Page 31 of Savage Crown
I startled, nearly jumping back, when I saw a strange, large man standing in the moonlight. The silver glow outlined a bulky shape, a round belly, thick shoulders, and a completely shaved head.
Only when he grinned did I realize it was Godric.
He’d shaved his head, was wearing glasses, and had a huge potbelly strapped beneath his shirt. His clothes were torn and dirty, smudged in several colors of grime, and his legs and arms were dusted with so much dirt they looked like tree bark.
He looked like a wandering miner or laborer who’d crawled through the roughest parts of the land.
“Wow,” was all I said.
He grinned wider, patting his belly, clearly some kind of stuffed pillow.
“I’m ready.”
My pulse jumped.
I couldn’t stay another moment, not when the weight of Kaelric’s permission was so fragile it could shatter with a single doubt.
So I kissed Kaelric one last time, and Godric and I slipped into the trees under the dead of night. Our boots were soft on pine needles, hearts hammering as the forest swallowed us whole.
Ahead waited the city under control, ruled by the savage king himself.
Chapter Six
The city of Lunaria sat in an open plain. It was just high up enough on a ridge that you could see it from the top of the tree line. We walked half the night in the trees so that we would not be seen. We spoke in soft voices and drank coffee and tea to ward off the sleepiness that pulled at our limbs. After what I estimated was about five hours, Godric stilled. He peered around the forest floor, then up into the trees as if looking for something.
The air smelled faintly of dust and river water as we moved soundlessly, boots making soft impressions on damp earth. The trees pressed close above us, a dark ceiling that swallowed the moonlight in ribbons.
‘Tell him it’s off to the right,’Val said.
“It’s to the right, Val says,” I told him.
He nodded and turned his body to the right. He walked over to a giant blackwood pine tree and began digging at its base, removing moss and ferns. The moon was full, but being in the dark woods with the sounds of animals and breaking twigs still had me looking over my shoulder constantly.
“Uhh, are you hungry?” I asked. “I have food in my pack.”
What was he doing?
He shook his head, revealing a water-stained wooden trap door. He probed the door, checked the seam twice, fingers working with the care of someone checking for a wound.
Then he pulled a brass ring until the trap door opened and peered up at me. “You don’t have a fear of confined spaces, do you?”
My heart began to flutter rapidly in my chest. “Doesn’t everyone?”
He smirked. “This gets us under the black stone gate and right into the marketplace.”
Whoa! A hidden tunnel! I’d read about them in the Dregs. Aerlyn was rumored to have them, too. If ever attacked, the royal Elite families would escape that way. Godric was peering at the stone steps that led to the tunnel with a look of horror, as if lost in a memory. Something dawned on me then. “Was this how Kaelric escaped that night everyone was killed? Did you…?” I didn’t want to rehash that dark past if he didn’t want to talk about it.
He nodded, staring off into the trees as if stuck in his memories. “I managed to get Kaelric and Elia out. Elia and her mother were visiting from Hildreth for Val’s birthday. Her father stayed back to tend to their farm. I couldn’t get Maelis, though…”
Elia was there the night it happened? Oh, that was awful.
I kneeled down and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, the way I see it, you saved two lives.”
He nodded, swallowing hard.
“Does Maelis know of this tunnel?” I asked him.
He cleared his throat. “Yes. But according to our insider, she’s never been able to leave the castle, so it would be of no use to her.”
