Chapter : 1529

  Jasmin helped the children onto the ladder. Risa was surprisingly agile, her survival instincts kicking in. The other children were slower, terrified. Jasmin climbed behind them, whispering encouragement.

  Ken climbed last. Every movement was agony. His shoulder burned like fire, and his vision was swimming. He focused on Jasmin's boots above him. One rung. Another rung. Don't die yet. Not yet.

  They climbed for what felt like an hour. Finally, they reached a wooden trapdoor.

  "Stop," Lloyd commanded. "That door opens into the back of a linen closet in the servants' quarters of the East Wing. It should be empty at this hour, but verify."

  Jasmin pressed her ear against the wood. She heard nothing.

  "It's quiet," she whispered.

  "Open it. Slowly."

  She pushed. The trapdoor was heavy, but it gave way with a soft creak. She poked her head up.

  She was surrounded by shelves of towels and bedsheets. The room was dark.

  "Clear," she whispered.

  She climbed out and helped the children up. Ken hauled himself out last, collapsing onto a pile of laundry. He was pale, sweat dripping from his face.

  "Ken!" Jasmin hissed, rushing to him.

  "I'm fine," he grunted, struggling to sit up. "Just... need a minute."

  "You don't have a minute," Lloyd said. "The servants shift change is in twenty minutes. You need to move. Go left out of the closet. Down the hall. Third door on the right. It's a service stairwell. Take it up two flights."

  Jasmin pulled Ken to his feet. He leaned heavily on her. He was burning up.

  "Come on, little mice," she told the children. "Follow me."

  They crept into the hallway. The palace servants' quarters were modest compared to the rest of the building, but still cleaner than anywhere in the slums. They moved like shadows, avoiding the few sleepy maids who were starting their day.

  They reached the stairwell and climbed.

  "Okay," Lloyd said. "You are now on the King's floor. This is the tricky part. There are guards at the main entrance, but the service corridor connects to the King’s private pantry. The door is locked."

  "Locked?" Jasmin panic. "We don't have a key!"

  "You have Ken," Lloyd said. "Ken, the lock is a standard tumblers mechanism. Can you pick it?"

  Ken looked at his trembling hands. "Maybe."

  He pulled out a small pick from his belt. He knelt by the door. His hand shook. He took a deep breath, steadied himself, and inserted the pick.

  Click. Scrape. Click.

  It felt like an eternity. Footsteps echoed in the main hallway. Guards on patrol.

  "Hurry," Jasmin whispered.

  Click.

  The door opened.

  They tumbled inside, closing it just as the heavy tread of armored boots passed by the alcove.

  They were in a pantry. It smelled of spices and dried fruit.

  "Through the pantry," Lloyd directed. "There is a tapestry on the far wall. Behind it is a door to the King's unused chambers. The Queen's old room. No one has gone in there for three years. It is dust and memories."

  Jasmin found the tapestry. She pushed it aside. The door was unlocked.

  They stepped into a vast, silent bedroom. Everything was covered in white dust sheets. The furniture looked like ghosts in the moonlight filtering through the heavy curtains.

  "We're here," Jasmin breathed.

  "Excellent," Lloyd said. "Stay there. Don't touch anything. Don't make a sound. I am coming."

  "You?" Jasmin asked. "How?"

  "I am the Royal Physician," Lloyd said. "I have a standing appointment to check the King's blood pressure at dawn. I am walking down the hall right now."

  Jasmin sank to the floor, pulling Risa into her lap. They were safe. For the moment. They were hiding in the belly of the beast, in the room of a dead queen, while the man who wanted to kill them hunted for them outside the city walls.

  The irony was terrifying.

  ----

  Ten minutes later, a soft knock came from a hidden panel in the wall—not the main door.

  "It's me," Lloyd whispered.

  Jasmin opened the panel. Lloyd slipped inside. He was still wearing his velvet suit, but he looked disheveled. His tie was loose, his hair messy. He carried his medical bag.

  He looked at the scene. The huddled children. The dusty room. And Ken, slumped against a covered vanity table, looking like death warmed over.

