Princess in Peril (4 page)

Isabelle looked up, expecting to see the usual uniformed guards that protected the embassy. Instead, Lydian soldiers guarded the entrance.
The one nearest her smiled broadly.

“Princess Isabelle, what a pleasant surprise.” He and the soldier next to him stepped forward, reaching for their guns. “If you’ll hand us your weapons, we’ll personally escort you in.”

“We’ll keep them,” Levi said, his presence close behind her reassuring.

Something was wrong. She could feel it. There shouldn’t have been Lydian soldiers guarding the door.
There shouldn’t have been Lydian soldiers in the building at all. Everything felt wrong. Scurrying soldiers stopped as they passed in the hall. What were Lydian soldiers doing in the American Embassy?

Another man in uniform approached them. “You’ve captured
the princess?” he called to his comrades. “Valli will be delighted.”

No! Terror squeezed Isabelle’s heart as the two guards lunged toward
them, their hands stretched out to take their guns.

Levi spun around her, stiff-arming the men in the face with the butt of his rifle before sweeping his other arm around her waist and scooping her up as he shoved his way back through the door. Out of the corner of her eye, Isabelle saw the other officers rushing toward them, pulling out their guns. The heavy doors slammed shut behind them.

Instead of heading back down the stairs and across the open street, Levi surprised her by scooting to the side of the marble landing and leaping over the balustrade into the bushes, taking her with him.

Prickly branches grabbed at her dress as she fell, but the moment her feet hit the firm earth, the branches settled above their heads. Levi shuffled sideways under the cover of the lush Mediterranean
foliage.

Above them on the landing she could hear the doors bang open and soldiers shouting, wondering aloud where they’d gone. “Down!” Levi whispered, ushering her toward a window well deep behind the shadows of the landscaping.

Isabelle gulped a breath and jumped. Levi landed silently beside her and immediately grabbed the window by its frame.

“What are you doing?” she whispered, more than
aware that the Embassy building was crawling with Lydian soldiers, who were apparently reporting to Valli. “We’re breaking back
in?
”

“Shh.” Levi pulled the aging window frame from the time-warped wood. “You said you’d trust me.”

A blur of responses passed through her mind, most of them involving their near capture moments before, but she bit her tongue and ducked, mindful of the darkness and
the
cobwebs. The stone room was similar to those in the basement of the cathedral, but instead of bones, it housed cluttered piles of old furniture, discarded desks and slumping stacks of boxes. Levi slid through the window and landed beside her, reaching back up and pulling the wood-framed glass into place behind them.

“Where are we?” She pulled his ear as close to her lips as she could so she
wouldn’t have to speak above the sound of a breath.

“The basement of the Embassy.”

“You brought me straight into the hornets’ nest?”

“I’m keeping you alive.” He raised the assault rifle in front of his face, covering them as he moved toward the door. “Everyone is outside looking for us.”

“So where are we going?”

“The last place they’re going to look.”

His words were ominous, and Isabelle
swallowed, following him down the dark hallway. Unlike the underground mausoleum below the cathedral, the Embassy basement sat at garden level, and the dying sunlight filtered through windows, giving them just enough illumination to find their way through the cluttered space.

They reached a staircase that bent even farther downward, another level below the earth. Isabelle swallowed, her heart
thudding in fear. “Do you seriously know where you’re going?”

“Of course I do.”

“Where?”

“The dungeon.” He pulled her close beside him as he took the first step downward.

Isabelle followed, not so much because she trusted him but because she knew for certain, thanks to the comment of the soldier above them, that Valli wanted her captured. If
Levi could prevent that from happening, she’d follow
him anywhere, even into a dungeon.

“I just want you to know,” she whispered, pulling instinctively closer to him as the filtered light faded to utter darkness, “that I have no intention of hiding in another crypt. That was the most terrifying thing that’s happened to me since—” She broke off, thinking.

“Since the soldiers tried to take you to Valli?”

“That was afterward.”

“You’ve had quite
a day.” He pulled out the small flashlight he’d taken from the soldiers. Its beam cut through the darkness, landing on ancient chains that dripped from the walls. Isabelle tried not to think about the prisoners who’d been shackled inside the dungeon over the years.

