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Armies were closing in on the city now from three sides, and Lily feared the royal family had waited too long. Rohesia had wavered, her spirits buoyed by the rumors that the Duke of Newshire was bringing siege weapons and a vast new army. But then word came that Duke Lukas had an even bigger army, and the queen finally bowed to the inevitable. And just in time, too. Moira had given Lily a week, and now that week was up.
The costumes were ready, the guards were bribed, and all they had to do now was wait. Lily had timed the escape meticulously, making sure the right men were on duty in the right places, and giving their little group long enough to walk down to the cathedral square. But she was nervous, and she showed up at the castle more than an hour early.
She hadn’t meant to do that. She knew exactly what would happen if she did, and of course she went straight to Elwyn’s room. Was it really so wrong to have one last time together? Perhaps not.
Elwyn was already wearing her disguise as a young apprentice boy, but she had no objection to getting undressed again. They fell into bed together and made love with a furious, desperate urgency.
Elwyn had no more illusions. She didn’t cry, even when they held each other at the end, and she said, “This is it. This is the last time.”
They dressed quietly—Elwyn in her boy’s clothes, Lily in her servant’s dress—and then, after one last, long embrace, they went through the service passageways into Rohesia’s room. They found Rohesia and Alice had put on their men’s clothing according to plan, but Edwin was angrily refusing to put on his own disguise.
He drop-kicked the blonde wig and pink dress across the room and said, “I won’t wear it, and that’s that.”
“It’s so you’re not recognized when we’re crossing the city,” Lily said soothingly.
The boy pouted. “If I wear that, in a thousand years, people will still remember me as the king who escaped wearing a dress.”
“Yes, but they’ll at least remember that you got to be king,” said Elwyn, “and that’s the important part.”
“No, Edwin has a point,” said Rohesia. “The way in which we do things matters as much as what we do. Perhaps just the wig, then, and a large hat.”
Alice, ever-sensitive to the moods of her brother, grew worried, asking if this would be scary. So Lily and Elwyn tried to make it sound like they were going on a fun little outing in the countryside.
“Oh, good,” said Alice, clearly relieved. “Will we be back for supper?”
“Probably not,” said Lily.
Elwyn started to speak, but Lily shook her head. They could explain it all later, and they were already a few minutes behind schedule.
Then there was another delay when Sir Robert Tynsdale showed up, apparently at Rohesia’s request.
“I wish you’d told me he was coming,” said Lily, quietly sliding a small knife back into the sheath in her sleeve. She had almost stabbed him in the throat when he’d come through the door.
“This will only be a moment,” said the queen. She took Tynsdale into her dressing room, and Lily could see her passing him several glass vials.
“I don’t know what you’re planning to do with those,” said Lily, “but please don’t do it until we’re out of town. We don’t want them to bar all the gates because someone important has been killed.”
It was pretty obvious what Tynsdale would do with the poison, though. Not that Lily cared one way or another, but she really didn’t need another complication.
And yet, she got one: Tynsdale insisted on escorting them as far as the cathedral.
“Our best safety is in not being recognized,” Lily hissed.
“I want him with us,” said Rohesia. “And that’s final.”
They all started down the stairs, with Tynsdale insisting on taking the lead. It wasn’t long before they met up with one of the Gramiren guards who was a little greedier than the rest and a little too clever for his own good. The man insisted they pay him triple what Lily had already given him, or he would ring the alarm bell and summon all the troops in the castle.
“Elwyn,” said Lily, silently drawing her knife, “you might want to cover Alice’s eyes now.”
In a flash, she slipped her blade through his throat, rendering him mute as he died, exactly the way Faustinus had shown her. Tynsdale tried to help, but he only got in the way, and his frantic slash at the fellow’s guts did nothing but make a bigger mess.
“What happened to that man?” Alice asked, as Tynsdale dragged the body into a corner. Luckily, the light was so dim in the servants’ corridor that the giant, spreading pool of blood was invisible to the girl. Edwin, who had seen the whole thing, looked a bit ill, and whispered for his sister to be quiet.
They left the palace by one of the little doors the servants used to bring in food from the kitchen, and walked briskly around the northern end of the Royal Chapel, through part of the gardens. No one was stirring here, though they could hear monks praying in the chapel. Over the top of the outer wall, the sky was getting brighter and the stars were winking out. But down in Queen Maud’s Garden, the shadows were still mercifully thick.
At the wall, Lily led the way confidently to a little postern gate. When she tried the latch, however, she found it closed tight, in spite of the fact that she’d given a certain corporal ten shillings to leave it open. “I suppose I could try to pick the lock,” she said.
“I say we kick it down,” said Tynsdale.
“That’s insane,” said Lily. “The whole castle would hear us.” The men assigned to this section of the wall had been given a few coins to be elsewhere for a while, but they surely would come running if it sounded like someone was breaking down a door.
“I have a thought. Why don’t we unlock it?” said Rohesia, taking an iron ring of ancient keys from her bag. “Honestly. Do you people forget I am the queen here?” Eventually they found the right key, and they passed through an empty guardroom and out the little gate at the far side.
Now they were beyond the wall, at the top of the sheer red cliffs of the castle hill. One wrong step at this point would send them tumbling hundreds of feet to their deaths. But Elwyn had said there were narrow paths that led down to the city from here, if only one knew where to look for them.
Unfortunately, there was very little light, and it had been a few years since Elwyn had been out on the cliffs, so it took her a few tries to find the path. Several times she started down, only to turn suddenly around, white-faced, and scramble back up, saying, “Nope, that’s not it.”
Lily watched the towers and the wall behind them, dreading to see soldiers looking over. Perhaps they ought to have brought one of Elwyn’s bows and some arrows. But walking across town heavily armed was a sure way to get the attention of the city troops. It was a calculated risk, and Lily hoped they’d calculated correctly.
At last, Elwyn found where the path started, though she warned them it was quite narrow and steep. Rohesia turned to Edwin and Alice and instructed them to hold her hands all the way down, no matter what. Tynsdale offered to go get some ropes, but that would have taken too much time. And now they were at least ten minutes behind schedule.
As Elwyn turned to start leading them down, the gate behind them creaked, and they heard a low voice say, “Don’t move. Any of you. Stay right where you are and keep your hands up.”
Lily raised her hands and turned to see Young Broderick standing at the gate with a bow in his hand and an arrow at the ready.
“You can’t stop us,” said Rohesia, lifting her chin proudly and stepping in front of Edwin.
“I think I can,” he said. “All I have to do is shout, and I can have thirty men here in seconds. Or I can send riders to the bottom of the cliff to wait for you.”
“Or I could take your head off right here,” said Tynsdale, reaching for his sword.
Young Broderick took aim. “Think about what’s faster, a man or an arrow.”
Tynsdale put his hands back up.
“What are you doing here, Broderick?” asked Elwyn.
“As it happens, I’ve been up all night,” he said. “My father has made me warden of the castle while he’s off fighting the real battle, and yesterday, the last thing he did before turning in was to give me some very special orders.”
“And what orders would those be?” asked Lily.
“I’m supposed to lock up Rohesia, Edwin, Elwyn, and Alice in the dungeon. And if it looks like he’s losing the battle, I’m supposed to kill all of you.”