Destiny. Grace Goodwin
could get.
When I had circled the room, I asked her to stand. Looking annoyed, she did and I walked around her desk at a snail’s pace.
There. A buzzing so slight the bee making it would have been the size of a grain of sand. But I could hear it. Freaking amazing. I could hear everything. And the more I used it, the better I got at controlling what came into my head and what didn’t.
Sliding my fingernail beneath what looked like a natural whorl in the wood-like surface, I lifted a flake from the bottom edge of her desktop, midway between her chair and the desk’s corner. I began to peel the glue flake from the back of the small transmitter, but her wrinkled hand wrapped around my fingers and I looked up to see her shaking her head.
“Too small.”
I held it out to her with my finger over my lips.
She nodded and then pointed to a place on her desk and I set it down there, gently, in case anyone was listening. Speaking in a normal voice, I stepped away and sat back down in the chair opposite her desk. “I was just curious about the tunnels, Elder. I am new here. I am sorry. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
“And yet, you witnessed the murder of Cleric Crayden.”
I shook my head. “Oh, no. I didn’t. I didn’t see anything. Just found the body. That’s all. You can ask the guard who brought me here. It was all a big misunderstanding.”
“You are coated in his blood.”
“I had to check. You know. Just in case I could help him.” I stared down at the caked blood on my clothes and hands. I wasn’t acting now. The shiver that raced through my body was very real. As was the sadness I felt in my eyes.
“Check what?”
“For a pulse. I touched him. I’m sorry. That’s where all the blood came from.”
“I see.” She swiveled in her chair and stood, motioning for me to follow her to the door. “I will confirm your story with the guard. You are free to go, for now.”
“Thank you. I’m so sorry. Thank you.”
She opened the door to her office. Loudly. “Don’t leave the fortress. I may have more questions for you later.”
“Of course not. I have nowhere to go.”
That caused her to raise a brow, but she waved me into the hallway and I went. To my surprise, she followed, and made a production of slamming her door closed. “Are there more transmitters out here?” she asked in a quiet voice.
I closed my eyes. Listened. Nothing. No guards. No buzzing. Nothing. “I don’t hear any.”
“Good.” She crossed her arms and looked me over like she’d never seen me before. Too damn smart. Reminded me of Trinity. “So, you’re the third princess.”
I gasped. How the hell did she know that? “I’m no one. Just an initiate.”
The old woman actually rolled her eyes. “Right. You’ve been here less than two weeks, appearing in my fortress the day after three mysterious females disappeared inside the citadel. There are no records of you from your previous years of life. No birth records. Nothing. And you can hear the microscopic buzzing of a comm transmitter, which means you and your sisters already received your gifts from the citadel.”
“What?” No one knew about the gifts. No one outside the royal bloodline. That was what Mom had always told us. It was too dangerous for outsiders to know. Then how?
“Don’t worry. I am loyal to your mother, Queen Celene. I have been protecting her throne for nearly thirty years, waiting for this day.”
“How did you know she wasn’t dead?” I asked, then groaned. Stupid question. I already knew the answer. So did all of Alera.
“The spire, of course. It never dimmed.”
“Right. Sorry. I forgot.” I lifted my hand to rub my face, saw the blood and dropped it. I took a deep breath. Allies. We needed allies. “All right. Look, I know you are loyal. And I know you sent Crayden to find out about the mysterious prisoner in Cell Level C in the Optimus Unit.”
It was her turn to frown. Ha!
“How could you possibly know that? Unless you are the one who placed the comm transmitter in my office.”
“No. I was… well”—I blushed. I couldn’t stop it this time—“I broke into your office last night to look for clues. Heard the two of you talking.”
“That’s impossible.”
I shrugged. “Not really. You’ve got a really strong vine outside that window. I highly recommend you cut it.”
She studied me closely, her lips pursing. “I see. What else did you hear?”
“Enough to know you aren’t my enemy. Or an enemy of my family.”
“So, you truly are the third princess?”
I nodded. “Yes. My name is Destiny. Faith is my twin sister and Trinity is older than both of us, and the only full-blooded Aleran.” I held out my hand, Earth style, and she smiled kindly as she took it, dried blood and all. Squeezing, not shaking up and down, but it wasn’t unpleasant.
“An honor and a pleasure, Your Highness. Now, tell me why you are hiding here, and how I can help you.”
“I’m not sure yet. I’m very sorry about Crayden. I think the first thing we need to do is find out who put that bug in your office.”
“Agreed. I will give it to my people.”
That worked for me. It wasn’t something I could tackle, and since she didn’t seem too surprised her office had been bugged, had evidently been through this before.
“And I will keep your identity a secret. It is the only way you will remain safe within the fortress.”
“Thank you. I’m going to contact Trinity and catch her up to speed on things. Then, once we know who set that bug, we can make a plan. Someone kidnapped our mother, and we’ve tracked the traitors to the clerics, and the Optimus Unit. I believe the mystery prisoner you mentioned is the queen.”
She stared at me wide-eyed. It was one thing to have the queen missing for twenty-seven years, another that she was in one specific place and could be saved. “Do you have proof?”
“No. Just gut instinct.”
She smiled at me. “My gut agrees.” She chuckled, as if this was incredible fun, an adventure, not life and death.
“This is serious.”
“Of course it is. Life is always serious for people with power and responsibilities. But that does not mean you can’t take moments and make them more, even after what happened with Crayden. Life is too short to pass by an opportunity to laugh. You are young, but you will learn. Steal laughter. Steal joy. Steal love. If you don’t, you’ll never have it.”
How did this go from a cool spy mission to a lecture? Sheesh. I didn’t need more of that. Between Nix and Trinity, I’d heard enough for a while.
“I’ll contact my sister. With your permission, I would like you to meet me back here in the morning.”
She nodded, even patted my arm. “Go. Get cleaned up. I will discover what I can while you rest and recover.”
“Thank you.” I didn’t mean to run, but I was suddenly in a hurry to get back to my room. The blood was gross. The memory was disturbing. And now that I had the most powerful female in the clerical order on our side, I felt just safe enough to let my guard down and drown in the shower for a solid hour and wash off the smell of death clinging to me.
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