The Tale of Mally Biddle (33 page)

Nanette’s jaws clenched. Lita whipped her head around to look at Mally so fast, her braid flew through the air like a rope.

“
She knows?
”

Meriyal’s narrowed eyes stared at the three of them.

“Knows what? What do you know, Nanette?”

Nanette’s white lips thinned.

“She knows I’m the princess,” Mally answered for her.

Nanette closed her eyes; Meriyal literally stumbled backwards.

“What—is—
is this true?
” Meriyal demanded, her voice hoarse. Her wide eyes left Mally to land on Lita to finally focus on Nanette. “
Is this true?
”

“How did you know?” Mally asked Nanette.

With the three of them staring at her, Nanette seemed to find herself against a wall.

“Since Bayard attacked you,” she answered softly. “When Gladys was praising the uniqueness of your birthmark. I have seen it before. I saw it when Cayla gave you baths. Cayla didn’t like the mark very much. She found it unflattering and always made sure it was covered while you were in public.”

“And you didn’t say anything?” asked Meriyal, staring at Nanette as if she had never seen her before.

“I didn’t want to draw any more attention to her. She had a
lready been attacked by a knight! I wasn’t even sure if she knew—”

“I didn’t,” Mally said. “Not until very recently.”

“And now you’re here,” said Meriyal, here eyes running up and down Mally. “What are you planning?”

Lita quickly explained Egan’s plan—which was looking frailer by the minute—and that Galen and Edwin were hiding in the broom cupboard.

“I’ll help the Dunker boys,” said Meriyal firmly. “Nanette, the others need to be alerted, whether they wish to fight or run.”

Nanette nodded.

“You two can come with me.”

“We can’t, Meriyal,” Mally said quickly. They had been spea
king for far too long already. She didn’t want to waste any more time trying to convince Meriyal to let her see the king. “We have our own—things we have to do.”

Meriyal frowned deeply at Mally, and Nanette looked on the verge of saying something, but to Mally’s relief, Meriyal nodded and said, “Fine. Let’s move quickly.”

“Meriyal! Be careful. The knights know of some of the passages!” Lita said quickly.

Nanette gasped. For the first time, Meriyal seemed to deflate.

“It had to happen,” she said softly before hurrying past them to the first floor.

With that, Mally and Lita continued on to the tapestry of the maiden by the stream—the tapestry that led directly to the king’s chamber. They tiptoed quietly, and there were no surprises. As they reached a long stretch of corridor with a wide staircase to the left leading down to the next floor, Mally’s heart leapt with e
xcitement and nerves. The tapestry was right before them. But so was Bayard, standing guard; his thumb continued a slow pattern upon the handle of his sword. Mally and Lita exchanged a quick glance. How were they going to get past him?

Just as Mally was about to whisper this question to Lita, Lita had flashed her an emboldened grin, leapt from their hiding place into the middle of the corridor, filled her lungs and screamed, “KNIGHTS ARE SCUM!”

There was a clatter as Bayard jumped in surprise. Lita had already turned tail and was flying down the darkened corridor. Cursing, Bayard raced after her. Mally had pressed herself flush against the dark nook where they had been hiding as Bayard dashed after Lita. Mally could hear Bayard roar, “REBEL! REBEL IN THE CASTLE!” as he chased Lita down the corridor.

Shaking from head to foot, Mally sprinted to the tapestry. She could hear the clanking of footsteps rushing toward her, but in the darkness, she couldn’t see them. Her heart in her throat, she yanked the tapestry away from the hidden door and slipped into the passage.

It didn’t seem to take long. The passage was empty. Mally prayed she wouldn’t find another knight guarding the other end. Each step brought her closer to a scene she had been formulating in her mind ever since she had accepted the fact that she was Princess Avona. The words to her speech had been clear and moving, yet now she couldn’t bring back a single word. What was she going to say? Would he even believe her? Did he know Princess Avona had a birthmark? Or even what it looked like? Maybe she was foolish to see him alone. Maybe she should go back to the kitchen. But the knights knew they were in the castle. She couldn’t turn back.

