A Crumble of Walls (The Kin of Kings Book 4) (10 page)

She pulled her arms in and jumped into the portal.

Now it was down to Crim and Steffen, both of whom had turned away from the portal as if it might burn them alive.

“Everything I know about portals tells me I shouldn’t go in one,” Steffen said. “When Effie described it earlier, I figured it would be easier. Now, looking at it, I still don’t understand why it won’t rip me apart.”

“I don’t know the reason,” Basen admitted. “But I’ve gone through them enough times to be confident all your limbs will still be attached when you get to the other side. If you look closely, you can see everyone there.”

Steffen cautiously stepped sideways toward the portal, using his shoulder like a shield. Annah, Vithos, and Effie looked to be recovering from the vertigo as they found their balance. The tables and counters of Tenred’s kitchen were the most clear of the hazy image. What looked to be other people started to appear around the edges, as if a crowd was forming. Their shapes bent as the entire portal rippled like a puddle.

Everyone was supposed to go in before the Krepp to prevent the panic of last time. Basen let out a grunt he’d been holding back, showing Steffen it was no easy task to maintain the portal.

“Oh,” Steffen said. “All right I’m going.”

But he didn’t move.

“I’m going,” he repeated.

“Steffen,” Basen urged.

The chemist sucked in air through his teeth and covered his face with his arm as he stumbled in. Crim ran in bravely, almost impatiently, right after.

“It’s likely you’ll see me before they return with Mother,” Basen told his father.

“All right, then,” Henry replied confidently. “Good luck.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

When Tenred’s kitchen finally stopped spinning and Basen could stand without assistance, he realized the staff wasn’t nearly as alarmed this time. The portal was now closed, and only one Krepp had gone through. This seemed to make all the difference, as the chefs, kitchen cleaners, and servers had paused in their tasks to stare at Basen’s party nervously.

“It’s all right,” he said. “We just came to speak with someone.”

He started toward the exit but found he was the only one moving. Even his own party appeared reluctant to follow. They looked at the kitchen staff as if expecting someone to go for one of the many knives on the counters.

Basen cleared his throat and pointed at a pot about to boil over. One of the chefs cursed and lifted it away from the flame as frothy liquid poured over the side.

Finally, people began to return to their work. Basen gestured at his stunned party to follow him as he made his way out.

Crim looked ready to bare his teeth when Annah politely confronted him. “There will be no fighting,” she reminded, most likely using psyche to subdue his aggression. “By them or us.”

*****

Those they encountered on the way to the prison stared at the Krepp. Basen and Annah assured everyone their party was welcome inside the castle. Of course it was a lie, and anyone who thought so would likely summon a guard.

Basen picked up the pace but made sure not to run, as it most definitely would attract more attention. Guests in Tenred’s castle needed to be escorted, and there was no escort with them. But Basen knew where there tended to be more swordsmen, and where there likely would be none.

They reached the warden’s office without incident. A guard paced between the warden’s closed door and the bolted door to the dungeons. His hand went for the hilt of his sword as soon as he noticed Crim.

Basen quickly put out his hands, holding Crea’s decree in one of them. “I’m Basen Hiller, and I have a note from Crea Hiller that is to be shown to the warden.”

After standing still for a moment of confusion, the guard let go of the handle of his weapon and approached.

Basen handed off the scroll. The guard took a quick glimpse, then read more closely while peering up at Crim every few seconds.

“Wait here,” he said and went to knock on the warden’s door. “Basen Hiller is here with a note from the queen that Juliana Hiller is to be released.” The guard cleared his throat. “A Krepp is with them. It seems to be behaved.”

It took a while for the door to open and the warden to poke his head out and take the scroll from the guard. He likewise didn’t read through it without glancing at Crim a few times.

Basen caught a whiff of Crim’s musk as the creature stepped close and asked, “He human responsible for battle here?”

That’s Crea.
But Basen couldn’t say that. The Krepps would kill her, or at least try to. A battle would erupt within the walls of the Academy.

Once she and Abith turn against us, that is the time.

“No,” Basen lied. “Cleve killed the man responsible when we were here last.”

Crim pointed at the warden. “But
he
human who put Krepps in cage.”

“That wasn’t his choice.” The Krepps couldn’t be left alone after they’d come into the territory demanding the bodies of their brethren. They would’ve dug up the entire cemetery, and the citizens of Tenred wouldn’t have stood idle. Putting the Krepps in prison actually saved their lives.

“Then who?” Crim asked.

Truthfully, it was probably the warden who’d put them there, but Crim wouldn’t understand it was the best decision for everyone.

“No one here,” Basen said.

He was glad when the warden signaled for him to approach. But as the rest of the party followed, the warden put out his hand. “Only Basen.”

This was a bad sign. If the warden was set to deliver bad news, he was likely to do it out of earshot of Basen’s party so they couldn’t do any damage, especially the Krepp. Basen needed to remind this man he didn’t have the power to refuse them.

“You can speak to all of us, or none of us,” Basen said, “and I don’t think you want to send us away with nothing.”

The guard looked at the warden nervously, who stared at Basen as he mulled his words.