“So where are we going?” She couldn’t hear any soldiers following them and so assumed it was okay to speak in a normal whisper. It
made the darkness feel slightly less oppressive that way.

“Back into the catacombs. From there we can get just about anywhere.”

“There’s an entrance to the catacombs under the Embassy? Why didn’t we come up this way earlier?”

Levi cleared his throat.

Was he buying time before answering? Isabelle wasn’t sure, but she didn’t like it. Why had he risked their flight across the street if they could
have come up through the Embassy?

When Levi finally spoke, his words were less than encouraging. “There’s not really an entrance to the catacombs under the Embassy. According to the hand-drawn maps I studied, there used to be one, but it was walled over to prevent the catacombs from being accidentally discovered by the Americans.” He reached the back corner of the dungeon
and stopped, his light
shining against the formidable bricks of the cold stone wall.

Isabelle shuddered, acutely aware of the fix they’d gotten themselves into. The lines of mortar that ran between the stones were dark gray throughout most of the subterranean room, but in the space where Levi shined his light, the mortar looked paler. Fresher. “So what are we supposed to do? Dig our way out?”

“Hold this.” Levi handed
her the flashlight. “Stand back.”

Isabelle obeyed, hoping that whatever Levi was going to do wouldn’t take long. What if the soldiers looked behind the bushes and realized they’d come back in through the window? They’d catch up to them quickly if that was the case.

Levi ran his hands along the seams between the large stone bricks. A few grains of mortar crumbled out from between the seams, and
he pulled a tool from his pocket, chiseling away at a seam between the stones. Mortar fell like dust. Several hacking motions later, Levi stood back, a satisfied look on his face.

“I need something big and heavy,” he murmured, looking around.

“What for?”

“To use as a battering ram.”

“You can’t possibly expect to force your way through a stone wall.”

“It’s a false wall,” Levi corrected her.
“I could probably kick it in, but I don’t want to risk an injury.”

While he spoke, Isabelle looked around them at the deep underground prison. Like many of the buildings in the millennia-old city, the Embassy had been rebuilt and refurbished many times over the centuries, and discarded building materials cluttered the room. “Here’s a beam,” she offered, pointing with the flashlight Levi had handed
her.

“Good work.” Levi snatched it up, hefted the weight of it in his hands and balanced it on his shoulder. “Stand back.”

Isabelle did so. She wasn’t nearly as sure of Levi’s plan as he seemed to be, and she feared that his efforts might bring the ceiling crumbling down on top of them or, at the very least, alert the soldiers to their presence.

The thick end of the old wood thudded against
the stones as Levi pummeled it a few times. Then he appeared to brace himself, took several steps back and came at the wall at a run.

“Augh!” Levi exclaimed as the beam buried itself deep in the stones and he stumbled from the impact.

“Shh!” Isabelle hurried to his side. “Are you all right?”

The bodyguard looked stunned as he eased himself to his feet. “I’m fine,” he said, though he didn’t
sound fine. He tugged at the beam and the stones shifted, crumbling away to reveal a round hole half a meter in diameter. The dust settled, exposing utter blackness beyond.

Isabelle shuddered. “Do you think the soldiers won’t notice the hole and guess where we’ve gone?”

Levi pulled off his sunglasses as he turned to face her. His blue eyes were piercing in the silvery beam from the flashlight.
“Your father’s generals know about the catacombs,” he stated bluntly. “They were there when your father shared the maps with me. If Lydian soldiers are answering to Valli, he must have at least one general under his thumb somehow. This tells him nothing he doesn’t already know.” He reached for her hand. “Would you like to go first?”

Although the hole hardly seemed large enough to squeeze through,
Isabelle realized they didn’t have time to enlarge it. And the fact that Valli likely knew about the catacombs made their flight that much more urgent.

Reluctantly, Isabelle placed her hand in Levi’s and climbed over the pile of rubble to peer into the darkness of the hole.
“You do recall that we left several soldiers in the mausoleum, don’t you?”

“I’m sure they’ve left by now.” Levi shined
his flashlight into the darkness beyond. “It’s less than a meter to the floor. We should hurry.”