All too quickly she stood before the stone door that was hidden by the tapestry that hung in the corner of King Salir’s chamber. It struck her forcefully that she stood outside her
parents’
chamber.

She slowly opened the door and for a moment stared at the rusty brown and gold threads weaved through the back of the ta
pestry. Then she inched it aside. King Salir sat in the same chair he had occupied when she’d first visited him, with his back to the tapestry. In his hand, he lazily twirled a glass of wine.

“My dear? You desire my company?”

Mally’s throat went dry. He knew she was there.

Stepping out from behind the tapestry, she cleared her throat.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

She forced her feet to walk toward him.

33
For the Kingdom

If King Salir was surprised by her appearance, he didn’t show it. In fact, his laid back countenance made Mally wonder if he had been expecting her all along. He smiled happily at her and twirled his glass.

“May I offer you a drink?”

“No thank you, Your Highness.”

King Salir shrugged his shoulders, leaned forward, and refilled his glass from the wine decanter on the table. He paused as a bell tolled in the distance. Mally froze. King Salir frowned and glanced to his right where a large clock hung up on the wall.

“Peculiar,” he said.

Mally could clearly see the face of the clock. Its hands rested at eleven-fifty. She tried to keep her face calm as her body tensed. They had taken over the tower. They had sent the message. Daniel and Allen would be leading the charge down the underground tunnel to the cellar. People all over the city would be rising into action, flooding the silent streets. Mally couldn’t help herself. She risked a glance out of one of the tall, arched windows, but she couldn’t make out the city. The moon was not in the sky.

King Salir seemed to have shrugged off the odd timing of the Bell Tower’s chime and turned back to Mally. He continued as if there had been no interruption.

“I think I can guess the reason for your late night visit.”

Mally stared at him. Of course he knew what Molick knew: she was a rebel. Maybe he thought she was here to try to capture him.

“Though I must say, I find it odd that you are alone,” the king continued pleasantly.

It suddenly struck Mally how strange it was to be standing in this quiet room when she knew a horrendous battle must be raging throughout the castle. Bayard had alerted the knights and Mally was tensed for the giant BOOM of the castle’s front doors banging open, even though she knew she wouldn’t hear it so far up in the castle. The king acted like there was nothing special about tonight. Tonight was just another night. As if he often expected visits from rebel members in his chamber. 

“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but we don’t have much time,” Mally began. “I’m here to—”

King Salir flicked his hand.

“No, no. Please, let me guess,” King Salir interrupted with a smile. “We should have some time before your comrades join us.”

“But that’s what I’m here about,” Mally said quickly. “The ca
stle is under siege—you have to run—”

“Run?” The king looked at her strangely, as if for a moment he thought she was joking. “Why ever, my dear, would I
run
?”

Mally smiled in relief. He wasn’t a coward. He was going to join them! He was going to help them fight!

King Salir continued to stare at her, a hint of a frown marring his handsome brow. Then a thought seemed to occur to him and he laughed. He laughed so hard that it bounced off the walls. Mally felt her smile slide away.

“Oh, my dear, you are a funny one!” King Salir laughed. “I’ll be fighting, all right. But not by
your
side.”

King Salir suddenly moved forward, resting his elbows on his knees and fixing her with a heated gaze. His eyes seemed to be smoldering coals.

“I appreciate you warning me; it is very touching of you, but aren’t you concerned for
your
well being? The knights could charge in here any second.”

Mally paled.

“But I won’t call them. No—I would never do that.” King Salir smirked, his eyes twinkling with that heat that made Mally’s stomach squirm. “You can’t count on anyone these days. They’re all a bunch of idiotic children, playing with swords, and Molick’s the biggest fool of them all. Nor do you need to worry about me calling Haskin,” King Salir added.

“Sir Anon?” Mally asked in confusion.

“Yes.” He chuckled at Mally’s bemusement. “Surely you wouldn’t want me to call in the man that’s been trying to do you in for two months?”

