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“Lady Queill,” the blond guard bowed respectfully. There was still anger in his expression, but he hid it as he looked up. “We were told not to let anyone in.”
“Lady Casja and Lady Xira are not just anyone,” she snarled. Then, she turned to me. “Are you here to see the king?”
I shook my head. “No, we are here to see Lady Orla.”
“I’ll accompany them,” Lady Queill said to the guard without even bothering to look at them. “They are with me.”
“Of course, my lady,” the blond guard said as the two of them bowed and opened the path for us.
Lady Queill led us inside the tower without saying anything else to the guards. And until we climbed the stairs and reached the second floor, she did not speak to us either.
“It is hard to find good guards,” she said, her voice softer now that we were alone. “The realms are at war, and the king’s tower is being guarded by idiots who don’t even know who to trust.”
“That blond guard seemed resentful toward Lady Casja,” Lady Xira noted.
I was surprised that she had realized and even more surprised that she had decided to complain to Lady Queill.
Still, she did not scold Xira for being so bold.
“That is a problem we run across often,” she said, her tone carrying her sadness about the subject. “You should not think it has anything to do with you or your character. It is just... The war. It makes everyone weary.”
Her gaze darted my way for a second as we kept climbing the stairs.
“I do not,” I replied. “Thank you for your help.”
“Of course,” she said. “You and your friends have been extremely helpful. I assume you know where your friends are right now?”
I nodded. A pang of sadness tried to take over my chest, but I ignored it.
“They are very brave,” she said.
“Yes,” I replied. “Yes, they are.”
“Passing through the in-between realms is a perilous endeavor, especially now that there is a war coming,” she said.
“And that is only the beginning,” I said, thinking whether Jasmine and the others could be in Seelie lands by now. That, I thought, sounded a lot more dangerous than the in-between lands.
“It is,” Lady Queill said. “Their courage will go into the history books.”
Xira was silent as we kept climbing the stairs. After a few more steps, we reached a level with a torch-lit hallway that was wider than it needed to be. Lady Queill stopped there. She smiled at me.
“Orla’s room is at the end of the hallway there,” she said. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“Thank you, Lady Queill,” I said, curtsying to show my respect. Xira did the same, and Lady Queill acknowledged it with a smile.
Once Xira and I were alone in the hallway, we started walking toward Orla’s door. Xira knocked when we reached it.
“Come in.”
We did. Orla’s room was oddly decorated. There was no furniture inside, making the room look like an empty storage room rather than a study. Orla was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, legs crossed and hands resting on her knees.
She looked up and smiled when she realized who it was.
“Casja,” she said.
“Lady Orla,” I nodded.
“Your face looks paler than usual,” she said, her lips twitching just a bit. “Is everything all right?”
