“Clearly.” She motions for me to rise, a smile in her voice. “What are you doing here? You’re not a servant. I thought—” Her breath hitches and she leans in. “What happened to you?”
At first, I think she’s talking about my dress. But she’s staring at my face. My fingertips go to my cheek and come away crimson. The duke’s blood. Dragon’s teeth. Shame scalds the ridges of my ears and I scrub the flecks of blood away, biting my tongue until I taste woodsmoke and loam.
“I’m summoned to the palace sometimes—”
I don’t want to go on. Don’t want to see the look in her eyes when she realizes what I am. But I also don’t see the point in lying. She’ll find out one way or another that I’m exactly what Briar deems me to be.
“To kill people.”
Aurora inhales sharply, surprise or horror or both rippling over her features like torchlight. But she doesn’t break my gaze. “I’ve heard that rumor.”
“It’s true.” My jaw sets, bracing for rejection. For her to summon her guards and have me escorted to the dungeons.
“I’m sorry. I don’t imagine it’s an errand you enjoy.”
I’m sure that I misheard her. She can’t possibly be taking my side. Again. But she doesn’t waver. Doesn’t even flinch. In fact, I think I detect genuine sympathy in the down-turned corners of her mouth.
“No.” Exhaustion and humiliation overtake me. The kit rattles in my hands. “It isn’t.”
She looks like she’s about to say something else, but a flurry of hurried footsteps echoes down the corridor. Aurora links arms with me and starts herding me forward before I can utter a word of protest.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“Why? Who are we running from?”
“No one probably.” She grins a wicked grin. “But possibly my guards.”
“Your—what?” I try to break free, but she won’t budge. This is exactly what I need. To be discovered with the crown princess in a deserted servants’ alley. Add kidnapper to murderess on my list of offenses against the Crown. “Your Highness, I cannot.”
“Oh, hush up and keep moving. I do this all the time.”
Aurora steers us seamlessly through the passages. My heart is racing at the thought of being found, the scar on my middle blazing. But we pass no one. And what seems like miles later—I’ve given up trying to count the forks and turns—the princess finally pulls to a halt at an ancient door in the oldest part of the palace. With a wink, she extracts a tiny golden key from the inside of her bodice and unlocks it. The moldy wood swings wide without a sound. She must oil the hinges herself. It doesn’t look like anyone’s used this place for decades.
We push aside the moth-eaten remains of a tapestry to reveal a vast, shadow-steeped chamber. My eyes squint, adjusting to the gloom. The only source of light trickles in through high, circular windows that are more grime than glass. Chalky moonbeams paint the rotting railing of an upper-story gallery. A spiral staircase, ironwork rusted. Furniture with springs poking out and dusted with cobwebs. And rows and rows of shelves.
“Books?” I forget myself so much that I set my kit down and start drifting toward them.
“It’s the old library. One of the last relics of the first palace.” Aurora lights a fat, waxy candle and trails me. “I do my best for the volumes in decent shape, but some are beyond my help.” She selects one that may once have had a red leather cover, but is now faded to dingy brown. The pages are yellowed and crumbling. She clicks her tongue and replaces it.
“They didn’t move the books when they built the new wings?”
She shakes her head, the bits of auburn in her hair catching in the candlelight. “Only the ones the illustrious masters thought necessary.” Her nose scrunches. “Masters who didn’t even bother to keep this place up. It’s horrid in the winter. Frost gets in through the windows. Damp in the rain.” She frowns. “It should be a crime.”
Laurel would certainly agree. I think her emerald head might explode if she saw books neglected in such a deplorable manner.
“How did you find this place?” I wasn’t aware that midnight excursions to abandoned libraries were high on a princess’s itinerary.
“It’s always been difficult to keep me locked in my rooms.” Aurora laughs and inspects a low shelf. “I figured out how the servants were coming and going as a young girl. After that, it was easy.”