A Dance Of Crowns & Thrones | Book I

Chapter 40 | "You Will Not Incite A Statement Like That."

"Thank goodness you're back," Madison welcomed her cousin back from the outing that found them separated again. Madison, eager to discuss the findings in private, pulled Eko aside, away from any potential eavesdroppers.

Wrapping her arms around Madison, Eko embraced her tightly as they took a few steps forward. In the meantime, soldiers were busy unloading a nearby ship, while various faculty members were bombarding Matthew with updates and collecting his reports for Cid.

"Ann-Marie in the Medical ward said that most of the ones found were civilians," Madison shared the information she had gathered.

Nodding thoughtfully, Eko added, "No one from the palace has been found alive besides us, and honestly, those who were found wouldn't have known us. They were too disconnected from the palace elite."

"Right," Madison nodded. "Well, we need to speak to Cid and explain to him our circumstances."

Feeling the weight of the situation bearing down on her, Eko's brow furrowed. Touching at the collar of her shirt, as the head surrounded her, she didn't want anyone to know about her true identity and jeopardize everything she was setting into place. This was the best way to remain anonymous, how many times did she need to tell Maddy that?

"No, Mads," she commanded, "we can't trust anyone, okay? We need to keep our heads down low, find one of the girls, pretend she is the Princ-"

"Ser-"

"-Shh."

Eko's hand covered her mouth, and they stepped further away from the hanger, careful eyes of blue watching hesitantly as the soldiers passed them. The girls could see the rest of the ships returning from the search for survivors and information on the location of a certain princess deemed to be the future queen.

"Can you zip it?" Eko gritted her teeth, "I don't need anyone knowing who I am, nor what I am."

"And we cannot continue to be here. We need to leave; you are-"

Her response was met with Eko exhaling in annoyance before her hand was yanked and pulled along the hanger away from prying eyes and ears.

"I know what I am, Mads, and right now, I need to get the world to believe that one of my decoys was the real princess."

"W-why?" Madison honestly thought her cousin would have lost her mind if anyone had asked her. "W-what? I don't understand any of this. It's insufferable what you are doing!"

"It's called being smart!" how she wanted to be freed if anything, not that her cousin was going to take to that lightly, in all honesty, and not that it was something she hadn't contemplated since the first moment of this war.

"We need to-"

"-Madison, Eko," Toni had appeared from the hanger, only having just arrived, "we'll need to see Cid. He wants a report from everyone."

They watched as the soldiers passed by them, chatter amongst the hallways as Madison looked from them to Eko and then back to Toni.

Madison swallowed the nerves creeping into her jawline, she didn't know who to trust at this point, and after the attack on their home, perhaps Sera held a point about being smart in not knowing who to trust at the end of the day.

"It shouldn't be too long," he offered, "Cid will most likely need to go over some of the details that came to light and figure out our next course of action."

"Right," Eko nodded, smiling, throwing off any doubt that there had been anything wrong in the first place.

"Lead the way."