Chapter 497: Chapter 497
On that same Tuesday, in the distant royal palace of Ruen, the third princess was in her bedroom, humming a tune. She held a dress up against herself, admiring her reflection in an impressively large full-length mirror, her mood clearly cheerful.
The room was brightly lit, gas lamps and candles combining to cast a warm, yellow glow. The windowpanes reflected the scene within, and along with it, the worried face of her maid, Julia, whose lips were pressed into a thin line.
It was snowing outside, but Dolores Stuart still looked as though she had plans to venture out.
"Your Highness," Julia began, "the weather seems quite foul tonight."
"It's nothing to worry about," Dolores replied. "We'll do as we always do—slip out through the sewers and take a carriage. We won't get a single snowflake on us."
Her cheerful spirit remained untouched by her maid's worries.
"Your Highness, are you certain you want to see Miss Miller? Only last week, you said you were going to give her the cold shoulder for a while... And please, not that dress. It makes your waist look wide."
"Oh, really? In that case, I'll pick another one! Julia, a week is long enough, don't you think? If I continue to ignore them, it will harm our relationship. And you remember the plan I told you about, don't you? Mr. Williams and Miss Miller are both incredibly powerful, high-level Enchanters. We're unlikely to ever have another chance to meet and befriend people of their caliber!"
"Also, Julia, what do you think? Should I call him Baron Williams the next time I see him? The noble titles of the three great kingdoms are recognized across the entire continent, and just the other day, the papers had a picture of him with the Queen of the Fidektri Kingdom herself!"
"That is for you to decide, Your Highness. I doubt the gentleman would mind either way."
Julia knew she couldn't stop Dolores from going out tonight. The first step was mending things with Miss Miller; the next would undoubtedly be Mr. Williams.
She couldn't suppress a sigh at the thought. Still, she wouldn't stand in her way. Because Dolores was always right. Her princess was, and always would be, the most brilliant of all.
"You plan to bring up the matter of hiring Miss Miller as a royal tutor tonight, don't you?"
"Yes. As it happens, Mr. Warren has just resigned his post as my mathematics tutor to take a position at the Royal Academy of Sciences. I am in need of a new teacher, am I not?"
A smile bloomed on Dolores's face as she spoke.
She shed her clothes and did a little spin before the mirror, her long hair fanning out around her as she turned. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on NoveI★Fire.net
Julia gave a start, then hurried to the window, gathering her skirts, and pulled the half-drawn curtains completely shut.
"What on earth are you doing? It's freezing! You'll catch your death of cold!"
The young maid chided.
"I know, I know, my dear Julia."
The exaggerated, intimate tone made Julia blush, but she stepped forward nonetheless to help Dolores into her newly selected dress. As she adjusted the cinched waist for comfort, she quietly reminded her princess to take care of her health.
Around seven that evening, Dolores made a deliberate show of visiting her mother for a quiet chat, then excused herself early, feigning a sudden illness.
This gave her the perfect excuse not to be seen outside her chambers for the rest of the night.
The palace guards and maids had been properly arranged. Just as she had done many times before, she slipped out a side window with her maid in tow. They came face-to-face with the captain of the knights patrolling that section of the grounds. The man offered a deep bow before leading his men away, pretending to have seen nothing at all.
Even the sewers beneath the royal palace reeked with an unbearable stench. Every time she used this route, Dolores had to douse herself in a generous amount of perfume; otherwise, she wouldn't dare speak to anyone at close range.
They emerged from an alley a good distance from the palace, the brightly lit complex of royal buildings visible in the distance. A group of women was waiting for them and quickly draped white fleece cloaks over their shoulders. These were private enforcers and bodyguards that Dolores secretly employed using her own allowance, and they were as trustworthy as the knights within the palace who had pledged her their loyalty.
The thought inevitably brought back the memory of the fraudulent auction she'd stumbled upon with Miss Miller and Jenkins. She had never managed to break the captives and make them talk, but the evidence she had gathered hinted that one of her own brothers was involved.
She gave her head a little shake, determined not to let such unpleasant thoughts spoil her cheerful mood.
Ruen suffered snowy winters, so its citizens were accustomed to staying indoors on cold nights. A solid week of snowfall had dampened business even in the pubs. The streets were quiet, save for the clip-clop of horse-drawn carriages and the rattling of their wooden frames, punctuated by the hiss of a leaking steam pipe echoing from somewhere unseen.
Before visiting Miss Miller, they had to stop by the alley where they usually conducted trades with unknown Enchanters. It wasn't a fixed location; sellers would leave a mark, and interested buyers would respond with their own coded message. Until the final exchange, the identities of both parties remained a secret.
Like the main street, the alley was a blanket of white, with only a single, dark, unidentifiable object protruding from the snow's surface.
Seeing that the snow in the alley was undisturbed by footprints, Dolores softly chanted three strange syllables. Her body lifted gently, hovering just above the surface of the snow.
She nodded to her maid, and they proceeded into the alley, one behind the other. Midway through, Dolores crouched by the wall and pulled a small knife from her pocket. She scraped away the frost and grime, but to her surprise, she didn't find the usual trade symbol. Instead, there was a string of faintly inscribed words.
She had to stoop even lower to decipher the letters:
"'I... will...' What's this word? Oh, 'kill.' 'I will kill you!'"
The words had barely left her lips when the snow between her and Julia suddenly bulged upward. A small, slender figure erupted from beneath, and in the blink of an eye, a knife was poised at the nape of Dolores's neck.
The blade plunged silently into the exquisite flesh but drew no blood. With a soft crash, the snow sculpture of Dolores crumbled to the ground.
Without a moment's hesitation, the figure dove back into the snow, only to be driven out again by sharp icicles that erupted from beneath the white blanket.
A brilliant light flooded the alley from its entrance. The short woman shielded her eyes as she peered toward the source. Dolores and Julia were still safely in their carriage, from which the light now streamed, illuminating dozens of gunmen with their weapons trained on her.