Page 122 of Lady Knight and the Thief

But no one came.

Torren and Cypress went unnoticed until they reached the top of the staircase and stepped into the hall that ran parallel to the main halls in this part of the Keep. This corridor was barely wide enough for her and Torren to walk side by side.

Then, a maid carrying a bundle of sheets and a small candle shielded by a glass lantern entered the servants' passages through an entry operated by an identical opening mechanism as the one Cypress and Torren had used.

The maid froze when she laid eyes on Cypress and Torren, still in their ball finery, down to the masks partially shielding their faces.

Luckily, though, Cypress knew this maid.

“Aalis,” she said, her hand outstretched toward her lady's maid and friend.

Aalis’ eyes widened a fraction, the sheets dropping to the floor. “Cypress? What are you doing here? They’ll have you killed!”

Cypress shook her head. “There’s no time. Who else is still on scullery duties this evening?”

Aalis listed a number of names with a wince. Not a single one of them had been particularly friendly with Cypress while they were all kids in the orphanage. “Stay out of the lower corridors. Oswald is patrolling around the ballroom.”

Cypress nodded her appreciation.

“Lass, we need to keep moving,” Torren urged from behind her, his hand resting on Cypress’s lower back.

“I know,” Cypress responded, but something kept her from leaving her one-time friend just yet.

She took a step forward and grabbed Aalis’s hand. “Aalis… if you ever, I mean… If you want to leave Grethnah, come find me in the Wylds,” Cypress said and then kept moving.

She and Torren disappeared down the corridor, their now tiny candles illuminating the stone archway barely above their heads.

“Who was she?” Torren asked when they were a good distance away.

“A friend.”

“A trustworthy one?”

Cypress threw him a scathing look over her shoulder. “I wouldn’t have asked her to come find me if I didn’t think so.”

“Just asking, Lass.”

Cypress grunted, though instead of commenting further, she merely said, “There will be three more junctions, and then the next hall will open into the atrium of the vault.”

From the corner of her eye, Cypress saw Torren’s sharp nod.

They’d already been discovered once, and someone had grown suspicious of them in the ballroom, so Cypress guessed it wasonly a matter of time before someone else came upon them as they crept through the servants' passages.

So, she took care not to bump into the walls, to place her feet softly.

Cypress and Torren made it through two of the junctions without incident.

The third, unfortunately, was not the same as its predecessors.

Just as Cypress led Torren through the junction of the passage that crossed theirs, someone shouted, “You there! Halt!” A rattle of chainmail accompanied their quick footsteps.

There was nowhere to run– nowhere that wasn’t in direct line of sight for an archer. And unfortunately, Cypress knew the voice of their pursuer.

Maddock was one of the more slender Knights within the Prince's guard. And, unfortunately, remarkably prolific with a bow–both traditional and cross.

“Fuck,” Cypress muttered to herself, then ordered Torren, “Follow my lead.”

She barely registered his nod before Cypress whirled around with a fake gasp. “Oh, thank goodness! Can you tell us how to get back to the ball?”