  Lloyd dropped to his knees beside Ken. He activated his [All-Seeing Eye].

  "Shoulder dislocated. Ribs fractured. Internal bleeding," Lloyd diagnosed rapidly. "And magical residue from the Chimera. Poison?"

  "Acid," Ken grunted. "Burns."

  Lloyd opened his bag. He pulled out vials and bandages.

  Chapter : 1530

  "I can stabilize you," Lloyd said. "But you need real rest. And real magic healing. I can't do a full restoration here without alerting the palace sensors."

  "Patch me up," Ken said. "I can still fight."

  "You can sit still and try not to bleed on the Queen's carpet," Lloyd corrected. He injected Ken with a painkiller and began to bind the wounds.

  While Lloyd worked, Jasmin tended to the children. She found some water in a pitcher—stale, but drinkable—and gave it to them.

  Risa was staring around the room. Her eyes were clearer now. The shock was fading, replaced by confusion.

  "Where are we?" Risa asked. Her voice was tiny.

  "We are in a castle," Jasmin said gently. "A safe place."

  Risa looked at Jasmin. She frowned. She reached out and touched Jasmin's face.

  "I know you," Risa whispered.

  Jasmin froze. "You do?"

  "You... you were in the picture," Risa said. "Pia had a picture. A drawing. She said... 'This is Jasmin. She sings like a bird.'"

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Jasmin’s heart stopped. Pia had talked about her. Pia had kept a drawing of her.

  "Yes," Jasmin choked out. "I am Jasmin. I was Pia's friend."

  Risa’s eyes lit up with hope. She looked around the room.

  "Where is she?" Risa asked. "Where is Pia? She said she would come for me. She said she was working hard to get me out."

  The silence in the room was heavy. Lloyd stopped working on Ken. Ken looked away. The other children watched with wide eyes.

  Jasmin felt like she couldn't breathe. This was the moment she had dreaded. The moment the promise broke.

  She took Risa’s hands. They were so small. So scarred from the cuffs.

  "Risa," Jasmin said, her voice trembling. "Pia... Pia tried. She tried so hard."

  "Is she late?" Risa asked innocently. "It's okay. I can wait."

  "No, sweetie," Jasmin said. Tears spilled down her cheeks. "She isn't late. She... she can't come."

  Risa went still. "Why?"

  Jasmin looked at Lloyd for help, but Lloyd just looked sad. He couldn't fix this. No strategy could fix this.

  "Because she's gone," Jasmin whispered. "The bad men... they hurt her. She died, Risa. She died trying to save you."

  Risa stared at her. She didn't scream. She didn't cry immediately. She just stared, as if trying to understand a language she didn't speak.

  "Dead?" Risa whispered.

  "Yes," Jasmin sobbed. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

  Risa pulled her hands away. She curled into a ball. She buried her face in her knees.

  And then the sound came. A low, keening wail that rose in pitch until it filled the room. It was the sound of a heart breaking. It was the sound of a child realizing she was alone in the world.

  Jasmin wrapped her arms around the girl. She rocked her. She let Risa scream into her shoulder. She cried with her.

  Lloyd watched them. He felt a lump in his throat. He felt the familiar, cold rage rising in his chest.

  This was the cost of Cassius's ambition. This grief. This pain.

  He finished bandaging Ken. He stood up.

  "Let her cry," Lloyd said softly. "It's safe here. The walls are thick."

  He walked to the window. He peered through the crack in the curtains. The sun was rising over Saber. The city was waking up, unaware of the tragedy unfolding in the King's spare room.

  "We are inside," Lloyd whispered to himself. "We are right under his nose."

  He looked back at the grieving girls and the broken bodyguard.

  "Cassius thinks he is hunting us," Lloyd thought. "But he just let the Trojan Horse into his bedroom."

  He clenched his fist.

  "Cry now, Risa," Lloyd vowed silently. "But tomorrow... tomorrow we make them pay."

  He checked his watch. It was almost time for the King's checkup. He had to go act like a doctor while his heart was burning with the fury of a general.

