Chapter 63 It

Chapter 63 It

I rode through the palace gates and headed straight for the stables. The mission was set. We would leave before sunrise. Just a few hours of rest, then the road.

I didn't get the rest.

The moment I swung down from my horse, soldiers stepped out from every shadow. They all formed a circle around me, blocking any way of escape.

I kept my face still. No panic. No confusion I didn't want seen. I just waited.

The circle parted and the Queen stepped through.

I bowed my head slightly. "Your Majesty." My voice was calm. "What have I done?"

Her eyes were cold. Colder than usual. "You know exactly what you've done."

"I don't."

"Princess Lily is missing." She watched my face closely, looking for something. "And you were seen outside the palace that same evening. Outside the city gates. Not a coincidence, surely."

I met her gaze. "I had nothing to do with her disappearance."

"Do you expect me to believe that?"

"I expect you to have proof before you surround me with soldiers."

She laughed sharply. "Proof? So I can expose my only witness? So you can silence him before he speaks?" She shook her head. "I am not that foolish."

I let out a slow breath. The accusation sitting between us was too heavy and false. But she had already decided.

"Why?" I asked. "Why is it always him you protect?"

Her expression flickered.

"Elliott," I said. "I go to battle. I bleed. I bring back victories. You never once asked about my welfare. Not once." My voice stayed flat. "But him? He loses favor, he embarrasses you, he can't even keep his wife from wandering off, and still, you move mountains to shield him."

Her face twisted. She stepped forward and spat on the ground at my feet.

"You are no son of mine," she said. "Seize him."

The guards moved closer.

I could take them. All of them. The numbers meant nothing. I'd fought worse odds and walked away. My hand almost moved to my sword hilt.

But I stopped myself.

Not for her. Not for the Queen. But for the small, foolish part of me that still remembered she was my mother.

I unbuckled my sword belt and let it fall to the dirt.

"Don't touch me," I said to the guards. "I'll go to the dungeons on my own."

They hesitated, looking at the Queen. She gave a small nod.

I turned to walk. Then I stopped.

"One more thing, Your Majesty." I looked back at her. "Stop pretending this is about Lily. You don't care about her safety. You care about Elliott's standing. A missing princess makes him look weak. Makes you look weak. That's what actually frightens you."

Her face went red. Her mouth opened but no words came out.

I didn't wait. I walked toward the dungeons, the soldiers trailing behind me, and left her standing there furious and silent.

I rested my back against the damp wall. The dungeon was cold and the air was thick with the smell of wet stone, old rust, vomit and whatever died here. What little light came from a single torch far down the corridor, barely reaching my cell. Most of it was swallowed by shadows before it got anywhere near me.

I kept my eyes closed.

I could be out by tonight. Black would notice I was gone. He'd find me, pick the lock, have me free before the guards changed shifts. It was no trouble for him. But that would prove her right. That would make me look guilty.

So I waited.

Footsteps echoed from the stairs. Slow, measured. I kept my eyes shut and listened. The footsteps moved down the corridor, past other cells, getting closer. Then they stopped right in front of my gate.

Keys jangled. The lock clicked open.

"The King is asking for you."

I opened my eyes.

\---

When I stepped out of the dungeon, I noticed it was already night. Candles flickered in the windows. Torches lined the walls. I had been down there longer than I thought.

They brought me to the King's library. Not the throne room. Just his private space, where the walls were lined with books and the fire burned low.

The door opened and I heard her voice before I saw her.

"—why don't you ever listen to me?"

I walked in and bowed to the King at his desk. "Your Majesty."

My mother was standing near the fireplace. Her hair was loose, falling past her shoulders instead of pinned up. She was supposed to be in her chambers resting, or preparing for bed. Not here, with her face flushed and her voice strained.

The King looked at me. "I heard the Queen had you locked away."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Why didn't you tell her I sent you on outside business?"

