After Jechrin had thanked his aunt and said goodnight, they left the house and were soon making their way through the dark maze of the city streets again.
"Are you sure it's okay not to tell your aunt what's going on?" Erin asked uncertainly as they turned a corner and lost sight of Celora’s house.
"She wouldn't let us go if we told her," Jechrin said. "And what could she do besides worry at this point? I'm sure the emperor will contact her and the rest of the royal family members, so she should find out soon, anyway."
"I can't believe she didn't ask us more questions..." Sarah said, shaking her head. "I mean, you just dropping in to use her ivareh in the middle of the night with three strangers in tow? Didn’t she want to know what we were up to? You weren't using any of your creepy mind control magic on her, were you?”
"I didn't need to. That's just how she is. She doesn't like prying into other people's business. Her philosophy is that if someone wants you to know something, they’ll tell you. And if they don’t want you to know, you probably won’t be able to get it out of them anyway.”
“She seems like a nice person,” Anthony remarked.
“Yes, she is.” There was a touch of wistfulness in Jechrin's voice. “She’s been very kind to me, in spite of my father.”
He was silent for a moment, and there was a contemplative and somewhat regretful look on his face.
"To be honest..." he continued softly. "I just didn't want to be the one to tell her. I'm not sure how I could have explained things without telling her what my father is...what I am. I know it's cowardly, but I really don't want to see the look on her face when she finds out the truth...."
No one seemed to know what to say to that. But Erin moved a little closer to Jechrin and reached out to take hold of his hand again. He gave her a small smile in response.
They didn't speak again until Jechrin had guided them into the heart of the city, where they turned onto a broad avenue lined with trees and flowers. He led them along the avenue, staying in the shadows of the trees on one side. Looking up ahead of them, Erin could see a large building rising high above the city around it. It was squarer and less graceful than the palaces in Katan Jyrat and Raylmiyr, built more like a fortress.
“How exactly are we going to get inside the palace?” Sarah asked in a low voice.
Jechrin glanced back at her and shrugged. “Through the gatehouse. The main gate is closed for the night.”
“But the gatehouse will be full of guards!” Sarah protested. “Isn’t there another way in?”
“Yes, but this way is by far the easiest and fastest,” Jechrin said calmly. “Don’t worry about the guards—I’ll make sure they don’t bother us. Being half Relian is good for a few things, you know?”
“That’s the whole problem,” Sarah hissed. “You’re half Relian, and I don’t trust Relians! Especially when they’re leading me straight into a pack of guards.”
Jechrin stopped walking and turned around to face her. “You think I’m leading you into a trap? If I were going to do that, do you really think I would have told you I was half Relian? Or that I would have let the emperor know what my father’s been doing?”
“He’s got a point, you know,” Anthony said fairly.
Sarah said nothing, still glowering at Jechrin.
“Just because he happens to be half Relian doesn’t automatically make him evil and untrustworthy,” Erin said, frowning at Sarah. “Honestly—that’s the same kind of prejudice that Nirayls have against humans. If they just had enough sense to realize that blood doesn’t make a person who they are, then Nievar wouldn’t have disowned Kiari, and Kirchel would have married Arturyn already, and we wouldn’t even have to be here!”
“I’m not—” Sarah began hotly. “That’s completely—” She broke off, looking very agitated. “Fine! We’ll do it his way. Just don’t say that I didn’t warn you when we end up spending the rest of the night in the dungeons.”
“All right, we won’t,” Erin said evenly.
They started walking again, and a few minutes later they were in front of the palace entrance. As Jechrin had said, the large gate was closed. Instead, he led them to a smaller door set into the wall to the right of the main gate.
There was a metal panel in the center of the door like the one on the gate in front of Celora’s house. Jechrin put his hand on it, and after a moment, the door was opened by a burly man in a guard’s uniform. He stared at Jechrin in surprise for a few seconds, but then his face relaxed and he moved out of the way, holding the door open for them.
“Your Highness,” he said, bowing his head.
“Thank you,” Jechrin said quietly, stepping inside. The others followed him.
There were about a dozen guards inside the large room, mostly seated at small wooden tables that were arranged around a fireplace on one side. Some cast mildly interested looks in their direction as they walked across the room, but no one said anything or made any sign that the prince coming back to the palace in the middle of the night with three strangers was any cause for concern. A couple of guards even waved at them as they went out the door on the other side, wearing friendly but slightly vague expressions on their faces. Erin had the distinct impression that, within a few minutes, none of the guards would remember them coming through at all.
“There, that wasn’t so bad, now was it?” Jechrin said with a faint smile as they walked up the path leading from the gate to the palace.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Sarah sniffed irritably but didn’t say anything.
Jechrin didn’t take them through the front doors of the palace. Instead, he led them on a path around the side of the building, toward the gardens in the back.
They met several pairs of guards keeping watch over the palace grounds, but they all behaved like the guards in the gatehouse had—either ignoring them completely or else smiling and nodding absently as they went by.
They continued unhindered through the shadowy gardens until they reached the back corner of the palace, where a stone staircase led up to a wide balcony on one of the upper floors. Here, Jechrin paused, stepping into the shadows beneath the stairs and beckoning the others to follow him.
“These stairs lead into the residential section of the palace,” he said in a low voice, gesturing at the staircase above them. “I think that’s where Kirchel is—in my father’s chambers.”