“Haskin? No, that was Bayard—Sir Adrian,” Mally explained, startled. “I didn’t know you knew about that.”

“Oh, I knew,” said King Salir cheerfully over his glass. “But I assure you. It was not Bayard no matter how unpleasant he is. Believe me, Anon was doing his damnedest to kill you.”

“No! Sir Anon hasn’t done anything to me!”

King Salir shook his head, still smiling, like an uncle having a pleasant conversation with his favorite—if stubborn—niece.

“Bayard attacked me soon after I came here,” Mally continued to argue. “Sir Anon—”

“Sir Anon failed to kill you sixteen years ago,” King Salir interrupted. “Sir Anon overheard Gladys telling Mildred about your birthmark. He recognized the description because he had seen it before when you were a baby. Sir Anon knew who you were. Sir Anon fiddled with the stand’s legs and bumped it when you were standing under it. Sir Anon gave your friend those mushrooms intending for
you
to eat them. Sir Anon pushed you down the stairs. Sir Anon failed.”

Mally stared at King Salir numbly. Incredulously. She couldn’t believe this.
Sir Anon?
And if King Salir knew all of this … knew about her birthmark … he had known throughout their entire conversation who she was and why she was here! Why were they having this long talk when the knights and rebels were battling somewhere in the castle?

But the king was speaking again.

“You needn’t fear him attacking you now. Anon is dead.”

“
Dead?
”

Mally’s brain worked feverishly, trying to take this strange conversation in. Something wasn’t right.

“Your Highness,” Mally said, trying to keep her voice calm. “If you know who I am … who I really am, then we need to get moving. The rebels are attacking the castle—”

“They’re all imprisoned,” King Salir said with a shrug, but then he smiled as if Mally had just made a surprise move on a ches
sboard. “
Ah!
But the servant passages! Oh, very clever, my dear. I always
knew
there had to be one leading to the dungeons, though I could never find it!” King Salir beamed at her.

“You know where the passages are?” Mally asked, her voice dropping.

King Salir inclined his head, smiling.

“I don’t know as many as Meriyal, but I know a good number. It seems that my timing was better than expected. I knew there would be a time when I would have to give out my—and your—carefully kept secrets. I told Molick about a couple of passages just this evening. During dinner, actually. When Anon told me of his blundering, I knew it was time. He was a complete waste. I see now I made a mistake in trusting him. He’s more useful to me now dead.”

Mally took a step backwards, wanting to get far from this man.

“Did you—”

“Kill him?” King Salir finished for her. “Of course I killed him.”

Mally stumbled backward as if she’d been punched.

“He had failed me. I have believed you dead for sixteen years. I’ve believed you dead ever since he informed me that he’d dropped you in the ocean. I told him to handle the servant Cayla as well, as she was becoming meddlesome, but she slipped through his incompetent fingers.” King Salir sighed. “No matter, she resigned shortly afterwards. And when that woman Kiora Locke began to ask troubling questions about my story of your
fever
”—King Salir’s mouth twitched into a smirk as if he had said something clever—“Anon lured her to the Bell Tower and pushed her over the side. But when I discovered the
truth
… that he had
lied
to me … well, I didn’t approve, Mally. I didn’t approve at all.” He cocked his head suddenly and asked, “Are you sure I can’t offer you something?”

Mally was numb. It couldn’t be.

“No? You do seem pale,” King Salir observed, taking a sip from his own glass.

“You were behind all of it?” Mally demanded, her voice co
nstricted. Not Molick? It had never been Molick? 

King Salir looked highly satisfied.

“Oh yes. King Sebastian and your mother—” King Salir laughed and shook his head. “They wouldn’t do. No, not at all. They were so blind. Never noticed the knights organizing underneath their noses … never noticed
me
. The Horse Mint was simple and the poison in his goblet—” King Salir’s smile widened and he tilted his head back as if reliving a wonderful memory. “My favorite part was the look on that stupid servant’s face when Molick took her to the dungeons. I played my part well. No one knew it was me. Not Molick, not—”

“Maud did!” Mally yelled.