I paused. He hadn't sent me anywhere. I looked at him, trying to read his face. His black eyes held something I had never seen there before. Not warmth, exactly. Something else. Something I didn't have a name for.

This wasn't about the marriage. This wasn't about politics. He was protecting me. Slowly, carefully. But why?

"Her Majesty," I said carefully, "did not give me enough time to explain myself."

My mother's voice cut through the room. "Why are you so bent on saving him?" She was looking at the King, not me. "He is a murderer. The boy who killed his own brother out of rage. And you keep pulling him back from the consequences."

I could sense a sob that would soon break loose from her lips. She always breaks at the mention of my dead brother who died because of his foolishness.

I felt myself shut down. The words hit like they always did, sharp and aimed at the same old wound. I didn't move. Didn't react. Just stood there and let them wash over me.

The King raised his hand. "Go, Atlas."

I looked at him.

"I will deal with your mother," he said. "Leave us."

I bowed once more and walked out. The door closed behind me, but I could still hear her voice through the wood, crying about something I could never undo.

I walked down the empty corridor, away from the raised voices behind the library door. My boots were still caked with dried mud from the ride earlier. I hadn't even changed.

A servant passed me, eyes down, carrying a tray of untouched food. She curtsied quickly and hurried on.

I kept walking.

The castle at night was different. Quieter. Fewer people rushing around with papers and messages. Just the occasional guard, the distant clatter of the kitchens, the soft hiss of wind through narrow windows.

My shoulder ached. Probably from sleeping against that damp wall.

I turned a corner and almost ran into a young maid carrying linens. She gasped, stumbled back, apologized five times in three seconds. I stepped aside and said nothing. She scurried off like I'd burned her.

I found myself near the east wing. Not by choice. I just ended up here.

Her door was closed. No light underneath. No maid sitting outside. Just empty silence. I plucked out her handkerchief from inside of my tunic. It was soft like her, smelt like a flower like her name. Clean like her innocence.

If she finds out everything about me, will she continue to look at me like I needed comfort? Like I was still a human who is capable of making mistakes.

We left before the moon reached its highest point.

I slipped through the small gate at the back of the palace. Raven had spoken to the guards earlier. He had bribed them with coins to look the other way, and they did.

So much for security.

They were already waiting for me, and at my nodding signal, we began riding.

The road stretched out ahead of us, dark and empty. Nobody spoke for a while. Just hooves on dirt, leather creaking, the occasional snort from one of the horses. I kept my eyes forward and let the ride settle into my bones.

Black went ahead. One moment he was there, the next he was just a shape in the dark. Then nothing. That was his way.

We kept a steady pace. Not too fast and the horses needed to last. So did we.

Boar made it about an hour before the silence got to him.

"Hey," he said, keeping his voice low but casual. "Remember that job in Highcliffe?"

Raven sighed. It wasn't a small sigh. It was one of those loud ones meant for everyone to hear. "Here we go."

"What? It's a good story." Boar getting ready to argue.

"It's not a story. It was a disaster."

"Disaster? We got paid, didn't we?"

"Half. We got paid half. After you burned down the kitchen."

"Okay, first of all, it was one small fire."

"The whole building went up, Boar. The whole thing. We had to leave through the roof."

Boar grinned in the dark. I could hear it in his voice. "Yeah, but you gotta admit, the look on that merchant's face was worth something."

Raven muttered something I didn't catch. Boar laughed, quiet enough not to carry far but loud enough to cut through the tension.

I had given them a mission to spy on a merchant, known for hiding the royal's good. More like stealing from the royalty. We don't normally do missions with the idea of getting paid, but I told them they could ask for payment from the merchant, who had believed they were ordinary cooks.
To cut a long story short, Boar decided to leave something cooking, and sneaked out with one of the kitchen maids.... though Black said it was three kitchen maids.

And Raven never forgave him for that. Well, Boar made it his entire sole mission to torment Raven of that certain failure.