“Won’t he be there with her?” Erin whispered nervously. “How are we supposed to get her out of there without him catching us?”
“I'm not sure we can, to be honest,” Jechrin said grimly. “He and Galeth will probably both be there. Galeth is my father’s advisor,” he added to Sarah and Anthony, who hadn’t seen the old man with Teral in Katan Jyrat.
“Didn't you say that he's also a Relian?” Sarah asked. “How are we supposed to get past two of them? One would be bad enough....”
Jechrin shook his head. “I don't know. Distracting them until the Imperial Guard gets here might be the best we can do.”
All four of them were silent for a moment, considering this discouraging statement.
“I’m going to say it one more time,” Sarah said finally. “I don’t think Erin and Anthony should go with us. It’s too dangerous, and—to be completely frank—I don’t think there’s much they can do to help. They can't even use magic. They’ll just end up getting hurt or killed…or getting us hurt or killed trying to protect them.”
Erin wasn’t sure what to say to that. She was willing to do whatever she could to help Kirchel, but she couldn’t deny that she was scared, especially now that they were so close. And maybe Sarah was right. Maybe she and Anthony would just be in the way if they went along....
“Well, it’s their choice,” Jechrin said after a pause. “They will be in more danger, it’s true. I wouldn’t consider it cowardly at all for them to want to stay behind. They could wait here in the garden or up in my room—we’ll pass it on the way.”
“You mean you think we should stay behind?” Erin asked him hesitantly, not sure what she wanted his answer to be.
“I think...” Jechrin said slowly. “I think it might be better for Anthony to stay, yes. For his sake, more than for ours. Just because he can’t use magic doesn’t make him useless—it just puts him in more danger. But you, Erin...I’d rather you went with us. I....”
He paused for a moment, looking a bit conflicted.
“I can’t do this alone, Erin,” he continued softly, changing suddenly from Silmarith to a language Erin had never heard before, although she could still understand it. “I need your help. I’m stronger when you’re with me.”
“Then I’ll come,” Erin said at once, the words coming out in the same unfamiliar language.
She felt Jechrin give her hand a grateful squeeze.
“Is that Myrik you’re speaking?” Sarah’s face was in shadow, but Erin could hear the frown in her voice. “Relian tongue?”
“Yes,” Jechrin said, speaking in Silmarith again. “Sorry, we just needed a quick private word.”
“I see....” Sarah sounded rather suspicious. “So, does that mean you’re coming with us, Erin?”
“Yes,” Erin said firmly, doing her best to push aside her fears.
“All right, on your own head be it,” Sarah said with a sigh. “What about you, Ant?”
“I….” Anthony hesitated, and Erin could hear him swallowing. “Well, I can’t stay behind if Erin’s going,” he said, a bit of his usual mocking, debonair style coming back into his voice. “Think what that would do to my macho image. Besides, I think I’d rather take my chances against the Relians with you three than have you leave me all by myself in this place. I mean, what would I do if you didn’t come back? I can’t even speak Selmarsh or Sillymath or whatever it was you call it.”
“Silmarith,” Sarah said, sighing again, although Erin thought she heard a touch of amusement in her voice. “Well, if I can’t persuade you two to save your own skins, we might as well end the discussion and get going. Lead on, Jechrin.”
They made their way up the staircase and onto the balcony. There, they passed a number of wooden benches and large potted plants, heading for a pair of double doors leading inside.
Two pairs of guards were posted there, one on either side of the doors, but like the other guards they had passed, these ones appeared barely aware of their presence. Jechrin put his hand on the metal plate on one of the doors, which swung open, and they went through into a dimly lit hallway.
“Down this hallway and then to the right,” Jechrin whispered, closing the door behind them.
They followed him through the hall and around the corner, moving quietly and cautiously. A little way down the second hallway, they met up with another pair of guards, who were standing on either side of the entrance to a third corridor which intersected the one they were in. These two guards ignored them completely. In fact, it looked to Erin like they were both on the verge of falling asleep. And she couldn’t blame them. It looked like a very tedious job.
Jechrin led them past the two guards and into the hallway beyond, which opened into a rectangular area with several doors leading out of it. Directly in front of them was a pair of double doors, larger and more ornate than any of the other doors in sight. Jechrin paused in front of them and turned to Sarah.
“What can you smell?” he asked, speaking very quietly.
Sarah took a moment to change back into her wolf-like form and then began sniffing around at the base of the two doors.
“Kirchel’s scent is here,” she whispered after a minute. “And your father’s. And others I don’t recognize—some fresh and some not.”
“Can you tell who’s inside?”
Sarah shook her head. “Not for sure. I can tell that your father and Kirchel both passed through here recently, but I can’t tell how many times or what direction they were going last.”
She inclined her head toward the two doors, her ears pricked.
“I can’t hear anything on the other side,” she said after listening for a moment.
“All right, I’ll go in first,” Jechrin said, looking a little apprehensive but determined.
He moved forward and quietly eased the door open. Then he took a step inside and paused, apparently looking around. Sarah was still sniffing the air in front of the doors. Erin and Anthony exchanged nervous looks.
After a long moment, Jechrin turned and beckoned silently for them to follow him into the room. They crept cautiously forward—Sarah going in first, with Erin walking close behind her, trying to avoid being hit by her tail, and Anthony bringing up the rear.