The Way We Fall

Chapter 100 (Roche)

"What on earth were you doing outside the prince's chambers?" Roche transmitted furiously as she tucked the boy under her arm like a basket of laundry. She slipped in through one of the tunnels that would bring her closer to the royal wing.

Orpheus didn't squirm or try to fight her as she carried him through the darkness. For his sake, she held out her hand and used her inkblood to summon a ball of moonlight toned light. He gazed at it with awe as he answered.

"I heard a voice calling me."

"Who?" Roche asked aloud. Orpheus hesitated.

"Tarak."

Roche felt a small stab of sympathy amongst her fury. The boy must be missing his guardian. "Tarak isn't here, Orpheus. We'll bring you to him soon, when it's safe to."

"You don't understand," Orpheus insisted with a strange intensity that gave Roche pause, "I heard him. He called me. He told me to walk down the halls."

A stir of doubt rushed through Roche. Did this have to do with the test somehow? But what would revealing Orpheus to the king do for Tigris?

The tunnel let out near the royal wing. Roche slipped out of the tunnel, pushing aside the painting to exit. She hustled Orpheus down the hall, his small body braced in front of hers as she knocked on Finn's door. The prince cracked it open, a relieved sigh escaping him when he saw Orpheus' elfish face peering up at him.

"Where were you?" he asked sternly as he ushered them in. Roche sighed, setting the inkblood on the bed with little ceremony.

"He says he heard Tarak calling him." she recounted wearily. Finn sighed.

"There was no one there, Orpheus." he admonished gently, tightening the boy's cloak around him. The prince's eyes were red rimmed and exhausted. He smoothed the boy's hair down. "You mustn't leave these chambers again, do you hear me? Not until we say you can."

"He doesn't understand." Orpheus told Roche stubbornly, frustration leaking into his voice, "I heard Tarak."

Roche shrugged at the prince. "He seems pretty sure that he heard Tarak."

Frustration bloomed on Finn's face. The doors creaked open, and Tigris slumped through the doors.

"Aodh knows," she announced without ceremony. Finn's gasp shattered the still night air.

"How?"

"He's too smart for his own good, that's how." Tigris grumbled, slamming the doors shut with a resounding boom. Roche couldn't help but flinch at the noise. Finn shrank back, placing his hands protectively on Orpheus' shoulders.

"Is he going to tell Father?" Finn asked, his voice sharp.

Tigris' eyes sagged shut. "He says we have to get him out of here by tomorrow or he will."

"I can't believe him," Finn hissed venomously, "He would have a child burn to obey Father?"

Tigris, oddly, didn't argue. She ran a hand through her hair, looking strangely conflicted. Roche had a suspicion that there was more to the conversation that the princess wasn't mentioning. But the bottom line remained.

"So, we need to get Orpheus out of here," she muttered aloud. Tigris nodded, running a hand over her face.

"Get some rest," she told all of them, "Tomorrow morning we'll head off."

They were all too drained to argue further.

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"Where have you been?" Verita demanded as Roche slipped into their chambers. The library was blissfully empty today but still icy. The electricity was still out and most of the nobles who had abandoned their rooms had left to bunk with the evacuees from the lower town. Verita glared at her ward from beneath a mound of thick cloaks.