The road curved and Black appeared again, coming out of nowhere next to my horse. His eyes caught what little light there was. The blue one was calm and the brown one gave a small nod.

Fresh tracks, meaning we were on the right path.

He was gone again before I could respond.

Boar kept going. "Anyway, my point is, some jobs look simple until you actually show up. Then everything's different. You just deal with it. That's all I'm saying."

"Is there a point to this," Raven said, "or are you just talking to hear yourself?"

"The point is, this job might get messy too. Just saying. So nobody acts surprised when it does."

"We're not surprised. You're the one who'll act surprised and then set something on fire."

Boar laughed again. "Fair."

I let them talk. Boar needed to fill the silence. Raven needed to push back. That was just how they worked.

Meanwhile, my mind drifted somewhere else.

Was she enjoying the cold? Or maybe she will demand they give her a bed since she was of royal status.

There was still something I was trying hard to understand. People flinch when I get close, they look away, cross the hall, keep their eyes down. That's normal. I earned that years ago.

But not her.

That day in the library when I walked up to her and she didn't step back or didn't even tense up. She just looked at me like I was disturbing her peace. She has no problem treating my wound or asking if I was okay

Why was I calm whenever I was around her?

Why am I trying to seek her presence?

Why do I want her to keep asking how I'm feeling?

Nobody asks me that. Nobody cares enough to ask. And I don't care enough to answer. But she asked. And for a second, I didn't know what to do with it.

I still don't.

I shook my head heavily, attempting to focus on the mission on hand. Raven sent a concerned look but I waved it off. he took it as my response and went back arguing with Boar.

The terrain changed after a while. More trees, the road getting narrower. We passed a small village, no movement, dead as a grave. A dog barked somewhere but no lights came on.

Boar reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a piece of dried meat. He chewed on it slowly and offered some to Raven, who waved him off.

"Your loss," Boar mumbled.

We crossed a shallow stream, the horses picking their way carefully over the wet rocks. The water was cold, I could feel it through my boots.

Black appeared again on the other side, waiting. He pointed east.

We turned towards that direction.

Hours passed. The sky started to shift, that deep blue right before dawn. My shoulders ached from riding

Black showed up again, pointing ahead and through the trees, a faint glow.

Boar sat up straighter, the tiredness leaving his face. Raven went quiet. Even the horses seemed to sense the shift, ears flicking forward.

We dismounted and moved closer on foot, staying in the shadows of the trees. The ground was soft, muffling our steps.

The manor came into view.

Smaller than I expected. Two floors, stone walls, a few outbuildings scattered around. Quiet. Peaceful even. The kind of place a noblewoman might go to escape the palace for a while.

Except for the guards. There were more than Boar's informant said

I counted six at the front gate alone. Two more walking the east wall. Figures moving behind the windows on the ground floor. Probably more inside.

We crouched behind a low stone wall at the edge of the property. Boar let out a low breath.

"Well," he whispered. "That's not what I was told."

"No," I said. "It's not."

Raven was already counting, scanning, figuring it out. "They're expecting something. Or someone."

"They weren't expecting us," Boar said. "Not specifically. This is just... how they run things."

It didn't matter either way. The numbers changed, but the mission didn't.

A guard walked past our position, close enough that I could see the worn leather of his boots. He didn't look our way.

I turned to Black. His blue eyes met mine. Steady. Waiting.

"We adapt," I said. "Same as always."

Boar nodded once. Raven pulled his hood up. Black slipped away into the dark, circling around to find a weak point.

I stayed where I was, watching the manor, watching the lights in the windows.

Somewhere in there, a woman who smiled at me like I wasn't a monster was sitting in the dark. Probably scared. Probably wondering if anyone was coming.

I looked down at my hands. The same hands that had done things I couldn't undo.

Then I looked back at the manor.

And I moved forward.

I stood there for a moment. Then I turned and walked the other way.