Page 110 of Into the Heartless Wood
The woman creaks the door open and scowls at me. “Don’t tell me you got lost again, girl. What do you really want? I’ve just got the child to sleep.”
“Heledd sent me to relieve you.” The lie slides out easily. “She said you are to have a few hours off.”
The woman’s face lights up. “It’s about time! I’m lucky anyone remembers to send food up, let alone give me a moment away. I’ll be back by morning, but not before.” She pushes past me without another word, mumbling something about finding a proper drink.
Her footsteps clatter on the stairs, and fade slowly away.
Owen appears at my side. “Thank you,” he says seriously.
He goes in alone. I sink to a seat by one of the violet pots to wait for him.
Chapter Forty-One
OWEN
MY SISTER IS SLEEPING IN A LITTLE BED UNDER A WINDOW, hugging a stuffed bear tight to her chest, a blanket pulled up to her shoulders. It’s a charming room, filled with books and toys, a child’s tea set, a mock sword. But it still angers me—has she been kept here since my father’s arrest, never allowed out of doors?
I hate to wake her, but I do, sinking down onto the bed beside her, gathering her into my arms.
She opens her eyes and squints up at me. “Wen?” she mumbles.
“I’m here, Awela.”
She hugs me tight and cries into my neck. My own tears drip into her hair. “Are they treating you well, little darling?”
She doesn’t understand the question enough to answer it, just bunches my shirt in her little hand and asks for Father.
“We can’t see him just yet, dearest.”
“PAPA!” she screeches.
When she’s screamed herself out, she wiggles from my arms and goes to show me her toys: blocks and dolls and wooden beads on brightly colored strings. I admire them all, wishing I could scoop her up and take her home and all would be as it was before.
“Why is the king keeping you here, little one?” I wonder aloud. “Just to punish my father for some imagined slight?”
Awela bursts into tears.
“Awela, what’s wrong?”
“King!” she sobs, shaking her head. “No king, no king, no king.”
My stomach drops. “The king has been to see you? Why?”
But of course she can’t tell me. I hold her until she’s grown calm again, yawning against my chest.
I try to think—I should have planned better. I should have found a way to break my father out of prison so the three of us could flee the palace tonight. Leave Tarian forever. I can’t take Awela and leave my father behind. But how can I leave herhere?
I tell myself it’s enough that I’ve found her, for now. It has to be. I have nowhere to take her. Nowhere to hide. Ihaveto leave her here.
She’s nearly fallen asleep on me, and I tuck her back into bed. I tell her the story about the woman who becomes a star, sing her her favorite lullabies. Her eyes shut tight. Her chest rises and falls beneath her blanket. She’s grown, I realize, and it makes me angry. The king has no right to shut her up in here. No right to keep her from her family. I don’t know what he wants with her—I don’t know what he’sdoneto her—but I’m going to find out. And I’m going to find a way to get both her and my father to safety, as soon as possible.
I sit with Awela for longer than I mean to, nodding off in the chair beside her bed.
Bedwyn wakes me, a gentle touch on my shoulder. “It is nearly dawn,” she says softly. “The woman is coming back.”
I swallow a curse. I don’t knowwhatTaliesin will do to me if he finds out I’ve been up here all night.
“Go down the stair, quickly,” Bedwyn tells me. “Hide behind one of the birch trees, and wait for her to pass you. Then you should be able to get down the rest of the servants’ stairs, out through the kitchen courtyard, and back to your room before sunrise.”
