, my soft, leather boots quietly scuffing across the stone floor.
All was still and silent.
I reached the chamber that had been Dame Halyna's the last time I’d visited and said a silent prayer that she hadn't been assigned to a new, grander one.
With a sad glance at the door next to hers which had housed Sir Ector, I pushed on the wooden frame.
It didn't budge. Of course Dame Halyna would lock her door at night. Lancelet had been right, I truly was an idiot.
I cursed silently but wasn't about to retreat.
Instead, making sure the corridor was still completely abandoned, I raised my hand to the lock, focusing my energy and calling upon the force within me. For a moment, my hand shook, then it steadied, and a slender, searing stream of flame emerged from my palm.
Glowing like a bright ribbon, the flame flowed into the keyhole and began to work, slowly but surely.
The lock's iron grew red-hot and pliable under the focused fire, and I felt a surge of gratitude for Draven's precision training back in Myntra, though I knew I hadn’t come anywhere close to true mastery yet. I maintained my focus, the narrow stream of flame unyielding. Sweat beaded on my brow. The only sound was the faint hiss of the metal lock as it melted.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the iron components gave way. I pushed on the wood, and the door creaked open with a soft groan. I stepped inside the dark room, pushing the door closed behind me and leaving only the faded scent of charred metal in my wake.
Or so I hoped.
For a moment, I stood still in the blackness, letting my eyes grow accustomed to the dark.
As they did, I caught a flash of steel across the room.
“I wondered if you’d come, Morgan,” Dame Halyna said. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here.”
Dame Halyna was not lying peacefully in her bed. She was standing across from me with her sword drawn.
She stepped across the room and pulled the hood from the lantern resting on a small, wooden table. I lifted my hand to cover my eyes, blinking in the unexpectedly bright light.
“It should be obvious. I’m here to find out if you’re the traitor in our midst.”
“And if I am, then what?”
I hadn’t prepared for this, but still, the answer came easily. “Then I’ll kill you here and now, before you can spill another secret to my brother.”
Dame Halyna remained unruffled. “That was impressive work with the lock just now. It simply melted away. Some kind of fae power, I suppose?” She shook her head. “Not sure how I’ll explain that in the morning, but I’ll think of something.”
I swallowed. I hadn’t thought of that.
“If I’m alive in the morning, that is.” Dame Halyna smiled at me, then set down her sword on a nearby table. “I’m not the traitor, Morgan.”
“You told Arthur that Sir Ector was one,” I said quietly.
“I did,” she agreed. “Because he and I had decided one of us had to take the fall.”
I lifted my chin. “And he insisted he would go on the run? Am I really supposed to believe that?” Though, in fact, it did seem exactly like something the stubborn old man would do.
Dame Halyna looked at me calmly. “Believe it, because it’s the truth. You’ve known me since you were a child, Morgan.”
“I’ve known Sir Ector that long, too,” I said.
