Chapter 13

Daelia struggled against her assailant, trying to pry his hand away from her mouth, but he held her tightly against himself. Pushing the door closed, he threw his body against it and suddenly released her. Daelia fell against the opposite wall and gasped for breath in the complete darkness of the stairwell. Panic was welling up inside her in the form of another scream when her assailant grabbed her again.

“Hush! Don’t scream, I’m not going to harm you!” he growled warningly.

Through her hysteria, she recognized the voice, though she had heard it but once before…“Rouen?” she wavered.

The grip on her arm slackened, “Are you the servant girl with whom I spoke the other day?”

“Yes,” His hand dropped away and she rubbed her bruised arm. “What are you doing? You nearly frightened me to death!” she hissed into the darkness.

“I am trying to leave this cursed place! What are you doing?”

“Coming to see you!”

“Oh,” There was a pause before Rouen whispered testily, “Do you plan to tell your master that you saw me escaping?”

Daelia paused herself before answering firmly, “No, I do not. But nor do I plan to allow you to go walking through the halls of the castle in the middle of the day.”

“You cannot stop me if I wish to go; you are but a girl.”

“I am a woman, yes—and you are blind and lame.”

Rouen seemed taken aback by her blunt statement, for he fell silent. Shocked by her own callousness, she tried to amend it by adding, “If you were to walk out there now, you would be seen within moments.”

“I can hide if I hear footsteps. I know these halls better than most.”

Daelia shook her head in the dark. Just like her brother Arnan; counting on courage and sheer good fortune to keep him out of trouble. “There are countless servants in the halls; within minutes every guard in the castle will have you surrounded.”

Rouen let out a frustrated breath and hit his fist against the stone of the stairwell. What else had he expected? Of course they wouldn’t just let him walk out. He had been hoping to avoid the castle’s various workers; hoping for empty hallways; hoping for a miracle.

I should know better than to expect miracle, he thought.

“You haven’t told me yet why you are trying to escape, or why you are even here in the first place. Why would Master Vitalus care if you left this minute?”

Rouen ignored the question, unsure about whether it would be wise to reveal the particulars of his situation to the bold, young servant.

Daelia could feel the man’s distress, but his stubborn silence frustrated her. In fact, the entire situation had her perplexed. “If I assist you in your escape, would you please come back to the chapel and explain yourself? It’s too dark up here to carry on a conversation.”

It made no difference to him how light or dark the stairs were, but he obliged the stubborn young woman by starting back down the steps slowly. He wished he could simply ignore her warning, throw open the door and continue his escape of Caerlock. There was something in her voice, however, that calmed him long enough to realize the truth in her warning. He felt in her an inner strength and conviction that captivated his curiousity. This servant was different than any he had ever met before; and if he was going to make it out alive, he was going to need her help.

Daelia gathered up the bundle she had dropped in the scuffle, and followed him down to the small sanctuary.

Rouen settled heavily onto one of the wooden pews; Daelia sat down on the opposite pew where she could see his face.

She waited for him to speak, but silence stretched on as the man seemed to be in deep thought.
His eyes were sunken and dark, his pale face gaunt.

“I must get back to the kitchen soon,” Daelia prompted.

He sighed. Laying out all the humiliating details of his miserable existence to a servant woman was not something he relished. Could she be trusted?

“How do I know that you won’t go straight to your master and tell him what you know? Or spread it as gossip around the servant’s halls?”

Nearly out of patience, and slightly affronted by the suspicious tone he asked her the questions, Daelia stood to her feet. “Perhaps, sir, you are not quite as desperate for my help as I thought. Since you do not seem to need assistance, I shall return to my work before I am caught.”

As she turned to go, Rouen’s strong hand caught her slender wrist. She whirled to demand that he release her, but she saw the distress on his face; a pleading that even reached his sightless eyes. It pulled at her heart.

A spiral of emotions flooded through her, suddenly all converging somewhere in the back of her mind in a flash of recognition.

Then the words: Help him.

Daelia relaxed her body, and his grip loosened.

He is hungry; feed him.

She blinked, trying to make sense of the directions surfacing in her mind.

Rouen removed his hand from her wrist, “Forgive me; I only wished to stop you from leaving. I am sorry as well that my caution offended you. My only concern is that Elian Vitalus is never made aware of my plans; surely you can understand that.”

She didn’t understand; didn’t understand what the man was so afraid of or why he was there, but, nonetheless, she took a deep breath and sat back down.

“What would happen should Vitalus catch you in an attempted escape?”

His dark eyes almost met hers as he answered in a grave voice, “He would kill me. If he would discover that you helped me, he would probably see that you met with the same fate.”

Daelia knew by his face that what he said was true, and it frightened her. Then the words came back to her: help him.

“I will help you, Rouen, but I want something in return.”

“In exchange for your help, anything.”

“The days of this feast will be especially dangerous ones for someone trying to slip through the castle unnoticed. I will be your eyes and ears, but in return, you must never attempt to leave this chapel again until I give the word, even if you must wait here for another week or more.”

His face relaxed noticeably, “It won’t me easy for me, but I give you my word.”

The other words came back to her as well. “How long has it been since you had food?”

Brow knotted in surprise, Rouen replied, “Nearly three days now. My food and wood for the fire stopped coming. But how did you know I needed it?”

Daelia began untying the bundle she had been carrying, “It’s difficult to explain. Deus reminded me to bring it.”

Thunderbolts exploded in Rouen’s head. Had he just heard her correctly?

Daelia was startled when the young man’s face suddenly appeared right in front of hers, feverish intensity in his voice as he demanded:

“What name did you just say?”