Under the Water (Book 1)

Seventeen

the picture is Larkken

It's about the third night that I've been exploring the palace alone at night. With Scarlette being... away, and ignorant, I've been putting my time to use. It wasn't until this third day that I found it...

***

It's about 12:00 at night as I wander through the halls like I've been doing the past few nights. Every night I choose a different section of the castle to explore. This night its the servants quarters. I take on of the secret passageways and emerge across the hall from the mens sleeping quarters, I quietly pass by and continue down the hallway. The furthest back room is a servants meeting room. It was empty. I frowned. Usually there was one or two servants still here, and then two or three more sleeping in here because the quarters were to crowded.

I walked to the back of the room, inspecting everything to get a clue where they all went. I was about to leave when I saw a light coming from out from the bottom of the wall, underneath a large moving painting showing a large field in blooms, the trees waving in the breeze and the birds flying above. I ran my hands along the edge of the painting, and something clicked. The painting swung out and I quickly backed away to make room. It revealed a lit passageway, much like the one to Scarlett's room, leading downwards.

I followed it of course.

***

At the end of the hallway there was a door, I opened it.

And then froze.

Roughly 20 people stared back at me, all frozen, mimicking my pose. A deer caught in headlights. All of them servants. It was a good sized room. A bar on one side of the rooms, a gamer box's hololights flashing, a ring in the opposite far corner, and a rink in which two men stood in currently, holding each other in headlocks. Kia was one of them.

"Uhm." I said, trying to make the the tense feeling go away. "Hi?" Great, accomplishment on singlehandedly making things super awkward.

As the servants look around the room, seemingly deciding what they were going to do with me, I study them. And not all of them are servants. At least five of them aren't familiar to me. They're dressed in black and all have some sort of weapons at their sides.

Rebels.

I'm about to bolt from the room when Kia untangles himself from the headlock and says "Well he found us." A few people let out some nervous laughs. Kia continues to stare at me. "Quinn. You won't tell anyone right?" I manage to nod.

"How can you trust him?" One of the rebels dressed in black asks Kia. Kia hesitates too long and one of the other men shifts.

"How can we trust you?" I blurt out. One of the rebels raises his eyebrow. Kai tries to hide a smile. And fails. "He's got a point there."

Silence.

"So." Kia says casually, "How'd you like to learn how to fight?"

***

I go back to the secret meeting place every night that it occurs, the next few weeks blur past. Serve the Royals, be painfully aware that Scarlette no longer wishes to acknowledge me, paint Scarlette in my books, and the go fight.

Every night the meetings take place Kia takes me into the ring and I learn hand to hand combat, better serving skills, dirty talk, (mare than my prior experience) and I also learn how to flirt, in a way. The young maid I took the pitcher from that one day, her name turns out to be Larkken. She's one of the rebels youngest daughters and she's always the one to patch me up when I make an idiotic mistake in the ring.

My guardian, Dezzmond doesn't seem to notice that I start to collect a variety of bumps and bruises. Which is good.

It's about the 4th week away from Scarlette, and I'm finally getting better at combat, I manage to last at least 7 minutes before Kia punches me hard enough on the cheek to put me out of the rink. Larkken comes up just like every other time and hands me a well worn ice pack, and just like every other time she laughing.

"You've got to go on offense some time Quinn." She said laughing, and expertly placing the pack on my already bruising cheek. "You won't be able to serve tomorrow you know, you'll have to stay back in the kitchens with the rest of us."

"And we all know what'll happen then." Baelinn says as he shuffles a deck of ancient playing cards. "He'll make another abomination of something." The men at his table laugh along with him as I try not to smile. Because it friking hurts like hell.

"It was one time guys." I say leaning back in my chair.

"Really?" Larkken says tucking her hair behind an ear. "Just like that one other time?"

"Oh come on!" I say, letting the grimace take over, "I thought you were on my side!"

Everybody laughs and Larkken blushes as I make a face at her. "Well, it was technically only one time." I say defensively. "Seriously, it was not my fault the AccuM malfunctioned. Someone left it on." All everybody has to say is more laughter, I'm about to speak up again when the door shuts. In the commotion we didn't hear it open.We all turn to see who it is, and everyone freezes just like they did when I entered my first time. Except this is different on so many levels.

Princess Scarlette Imperium stands at the front room.

And all she stares at is me.