Kingdom of thieves

Kingdom of Thieves - Part 18

 The next morning Narla woke at sunrise as she always had done, she kept her eyes closed and listened intently. No sound came from the princesses suite, she sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, her clothes were wrinkled from sleeping curled up as she always did and her previously smooth and shiny hair was no doubt  a tangled mess.

She held back the curtain that separated her room from the princesses, and cautiously stepped out. The guard Cain stepped in front of her, staring down at her from his considerable height,

"Why are you up so early thief?" he asked, his voice a deep growl, his hand in his spear,

"Why you outside my room?" she said, "Princress awake yet" she continued peering round Cain's bulk to the see the breaking Princess of Saynts sleeping peacefully on her pillows.

She frowned, it was early but the princess didn't appear to be stirring anytime soon,

She glanced at Cain to see his jaw twitch,

"the princess doesn't wake till the sun is high enough" he stated

"how high is high enough?" Narla asked,

"At its highest"

"But she wastin the day away" she said,

"Shes the princess, she can do what ever she wants" he replied,

Narla scowled at the sleeping royal, 

"so, what im sposed to do till she does?" she asked,

Cain shrugged,

"Trinity will be awake soon, she can train you up when she gets here" he said, then turned back to the room.

Narla lowered the curtain and went over to the window, she sat upon the sill and stared out over the city.

Glancing at the curtain she realized that Cain must have been stationed there to keep an eye on her, no. To protect the Princess from her.

It was frustrating to be under guard, she didn't know how the princess could stand it, she supposed if she had been watched since birth she might have become accustomed to it but even then it can't be pleasant.

She wasn't one for sitting still for long and when this 'trinity' didn't show up within the next couple of moments she seriously considered climbing out of the window, she stood up and stared out over Saynts, balanced carefully on the sill. When she held out her arms fully she could just about hold onto the frame, so she gripped it with her finger tips and leaned he body as far forward as she could and looked around at the walls of the palace.

The princesses rooms were places in one of the sky-touching towers, from the ground the walls appeared completely smooth but up close she could see that the stone was pitted and rough, not unlike the houses of the ghetto, except this stone was of the palest gold and caught the light in a strange way that made it sparkle, and allowed it to be been for miles around in the barren desert.

Narla clung to the ledge then reached round and gripped a ridge of stone that jutted out, she then reached with her foot and found a a tiny ledge to grip with her toes. The tiny slippers she wore were thin and flexible enough to allow her to do so. She stepped completely off the window ledge and clung for dear life to the stone, a breeze caught her and ruffled her hair gently, but it was enough to cause her to hold on tighter.

The height made her dizzy and she breathed deeply to steady her pounding heart. This was like nothing she had ever done before, higher than she had climbed and with little handholds to grip, but she was here and as the theives would say, "Might as well carry on eh?" with that thought she pushed with her foot and felt around for a higher hold, when she had it she pushed and simultaneously pulled herself up and reached for a higher handhold, when she had found one, and then another she carried on going, her arm beginning to ache, she moved round the tower until she was above the window, it was slow work. She reached to pull herself higher when she heard a faint shout, somewhat lost to the wind that had picked up. She scrambled to climb down, which was harder than going up but held a little desperation as she realized how it would look to anyone to find the room - she still found it too peculiar to call it 'her' room - empty, she finally made it to the window and reached in to grip the frame and, with little alternative because she was gripping on the stone so hard with her toes and finger tips, she swung her hold body round, turning in the air feeling almost completely weightless.