“Get inside,” someone yelled as Carys shoved through dozens who were racing toward the entrance of the castle.
“Ow.” She stumbled as something struck her ankle. “I order you to get out of my way,” she yelled. At the sound of her voice everyone around her scattered—a distinct benefit of being a pariah—and she fought free of the crowd and headed for the stairs. A boy with a torch was in the hallway. Grabbing him by the shoulder, she led him to an alcove down the hall, took the torch, and said, “Stay here until the lights go back on. If anyone questions you, tell them you are acting on orders of Princess Carys.”
Then she turned and ran through the halls that had never gone this dark in all of her years. Even when some of the lights fell in the city, the castle always continued to shine. Not today. Why?
Andreus would be asking the same thing. He would be trying to fix the problem. If he could get to the battlements, he would. That’s where she’d find him. The stress and the exertion could trigger an attack he wouldn’t heed until it was too advanced to hide. If that happened, it wouldn’t matter if all the Xhelozi in the mountains were at the gates—they would be doomed before the Xhelozi struck the first blow.
Carys ran. Down the hall to the stairwell she knew was used by the Masters of the Light and the guard. The stairs were steep and narrow and illuminated by flickering torches. Gathering her skirts with her knife hand, she held tight to her own torch and climbed.
One flight of steps.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Until she reached the entrance to the battlements and stepped out into the darkness. To her right, men yelled. There was more shouting ahead of her. Torches glowed and flickered in the wind that began to gust harder as she hurried across the stone, looking for her twin. Where was he? Her hand holding the knife cocked back, preparing to throw at any sign of danger.
Wind pulled at the hood of her cloak. It whipped her hair into her face as she turned and squinted at the base of the windmill closest to her. It continued to pulse against the sky. Mocking the dark. Mocking her.
Then the night flickered and the light atop the highest tower began to glow. An enormous circle of white against the black of the sky shone brighter as the seconds passed.
A cheer went up from the battlements as the lights on the white walls began to blink on, one by one. Carys dropped her torch and hurried to where she could see over the white walls. The city was no longer in darkness. It was safe. The castle was secure. But what about her brother?
Carys slid the guard’s knife deep into the pocket of her cloak so no one would see it in the now-bright light. The wind whipped harder as she hurried toward a group of men in gray and shouted, “Where is Prince Andreus? Have you seen him?”
The first group dropped to startled bows as they shook their heads. But an older man beyond them pointed toward several figures coming her way. Three of them were dressed in the gray robes of the Masters. The other was wearing a familiar striped cloak of yellow, white, and blue.
Dreus.
And he was smiling. He was fine.
Carys closed her eyes, took a deep breath to steady herself, then started forward. The minute Andreus spotted her, he broke away from the Masters of Light and crossed the white stone.
“Carys, are you okay?” His dark hair fluttered around his face. The wind began to slow, then stopped.
“I’m fine. I was just worried about the lights. I came up here to find out what was going on.” Men hurried past with tools in hand, pulling their cloaks and robes tight against them. “Are you okay?” His face was red from the cold, but his breathing seemed normal. She didn’t see the symptoms that normally signaled he was having an attack. Still . . .
“I am fine,” he assured her. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
Which was a relief considering there were plenty of other things to worry about. “Do you know what caused the lights to fail?”
Andreus took a step closer, then looked around before saying, “It appears that someone deliberately cut a line to the orb.”
“How? And why?” Even those working hardest to thwart the King would never want to damage the wind power system before the cold months.
“With an ax, would be my guess, and I have no idea. But whoever did it knew exactly where to sever the line in order to cut off wind power to the entire castle and Garden City. Carys . . . ” Her brother’s eyes narrowed. “They used the flaw in the system that I mentioned to Father months ago.”
“The one that he ordered you not to disclose to anyone?”
“That one.” Andreus looked back at the Masters, who were busy checking lines and gauges and a bunch of other things Carys didn’t completely understand.
She did understand her father’s order. And how angry he would be if he believed Andreus had deliberately disobeyed.
The weekly family meeting their father insisted on holding was never fun. Father had started the meetings when Micah was eight in order to make sure the Crown Prince was aware of the scope of a king’s duties and prepared for life on the throne. Their mother was the one who insisted Carys and Dreus be included when they turned eight. Father permitted their presence but rarely involved them in the discussion, which was why Andreus had eventually started bringing his books and design maps to help him to pass the time. Carys doubted her twin realized he’d spoken aloud when he said, “That’s a flaw.”
But their father had heard.
“Are you interrupting your king?”
“No, Father—Your Majesty. I’m sorry. I was just surprised by something I saw on the wind power design map.”
Carys held her breath as her father turned his attention to Andreus.
“A flaw, you said?”
Dreus’s eyes lit up at his father’s interest. Rarely did the King ask about her twin’s work with the wind.
With excitement, Andreus put the design map in front of their father and explained the flaw he had found. A place in the line that, if cut, could cause all other lines in the city to fail.
“Once I mention it to the Masters, I’m sure we can fix—”
“You won’t mention it to them.”
“But—”
“You won’t speak of this to anyone ever again,” his father ordered.
“But, Your Majesty . . . ” Her brother took a deep breath. “The safety of the kingdom depends on the lights on the wall.”
“And on the belief that the measures we have put into place have no flaws. Three-quarters of the guard are fighting or have died in the war with Adderton. The Lords of the Seven Districts have sent new recruits, but they are not trained, and the Xhelozi are breeding faster than before. The only thing preventing panic is the trust that the lights will keep the darkness away. Any whisper of flaws will crush that trust and any hold we have on the city will disappear.”