Eona - Alison Goodman [101]
I tried to force my mind beyond the stinking presence of death and the pain humming through my head. We had to get to the Pavilion of Autumnal Justice; the cells were part of its compound. I closed my eyes and pictured the layout of the palace again. The fastest route was across the forecourt of the royal apartments, but it was also well lit and well guarded. My inner map showed another possibility. The servants’ path ran the whole way around the palace wall—a hidden track for the low and menial to navigate without being seen. And it was never guarded.
“The servants’ path will be safest,” I said. “We can get to it up past the royal apartments. Or we could go around the front of the West Temple and beside the kitchens.”
“Both have soldiers posted,” Dela said.
“Apartments,” the young eunuch whispered.
Vida jerked the knife closer to his throat. “Shut up.”
Dela walked over to him. “Why do you say that?”
He lifted his chin. “Blossom Women are brought to the royal apartments all the time. They never go to the kitchens.”
“Why do you offer this?”
“I am already dead,” he said, eyeing the knife. “If you do not kill me, His Majesty will, and not as quickly.” The round curves of his face sharpened. “If I must die, I will at least deny him two more victims of his sick pleasure.”
“He is right,” Dela said. “The royal apartments are closer, and we will have a better chance of deceiving the guards.”
“Take me with you,” the eunuch said quickly. “It will look more authentic.”
Vida leaned in. “You will just call for help.”
“No, no—please! Take me with you. I cannot stay here anymore.”
Dela stared intently at him. “All right, we’ll take you,” she said, stopping Vida’s protest with a raised hand. “But you have said it yourself—Sethon will kill you as surely as I take my next breath. We are your best chance of survival, so do as we say.”
“And I will have this knife at your back the whole time,” Vida added.
I remembered the sympathy in the young man’s face as he led me toward his royal master, and felt a leap of grim intuition. Sethon did not limit himself to Blossom Women. “You will not give us up,” I said to the eunuch. “Will you.”
He met the knowledge in my eyes. “No.”
Vida snorted with disbelief. I levered myself upright and leaned against the wall. “Where are Ryko and Yuso?”
Dela looked up from removing the dead guard’s helmet, her eyes bleak. “I saw two soldiers join their dice game.” She bent to untie the man’s leather vest armor. “If they can get rid of them, they know where to meet us.”
The god of luck was playing his own games. Mustering my strength, I pushed myself off the wall. The world pitched and spun, then settled again into gray shadows. At least the haze had not returned. I cradled my arm against my ribcage, my fingers still clamped over the wet, pulsing wound.
With a soft grunt, Dela pulled the vest over the dead man’s head. His body flopped back against the wall, a sickening reminder of Yuso pulling his sword from Lieutenant Haddo’s chest. I shivered, but it was not all from horror. I felt hot and cold at the same time.
Dela slid the vest over her head and knotted the side ties. Although she hated dressing as a man, she made a convincing soldier. Her movements were always quicker and bolder in men’s garb. All the womanly control and grace—gone.
She looked up at the walls on either side of us, topped with slanting tiles. “Too high to throw the bodies over,” she said, tucking her greased hair under the helmet. “We’ll have to leave them, but they’ll be found soon.” She picked up the sword. “Ready?”
I nodded and stepped beside Vida, the simple action bringing a wave of nausea. Although a deep breath steadied me, fresh blood oozed through the field bandage and my fingers. I shifted my good arm over the wound; the wide silk sleeve would hide most of the blood from view. Hopefully, I would not drip a trail behind us.
Vida held