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CHAPTER 11
Alrick
Ilooked at the note in my hands once more as the rebel noblemen around me muttered in confusion. The crowning ceremony had just ended when I and the other noblemen were handed a note by an altar boy.Wait inside the churchwas all it read. It wasn’t Mina’s handwriting, but she might have asked Wimfred or Dieter for help.
Now, there was nobody but us rebels left at the church, the celebrations outside nothing more than a distant noise dampened by the thick walls of the mighty Dome.
“What if it’s a trap, and she intends to kill us?” Lord Otter asked, wiping his fatty hands on his crimson silk doublet. It almost seemed as if he had just finished eating—again. Mina had called him a pig face on her birthday. Of course, he had no fond memories of her.
“Ja,” some of the other men agreed with him.
As a man who had seen plenty of war, I had considered it myself. Not that Mina would try to kill us, but that it was a trap. But why wait until we are here in the Dome?
“Why would she invite us to her crowning to kill us?” I asked. “She could have simply sided with King Algar and gotten rid of us on our way here.”
“Ja,” the men agreed with me as well.
“Yet it could still be a trap,” Lord Buschnick of the City of Towers argued. He had a strangely long face, which Mina had ridiculed during the ball.
“Yes, it could,” I said. “Yet it would make no sense for her to kill us here. But let’s vote on what to do. Leave or wait and see what happens.”
The men exchanged glances, then nodded.
“I say ja, let’s wait,” Lord Buschnick said.
“I say nein, let’s go,” Lord Otter countered. One by one the men gave their vote until, in the end, it was down to me. All eyes were on me as Buschnick counted the votes once more.
“A tie,” he said, scratching his long face. “You are the last to cast, Alrick.”
Shite.
I looked at each of them. Some of them were braver than others, yet they all had risen to revolt against the horrors our king had unleashed upon us. Many of them hadn’t wanted to come here in the first place, yet they did because I promised them an end to this war. But what if this was indeed a trap?
It was dead silent among us, only the laughter and songs from afar reminding me where I was.
Suddenly, the loud creaks of an old wooden door made me turn. A teenage altar boy quickly made his way over to us, his little mouse steps tapping against the stone floors.
“Follow me,” he said in the high voice of a boy who was not yet a man. I exchanged looks with the noblemen. They were waiting in silence for me to make a decision. Once more, I looked at the boy. He was pimpled and maybe half my weight. I had no doubt that I could overpower him with a single arm. And yet—
“Quick,” the boy urged. “I said follow me.”
I frowned and wrapped my hand around the hilt of my sword. The boy’s ridiculously big eyes followed my movement, then turned.
“There is no time, this way,” he said and walked off again with his quick little steps.
“I say ja, let’s go,” I said, then followed the boy. So did the noblemen—some with disapproving mutters.
He led us down barely lit hallways and stairs and stopped in front of a wide-open door somewhere in the endless tunnel system of the Dome.
“In here,” he said and disappeared into the room.
I turned to look at my fellow men. On the way through the dark tunnels, doubt had crept into my mind.
“Maybe we should go back,” I said.
Out of all the people, it was Lord Otter who rolled his eyes at me. “He is only a boy, what could he possibly do?” he declared, following the boy inside the room. One by one, the others followed. I waited outside a moment longer after the last of them had stepped into the room, then scanned the hallways once more. It was as quiet as a graveyard. Something about this didn’t seem right. But then, when did it ever? My scarred soldier's mind often played tricks on me. How many times had I drawn my sword to the snapping sound of a branch only to find myself in front of a rabbit or deer?
Peeking one last time over my shoulder, I entered the room as well. It was quite dark and sparse. There were only a few shelves with books and some tables and chairs. Overall, it looked like a large storage room in a dungeon with no windows and just a handful of lit candles. There also was another door at the other end of the room, close to where the boy was now.
