Chapitre 11: Chapter 10
"What the fuck happened?" Bradley whisper-shouted. But Charlotte's brain was moving too fast. First, they would have to keep their visit down here a secret, so they need to leave through another way, to ensure no one met them.
"Bradley, did anyone see us coming this way?" she asked, looking for the opening to the tunnels.
"No? I don't know! What the fuck happened." The boy was panicking. Charlotte did not have time for that.
"Did anyone see us?" She asked the knight, who still stared at the body. He seemed to come to himself, rubbing his eyes. She decided not to get ahead of herself. She would ask her questions when she was sure they were all safe.
"No," he answered, avoiding her eyes. Perhaps he was ashamed for losing his cool, or maybe… either way, Charlotte was thankful, she was not sure she could take what she would see in them.
"Sure?" she insisted. She found the circular crack and pushed. The slab moved inwards.
"Completely," he confirmed.
"Where the hell did that come from?" Bradley was in her face. "Charlotte what the hell is going on? Did that man know you?"
She spared a look to the knight. Realizing again she did not even know his name. "I don't know either, Brad, but we have to get out of here. It doesn't matter what happened. If anyone knows we were here, his body will not get cold before we join him."
He seemed to understand more than she had meant, regaining his composure. He might've been a jerk, but he was not stupid.
"Where does the tunnel lead?" he asked. His voice now level.
"This one will take us to my chambers," she said. She wondered how they would leave or explain their presence in her palace, but decided to deal with a problem at a time.
"I won't fit in there." The knight said.
Charlotte ignored him and led the way into the tunnel, leaving instructions to whoever was last to replace the slab perfectly in place. Bradley offered to go last. The knight joined her, his helmet and shoulder pads in his hands. Still, his armor scraped the sides of the tunnel.
"Don't burn my behind," she said, her voice serious.
The knight chuckled nonetheless, the sound so sweet Charlotte almost forgot the situation they were in.
Charlotte weaved through the tunnels with a speed that astonished his followers.
"I would get lost in these tunnels. How do you know where to go," Bradley asked. His voice sounded far away.
"Practice." She answered in a tone that told him to remain quiet. He took the bait.
Charlotte knew the only place they could reappear without risking discovery was her room. She however knew she wouldn't be able to move the bookshelf on her own. And there was the problem of the cell guards. They would wonder why they never saw Charlotte and her guest leave. Again, Charlotte told herself that she would cross the bridge when she got to it.
At an intersection in the tunnels, she let the knight pass before her. He was the biggest of them, and she assumed, he would be strong enough to move the bookshelf. She did not look him in the eye.
She whispered directions to him, hoping that anyone who heard the scraping of his armor on the wall would assume it was rats.
Pulling the slab was not hard, there was indentation for grip on the other side, and pushing the bookshelf also turned out to be an easy task, the knight shoved it without a struggle.
The problem was replacing it, whoever had carved the tunnels had carved them for leaving and not entering the palace. Despite their best efforts, the slab would not close all the way. The evidence of their entrance was out in the open. After several attempts, they gave up and covered it up with the shelf.
Charlotte sat on her bed and held her head in her hands. The other two stood on opposite ends, each on her side, waiting. The assassin was dead. She stood up and paced around the room, between the other two.
Bradley's patience reached its limit, after a minute.
"What in God's name just happened?" He asked again, frustrated.
The other two remained quiet.
"He was fine! He was fine! He was smiling and we turned around for thirty seconds and then he was dead?" his voice rose with every question.
He did not wait for an answer. "I am going to lose my status, I'm going to lose my knighthood, I am going to lose my head! Oh god," he turned to Charlotte, following her. " do you know what just happened?"
Again, he did not give Charlotte a chance to answer. "TREASON! WE JUST COMMITTED TREASON!" he was shouting.
Charlotte stopped her pacing, turned to face him, and grabbed him gently by his shoulders.
" And no one knows," she explained to him as she would a child, speaking slowly in a soft voice. "If you continue to shout like that, the whole kingdom will hear." she sighed, exasperated. "You need to calm down so we can think this through with clear heads.
