Page 27 of To Steal the Sun
She wanted to scream and fight, to run back in there and tell him to ignore the queen’s words. But she knew it would do no good. She would never convince him not to protect her over himself. She had thought she was so clever, tricking the queen, but she was the one who had been tricked. Everything had played right into Celandine’s hands.
Even the few extra moments past dawn that had been granted them had been done with a purpose. She was taunting them, reminding them who was in control, and making sure that Henry saw for himself that Charlotte was there, within the queen’s reach.
Charlotte wanted to kick and punch at the guards around her, just for the satisfaction of unleashing the rage inside her. But she couldn’t give way to it. She couldn’t give them any excuse to violate the rest of the bargain.
The queen stepped out of the room, making a show of shutting and locking the door behind her. At her appearance, Charlotte shook off the guards’ hold. They let her do so, stepping back.
Charlotte met the queen’s eyes, barely reining in her anger to speak calmly.
“Call off your guards,” she said. “The bargain was that I walk out of here unharmed and alone.”
The queen gestured down the corridor. “By all means. No one is stopping you.”
Charlotte narrowed her eyes, disliking the slight smile that hovered around the queen’s eyes and mouth. But there was nothing left for her to do except take the offered chance to escape. A direct confrontation with the queen wouldn’t achieve anything good. Not yet, anyway.
She held her head high as she spun on her heel and walked down the corridor. She wanted to sprint as fast as she could run, but she had specified that she be allowed to walk out of the palace, and she wouldn’t risk changing a single aspect of the bargain in case it provided the queen with a loophole.
At walking pace, it seemed to take an eternity to find a door that opened to the outside, but she finally stepped out into the morning air. The gravel paths of the gardens stretched before her, and she picked up her pace slightly. Every time she glanced over her shoulder, there was no one in sight, and by the time she was halfway through the grounds, she concluded she wasn’t being followed. It seemed impossible that the queen was just going to let her walk away, but apparently the pull of the godmother object was as strong as Gwen had claimed.
She still jumped at every minor sound, flinching away from every moving shadow. She wouldn’t be safe until she’d made it back to Natalie’s family.
She had been too distracted by Henry all night to spare a thought for the younger girl, but she remembered her guiltily as she traversed the gardens. Surely Natalie had returned home before dark rather than risk being caught in the streets at night.
Charlotte’s hand moved to her arm where thin bandages still lay beneath her sleeve. The salve had worked wonders already, but Charlotte could feel the ache of it whenever her mind quieted.
The outer edge of the garden approached, and Charlotte’s attention shifted to the streets beyond. As predicted by Natalie back in the basement, there was a steady trickle of traffic on every street within view, although the ones nearest the palace moved about their business quickly, their eyes averted from the looming structure.
Charlotte’s family had traveled through Rangmeros when they moved from Northhelm to the valleys. It was her only visit to a capital city, so she still remembered it vividly. She had been nervous because the other kingdoms considered Rangmere to be a cold, hard place, but the city had bustled with life, and she hadn’t sensed any of the fear that radiated from the mountain people.
Charlotte’s shoulders hunched, her senses on high alert. Everything about this place put her on edge.
She stepped onto the cobblestones of the closest street, taut with tension. Her heart lay behind her in the palace, and her mind was leaping ahead to her destination, but a prickle in the back of her neck placed her firmly in the moment.
Her eyes darted to various side streets, her mind instinctively looking for routes she could take to escape nonexistent pursuers. Her measured steps took her further into the street as she remembered she didn’t have to walk anymore. She could run all the way back to Easton and Natalie if she wanted.
No sooner had the thought occurred to her than doors opened in several directions. Guards poured out of the surrounding buildings, streaming toward her from every direction she had just scoped.
Charlotte froze, spinning to look behind her. Guards had even appeared from the gardens, closing off her retreat.
“Nononononono.” The syllables poured out of her in a constant stream as her eyes and brain scrambled to find a solution. She couldn’t allow herself to be captured and used against Henry.
The guards closed in, not bothering to run given they had her surrounded. She backed toward one of the few buildings that hadn’t disgorged guards.
“Here!” a high voice called, dragging her attention upward.
A hand was hanging down from the portico above the front door, gesturing for her to approach.
“Hurry!” the voice said again, and Charlotte thought she recognized it.
Leaping the rest of the way to the house, Charlotte jumped onto the rim of one of the large clay pots that flanked the door with decorative flowers. Taking the hand held out to her, she gripped the other person’s wrist while they did the same to hers, securing the firmest hold they could manage.
The person above hauled upward while Charlotte jumped and caught the edge of the portico with her free hand. Her legs waved helplessly for a moment while the person above her grunted and pulled. Then she was high enough to get the forearm of her other arm over the edge of the roof, allowing her proper purchase.
Shouts from behind made her redouble her efforts, grunting as she scrambled inelegantly onto the small stretch of roof that jutted out over the door. As soon as she had her knees under her, she looked up and met Natalie’s eyes.
“Totally predictable,” the other girl said with rolled eyes. “You need to learn to word your bargains better. You’re lucky I was hiding nearby to hear what happened and could easily see how it would all end.” As she talked, she climbed onto a protruding window ledge above them and from there up to the two-story roof of the house, using a vine that wound down the stone for purchase.
Charlotte winced and tried to hurry after her. The guards were already on the ground below them, attempting to climb up without assistance from above. It wouldn’t take them long to manage it.