  "Stay here," Lloyd ordered softly. "Do not open the door for anyone but me."

  He slipped back through the panel, leaving the mourners in the dust of the past, stepping back into the dangerous light of the present. The cliffhanger of their survival hung by a thread, suspended in the heart of the enemy's lair.

  Chapter : 1531

  Prince Cassius stood in the center of the War Room, staring at the large tactical map spread out on the table before him. The room was usually a place of quiet, calculated power, but tonight it felt like a cage. The stone walls seemed to lean in closer, pressing against him. Outside the thick windows, the sky to the north was still stained with the orange glow of the burning fuel depot at the Orchid House. It was a beacon of his failure, a signal fire that screamed to the entire city that he had lost control.

  A messenger burst through the doors, breathless and pale. He didn't even wait for permission to speak.

  "Your Highness," the messenger gasped, falling to one knee. "Report from the Obsidian Eye. The facility... the facility is gone. The north wing is destroyed. The prisoners... the assets... they are missing."

  Cassius didn't turn around. He kept his eyes fixed on the map, specifically on the marker for the Royal Palace. His hand rested on the hilt of his ceremonial sword, his knuckles white.

  "And the intruders?" Cassius asked, his voice dangerously quiet. "Did we catch them?"

  "No, Highness," the messenger stammered. "They... they vanished. The trail went cold near the city gates. But the Commander believes they did not leave the city. He believes they doubled back."

  Cassius closed his eyes. Doubled back. Of course. They hadn't run for the hills. They had run for cover.

  "Get out," Cassius whispered.

  The messenger scrambled backward and fled the room.

  Cassius swept his arm across the table, sending the wooden markers and maps flying. They clattered against the stone floor, a chaotic mess that mirrored his own unraveling plans.

  He had been so careful. He had built his power block by block, silencing dissent, drugging the King, binding his sister. He had created a perfect, airtight system of control. And now, in the span of a single night, it was all falling apart because of a doctor with a fake smile and a sister who had suddenly remembered she had a spine.

  "Zayn," Cassius hissed the name.

  He walked to the window and looked down at the courtyard. The guests from the ball were still being held, locked inside the main building, confused and frightened. He had told them it was for their protection. In reality, they were hostages.

  He knew what was happening. Seraphina hadn't just fainted. She hadn't just demanded a ball to look pretty. It was a coordinated strike. She had stripped the defenses of the Orchid House so her accomplices could burn it down. And now, she was hiding somewhere in this palace, likely with the very "assets" his soldiers had failed to secure.

  If the truth of the Orchid House came out—the children, the experiments, the death rates—his legitimacy would evaporate. The nobles would turn on him. The army, loyal to the idea of the King, would fracture. He would be finished.

  He couldn't let that happen. He had come too far. He had sacrificed too much.

  "If I cannot control the narrative," Cassius said to the empty room, "then I must silence the audience."

  He turned and walked to the door. He threw it open. The Captain of the Obsidian Eye, a man named Draven, was waiting outside. Draven wore black armor that seemed to absorb the light. He was a killer, not a soldier.

  "Highness?" Draven asked.

  "Initiate Protocol Zero," Cassius commanded. His voice was steady now. The panic was gone, replaced by the cold, hard resolve of a man who had decided to burn the world rather than lose it.

  Draven’s eyes widened slightly behind his visor. "Zero? Sire, that is... that is the contingency for a fallen state. It declares martial law. It suspends the council."

  "Do it," Cassius said. "The King is incapacitated. His illness has taken a sudden, catastrophic turn. He is no longer fit to command. As Crown Prince, I am assuming emergency powers effective immediately."

  "And the Princess?" Draven asked.

  "The Princess has been compromised," Cassius said, the lie tasting like ash and iron in his mouth. "She has been manipulated by foreign agents. Specifically, the Zakarian spy posing as Doctor Zayn. They are to be considered enemies of the state."

  He looked Draven in the eye.

  "Find them, Captain. Turn this palace upside down. Search every room, every closet, every tunnel. And when you find them... do not bring them to me."

  "Highness?"