"Calm down! Charlotte, you want me to calm down? I can't calm down, we will be accused of conspiring against the king and killing his prisoner! Who knows what that man had done? If we are discovered, we have done it too! I don't have a father in the council, I am not a knight," he glared at the knight, "And I certainly am not friends with both princes! So don't ask me to calm down because, between the three of us, I am the most likely to be beheaded by morning without a trial."
Charlotte's head was spinning. She did not like raised voices. She pitied him, if he knew what the man had done, he would be screaming from the walls of the castle.
She wondered what they would do because he was right, they could all be beheaded by morning. Her more than the others since the king looked to pin the assassination on someone close to the palace.
Bradley's head was spinning. Everyone in the room could see it. He turned to the knight.
"We turned around for thirty seconds, and then he was dead?" his eyes were narrowed. His words were said with deliberate precision, his hand was on the hilt of his sword.
"Bradley, calm down." Charlotte attempted. But she knew he was right. She had had the same thought the minute she saw the body. She just hadn't mustered enough courage to say it.
"You're not wondering?" he turned to her.
Of course, she was wondering. She had only met the man a few hours ago, she did not know his name, why he wanted to help her, or if he could kill someone, and it had been his idea to go to the dungeons.
She looked at the knight then, his hand hovered above his sword, obviously threatened by the tension in the room.
"It doesn't matter who did what. We were all there, we are all dead if anyone finds out." She answered, her voice defeated. Pulling swords would not help either of them.
The others knew she was right.
"Although I can't say I don't wonder, he was fine before we turned around," she added, trying to make her voice light and not too serious.
He had the decency to look offended. "I was three steps away from the cell! And if anyone wanted to kill him it would be you!"
Charlotte sat back onto her bed and laughed, a cold, cruel laugh so big it hurt her abdomen and caught the two men off guard, suddenly worried for their safety.
"Why would Charlotte have a motive?" Bradley was confused.
"Because he killed her friend, idiot." His voice was cold and heavy.
Charlotte's laugh just as quickly turned into anger.
"Leave!" she screamed at him.
He shuffled, unsure. "Look, I'm sorry-"
"I will scream," she said calmly and slowly. "Leave."
The knight spared her an apologetic look and walked to her door, tried to open it, and found it locked from the outside.
"It's locked," he stated.
Charlotte took a deep breath. She did not care about consequences, but the knight was quick to notice her detachment.
"It's okay, I'll find another way out." he quickly stated as he noticed the connecting door and went through it without hesitation. Almost running out. Charlotte could tell that he too, was angry.
She buried her head in her hands and sobbed. What a waste! The mattress dipped as someone sat beside her. She lifted her eyes to find it was Bradley.
"What are you still doing here?"
"You didn't tell me to leave." his voice was soft, comforting.
"You should've taken a hint." she was smiling.
"I never really know how to do that though, do I?" he was also smiling.
He put an arm around her and drew her to his chest. She let him. "Who is dead, Adam?" he asked softly.
"Patrick." she sobbed. "No one knows yet."
She could tell he was shocked by his silence. She felt him connect the dots.
"And the man in the dungeons, he killed him?"
"Yes."
"Well, this gets worse," he chuckled.
"I'm sorry I pulled you into it," she said, her voice sincere.
"It's okay, I made my own choices today," he assured her.
She wondered if he had always been this mature.
"I'm sorry about the prince," he said, pulling her closer.
"It's okay."
"Did you know him? The man in the cell?"
"No."
"He smiled when he saw you as if he was expecting you."
Charlotte had thought about that too. "I have never seen that man in my life." She said, sniffling.
"Unless he was looking at the person behind you."
The thought made Charlotte's blood run cold. The person behind her had been the knight. That would mean that he had planned the whole thing. That he was probably part of the assassination. What else was he capable of?
"I didn't know you had a room in the palace," he said, lightheartedly, trying to make a joke, noticing that his words had hit her hard.
But Charlotte's heart only grew heavier. She did not have a room in the palace, she had a cell in the palace. Bradley wouldn't understand, and she had already said too much.
She heard the connecting door open and close. Thinking it was the knight coming back for some reason, she lifted her head with her most powerful glare, ready to scream at him.
Her glare was turned into pure shock when she found Oliver standing there, frozen in place, staring at her in disbelief.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone