The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter Twenty-Seven

“What happened?” Elise looked up atSilas and Olrick. They were sitting in a room that Samuel had called a lord’salcove, just off of the main hall. It was located up by the ceiling and washidden, so the king could spy on his guests during balls. Now, it was beingused as a meeting place between spy and handler; as Raul didn’t know about theroom and Polain pretended the place didn’t exist because he thought the veryidea of a lord’s alcove was disgusting, it was the closest thing to a perfectlocation they had. “You look shaken up.”

Shelooked down at her feet. “N-nothing. General Raul’s just really unnerving, isall.”

Silassnorted, folding his arms. “I’ll say. I’ve never seen someone throw Marion offher toes so fast.” Olrick nodded in agreement.

“Thatisn’t the only thing, is it?” he asked.

Eliseshook her head. “I-I think Eza said something to insult him. He asked me to leavethem alone so they could have a private conversation.”

Silascursed, running a hand through his hair. “Of course she did; that’s the only logical thing to do when a homicidalmaniac comes to visit.”

“Whatdid she tell him?” Olrick asked.

Elisebegan to rub the back of her neck. “Well, General Raul made a joke about beingassassinated, and Eza back talked to him, and it kind of escalated from there.”She looked back up at them. “You don’t think he did something to her, do you?”

Silasshook his head. “Believe me, if he had, you’d be cleaning up a shit ton ofblood from the hallway, right now; if he’d tried anything, she wouldn’t havegone down without a fight.”

Justas he said that, the door to the alcove opened and Eza walked in. She didn’tlooked hurt, but she was pissed: her brows were furrowed and her mouth wascreased in a slight frown. Her face still would have looked like an emotionlessmask to those who didn’t know her, but it was the most emotional Elise had seenher since she’d met her.

Silasand Olrick had noticed it, too. Both of them looked concerned as she stormed inand slammed the door shut behind her.

“Howdid your private conversation with the psycho go?” Silas asked after Eza had slammedthe door.

“Heknows who I am.” Silas seemed to know what she was talking about, unlike Olrickand Elise. He cursed and ran a hand through his hair, looking out over the hallbelow them.

“Whatare you two talking about?” Olrick asked. Silas looked over at them, thenlooked at Eza.

“Areyou okay with them knowing?” he asked. Eza nodded.

Eliseand Olrick looked over at each other, but didn’t say anything. It seemed thathe didn’t have a clue what this could be about, either.

Silaswalked over to the door and opened it, looking around outside to see if therewere any people that could possibly hear what they were saying. Then, he closedthe door and locked it.

“Whatwe’re about to discuss doesn’t leave this room,” Silas said. “If this were toget out to the wrong people, it could jeopardize all of our lives.” The tone ofhis voice had become deadly serious, to the point where it scared Elise; whatcould Eza, a girl of sixteen, have possibly done that was so serious, itcouldn’t be openly spoken about?

Olrickand Elise nodded. She couldn’t help but be scared about what Silas and Eza wereabout to tell them.

“Ithas to do with your childhood, doesn’t it?” Olrick asked carefully.

Ezanodded. “There’s a damned good reason why I haven’t told you much about it;let’s leave it at that.”

“AndRaul knows why?” Elise asked.

Ezanodded. “I know what happened to the Kurzhian army.”

Theroom grew still. Elise may have grown up in isolation, but she knew enoughabout what was going on in the world outside Caitha to know about that;everybody did. For years after the Kurzhians were forced to surrender, thegossip was almost exclusively about the Kurzhian army. Every surviving memberof the army that had surrendered in the city’s capital – from General Mitriusto the lowliest private – had been marched out of Orovich in chains, never tobe seen again. Ten years later, what had happened to them after they leftOrovich was still a complete mystery.

“Howdo you know?” Elise asked, though she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know theanswer.

“BecauseI was with the army when they left the city,” Eza said. Olrick bit his bottomlip, and looked over at Silas as if to decide whether or not she was tellingthe truth.

“So,that’s why you’ve been so secretive with your life in Kurzh,” he said tohimself as he looked down at his feet. “If you weren’t, someone would’ve turnedyou in to the Giskens, by now.”

“Theyput out a 2,000 gold izba reward for me,” she said. “I didn’t think I couldtrust anyone; I still have reservations about it, since the reward has tripledsince then. If Raul knows about it, I can’t be sure that he hasn’t told anyoneelse.” Silas plopped down on one of the sofas and ran a hand through his hair.

“Gods,this complicates things further,” he groaned. “How the hell are we supposed tokeep this going if Elise is the only one of us who can go anywhere near hisroom without anyone getting suspicious? I was hoping that at least one of uswould be able to go in there and get information there while he’s gone andElise is off serving dinner to him or something.”

“So,I’m in more danger because of this?” Elise asked. Olrick nodded.

“Itisn’t too late to back out,” he said. “If you don’t feel comfortable doingthis, we can get you back to the medical core building and you can starttraining, again.”

Ezaand Silas looked over at her, waiting for her answer.

Elisetucked a chunk of stray hair behind her ear. She couldn’t just back out, now,though there was a part of her that wanted to. She thought of her brother, whodied trying to protect their country; she thought of Olrick, who nearly killedhimself trying to get her to safety; she thought of her father, who was killedsimply for showing kindness to a stranger; now that she had the opportunity tohelp the army keep Raul from hurting anyone else, she couldn’t let herself backout.

“I-I’malright,” she said. “I can do this, really.” Silas and Eza nodded, seeminglysatisfied, but Olrick still looked uncertain.

“Inthat case, we need to get you ready,” Silas said. “Your first opportunity willbe here tonight.”

Apit began to grow in Elise’s stomach. “Tonight?”

