loyalty to Rolencia and provide that strong leadership.
Even the animals responded to the mood, with their own cries of distress. There was no sign of the two guards, who had probably run to their commander. If the third man on guard outside her mother's chamber had also left, then there would be no chance to steal the keys.
Piro raced up the stairs. Her calves would be aching tomorrow from all this running up tower steps. She reached the top floor and peered around the corner. No guard.
Only slightly out of breath, she padded over to the door. 'Mother?'
'Piro? Don't let the guard see you!'
'He's gone. Even the courtyard guards have gone. I'm going to try to get you out of here. The people need their queen.'
From the courtyard below someone screamed and Piro heard the clash of steel on steel.
When she ran to the window her mind denied what she saw, as warriors in Merofynian blue poured through the far arch. This could not be happening. The castle was too strong to be taken by force.
She craned out even further and saw the curve of her mother's cheek as she did the same from her window.
'Mother.'
But the queen did not hear her. Piro snatched the remains of the guard's bread bun and threw it at her mother, who turned and caught sight of her. About a body length of slightly curved dressed stone wall separated them.
Piro gestured below. 'How could they breach our defences?'
'Guile.' Her mother pointed. 'See the direction they're coming from. A traitor must have opened the postern gate!'
Chapter Ten
Piro stared down to the courtyard where the fighting was hand-to-hand, with the men in dark red falling before the azure and black-clad forces, as the townsfolk tried to grab their children and run.
But there was nowhere to run to.
'What is it?' Seela demanded from inside the cell. 'I must see.'
Piro could just make out the old woman's silver head as she peered into the courtyard. The panicked screams from below made Piro's stomach churn. Her old nurse withdrew and, after a moment, the queen reappeared at the window.
'Who would betray us, Mother?'
'Illien of Cobalt, if it suited him.' The queen spoke in a strange flat voice. 'Only in the last few days have I realised the depths of his trickery. I've been a fool.'
'No.' Piro's denial was instinctive, but no one could deny the searing clash of metal on metal. Men shouted, screaming as they died. The king was dead and Queen Myrella imprisoned, just when they needed her to rally the castle's defenders. Or was she? Piro judged the width of the small decorative ledge that connected the two window sills. 'I know. You can climb out the window and work your way along the ledge to this one.'
Her mother stared at her in disbelief.
'You can hold onto the roof to keep your balance,' Piro insisted.
'I could never — '
'I'll come out and lead you around.' Piro swung her weight onto the window sill and prepared to lift herself out.
'Stop, Piro. You'll fall.'
'I won't. I know I can do it.'
Her mother shook her head. 'Maybe you could, but I couldn't and I'm certain Seela couldn't get through the window.'
She was right. Piro slumped on the window sill.
Her mother leant sideways, hand outstretched towards Piro who craned as far as she could so that their fingers just touched.
'It is for the best, Piro. Soon they will come for me. If this is all part of Cobalt's plan I will be his prize for surrendering the castle.' Her mother tried to smile. 'Don't worry, he won't let them hurt me. The sooner we negotiate our surrender, the better. There is no need for this slaughter. Merofynians are not barbarians.'
'Surrender?' Piro baulked at the thought. Had the queen reverted to her birth allegiance?
'How else can we regroup and fight back?' her mother countered.
Pride filled Piro. How could she have doubted her mother? 'I will stand at your side. I'm not afraid.'
She was petrified.
'Of course you are afraid,' Seela snapped, out of sight but not out of the conversation.
The queen smiled. 'Go, put on your best gown. You must look every bit a kingsdaughter if we are to use you to our advantage. When the time is right, I will say your full name, then you must come out of hiding and join me. If I don't call you Pirola then stay hidden, for you are more use to me as a free agent. Remember how you played the goatherd when Byren was negotiating with the overlord of Unistag Spar?'
Piro nodded. 'That was fun.' When it hadn't been terrifying.
'Good. Lence is now king. If I call you Piro you must take this message to him. Tell him not to let fear for my safety stay his hand. He must retake the castle. Can you remember that?'
Piro nodded. 'But it doesn't feel right leaving you.'
'I'm a captured piece in the game of Duelling Kingdoms. I've been a piece since I was betrothed at the age of eight.' She grimaced. 'Sometimes you must sacrifice a piece to win, you know that.'
Piro nodded, blinking tears from her eyes. Her mother's face swam in her vision. 'But — '
'Go now, Piro, and may Halcyon watch over you.' The queen's fingers tightened on hers. 'And, Piro, promise me this?'
Piro nodded, ready to promise anything.
'I prayed my children would not inherit my Affinity, yet you have it. Do not deny it as I have done. Learn from my mistakes.'
There was so much Piro wanted to say, but her throat felt too tight to speak. She nodded and let her mother's fingers go. Her shoulder and side ached from the strain of leaning so far and the hard stone sill had cut into her thighs.
She jumped lightly to the floor, heading down the stairs. In the shadowed doorway of the first-floor landing, she hesitated. The courtyard was empty of living things, except for a boy of about eleven wearing Merofynian blue. He chased a chicken around the yard, swinging another one by its legs, both squawking indignantly.
The boy cornered the chicken at last.
'I'm going to wring your neck m'self then throw you in the pot!' he told it and promptly dispatched both birds.
Piro had been taught the court Merofynian and he spoke a rough common version, but she had no trouble understanding him.
He tucked the bird under his arm and left. Nothing remained but three dead bodies, crushed cages, trodden animal dung and assorted chicken feathers.
Piro swallowed. Where had they taken all the townsfolk? If this had been a normal battle, she would have been tending the wounded. She'd trained in basic healing at her mother's side. Many was the time she had helped stitch up Byren and Lence. Now she was at a loss.
Crossing the courtyard, she took a short cut through the menagerie where her pet foenix was housed. The bird's eager cry drew her and she hurried across, furious to discover he had been caged. She had never locked him away, letting him roam the glass-roofed courtyard freely.
'Oh, you poor thing!' she dropped to her knees, unlocking the cage. Freed, he made a soft crooning noise in his throat and rubbed his head on her face.
She stroked his soft, fur-like feathers. It pained her to see how dull his colour had grown in just a few days.
