TWENTY-SIX
DEAR FINNEGAN, SHE WROTE. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR kind words to me. I would be delighted if you would visit me sometime before my wedding tomorrow, to solidify the good relations between us. . . .
She scanned the letter, checking that she had written nothing objectionable, nothing that could be used against her. The stubborn part of her flinched away from involving Finnegan, but she knew that she could not humiliate the king and escape without a little outside help. If she was going to do this, she needed him.
Leaving the note unsealed, so anyone could see how innocent it was, she hurried to the locked door. “Excuse me,” she said in her sweetest, most harmlessly regal voice. “Sir Lanford, Sir Richard?”
“They are no longer here,” a voice said. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
“I have a message for Prince Finnegan.”
There was an uncertain pause. “Princess, we cannot unlock this door. You are to stay here until tomorrow.”
“I know,” she said. “I do not wish to go anywhere. But Finnegan requested a meeting with me today, before the wedding, and I would hate to disappoint him. So would the king and queen, I am sure. I simply want to inform him that I am willing to meet with him whenever he is available. If you could take a note to him from me, I would greatly appreciate it.”
Another pause. “Slide your note under the door,” the guard said eventually. “I will see that he receives it.”
For a moment, she considered it. Then she stopped. “No,” she said. Finnegan had once told her that important people could do as they liked. It was time to test how important they considered her. “I am the princess, not some prisoner passing secret messages through gaps in the wall. You will open this door, and you will take this message to Finnegan, and if he requests it, you will escort him back here yourself. Do you understand me?”
He did not reply for a long time. Then the locks clicked. “As you wish, Princess.”
“Thank you.” She passed the paper through the narrow gap in the door. “Please tell Finnegan that I look forward to seeing him soon.”
The guard bowed. “Of course, Princess,” he said. Then the door closed with a dull thud. She remained close to it, listening to the sound of his footsteps fading down the stairs.
She did not wait long. Barely any time seemed to have passed before the door swung open again, and Finnegan stepped into the room.
“What a pleasure to see you again,” he said as the door closed behind him. “I haven’t been in this room for . . . oh, three years at least. Have you finally decided my kiss was what you’d been dreaming of all these years?”
“Yes,” she said sharply. “That is exactly why I sent for you on the day before my wedding. To declare my secret love for you.”
“I am glad to hear it,” he said. “Sadly, I must decline your advances. Politics, you know.” He looked around the room. “Strange choice,” he added. “Stairs in a fireplace. I don’t recall seeing them before.”
“You must not have looked closely enough.”
“Perhaps not,” he said. “There were far more interesting things to hold my attention.” He gave her the same searching look he had given her so many times before, casual yet discerning, like he already knew everything she could possibly think or say or do. “So to what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?” he finally said. “It cost me a fair few silvers to get here, you know, despite your reckless invitation. I hope it will be worth my while.”
“I hope so too.” She grabbed his arm and led him farther away from the door, away from any listening ears. “I have a proposition for you.”
“A proposition?” He raised an eyebrow. “Sounds intriguing.”
“I want you to help disrupt my wedding.”
He stared at her for a long moment. “Does that mean you are accepting my offer of an alliance?” he said. “What a team we’ll make.”
“No,” she said. “It doesn’t. This would be a temporary arrangement.”
“Then what, may I ask, would be in this scheme for me?”
“I will be in your debt,” she said. “And you’ll get to humiliate King John. But the benefit to you should be irrelevant. Either you’re my ally or you’re not.”
“I am, of course. What precisely are you thinking?”
“A distraction,” she said. “I need you to provide a distraction as the wedding starts. Something to attract the attention of the guards.”
“Attract attention away from you? Impossible.”
“Perhaps,” she said. “I’m not planning to be subtle. I’ll walk up in front of the crowd, say what I mean to say, have all eyes on me . . . and then I need you to take their eyes off me. For as long as you’re able.”
“Anything more specific?”
“You’re smart,” she said. “You’ll think of something.”
“Why, Aurora,” he said. “You flatter me. And what will you do with this distraction? Kill the king? Burn the castle to the ground?”
A tiny part of her, hot and terrifying, stirred at the idea. She could make the king suffer, like she had suffered, like the prisoners, like Isabelle. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t. “No,” she said. “I’ll run.”
“That doesn’t sound very dramatic.”
“I don’t want to be dramatic,” she said. “I want to leave.”
He chuckled. “Then why wait until the wedding to run? If you want to leave, I could probably get you out tonight. Just say the word. It’ll be so much easier, so much less risky.”
She did not reply.
“See?” he said. “You’re not as sweet as you pretend. But don’t worry. I’ll help. I have a few ideas. Just give the sign tomorrow, and help will be there. But tell me. How, exactly, do you plan to leave the city after you run?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
He smiled. “Of course you will. But in case that doesn’t work out for you, I have a suggestion. Western edge of the city, beyond the slums, there’s an old drainage tunnel through the walls. Just past the main tower, near the drunken fairy. Small, but you’re not exactly large yourself. It should get you where you need to go. And I will leave you some supplies nearby, if you like. Help you on your way.”
She could hardly refuse him. “Thank you,” she said.
“Of course. You’re full of surprises, Aurora. I look forward to seeing what else you might do.” He gave her a sweeping bow. “Until the morning then.”
“Wait,” she said as he turned away. She remembered the last time she had stood in front of the crowd, the blood and the screaming filled her mind. “No one can get hurt.”
“You truly are an innocent, aren’t you?”
He left before she could reply.
She stared at the door for a long time after he had gone. She knew she should try to sleep, grab whatever extra energy she could, but she felt too fidgety, too alert, to stay still for long. She began pacing again, running through every possible scenario in her head. Trying to ignore Finnegan’s chilling last words.
She would not turn back now.
Resting her hands against the windowsill, she stared down at the city where a forest had once stood and tried to imagine what might await her in the world beyond.