As soon as Otto was out of sight, Hear cursed, “Withdraw, will you? After all I’ve done to influence the Paladins to make you a candidate? Now you decide to withdraw?”
See shrugged as he watched the Paladin disappear down the stairs. Honestly, what could they do now? If the Paladin was pulling out of the election, then he wouldn’t be the leader, which means they couldn’t take over his identity and corrupt the order in his place.
“And you!” Hear hissed. “You’re just standing there? Why aren’t you running, you big oaf?”
“Mm?” Running? Why would I be running?
“Why do you think I sent that blasted Paladin all the way across the Castle to find the seneschal when we’re the seneschal?”
That was a good question. The real seneschal was still locked up in his chambers, just like the Sister they were now impersonating. Why would Hear send him there to find someone he wouldn’t find . . . oh! See began to run.
“That’s right. We can’t let him get to that meeting!” Hear hissed. “I’ve bought us enough time to set a trap for him in the Tower of Light, but not if you’re standing around looking like an idiot! Move those legs!”
See nearly tripped over those legs when he got the stairs. It was so much easier to run as the seneschal with his wide gait than it was to run in the form of this short woman. The clothes didn’t help either. Every time he landed on a platform and turned for the next set of stairs, he almost got tangled up in the Sister’s long habit.
“Change bodies, you oaf!” Hear hissed. “You’re clearly not used to this one yet.”
“Mm?” Where?
“There! That room’s not lit!” Hear jabbed his nose out of See’s illusion toward a room down one of the corridors they passed by. “Use that!”
See bolted into the room, his sweat washing away the perfume he had used that morning. Seeing that the room was indeed empty, he straightened his body as his flesh changed shape, and the illusion of Claire faded to that of the seneschal. He panted and smiled in his new, taller form, and then exited the room.
Looking down over the mezzanine, he saw that Otto had already reached the bottom of the stairs and was running left toward the crypt—the exact opposite direction to the Tower of Light, where Hear told him to go. He started down the stairs again, hurrying but not running. It would be out of character for the seneschal to run.
“What are you doing?” Hear hissed. “Do you want to be caught out? Do you want the Paladin to reach the crypt and double back before we can make the trap? Run!”
See shook his head, flustered by all of Hear’s demands. He ran down the stairs. The maids and servants they passed seemed absolutely shocked by the sight of the usually unhurrying seneschal bowling down the stairs at a pace they didn’t think the older man could move.
When he reached the bottom, See turned right and bolted in the direction of the outer corridor leading to the Tower of Light.
“Where are you going?” Hear cried in his anger.
“Mm!” He pointed east, toward the Tower of Light.
“We can’t go there yet,” Hear squealed. “We need to set a trap for the Paladin there, sure, but how are we supposed to do that if we don’t have anything to ambush him with. Head to the secret entrance to the Underbelly! We’ll need muscle!”
“Mmgg . . .” See growled as he changed direction again to the back of the Tower.
What did Hear expect of him in a moment like this? It wasn’t like he could read his friend’s mind. Sure, he usually followed Hear’s plans, but just because he couldn’t predict exactly what they were at the moment of conception didn’t mean he was a complete idiot, despite what See’s tone suggested.
See was nearly completely out of breath by the time they reached the secret entrance going down into the Underbelly of Castletown. To his shock, there were laborers with shovels and wheelbarrows standing around it, seeming to be ready to fill the entrance in.
“Wait!” Hear shouted.
The laborers in their rough clothing looked up, confused by his somewhat flustered appearance. See raised his handkerchief to his mouth, panting heavily. In any other situation, he wouldn’t have had the breath to even grunt, let alone talk. Luckily, he had Hear to do the talking to him.
“What are you doing?” Hear cried.
A man with a wide-brimmed straw hat walked up to him, slowly and uncertainly. He looked terrified in the presence of a powerful man like the seneschal, and that fear would make him follow any orders he made. This was just the type of man See knew Hear loved to boss around.
“W-we were ordered by Princess Sapphire to fill in this gap,” the man said. “She came to us in Castletown, paid us, and told us that it needed covering.”
“Well, the king doesn’t want it covered,” he claimed. “The king wants this access portal to the Underbelly to remain here . . . just in case.”
“In case of what?” one of the younger laborers asked, wheelbarrow in hand. “This tunnel leads down into the Underbelly, doesn’t it? Doesn’t such a thing pose a threat to the Castle?”
At a jab from Hear, See raised his other finger.
“Maybe so,” Hear said. “However, it could also be of benefit to the king to have such an entrance for . . . offensive purposes.”
See had to admit that, for someone speaking off the top of his head, Hear really could sound convincing.
“Oh . . . well. Then why did Princess Sapphire tell us to fill it in?” asked the head laborer again.
“That’s because . . .” Hear trailed off in thought. “That’s because Princess Sapphire didn’t know that the king was planning an attack on the Underbelly. In fact, now that you’re here . . .”
Another jab and See lowered his hand.
“You might want to widen that hole . . . to allow more of the Crown Guard to come down here during the attack.” Using his best authoritative voice, Hear announced, “The king commands you to widen this hole.”
The head laborer nodded. “If the king wishes it. But we’ll need different tools to widen it reliably.”
See clapped his hands twice as Hear said, “Then hurry it up. Go and retrieve the tools right now!”
“Yes, sir.” The head laborer turned toward his men. “You heard him. Let’s go get the tools from the wagon to widen this hole.”
There were murmurs of agreement and the group of laborers dropped their shovels and moved off to go collect the tools necessary for the job. The leader, however, stayed where he was.
“Ah, you better go help them. In the meantime, I’ll watch this hole to make sure nothing comes in or goes out.”
“A-are you sure?” the man in the straw hat asked.
“Quite sure. Off you go, now.”
Looking utterly baffled, the head laborer threw down his shovel and moved to assist the rest of his men. Finally, the passage was clear. Going completely against their word, See waited until the man had returned to his wagon of tools around by the Tower entrance and then climbed down into the hole. Again he descended the many stairs.
“What did you think of that?” Hear boasted. “Now not only can we access the Underbelly to get the muscle for our trap, but with them widening the hole for us, we can fit a troll back through the secret entrance. Luckily I know one who’d be more than willing to wipe out that little Paladin so we can take his place.”
“Mm?”
“Oh, come on. Surely you recall at least one thug who we hired to make sure the seneschal didn’t escape who’d want revenge on him.”
See thought back, and for once, he did recall.