The Destroyer Book 2 (63 page)

My legs moved again. I coughed and my insides felt like they were filled with sharp glass and rock salt. For some reason I always thought I would die old, in a plush bed, surrounded by children and grandchildren. I would tell them stories of my younger days, the adventures I had, the loves I enjoyed, and the experiences I treasured. Of course that was a ridiculous dream. I couldn't have children and I should have known that I would die alone.

Move Nadea.

This was the corner where Greykin had thrown himself on the half dozen Losher warriors. Or maybe there were thirty. Fuck I couldn't remember anymore. I stopped and wiped the blood from my eyes again. Some poured out my nose, making it hard to breathe while I walked. If my brain had hemorrhaged, I probably would have been dead by now. Unless the part of me that wasn't human was keeping me alive. I had always been tough and strong. Or at least, I pretended to be.

I'm so proud of you Nadea.

My father's voice echoed in my mind. I was a child and had just read my first book on the historical treaties of Nia. We sat in his study and discussed them at length, well into the night, until he finally told me it was my bed time. He had said that before he tucked the thick blankets over my head.

Then darkness.

I gasped and realized I was lying face down on the plush rug of the corridor. I must have fainted, luckily my skull had missed the hard stone on the floor, or I might have damaged myself.

Ha.

My body screamed all over when I pushed myself to my feet. I couldn't get upright and I ended up stumbling into the wall. Then I took a few seconds to steady myself before continuing onward. I was so close. I couldn't stop now. The room was only a few turns away. My father needed me to be strong. I had to avenge his brother. Nanos needed to pay.

I kept a hand on the stone to keep myself from tumbling again. I felt like the castle spun around me and I begged it to stop moving. The alarm sounded again. It was so fucking loud. I screamed and covered my ears. The movement almost caused me to fall to the ground, but I pushed up with my legs and slammed my shoulder into the wall, forcing myself to stay upright.

The vertigo passed and I moaned in relief. I moved again, hugging the wall this time with both of my arms. I tried not to think of what I would do when I actually got into the room. There would be guards, Nanos would immediately recognize me, and I'd only have one chance to sink the knife into the fucking bastard's throat before they killed me.

I remembered growing up with him, Runir, and Jessmei. He'd been a little asshole then and I should have known he would grow up to be a traitor. I thought back to the conversations he participated in, all the planning we did while he was present, even the talks with Kaiyer where he weaseled into the room. He had been feeding information to the Ancients the whole time. I should have known.

Could I have known?

I stumbled around the last corner and reached the place where Nanos had killed his father and Paug. I saw the door to the Safe Room across the thirty feet of empty tile. It was closed, but I knew the combination that would open the complicated locks on the massive steel slab. I held my breath and rushed over the floor, willing my body to stay upright without the aid of the wall. I felt like a stalk of wheat in the wind. My torso seemed to twist out of my control, my legs went one way, my head bobbed the other direction, and my arms spun like I was doing a drunken dance. Then I pressed against the cold steel.

I almost cried with joy.

Only the royal family and their closest guards knew the combination to the triple locks on the door. Keys could be lost, keys could be stolen, but memorized combinations could only be forgotten.

It was unfortunate for Nanos that I still remembered them.

The first lock spun open with a click. Then I twisted the second. This one was letters instead of numbers. After a few painful seconds it too opened.

I reached down to the third lock and suddenly coughed. Sticky lung blood flew out of my mouth and coated the dial. I wiped it off the disks and fought against my vision blurring again.

Fuck. Come on Nadea. You can do this. Please.

I tried to encourage myself but it was no use. I could not see the dial anymore and I didn’t remember the combination. My fingertips were numb and my arms felt as if they weighed more than my entire body. I had failed. I'm sorry Paug.

I'm sorry Father.

My eyes drifted closed. The cool steel of the door felt wonderful against my face. I could just lie against it and rest for a bit. I was so tired. Someone else would take care of Nanos. Someone else would kill him.

"Open the door human!" I opened my eyes. The woman from my dreams stood before me. Her hair seemed to glow bright red, like the blood that fell from my face and splattered against the stone floor. I nodded at her and smiled. I wouldn't have to worry about her anymore. She couldn’t haunt me after I was dead.

"He is inside. Hurry." She glared at me and then glanced back down the hall. "You must get through this door."

"I forgot the combination. I can't see." My words came out syrupy and slow.

"You see me. Hurry Nadea. Don't you want to kill him?" I think it was the first time the woman had used my name. I grunted and reached my fingers out to the dial, missed it, and almost fell.

"Fuck!" the Ancient and I said at the same time.

"Tell me the combination. Quickly." I suddenly felt pain in my hand. Hers wrapped around mine and held it up to the lock. The pain burned like I held an ice cube and it helped focus my mind on telling her the combination

"Four, Seven, Twenty." Her fingers moved mine clumsily against the dial in the right direction. "Back to eight," I said at last.

She released me and I looked to her face. Her mouth was twisted and I wondered if our touch had hurt her as well.

"Open it!" she commanded. Her voice sounded distant. I was dreaming. Soon I would sleep forever.

But not before I killed Nanos.

My frozen hand closed around the handle of the door. I didn't feel the steel anymore, but my shoulder strained with the effort of pulling the massive portal away from the wall. It moved a few feet and I knew I had just enough space to fit through it.

"Don't close it behind you," her voice whispered in my ear as I stumbled past her. I nodded and grabbed the inside handle as I walked into the darkness of the corridor beyond the door. My body leaned forward accidentally and the steel slipped out of my grip. I gasped and wiggled my bloody hands at the shifting weight of the door to keep it from closing.

But I was too slow and weak.

I knew there was no turning back, but the finality of the clicking locks reinforced this fact. My breath caught and my vision swam again.

"Damn it girl," the woman's voice whispered in my ear. I turned to face her, but she had already vanished into the dark hallway.

The Royal Safe Room wasn't just a room but a series of suites with full plumbing, stored food, water, and air ventilation. It would hold twenty people for at least a month in comfort, longer if supplies were rationed or if there were fewer mouths to feed. The door led to a long hallway speckled with four-foot-high stone pillars. They were perfect spots for crossbow guards and the corridor was a gauntlet of pain that would provide any attackers with horrible losses. Lit torches hung on the sides of the entrance by the door but the rest of the tunnel was unlit, so I couldn't see how many guards held the passageway.

"What are you doing here girl?" a voice demanded from much farther down the dark corridor than I expected.

"I am here to see the king. I have news of the battle." I almost said prince but I stopped myself. My legs stumbled forward and I felt my head start to spin again. I should be dead by now.

"How did you get in here?" he demanded.

"I'm injured." I tried to make my voice sound weak and pathetic. I probably didn't have to try too hard. "I have to tell the king about our attackers."

"She needs help!" a woman shouted, and I heard boots sprint in my direction. Within a few seconds a female guard wrapped her arms around me and helped me walk down the corridor. I could smell the fresh oil on her chain mail. The scent brought the memory of my fourteenth birthday. My father had given me a long sword; it was a beautifully crafted blade. I hugged him, danced with him, and kissed him a hundred times between playful swings with the ornate weapon. He had seemed overjoyed by my reaction, but I knew he had hoped I would prefer the loom I had also received.

"Who hurt you?" another guard demanded when we reached the turn that would lead to the main suite. He was older and wore a graying mustache.

"We are under attack. I must tell the king!" I tried not to smile through my words. This would be easier than I thought. I hissed in pain when the woman adjusted her grip around my torso and lifted me up more. It was far too early to smile.

The two guards exchanged quick looks before the man spoke again.

"Very well. Bring her this way." I was lucky. They hadn't recognized me. Then again, I wore servant’s attire and my face leaked blood as a thatched roof leaked rain.

"My lord. A servant has news of the attack," the mustached guard said when the three of us entered the lighted area of the main room. It was decorated with extravagant tapestries of landscapes, deep brown wood book cases stacked with popular tomes, and thick purple rugs. A dozen guards sat around the perimeter of the suite. Some played a card game while other watched over the gamers' shoulders. They all stopped what they were doing and gave me their full attention.

Nanos sat back comfortably on one of the luxurious looking leather couches. His eyes were closed and a pretty dark-haired girl stroked his scalp. The woman wasn't wearing much of anything, but he wore brown suede pants and a dark green tunic with the emblem of Nia on his left chest, over his heart.

That was where I would plunge the knife.

Nanos's face scrunched up in annoyance and he slowly sat upright on the leather sofa with an exasperated sigh. The girl moved her hands down to his shoulders and looked concerned for his well-being. She'd shortly be much more concerned with his health. Or so I hoped.

I lowered my head in a bow and the movement let my hair dangle in front of my face. Would he realize it was me? I moved my hand in my sleeve and felt the wood handle of the knife. The feel of the weapon gave me comfort and clarity. The pain faded from my stomach, chest, and head.

Nanos will die. I will kill him.

"The Ancients should be defending the castle." Nanos seemed bored with this situation.

"My lord." I tried to disguise my voice by raising it a few pitches. "The East Wing has been destroyed."

"By whom?" Nanos sat up and the girl rubbed his shoulders urgently, he moved his arm back and pushed her away with a grunt of displeasure. She looked shocked and humiliated for a brief second before resuming her look of concern.

My vision clouded and I felt my legs lose their strength. I tried to take a step toward him, but my injured leg collapsed underneath me and I cried out. The guards on either side of me caught my arms and prevented me from stumbling. But the movement of their support jarred me, and my hand twitched around the handle of the weapon I held concealed in the long sleeve of the shirt. My small steak knife squirmed free of my grasp and bounced, first hitting the thick rug, then cartwheeling off of the fabric and onto the smooth stonework of the tiled floor.

Everyone in the room froze and watched the blade dance across the floor like they were watching Tanya Gettil perform her best sonnet. The clatter of the weapon stopped with a high-pitched whine and I tried not to moan in disappointment.

"Why did she have a knife?" Nanos sneered at his guards. He glared at me in disgust and the world came crashing down on my shoulders. I was so close.

I was so close.

"Sorry my lord. I didn't think to check her for weapons. She is just a servant," the woman holding my arm said with obvious fear.

"Yeah, that's your fucking problem. You aren't pretty enough to be a fuck toy, but you're too stupid to do anything else." His mouth twisted in an arrogant smile as he berated the woman, but then he looked down at me.

"Why did you have a knife, girl?" Nanos bent over a bit at the waist to look at me. The pain was building in my stomach again. It came on like a wildfire and consumed my insides. I tried to say something, but it gurgled out of my mouth with half a cup of blood. My vision turned dark for a second.

Fuck.

"How did she get in here?" Nanos walked over to the knife and picked it up from the tile. He studied the blade and looked extremely puzzled.

"She came through the main door," the woman guard said.

"Obviously, you fucking idiot. How did she unlock it?" He stared down at me and I met his eyes through the long dark strands of my hair.

His blue eyes grew wide with shock. He stepped toward me and grabbed the top of my hair, yanking it back to pull my face up.

"Nadea!" he shouted in surprise. His mouth hung open and he turned my hair over in his grip. My neck didn't seem to have any strength in it and my skull rolled around in his hand.

"How the hell did you get here?" he suddenly laughed. "I can't believe my luck. She was right. Everything that I wanted is coming to me. You managed to escape the castle and I thought I was in deep shit. But then your fucking hero showed up and I am in good graces again." He shook his head and smiled at me before he let me go. My head fell down to my chest again and the world spun for ten seconds.

"Were you going to kill me with this, Cousin?" he held up the blade. "Kings can't be killed by common toys. Or didn't your fucking father ever teach you of such things?" He laughed again and paced in front of me.

"Hold her up," he told his guards, and they pulled me to my feet so that I stood up straight. A rough hand pulled my hair back so that my face was level with my asshole cousin’s. He walked in a tight circle in front of me and his look of glee was unmistakable. He took the flat side of the knife and tapped it against his chin while he thought about what he would do.