Chapter 14: Chapter 14
It was time. Six more months of training with a shield had given Nya the confidence she needed to finally put her plan into action. Even though Rok shook his head and told her she was going to get herself killed, she couldn’t wait any longer. Not only did every month that passed result in another death, from one kingdom or another, it brought her closer to becoming the ruler of her own kingdom. Once that happened, she’d be under such close scrutiny, there was no way she’d be able to sneak out of the castle and escape the sight of the guards in order to get to one of the neighboring kingdoms where she could hide in wait for that bastard dragon.
Nya was dressed like a man, like a soldier, with her hair piled atop her head, hidden by one of the helmets members of the infantry wore. She’d be in need of a horse, though, so her costume didn’t quite add up. She hoped by the time she reached the stables, she’d be home free enough that no one would stop her and question why an infantry soldier had a horse.
It wouldn’t be her own horse she’d take, though. She’d had her eye on a few of the steeds the cavalry officers rode and picked out a large black stallion called Warrior. Technically, he belonged to the crowd, though it was one of the higher-up officers who usually rode him, a commanding officer named Thorn. He wouldn’t be anywhere near the stables at the time of night Nya was planning on executing her plan, so she wasn’t afraid of encountering him. She had been watching operations out there at night for a while now and knew it would only be a handful of stable boys around in the middle of the night, no soldiers of any kind. She should be fine.
It was the getting out of the castle that would be most difficult. Her room was high up on the sixth floor so there was absolutely no way she could scale the side of the building. She’d have to use the stairs. Recently, her father had taken to patrols of guards throughout the hallways, just to make sure no one was up to anything. She was fairly certain that meant her. In the back of his mind, he had to think she was planning something since he knew about her training. He hadn’t gone so far as to post guards directly outside of her chamber doors, not yet. Which was all the more reason why now was as good a time as any to carry out her plan.
She planned to go alone. Rok had advised her a million times not to, to at the very least, take a detail. But Nya knew that it wouldn’t matter how many other soldiers she had with her. They would only be a distraction to the dragon, and only for a bit. After that, he’d make short work of the others and leave her in a position where she was the only one who could defeat him anyway. So she may as well do this alone.
With her sword in its scabbard, and the shield she’d been wielding strapped to her back, Nya carefully opened the door that led to the hallway. She’d already oiled it a few days ago so that it opened without a sound. Checking both sides of the hallway, she saw nothing in the flickering torch light, nor did she hear the echoes of bootsteps from any of the adjoining hallways. Satisfied she was in the clear for now, Nya stepped out into the hallway and gently closed the door behind her.
Taking a deep breath, she moved on, not allowing herself to pause for more than a few seconds to consider exactly what she was doing. If she didn’t take the operation one step at a time, one movement at a time, the enormity of her actions might bear down on her, and she might turn back.
In her mind’s eye, she visualized the hallway ahead of her. She could see herself stepping into it, being caught by a pair of guards. So she waited, listening. After a few moments, she heard the sound of two sets of boots falling along the stone walkway. Nya held back in the shadows. Once they’d crossed her path, heading away from her, she listened for them to fade in the distance and then considered going out again. In her mind, she saw herself making it to the next hallway, the one nearest the flight of stairs that would carry her down to the ground floor. With confidence, she moved on.
Nya couldn’t say exactly when these visions had started filling her mind, but it had been about the time that Gavin had been sacrificed. She’d had a sickening feeling that it would be his name called, and from that point on, when she concentrated, she got fuzzy visions of the future. Sometimes, they were clearer than other times. But the more she concentrated, the more she exercised the muscle in her mind, the more accurate they became. The only problem was, they were usually just the immediate future; she had no way of knowing for sure if the thoughts of herself victoriously raising the dragon’s head were true--or the others, where a plume of smoke and fire swallowed her up, and that was the last thing she saw.
It would do her no good to think on that at the moment as she headed for the hallway that led to the stairs. It was clear. She could feel it. While there were guards in the stairwell, further down, she would be able to make it all the way to the second floor if she went now. Then, when she reached that destination, she could wait for them to exit before she continued.
Again, Nya was careful when she opened the door to the stairs, letting it open quietly, letting it shut without a sound behind her. She patted her feet down softly on each step, careful to tread lightly. As she approached the second floor, she heard a door opening and clung to the shadows, waiting for the soldiers to go ahead of her, waiting for them to make it to the first floor where they exited, and then, she began to move again.
Once she reached the ground floor, she had to wait a few moments. There were maids moving in the hallway. She could see them discovering her, asking her loudly what she was doing, gaining the attention of guards around the corner. She had to wait for them to move on. Once she was confident they were out of the way, she slid out of the stairwell and surveyed the hallway.
She’d have to take three more passages and then open a heavy exterior door that was barred and chained. It would be loud. There was no way around it. At the moment, she could only concentrate on getting down the first hallway. Confident she would make it, she headed off in that direction, taking the next two hallways one at a time until she found herself facing the last obstacle--the exterior door.
It looked almost as menacing as the dragon at the moment. She puzzled over how best to get it open. In her mind, she played through lifting the heavy bar, removing the chain, and saw herself being discovered over and over again by soldiers waiting in the nearby wings. Sometimes, she could see herself stepping outside to be captured by other guards.
Nya needed to find another way. She thought about the other doors nearby. They were all barred as heavily as this one. “What about a window?” she asked herself.
There was one in the kitchen. At this time of night, there wouldn’t be anyone cooking, but many of the servants slept by the hearth, the heat from the ashes warming them more so than the cold beds they had in the servants chambers.
She played through making her way down the hall to the kitchen, sneaking through that door, crossing in front of sleeping servants, opening the squeaky window, and climbing outside. She could get there. She could even get into the kitchen. It was the damn squeaky window that kept messing her up.
With a deep breath, Nya decided to go for it. In her mind’s eye, most of the time, the window squealed and gave her away, waking the servants. Sometimes, it didn’t. If she could open it just right, she’d be able to make it out. If she didn’t, she’d have to contend with a loud-mouthed servant boy ratting her out.
Times like this, a crossbow might’ve come in handy, not that she’d really shoot a servant boy.
Nya crept her way down the hallway, through the kitchen door, into the room. Four young men were huddled on the floor near the ashes of the fire. It was warmer in here. When she opened the window, a gust of fall air would come in, stirring the ashes. Even if it didn’t squeak, there was a chance that could wake the boys.
She slowly crept past them to the window, trying to imagine exactly how much pressure she used and where she placed her hands when she opened the window the times it didn’t make a sound. Holding her breath, Nya reached for the window, and slowly moved the frame.