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Her words spear me inside and I feel pain unlike anything that I have felt before. Regret, guilt, sorrow, even a splash of rage, all mixing together as I absorb the blow of her condemnation. She’s right. It was my plan that brought us here, that put Verrick in the role of bait, and in danger. If he dies . . . I will be to blame.
“I . . .” I say, at a loss for words, “I . . .”
At that moment, the dungeon door swings open, creaking and rasping on its old rusted hinges. I hear footsteps coming down the hallway and then an orc I don’t know comes into my field of vision.
“Friza,” he says, “we found something.”
“What is it?” she asks eagerly. Turning away from me and heading to meet the other orc. Neither of them takes care lowering their voices, obviously not caring if I overhear them.
“Some broken glass under the bed,” the orc says, pulling some shards from a satchel at his belt, showing them to Friza. “The scent is very faint but . . .”
“. . . it smells like sleep potion.” Friza finishes, havingsmelled the glass herself. “It may have been gaseous in form, which explains the faint scent and the broken glass. They threw it into the room, probably while he was sleeping, and the gas knocked him out. But if they carried him from the room, we would still be able to follow his scent . . . unless . . .”
Friza turns to me. “Regent, you told Verrick that the Cabal contacted you from a secret chamber in the castles at High Citadel, correct?”
“Yes,” I answer. “ I never saw what they looked like.”
“If there are secret ways in the castle at the capital that the Cabal used and knew about, then there could be secret ways in this castle as well. Quick, we must search the room and find the passageway where they took Verrick. We’ll tear the room apart brick by brick if we have to!”
They get ready to leave when the orcress turns back to look at me.
“You will stay here,” Friza orders, as if I have any choice other than to obey. “I am not done with you yet. The interrogation will continue when I return.”
“But I can help!”
“You can help by remaining where I know I can find you,” the orcress says coldly. “I’m still not completely convinced of your innocence in this matter. You were the one that brought us to the castle and put Verrick in that room. You could still be working with the enemy.”
With that, she and the other orc leave, the dungeon door slamming shut with a resoundingboom. Then I am alone with my thoughts. My feelings are all jumbled and snarled together that I hardly know what to think. There is my conversation with Korovi, my feelings for Verrick, Friza’s distrust and Verrick’s disappearance.
Is he already dead? Tortured? Though I still do not know what to call my feelings for Verrick, the thought of the world without him . . . it grows a pit of hopelessness and despair in me unlike anything I have ever felt. What if this feeling means that . . . I love him? The way Korovi described love? What ifVerrick is dead and not only did I not get to tell him, but he died thinking that I rejected him, that I didn’t want him? Maybe even thinking like Friza, that I was the one that betrayed him? That thought is unbearable and I actually gasp in pain, my heart constricting.
So distracted am I by my thoughts that I almost don’t hear a soft rumbling sound. I turn and look as far as I can beyond the bars, down the hallway and see part of the wall has opened up and out steps the mage, Hoggins.
“Hoggins?” I ask, bewildered. What is he doing stepping out of a secret passageway? So soon after Friza hypothesized their very existence? “What are you doing here?”
“I am sent to fetch you,” he says simply, walking briskly toward my cell. He puts out his hand toward the lock. There’s a stirring of the air, and then a popping sound as he sends a sharp burst of air into the mechanism, destroying the inner workings. The door swings open.
“Quickly, my lady. We must go before the orcs come back. The Cabal is waiting.”
The Cabal? “Then you are . . .”
“Sting, yes. That is my name among my brothers and sisters. But we don’t have time for this. Quick, to the passage.”
I hesitate only for a brief second before following him. Wherever he is taking me, it will be closer to Verrick. Perhaps I will be able to free him or send a signal to Friza to rescue us. All things I can only do by heading deeper into the belly of the beast. So I leave my cell and plunge into the darkness of the secret passageway, the stone door rumbling closed behind me as I step in.
I am in total darkness.
“Take my hand,” whispers Hoggins. “I will lead you where we need to go.”
Reluctantly, I touch his hand. His grip is cool and clammy, a disconcerting combination. Like a corpse. But I keep my hand in his and let him lead through the corridors and up some stairs, all in pitch blackness.
“How did you know where to find me?”
“I am the Listener of the Cabal. I hear whispers everywhere. When I got to town to look for you, all anyone could talk about was that the orcs had taken you. I got back to the castle as quickly as I could and the servants said that they had thrown you to the dungeons. Why did they suspect you in the disappearance of their chief?”
Because you moved early, I think to myself. Aloud, I say, “I had an argument with Verrick last night.”
“I know,” he interrupts. “I heard it all. I cannot blame you for being so disgusted when he said he wanted to make you his mate, though it would have been wiser for our plan if you had played along. Though no harm done—we got him in the end.”