Realizing he was right, Isabelle hoisted the skirt of her evening gown just high enough to permit her to step through the hole. Her feet found the floor beyond and she secured decent footing among the jumbled stones. As soon as Levi was through she reached for the jacket he wore.

“I’m cold.” Even
her voice shivered.

Levi pulled off the tuxedo jacket and placed it around her shoulders. “I should have given it to you sooner. I don’t need it.” His white cotton shirt rose and fell against his muscular chest as he sucked in deep breaths, obviously still winded from the exertion of breaking through the wall.

Slipping her arms through the sleeves, Isabelle turned away from Levi and tried not
to think about how indebted she was to the handsome bodyguard for all he’d done on her behalf that evening. Instead she focused on the path ahead.

Isabelle knew they didn’t have much ground to cover because the Embassy was so close to the cathedral. They rounded a corner and found themselves back at the staircase that led up to the mausoleum. The climb that had been so frightening the first time
now felt familiar, although Isabelle knew they had just as much to fear—possibly more so now that the soldiers knew she was alive. When they lifted the opening above, artificial light continued to shine down brightly from the central hall.

Levi paused. “Do you hear anything?” he asked after some silence.

“Nothing.”

“Then let’s go.”

They clambered through the hole and darted down the
hall.
Isabelle saw no sign of the soldiers they’d left behind less than an hour before. Relieved that the men weren’t still there, Isabelle nonetheless wondered where they might have gone. Her fingers tightened around Levi’s arm, and her steps slowed.

“We need to hurry,” he reminded her.

She shook her head. “Hurry where? You said yourself this is the last place they’d likely look for us. If we go
running upstairs we could be captured.”

The dark line of Levi’s beard flexed as he clenched his jaw. He seemed to weigh her words carefully before he spoke. “The soldiers have already checked the cathedral—I have no doubt about that. They’ll most likely assume we’ve fled the area. They’ll widen the perimeter of their search area before they recheck where they’ve already been.”

“Do you think
so?”

His blue eyes hardened. “Whoever’s behind this insurgent uprising, they seem to have gained control of the Lydian military. That means Lydian commanders following Lydian protocol.”

Isabelle recalled his earlier insinuation that he’d served in the Lydian military. Although she wanted to question him about it, there simply wasn’t time. She followed him down the hallway toward the steps that
led up to the cathedral. “How long do you think we’ll have before they circle back and check the cathedral again?”

“It depends on how organized they are. They’ve just pulled off a major ambush so I’d like to believe they won’t be too methodical about their search just yet. We might have an hour, maybe several hours. We still need to move quickly.”

“And where are we moving to? Do you still think
you can get me out of the country?”

A smile twitched in the corner of Levi’s eyes. “Now you want out of the country?”

He looked far too pleased with her change of priorities, but Isabelle refused to be distracted from her goal of reaching safety. “If Stephanos Valli is working with the insurgent forces, then yes, I want to get as far from here as I possibly can.”

“Then we’ll need help.” Levi
led her up the stairs to the back hallway of the cathedral, where the stone floors gave way to Persian rugs, softening their footfalls. “One of the deacons at the Cathedral is a former Sanctuary International agent. If he’s here—if we can find him before anyone else recognizes you—perhaps he can help us get to out of the country. The Sanctuary International headquarters are in New York City. We’ll
be safest there.”

Isabelle nodded. “What does this former agent look like?”

“I don’t know,” Levi admitted. “We’ve never met, but your father mentioned his name in passing—”

“What’s his name, then?”

“Dan? Don? Dom?”

“Dom Procopio?”

“Yes.” Levi snapped his fingers. “I think that’s it.”

“Dom Procopio is a deacon and a friend of my father,” Isabelle offered cautiously. They’d made their way
down the richly inlaid hall, and now the doors to the deacons’ offices appeared in front of Isabelle as she turned the corner. The name
Dom Procopio
was etched into the placard on the third door, and Isabelle grasped the doorknob with her right hand.

Levi’s calloused fingers covered hers. “Careful,” he cautioned her, suddenly so close that she could feel his warmth still the goose bumps on her
arm. “We don’t know what we’ll find on the other side of that door.”