Corrupt

Chapter 14

Up ahead, I spot someone just outside the castle gates, lighting the torches. I continue walking forwards, entirely unsure of how to act when I arrive. Who will be there? What will they say?

What will I have to hide?

Keep walking.

My eyes wander to stare up at the distant servants' tower: my home. I wonder what the girls are doing now. Not long until I find out. My pace quickens. 

What time is it? 

It might be around dinnertime. Just past, perhaps.

Keep walking.

Fatigued, my legs are beginning to shake beneath me. 

Keep walking.

Nearly there.

The torch-lighter is closing the hidden door behind them now. I let out a hoarse shout.

"Wait! Wait!"

They turn their head towards me. I recognise them vaguely - I must've walked past them once or twice. 

"Are you...?"

"Lynette Answatch. I'm back. Please let me through."

"Everyone's been talking. What happened to you?" 

"I'll tell you all, later. But I have to speak to the King first." 

The servant nods, subduing their own curiosity, leading me back through the corridor until we enter back into the huge hall I know so well. 

Nothing's changed.

And yet, it's different somehow.

The grandeur seems repulsively exaggerated. A ridiculous caricature. The wash of lamplight hurts my eyes, the colourful decoration boring at my bones.

I hear the faint clatter of dishes being washed. Just after dinnertime, then. A maid, head hung low, walks stiffly across the hall, carrying a teetering stack of china. She glances over at me, and within a moment the hopelessness in her eyes gives way to overpowering joy. 

"Lynny!" 

There is a deafening crash of ceramic as she dashes towards me, wrapping me in a suffocating hug. Her familiar perfume and the silky softness of her dress starts me crying. 

We hold onto each other tightly, as though clinging to each other in the middle of a raging ocean. Eternities pass. I feel her tears seeping into my shoulder. 

At last, I let go.

"Oh my gosh, Drea, the plates!"

"What? Don't you mean 'hello'?" 

"No, I mean, the plates! Look!" I point at the gigantic wreckage of what was twenty ornate dinnerplates, and what is now a shattered ruin. 

"Oh well. I'll do some extra work to make up for it. What happened to you? Where have you been?" She looks at me, tears glittering in her eyes, as if seeing me properly for the first time. Her jaw drops. "Oh my gosh, what happened to your hair?" 

I'd forgotten about that.

"I... It was all cut off. By the rebels." 

"The rebels kidnapped you? Really?" 

"Yes. They... They wanted to use me as a ransom, but eventually... I got away, and I just... Kept searching until I found the castle."

"I thought... I really missed you," Drea whispers, pulling me in for another hug. I shut my eyes, letting my mind rest, letting myself not be a spy, not be a rebel, just simply be in Drea's arms for a moment.