05 The Escape

Sera

I spent the rest of the day in my room while servants packed my life into trunks. Dresses, shoes, jewelry I'd never worn. Things a princess was supposed to have.

I sat on the windowsill and didn't say a word.

When they left, the room looked half-empty. My whole life sorted into boxes like I was already gone.

Three days. Two now.

I kept thinking about Fenris at that table, talking to my father like I wasn't even there. The way he'd looked at me at the end—that cold assessment.

The sun was setting when I heard the knock. Soft, barely audible. Three taps, pause, two more.

Nadia's knock.

I unlocked the door, and she slipped inside.

"How are you holding up?" she asked, looking at the half-packed room.

"How do you think?"

She sat on my bed and was quiet for a minute. Then she said, "Do you remember three years ago? When I helped you get out the first time?"

"Of course I remember."

"My father's cabin is still there. Still empty." She looked at me. "Nobody's used it in years."

I turned to face her. "Nadia—"

"Just listen. The guards are going to be watching for you to run. They know you did it before, they'll expect it again." She stood up and grabbed my cloak from the chair. "So we give them what they expect. I wear this, walk through the gardens tonight. They'll think it's me trying to leave."

"They'll catch you."

"That's the point. While they're dealing with me, you get out." She was talking faster now. "I know someone who can help. Drives supply wagons for the kitchens. He'll be at the south servants' entrance with a wagon. You hide in the back, he gets you through the checkpoints."

"And when they figure out it was you in the garden and not me—"

"I'll tell them I was sneaking out to meet a boy. They'll believe it because I've done it before. I'll get in trouble but that's all." She grabbed my hands. "They want you, Sera. Not me. I'm not the one with a contract."

I wanted to believe that but I wasn't sure.

"When?" I asked.

"Tonight. Late, after midnight. I'll go through the gardens around one. You leave through the servants' entrance at the same time."

"What's his name? The driver."

"Willem. He owes my father a favor." She squeezed my hands. "Pack light. One bag, things you actually need."

* * *

The hours crawled. I packed practical clothes, money, a few things that mattered. At midnight exactly, Nadia appeared wearing my cloak.

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

"Five minutes after I leave, take the south entrance." She squeezed my hand once. "Please be careful."

Then she was gone, my cloak trailing behind her.

I counted to three hundred and slipped out.

The servants' passages were worse than I remembered. The air was thick with dust that made me want to cough, and I had to breathe through my mouth to avoid the smell—mold and damp stone and something else. Something dead. I nearly stepped on a rat carcass, long decayed, just bones and fur in the corner where the passage turned. Cobwebs caught in my hair and I had to keep one hand on the wall to feel my way through the darkness.

I'd used these passages as a kid, but I'd forgotten how disgusting they were.

Down two flights of stairs, through the corridor that ran behind the kitchens, where the smell shifted to old grease and rotting food. Almost there—

Shouting.

From outside. The gardens.

I found a narrow window and looked out.

Guards. Six of them, surrounding someone.

Nadia.

She was on her knees and one of the guards was yanking my cloak off her shoulders.

No.

They had her. I had to—

Someone grabbed my arm.

I spun. A man I didn't recognize, fifty maybe, wearing servant's clothes.

"Princess," he said quietly. "I'm Willem. We need to go."

"They caught her—"

"She knew they would. That was the plan." He pulled me down the corridor. "Don't waste what she just did."

"But—"

"Move. Now."

I looked back at the window. Couldn't see Nadia anymore.

Willem led me to a small door, and we were outside, on the south side of the palace, where supply wagons came in. A wagon waited with two horses already hitched.

"In the back. Under the canvas. Don't make a sound no matter what."

I climbed in, and he covered me with canvas and sacks. Cramped, dark, making it hard to breathe

The wagon lurched forward.

I pictured Nadia with those guards. My father's fury when he found out. But we kept moving.

Voices after what felt like forever. Guards at a checkpoint.

"Where are you headed?"

"Market run," Willem said, sounding bored. "Kitchen needs supplies."

"A bit late for that."

"Yeah, well, Cook just remembered. You want to explain to her why she's not getting her flour tomorrow?"

Pause. "Go ahead."

We rolled on. Another checkpoint at the palace gates, same conversation, same bored tone.

Then we were through.

The road changed under the wheels, got rougher. We were outside the palace grounds.

I'd actually done it.

Hours passed under that canvas before Willem said, "We're clear."

I pushed it aside. We were on a country road, the palace just a dark shape on the horizon.

"There's a village two miles ahead," Willem said. "I drop you there. The cabin's another five miles through the woods."

I knew the way. I'd walked it before.

"Thank you."

He nodded and didn't say anything else.

The wagon rolled on and I watched the palace disappear. Thought about Nadia on her knees in the garden. My mother sitting silent at breakfast. Lyra, who would be devastated if she found out she had run again.

Willem stopped the wagon. "This is it."

I climbed down. The village was small, everything dark and quiet.

"Cabin's that way," he pointed toward the trees. "Old hunting trail."

"I know."

"Good luck."

He turned the wagon and left.

* * *