Ezanodded. “General Polain is throwing a ball to welcome Raul to the city. Withhim and all of his men partying and getting drunk off their asses, nobody’sgoing to notice you slip away to his room and steal a few letters from hisroom.”

“Areyou sure?” Elise asked.

“Positive,”Silas said with a smile. “Believe me when I say that Raul isn’t going toremember a damned thing once the night is over.”

Thatwas a promise that, for the rest of the day, Elise prayed that he would makegood on. From then on to when the ball started, the day was spent preparing.She washed her serving gown, she helped to sweep the main hall, she dusted andpolished a few of the marble statues; beyond the chores that needed to be done,she spent a lot of time in the small church nestled in the castle’s expansivegardens, trying to replace some solace in the serene feeling that the small churchhad.

Shesupposed that it did help, to an extent. There was only so much that could bedone to calm her fears before spying on a homicidal maniac, though.

Finally,the sun began to set beyond the horizon, and the first guests began to arriveat the ball. Men and women came to the castle via carriages, clad in the finestclothes money could buy. The men were wearing fine suits made of velvet andsoft, supple leather; the women were wearing long, silk ball gowns with gemsaround their necks, in their hair and on their fingers; stewards in flowingrobes escorted young noble women, ready to be courted; they all looked sobeautiful in their finery, she began to feel self conscious in her simpleserving gown.

Thosefeelings would go away when she spotted Raul. Like everyone else, he wasdressed in the best clothing his money could buy; however, he preferred asimpler fair than everyone else did. He was wearing a simple suit, with hissword strapped to his back and the ever-present bandage around his eye. Heunnerved everyone who saw him, just as he had when he first arrived.

“Isee that he did decide to grace uswith his presence.” Silas was standing next to her, picking at the small bitesof bread on one of the tables like a vulture. “I’d heard rumors that he wasgoing to hang out in his room and plot the destruction of the country,tonight.”

“Iheard that, too,” Elise said as she continued to stare at the general. “Part ofme hoped it was right.”

Silasgave her a hearty slap on the back. “Oh don’t worry about it; as long as youdon’t get caught, you’ll be fine.”

“Thatdoesn’t make me feel much better,” she said.

“Shutup, Silas,” Eza said. She was holding a tankard of ale in one of her hands andher staff in the other. “You’ll be just fine, really. We’ll keep him down herewhile you’re up there.”

Elisetook a deep breath and sighed. “When should I go?”

“Leavein a few minutes,” Eza said. “It would look suspicious if you were to leaveright as he came.” With that, she left and began mingling with men wearing thesame, black uniform as hers.

“Takea sweet roll,” Silas said as he picked up yet another frosting-covered roll fromthe table and offered it to her. “You need to calm down. This kind of thingreally isn’t as big a deal as you think it is. It isn’t like you’re-“

“That’salright,” she said quickly, before Silas could say something that would makeher more nervous than she already was. “I’m not really hungry.”

Silasbegan to laugh, then shoved the sweet roll into his mouth. “Alright, alright; Iguess I’ll leave you alone, now, if you’ve got everything under control.” Hebegan to walk over to where Eza and the other Rooks were, which also happenedto be where the alcoholic drinks were.

Afterspending a few minutes attempting to calm her nerves, Elise stepped out of thehall and into a servant’s passage.

Theservant passages were just some of the castle’s mysteries she’d become privy toonce she became a servant. They were one of two systems of secret passages thatcriss-crossed through the castle, and were built with the intention of havingthe servants work without being seen by visitors or the royal family. Theygranted access to every room to the castle, including General Raul’s. She’dmemorized the route from the great hall to his room and had practiced goingback and forth until she could reach it in just under ten minutes. She’d figuredthat if she was able to move around in the passages quickly, the chances of herbeing discovered would decrease.

Afterjust under ten minutes, she reached the heavy, oaken door that lead to Raul’sroom. After taking a few more deep breaths, she began to push it open.

Theroom, she discovered, was in just as pristine a condition as it had been beforehe’d arrived; in fact, the only signs that someone was living there were thelarge, leather-clad trunks, stacked at the front of the bed and the piles ofpapers that littered the desk. Elise, remembering what Silas, Olrick and Ezahad taught her about spying, went straight for the desk and began to read whatwas written on the paper at the top of the stack.

Ofcourse, she ran into a problem the second she read the paper: she couldn’tspeak Gisken. Silas, Olrick and Eza had prepared for that, though: they’dtaught her how to say and read a few basic military words that would show up inany report that would want to know about: troops, attack, scouts, offensive,flank, siege, arrival; among the many words she’d learned that afternoon, threeappeared in the report she read: Truppen, soweit, and flanke; troops, arrived,and flank.

Elisepulled out a piece of paper from the desk and began copying down the letter.

Justas she finished, she heard footsteps coming down the hall toward her,accompanied by people speaking Gisken.

Shecould feel the blood draining from her face. General Raul had come back; theyhadn’t been able to keep him at the ball.

Elisespent the next few moments in a mad panic. She blew on the letter, trying toget the ink to dry faster, then ran for the for the servant’s passage.

Justas she began to close the door, someone opened the door to the room.

Shestopped, horrified.

I’m going to die, she thought as herblood ran cold. He’s going to replace me!

Thankthe gods, that didn’t happen; though Raul had opened the door, he hadn’t seenher. He was still having a conversation with whoever had accompanied him to hisroom.

Beforehe could look into the room, Elise yanked on the door as hard as she could,closing it with a quiet thud.

Justas it closed, she heard Raul’s heavy footsteps ring out against the wood floorstowards her.

Shedidn’t wait for him to replace the entrance to the servant’s passage. She foldedup the letter, shoved it up her sleeve, and took off down the corridor.