King Salir raised an eyebrow.

“She knew it was you all along!” Mally continued wildly. “You got the poison from her apothecary, didn’t you?”

King Salir’s smirk had disappeared but he whispered harshly, “She held her tongue though. She had no proof. And who is going to listen to a mad old apothecary owner?”

Mally gritted her teeth, feeling the waves of hate and fury rad
iate off her body. Her clenched fists were trembling in anger. She had come here to help him. To
save
him!

“What are the odds?” King Salir continued. “Of all the places, all the towns, you come here. You
had
to come back to Bosc. But I prefer it this way. Now I can deal with you myself, as clearly, I should have from the beginning.” His smooth countenance was back under control. “When Anon told me who you were, after the rebels had been captured, he tried to convince me that you would never come back. That the knights had scared you enough that you would stay hidden away in your small farm town.
But I knew better.
I knew you’d come back. It was predictable—though, it would have made things so much easier if you had been a coward.”

He placed his glass down on the table and stood. Mally watched him pull his sword out of its sheath.

“Shall we get this over with?” he asked.

Mally froze, suddenly realizing how foolish she had been. She had nothing to defend herself with. She stared as Romore raised his sword, her brain horribly blank—

BOOM.

Mally jumped and spun around; Romore froze. The doors to his chamber had been flung open with such violence that they banged on the stone walls. In a rush, Galen and Lita raced into the cha
mber with three knights at their heels. Galen grabbed Mally’s elbow and they plunged for the tapestry that hid the secret passage.

“Get them!” Mally heard Romore scream.

Mally, Lita, and Galen ran down the passage. Mally glanced over her shoulder and saw the knights chasing after them.

“Here! Here!” Lita gasped, taking a sharp right in the winding passages. With a startled
oof!
they ran into Nathan, Egan and two men Mally recognized as rebels who had been captured.

“Knights are behind us!” Lita gasped.

“We’ll take care of them!” said Nathan, pushing past her.

They started again, but Mally looked about her frantically.

“Where’s Edwin?”

“With Mom,” Galen yelled, tugging her into a run.

They rushed down the passageways, making a sharp turn or doubling back—anything to confuse the knights following them. Mally picked up a sword stained with blood that lay abandoned on the cold stone and continued on. They raced through the secret passages without any sense of direction. Mally didn’t have a clue where they were anymore. They skidded to a halt as another passageway crossed their path.

“Which way?” Mally asked.

But before they could move in any direction, two knights went racing past them with Archie, Gerda, and Meriyal hot on their trail. Meriyal had a broom in her hands and was swiping it at the retreating knights. They had come and gone so quickly that Mally blinked.

“THERE THEY ARE!”

Mally, Lita and Galen jumped. Bayard and Vinsus had appeared in the passage ahead. They were running toward them. Galen moved in front of Mally, raising his sword—

Suddenly Gibbs and Sir Brian appeared through the side pa
ssage from which Archie, Meriyal and Gerda had just emerged, blocking Mally, Galen and Lita.

“Run!” Gibbs yelled at them as his sword clashed with Bayard’s.

Mally and Lita stood frozen, staring stupidly as Gibbs and Sir Brian parried every blow.

“Mally!” Galen shouted, pulling on her arm.

Mally grabbed Lita by the elbow and they stumbled away from the strange scene. She couldn’t get her mind around what she had witnessed. Gibbs and Sir Brian were fighting the knights? They were
helping
the rebels?

They dove into a side passage and flew down it.

“Where are we going?” Mally panted. They had left the servant passages at last. After a moment, Mally realized they were on the second floor, on the balcony that overlooked the great hall. The marbled remains of many smashed busts lay littered under their feet. Mally saw on the opposite side of the balcony more fighting between the knights and the rebels. She spotted Ivan amongst them, fighting Stoops. Down below in the great hall, there was more yelling and screaming. The great doors had been flung wide.