Page 10 of Caroline the Cruel
Angus nodded. “How?”
“Well, first we’ll try coin. If that doesn’t work, I’ll force them to serve me.”
Angus looked up from where he was doubled over and gave Caroline a side-long glance. In the many hours they’d spent together, she’d shared how the power worked and that as her current most loyal subject, she might come back from a punishment incapacitated and he might need to take care of her.
There was also the fear that the subjects of Everstal would eventually come snooping around Roskide since their rulers hadn’t been seen in weeks now and rumors were likely swirling out of control. But Caroline felt the need to locate and deal with her sister before she announced herself and her intentions to the people.
“Let’s pay a visit to the treasury, shall we?” Caroline stormed down the hallway and slipped into the first opening to the tunnels she came across. A more confident Angus, slipped in right behind her.
It took about half an hour to make the winding passage down to the treasury vault beneath Roskide. “It’s just in here. Help me with the door.”
Putting both their weight into it barely made the door budge. “Shit, it must be barricaded from the inside,” Angus said.
Emmaline.Caroline should have known she’d gone there. She’d even suggested as much to the assassin.
“Emmy!” she shouted. “It’s me, Caroline. Open up!”
Nothing.
“Princess Emmaline,” Angus shouted, his voice louder than Caroline’s. He pounded on the door with his fists.
“Shhh… I hear something.” The creaking and shifting of an object being moved stopped abruptly.
“Are they gone?” Emmy’s voice sounded faintly through the thick door.
“They’re gone, Emmy. Open up,” Caroline yelled back.
“How has she survived in there this long?” Angus muttered.
“The vault is stocked with months’ worth of rations and there’s a makeshift toilet chamber that goes down to a deep well. There are barrels of wine and a small spring flows down one of the walls. It isn’t much, but it is enough to keep one alive,” Caroline explained, as more objects were wrenched across the floor.
Metal groaned loudly and clanged, sounding like it had fallen into the open resting position. Caroline nodded toward Angus and they both put a shoulder into the big door and heaved. The door swung open on creaking hinges, revealing the glow of several lanterns positioned around the room.
Emmy was standing, still clad in her red ball gown, though she had shorn most of the superfluous frills from it, so it was only a sheath. She shook her head, exhaling loudly. “Oh, Caroline, you have no idea how happy I am to see your face. It’s been dreadful down here all alone.”
Angus snorted and darted an incredulous glance at Caroline. She’d informed him of her sister’s ways, so she couldn’t trick him with her fake and manipulative utterings.
Emmy screwed up her face and looked Angus up and down. “Who are you?”
“He’s my second in command,” Caroline answered for him. She stomped into the room, surveying the space.
Emmy had dug through the treasury to find plush rugs and blankets which were laid out in a makeshift bed. A table had been set up with a lantern and a beautiful golden enameled plate was set out and a serving of half-eaten rations were sitting upon it as if she and Angus had interrupted a quaint private dinner.
She raised an eyebrow at her sister, whose mouth was agape at the commanding way Caroline was moving about the vault. “It hardly looks like you’re roughing it.”
“Father’s gone?” Emmy asked, wringing her hands before her.
“And your mother,” Caroline bit out.
Emmy put her fingers to her mouth and rested a shaky hand on the table.
“Your Majesty?” Angus interrupted.
“Yes?” both girls replied in unison.
“I was referring to the queen,” he sneered at the princess.
Emmy stepped back. “Are you going to let your little friend talk to his sovereign like that? Or shall I deal with him? I should inherit Father’s power any time now.” She pressed her shoulders back and lifted a haughty chin.
