Your Narrator Finds a Good Hiding Spot

The guard straightens away from the door and drops his hand to the sword hilt around his waist as my footsteps echo down the corridor.

An overwhelming impulse to turn straight around and walk rapidly backwards rushes over me—but I keep up my brisk walk.

This is the lowest level of the keep I can find, which means the dungeons I’m searching for must be here. There’s no way back now [1].

Eventually, I’m only a few steps away from the guard. The moment I’m close enough for the candlelight to illuminate my face, his grip on his sword relaxes.

“Aurelia?” he says. A furrow appears between his eyebrows. “What’re ya doing here, lass?”

So.

One, he recognizes me—or well, Aurelia. I can’t say I know him back, but it makes sense that there are a bunch of side characters who were never named in the book but who Aurelia still knows. She did grow up around Silverwood Keep her whole life, after all.

Two, he hasn’t heard about what’s happening up on the ground floor.

That second one makes totally sense actually, now that I’m thinking about it. As I ran down into the depths of the keep, I passed hoards of people—nobles, servants, guards, all sorts— heading in the opposite direction. But eventually, the crowd had thinned to a trickle, then an occasion person looking a little lost, then no one at all. Who would’ve been left to inform him?

And if that’s the case, then, three, that leaves me an opening.

“You haven’t heard?” I bluff. “It’s a black flag. So you’ve got to… uh, go. Like, now. You can leave watching the dungeons to me.”

The furrows on his forehead deepens. He folds his hands in front of him.

“Is this another trick of yours and Lord Alexandrius? A black flag isn’t something to joke about.”

It’s not ringing agreement, but I pump my fists on the inside anyway. He didn’t disagree with my assert that behind him is the dungeons, so it must be. Now I just have to my most charming self—a feat I’m sure Aurelia’s face will help with.

“I’m not lying about the black flag, enemies really are approaching,” I insist. “How could you think I’d like about something like that?”

He looks at me incredulously. I deduce that there’s probably some story there—one that I obviously have no idea about because it would have been pre-books—and quickly rushes on.

“Look, Alex told me to fetch you,” I say. “He said he had to have you up there, and that I would be better down here. I didn’t get to ask him why before he ran off. But I thought it’d be safer to just do what he said.”

He still looks highly suspicious. Dear heavens, if this guard doesn’t get a move on, the enemies will be on us before I have a good hiding place. Maybe I should just cut my losses now and—

“You let him send you away from the fighting, lass?” He asks. “Would’ve never thought I’d see the day you follow that sort of direction.” [2]

I pounce on the opening.

“I mean, usually I wouldn’t listen. But it’s special circumstances today. Alex can be like, carefree or whatever, but he’s competent and doesn’t mess around when it’s serious [3]. If he told me he needed you, then you need to go up. You can always come back immediately if you find out I’m lying or you’re not need or something.”

He looks at me carefully for another few seconds.

“Fine,” he finally says in a gruff, disgruntled voice. “But you better not be lying to me or I’ll make sure your mother hears of it.”

I breathe a sigh of relief as he shuffles away from the door and past me—until I remember something.

“Wait!” I say, grabbing at his forearm. “The keys?”

The guard turns his body halfway backwards. He’s frowning again. “The keys? What’d you need that for? Just stand there and watch the door.”

“Well, I mean,” I fumble, “Like, what if the prisoners start screaming or something? Or I hear a noise inside and need to go and check it out? Or—“

He puts a hand up to stop me. He uses his other hand to rub at his eyes.

“If I didn’t know the dungeons were empty right now, I’d think you were trying to break someone out,” he grumbles. Then he sighs. “Fine. I guess don’t need the weight.”

He reaches towards his waist and tosses to me a heavily, clanging bundle. I barely manage to catch it between my fingers.

“Keep it safe, ya hear? I’ll be back for it,” He warns. And then he turns back around and starts walking away from my eyesight.

A few more moments later, and even his footsteps have completely disappeared from my hearing.

I give it another five seconds, just to be safe.

Then I scramble around and frantically test every key on his keyring on the wooden door. Nope, not this one. Not this one either. Not even this one despite it looking so big and fancy?—

The fourth clicks. It turns in the keyhole with a creaking rusty sort of sound, but it definitely turns. And then I’m laboriously pushing open the wooden door [X], and stepping into—

The dungeons, finally.

1. Also, it would’ve been hella suspicious to just turn tail and run right then. What would I have said, “Oh sorry, got lost you know, a step or three or five or ten”? And I didn’t want to take my chances making the guy mad. He was quintessential Medieval Guard, with a ruddy face and a thick beard. Definitely a little past his prime but thick and stocky enough I didn’t really fancy my chances.

2. Joke’s on him, because I'd run away from the fighting even without any direction. Maybe badass, trained fighter Aurelia would’ve stood her ground, but I'm not her. Not that it ended up making a difference in the end, considering she still turned up, you know, dead.

3. I don’t think I even realized I actually, legitimately, thought these things about Alex until I’d said them to the guard. Say what you will about how psychopathic Prime!Alex is in Chess Games of Blood, he knew what he was doing. And the way a few moments ago my Alex (and Luke) had sprang straight into action, and then everyone just followed their orders without a moment’s hesitation? That was more than competence. Watching them then, I’d understood for the first time what people meant when they said things like, “he’s been training his entire life for this.”

4. Now I know why everything’s made out of fake wood or whatever. Real solid wood is heavy. Man, I’m going to hurt so, so much tomorrow. First all that running, now all this pushing. Maybe if I’d been in mortal danger more often in my life, I’d have more experience with physical exercise by now.