“No,” I said. “I want to see what’s happening.” I wouldn’t wait here for them to find me. I strode up the steps, pressing my bare feet decisively into the stone.
The steps ended in a metal gate. It was locked, with a large padlock rusted shut across the handle, but the whole gate had warped with age. I shoved it with my shoulder, and it lurched, leaving a small gap. Another shove, and it bent sideways, leaving a space large enough to squeeze through. Naomi went first, her nightdress catching and tearing, and then she reached out to take Dagny before I climbed after her.
We emerged in the dungeons, tucked in one of the alcoves designed for guards. Everything was silent. “My lab,” I said. “This way.” We’d be able to find things to defend ourselves with there, chemicals and heavy instruments and things that made the eyes burn. But when we turned the corner, someone was already standing in the entrance to the lab. Madeleine raised her candlestick again. The figure turned at the sound of our approach.
It was Fitzroy.
“Freya!” he hissed. “You’re all right. Where have you been?” It almost sounded like a reproach.
“I’ve been running,” I said. “The guards turned on me, some of them attacked us in our rooms—”
“I know,” he said. “I was looking for you! And then I saw your lab—”
“What do you mean?” He hesitated. I pushed past him.
It was chaos. Vials and jars had been smashed, their liquids and powders spreading across the counters. One patch of wood bubbled as what must have been acid ate away at it. My journals had been torn apart, pages now littering the floor. My weighing system was smashed, the metal dish above the fire ripped down and dented. My beautiful lab, all my work . . .
“Why? Why would they do this?”
“They’re hunting for you,” Fitzroy said. “To bring you to Sten. I guess when they didn’t find you here—”
“How did you know?” That was suspicious, too. “How did you know to look for me?”
“They asked me to join them. They thought I’d be on their side, considering who my father was.”
“And you didn’t tell anyone?” Naomi said. “You didn’t tell the guards?”
“I found out ten minutes ago,” he snapped. “And all the guards I’ve met are part of it. I hoped I’d be able to find you and warn you. I told them I’d join them, and ran up to your rooms, but the guards were already inside, destroying things. I thought you were dead, Freya, or captured, until I realized they couldn’t find you. So I thought you might be here. I came to warn you.”
“They let you go?” I said. “After you said you’d join them?”
“I’m a familiar face at court, Freya. And they’re saying you murdered my father, so you could take the throne for yourself. Of course they trust me.”
“My father!” If they were after me, they must be willing to hurt him, too. I twisted out of the laboratory. “What happened to my father?”
“I don’t know,” Fitzroy said. I began to run down the corridor again, but Fitzroy grabbed my arm.
“If the wrong people see you, Freya, they’ll kill you.”
“And what happens when people find him?”
“Nothing as bad as if they find you. You’re the queen, Freya.”
“Apparently not,” I said. “Not a welcome one.”
“So stay out of their way.” Fitzroy looked around. “We have to get you out of here. We don’t know who we can trust. You have to leave.”
“Leave?” I laughed. The sound echoed off the walls, a little desperate, a little hysterical. “Leave and go where? They’ll hunt me down and kill me. The Fort is supposed to be the safest place in the kingdom!” If I left, I would no longer be queen, and I’d have no protection at all. I’d be even easier to kill.
I couldn’t run. I’d just be murdered in the hills, or on the streets. I squeezed Dagny so close she meowed in protest again. “We have to defend the Fort. It’s my only chance.”
“Where are the other guards?” Naomi said. “They can’t all have turned against us!”
“I assume they’ve been attacked, too,” Fitzroy said. “That, or they’ve joined Sten. Many won’t even be here—most don’t live here.”
So I was unlikely to get help from them. But I had to try. “Fitzroy, you go and find them. See if you can get any to help us. If they’ve all turned against us, pretend to be on their side until you can escape. They respect you.”
He nodded. “What are you going to do?”
What was I going to do? I let out a long breath. I had to be calm. Logical. “I’m going to the throne room,” I said. “If they want to kill the queen, they can do it while I’m sitting on the throne. See if they’re brave enough then.”
“Make them remember your power,” Madeleine said softly. “Sten will hesitate at that.”
“Hesitation is all we need, if we can bring the guards.” And I refused to die cowering in a corner of the dungeons, in the vain hope they wouldn’t find me.
Fitzroy shook his head. “It’s risky.”
Madeleine let out a little huff of air. “Yes,” she said. “Of course it’s risky. Come on.” Her heels clicked on the stone floor as she strode away.
I nodded to Fitzroy. “Stay safe.”
He squeezed my shoulder, fear seeping through into his expression. “You too, Your Majesty.”
I hurried away.
No guards watched the corridors now. We passed no one at all, and saw no signs of struggle—how could there be, when there was nothing in the corridors to knock over, nothing to displace at all? It looked like the contents of the castle had already been swept away.
We turned a corner. Two guards hurried toward us. On the left, Mila, the young blond girl who’d shown me my laboratory. On the right, a gawky brunette who often guarded the halls, but had never guarded me, as far as I could remember. I hesitated, but Madeleine did not pause. She kept walking, head held high, staring them down.
“We are heading to the throne room,” she said. “If you will excuse us.”
“Your Majesty,” Mila said. “We were looking for you. I’m so glad you’re safe.”
“She is not safe yet,” Madeleine said. “Please let us through.” And they did. They stepped aside, and our group strode past, moving closer to the throne room with every step.
“We want to protect you, Your Majesty,” the brunette said. “We were on patrol, when one of the other guards told us . . . we wanted to find you. Please, how can we help?”
“Wait at the door,” Madeleine said. “Do not let anyone in without permission.”
The brunette nodded. “What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Carina, Your Majesty. Carina Carlsen.”