Chapter 9: Dangerous Allies: Part One
Without any breaks, they galloped through the night, across fields and up hills before arriving at her safe place, the village of Reigh. It was just gone midnight as her horse slowed down to a walk and started following the path into the high street. She used to ’work’ here as well but that stopped after she made an acquaintance with someone that paid highly for her services. Since then, she decided to be good in Reigh and use it as a place she could rest and hide if she were ever in trouble.
She pulled the reins on the horse to stop it in its place, across from her she saw a red ribbon tied to a well, the normal signal that the Princess wanted to see her. Climbing down from her horse she made her way over to the well and untied the ribbon that had the time and date on it. She already knew the place from the many times she had visited her. The jobs she had done were quite easy, some interesting. Little jobs like intercepting letters, spying on certain family members or a specified person she did not seem to trust.
The only job she found fun was from the first time she had met the princess. She found her sister quite fun to play with, she never hurt the girl as she promised Evanna, but she did leave her trembling on her knees. The girl was left rattled, after she had emerged from the shadows and placed one hand over her mouth with the other holding a blade against her neck, threatening her as she had spoken softly in her ear. A smile spread on her lips again as she remembered it.
Depending on what she wanted this time, she already started listing prices in her head as she walked back with the ribbon in her hand to her horse. The horse’s reins were then tied up to a post outside an Inn she frequently used when she visited. She spent the night in her normal room; the inn keeper never questioned her about the time of night, as she had been there at worse times in the morning, covered in blood. She suspected the old man had a slight crush on her, especially after the way he gawked after her body. But she did not care, he could look but never touch, he knew he would lose his fingers if he did. As long as she didn’t bring any trouble, he was happy to keep giving her a room.
The next day she went searching for a buyer for the necklace she had taken. Finally, near the end of the day and with a little bit of haggling, she got rid of it for a decent price. But much to her disappointment, she had to lower the price after the man was smart enough to determine that she needed to get rid of it quickly. The man had smirked as he walked away, which made her fake smile twitch and her nose wrinkle. Thereafter, nightfall came, and she filled her belly with food provided at the inn before making her way over to the palace.
Occasionally, Evanna would help her get into the palace with ease, using a sealed invitation so that she could walk right through the gates without any trouble. However, this time it was too last minute, and she had not sent word to the princess to indicate that she was in the village. It was merely luck that she arrived back in time. With that in mind, she made a beeline to the right of the approaching gatehouse.
With her senses on high alert already, she quickly made a running head start to the wall that protected the palace from attacks or uninvited guests. Once she was a meter away from it, she leaped forwards and clung to the walls, using the cemented grooves of the white layered bricks to place her hands and feet on. At every other movement she let her claws extend slightly from her hands to get a better grip onto the wall. As soon as she made it to the top of the wall, she looked over to make sure there were no guards patrolling that area before hopping back down.
She started jogging towards the bridge, scanning ahead to make sure she would not run into any guards. Though, she had done this plenty of times, that did not mean it was easy, it was a palace after all and there were guards spread out across the area at different posts. Ducking down she hid behind one of the two white statues at the beginning of the bridge. After her previous attempts at entering the palace, she knew there were only a couple of minutes for her to make it from her position to the front of the palace, once the guard patrolling would pass.
Holding her breath, she heard the footsteps and clunking of metal as the guard walked past where she was hiding. The moment he went past her position and his back was to her, she released her breath before jogging across the long white pebbled bridge, keeping her stepping as light as possible. The moment she made it to the other side of the bridge, she jogged to the right side of the palace and again leapt over another wall that was attached to it. Upon landing on the ground, the other side, she searched the garden she was in to see that there were no guards. She started to jog hiding behind every other tree, smelling the scent of flowers as she made her way towards the balcony, she knew she would soon see behind the mini hedged maze.
Low voices could be heard the closer she was getting to the meeting point, she stilled, were there other people out at the gardens? She started to tiptoe then stopped and hid behind the tree that was closest to the balcony. In front of her she saw the princess with the backs of three men. Her eyes narrowed, this she did not like, she thought they had a mutual agreement, always to meet alone. She decided to listen to their conversation first before making any decision to leave.