  Chapter : 1532

  "Execute them," Cassius said. "On sight. They are spies. They are saboteurs. They are a threat to the kingdom. Kill them all. The Doctor. The bodyguard. The maid. And..."

  He paused. He thought of Seraphina. He thought of her blue eyes, so like their mother’s. He thought of the way she used to follow him around the gardens when they were children.

  "And the Princess?" Draven prompted.

  Cassius killed the memory. He strangled it in his mind.

  "If she resists," Cassius said, his voice flat, "treat her as a combatant. Secure the throne, Draven. No matter the cost."

  "Yes, Your Majesty," Draven said, using the title prematurely. It was exactly what Cassius wanted to hear.

  Draven turned and shouted orders. "Lockdown! Seal the gates! No one enters or leaves! Obsidian Eye, to me! We have traitors in the walls!"

  The alarm bells began to ring. Not the slow toll of ceremony, but the frantic, clanging peal of emergency. The sound echoed through the stone corridors, a announcement of the end of the old order.

  Cassius walked back into the War Room. He picked up a wooden marker—the King piece—from the floor. He looked at it for a moment, then crushed it in his hand.

  The coup had begun. The gilded cage was no longer a home. It was a hunting ground. And the royal family was the prey.

  ----

  Deep within the East Wing, inside the dusty, sheet-draped chambers of the late Queen, the atmosphere was thick with tension. The sound of the alarm bells penetrated even the thick stone walls, a muffled, rhythmic clanging that sounded like the heartbeat of a dying giant.

  Lloyd Ferrum, stripped of his velvet jacket and with his sleeves rolled up, stood by the heavy door. He pressed his ear against the wood, listening.

  "Bells," Lloyd said, turning back to the room. "That isn't the dinner bell. That is the 'we are locking the doors and sharpening the axes' bell."

  Ken Park sat on the floor, his back against a vanity table. He looked better than he had an hour ago, thanks to Lloyd’s emergency treatment, but he was still pale. He was checking the magazine of his rifle, his movements slow but deliberate.

  "He knows," Ken stated. "He isn't searching anymore. He is purging."

  Jasmin was huddled in the corner with Risa and the other three children. They were eating dried fruit from the King's pantry, their eyes wide with fear as the bells rang on.

  "What does it mean?" Jasmin whispered.

  "It means Cassius has panicked," Lloyd said. He walked over to the window and peered through a crack in the heavy curtains. Below, in the courtyard, he saw squads of black-armored soldiers running. They weren't moving like guards on patrol. They were moving like assault teams.

  "He has declared martial law," Lloyd deduced. "He's making his move for the throne. He probably declared the King dead or dying, and Seraphina a traitor. It is the only move he has left."

  "So we are trapped," Jasmin said, hugging Risa tighter.

  "We are surrounded," Lloyd corrected. "Trapped implies we have no way out. Surrounded just means we have a target-rich environment."

  He tried to sound confident, sarcastic even, but inside, his mind was racing. The palace was huge, a labyrinth of stone. But Cassius had the numbers. He had the Obsidian Eye. And he had home-field advantage.

  "We need to move," Ken said, trying to stand up. He winced.

  "No," Lloyd said. "If we move, we run into his patrols. This room is the last place he will look. It's a shrine to his dead mother. He avoids it. It buys us time."

  "Time for what?" Jasmin asked. "To wait for them to break down the door?"

  "Time to wake up the landlord," Lloyd said.

  He turned and looked at the bed. Not the Queen's bed, but the makeshift pallet they had set up for King Aurelius.

  The King was currently sitting on the edge of the mattress. He looked terrible. His skin was gray, his hands shaking violently. The withdrawal from the sedatives was hitting him hard. He was sweating, muttering to himself, lost in a fog of confusion and pain.

  "Father?" Princess Seraphina knelt beside him. She held his hand. "Father, please. Look at me."

  "The spiders," Aurelius mumbled, batting at the air. "Get the spiders off the crown."

  Seraphina looked up at Lloyd, tears in her eyes. "He is getting worse. The shock... the withdrawal... it is too much for him."