The King's Eye

Chapter 54

A calloused hand muffled my scream, writhing against the grip I swung my dagger through the darkness. The panic of not being in control consuming me. The feeling of total despair marking me through anxious sweat. Do not hesitate. Jacques's voice pulsed through me. Do not die.

So I didn't.

My elbow jabbed into my attacker's side, the dip between ribs meeting me through a heavy jacket. All my instincts to survive took over as I took his loosened grasp as an opportunity to spin and swing the dagger through the air. A palm wrapped around my wrist. I swung my free hand, making the fist like Jacques had taught me. Thumb over not under.

Colliding with the face of the man, bone crunched. I swung again, my wrist holding strong as it crossed his cheeks. I could hear him stumble back, the grunt of impact echoing in the closed space, and as I fell into the wall behind me a light flickered revealing his majesty. Nose bloodied, and eye already swelling from my hit, he panted.

"Sophie," he breathed. His hand clung to his nose.

"Your majesty?" I had hit the king.

"Jacques has taught you well," he sputtered.

"Just how to hold my fist." I held it up instinctively, making him flinch.

"It is okay, you were protecting yourself." Her majesty held the lantern up, letting the light glow across our faces. The Dauphin was on her hip, head buried into her neck. He was so small. I had forgotten just how young their children were. "I told him to be less discreet," she eyed the king as she said it. "For this reason."

A pained smile graced his face as he looked at her. "We should keep moving." Squeezing my shoulder in reassurance that he was fine, the king led the way through the dark space.

The further we went the more quiet the world around us became. Screams were muffled in the distance, but relief would only come when I knew it was over. Once I knew Jacques was safe.

Elodie.

I had left Elodie.

"I have to go back," I said, breaking the silence between our small group.

"Nonsense," her majesty whispered from behind me, still comforting her small child while we moved along. "If you go back, you will die."

Do not die. That is what my husband had demanded of me, but how could I leave Elodie behind? "It is a risk I have to take," I swallowed.

Brushing past her grasp, I descended back through the darkness, the slight decline of the hall telling me we had gone up to another level in the palace on our trek to safety. I had chosen this over being safe. My hand brushed against the handle of the door, and as I exhaled my nerves away I opened it. The room was quieter now that many had fled. Dead laid strewn about with their faces reflecting their final moments. Eyes were wide, looking on lifelessly.

I toed around the bodies carefully, not wanting to disturb their final rest, but also searching their faces for pale eyes and strawberry blonde hair. Searching and hoping I did not find my friend among them.

The sound of running filled the silence as a bloodied soldier ran through the hall with all his might. His arms pumped through the air faster than his legs could carry him. The attackers chased after him, pistols in one hand and blades in the other.

Dropping to the ground, I laid as flat as I could. Too focused on their prey, they did not realize I was there and I needed to keep it that way.

A shot rang out, the ring of it through the air ricocheting off the glass of the mirrors and through my body. It was the blood curdling scream after that made my breath catch. Covering my mouth, I held in my own scream as I watched the soldier fall to the ground. The bullet alone may not have been fatal, but they were not going to let him live. A man with a tricolor cockade pinned to his beret knelt down and grabbed the soldier by the hair. Exposing his throat as he pulled his head back, slicing through it. A gurgle of blood was quickly replaced with the sawing of skin and bone.

They left the room, the head of the soldier dangling from hair in their hand.

It was not until their footsteps disappeared that I stopped holding my breath and sobbed. Crawling through my tears, I let them blur my vision across the floor. Across the room. And when I finally made it to the other end, I got up and ran without looking back.

⚹⚹⚹⚹

Down the stairs, I gripped onto the railing to balance me before kicking off the heeled shoes from my feet. Too loud, they had clicked with every pounding step I made.

Through the darkened hall I ran, the luminescent light from the torches bouncing off the white of the marble floors. A figure ran towards me, their strawberry blonde hair flying behind them.

"Elodie!" I had not realized it, but I was still crying. Tears streamed down my face as we collided into a hug.

"They got through the gates," she gasped, gulping in air as fast as she could. "They are trying to get in the palace." Together we looked at the prying eyes on the other side of the window. The women shouted, but their words were muffled from the other side of the glass. Their vulgar gestures told us enough, though. "I thought I could warn the guards. I-I thought there was time to prepare."

It was not like Elodie to get so emotional in times of chaos, but tonight had been unexpected. She had been betrayed. We both had.

Her betrayal came in the form of marks on her neck from intimate touch. It had been physical. After so long of giving up on love she had it thrown back in her face.

We walked in silence through different servants' paths. Across the palace we watched every corner, holding our breath in the openings that left us bare to attack. Toeing around dead bodies at every turn. It was the whispers in the king's apartments that stilled us, though. The voices we could not make out over the trauma that blared in our minds.

For the first time in weeks I could hear the man praying at the bastille. I could hear him saying his Hail Mary as he begged for his life. Watching them behead the soldier earlier...it had made everything bubble back up to the surface.

Hail Mary full of grace...

Was the soldier in the hall of mirrors praying? Had my own fear deafened me and left his last words unheard?

A door opened, a pan of light spreading across the ground. It beckoned to us ominously, shadows moving across it.