“Explain something to me,” the warden said. “As you must remember from before your
exile
, all visitors are to be escorted. You’re now a visitor, even with your Hiller name. Yet I see no one here with you. The rest of the castle must not even know of your presence.”

“They don’t.” But they would soon if Basen didn’t hurry this along. At least one person had to have gone to fetch the guards upon seeing the Krepp. “The reason there are so few of us is because of an understanding there will not be any fighting. This
is
what you want, isn’t it?”

“Of course, but I can’t let someone out of prison with just a note that might have Crea’s signature on it.”

“You know her signature. That’s it.”

“You know her signature as well.” The warden gave him a look as if Basen had been caught stealing. “You could’ve forged it.”

“It’s hers,” Annah said as she came forward.

“I can’t be sure,” the warden said.

Basen reminded him, “You’ve released other prisoners with a lot less than a signed decree like this.”

“Yes, but they weren’t Juliana Hiller.”

Basen turned up his hands. “What does that matter?”

“I received explicit instructions not to release her no matter who came for her.”

Crea.
She could’ve warned me so I’d be better prepared for this stubbornness
. He wasn’t about to leave without his mother.

“You must be wondering how we’ve gotten into the castle not once, but twice,” Basen said. “The last time, you must’ve heard that no one saw us enter. It will be the same this time. And it will be the same the next time…and the time after that. We will keep coming back so long as there is a reason for us to return.”

He paused for a breath to control his building anger. He needed just the right amount of it in his voice to be threatening yet unemotional.

“This signature from Crea is real, but that shouldn’t matter to you anymore. The only thing that should is giving us what we want, or I recommend finding a job that moves you far away from this castle. Because if we have to come back, there will be a battle here that will make the last one look like a simple misunderstanding. Now bring us to my mother, and you’d better bring the key to free the Krepps as well. They’re coming back with us, and that’s the only way you won’t see us again.”

There was a moment of sadness as Basen realized how true his words were—how unlikely it was he’d ever return to the castle where he was born. Sometimes he missed the simple life here, and some part of him had always wondered if he could return to it. Only now did he fully realize his childhood was long gone.

“I’ll agree if you wait here until I’ve gathered the necessary men to escort you out,” the warden said. “And you will not speak to the prisoners except to notify the Krepps that they’ll be leaving. Armored men will bring you all the way to the edge of the territory, and none of you are welcome back. If you’re seen within the castle again, we
will
have that battle you mentioned.”

The only reason we’d be coming back would be to fight anyway.
Unfortunately, a battle against Tenred was likely. There were still men breathing who’d attempted to kill Basen and the others who’d come here before.

“Fine,” Basen said.

The warden locked his door and left with the guard. Crim seemed to have understood enough, for he asked no questions.

The warden and his team of guards returned sooner than Basen had anticipated.
They must’ve already been on the way here.
As they took Basen and his group down into the dungeons, he worried the only reason the warden agreed to cooperate was because he planned to put them in prison just as he had any others who’d caused him or Crea problems.

No,
he would have worse problems if he did. Henry would come, and it wouldn’t be a peaceful visit.
No matter how unemotional he’d been with Basen, Henry had always shown he wanted to protect his son.
He probably blames himself for not getting to the Academy sooner.

Hopefully, when Basen was done with everything that had caused him to leave the Academy, and his father had seen what he’d accomplished, Henry would finally stop feeling the need to watch over his only son.

Eventually the small army of Tenred guards brought him to his mother’s cell. Crim, upon seeing his Krepps in the same “cage” as before, shoved through the guards to get as close as possible. A few men reached for their weapons, stilling Basen’s heart. Fortunately, nothing came of it, and Basen moved his hand away from the wand strapped to his belt.

“Basen?” It was his mother’s voice.

He smiled happily at her. “Yes. I’ve come to get you out.”

“You have?” She looked at the warden, a man she’d known for many years. He didn’t return her glance as he focused on getting the right key into the hole.

“Crea has allowed you to go free,” the warden told her, no doubt trying to rid himself of the responsibility for her imprisonment.

Juliana looked as if she didn’t trust the situation, hesitantly emerging from the large cell. She kept her hands on the bars as if ready to step back in at any moment and pull them shut.

“What about me?” a woman with a raspy voice asked as she approached. “I’m innocent.”

“So am I,” others added.

“Only Juliana Hiller,” the warden told them, then gestured for his guards to shut the cell door.

“Just because she has a Hiller name,” complained one of the dirty women. “That isn’t fair.”

Basen almost started chuckling. Something good happening to a member of his family because of their Hiller name? Completely absurd.

The indignant feeling was gone in an instant as he embraced his mother and was filled with emotion. He longed to bring her back to the Academy where she’d reunite with Henry. It had been far too long since they’d been a “happy family.”

Juliana looked even worse than when Basen had been here last, her black hair crimped and long overdue for a proper wash and comb. She looked thin to the point of weakness, moving slowly as Basen led her out of the suffocating group of armored men.

“Why would Crea let me out?” Juliana whispered.

“I’ll explain everything on the way.”

“Where are we going?”

“For now, all of us are going to Corin Forest.”

The freeing of the many Krepps captured everyone’s attention. The creatures had been dueling each other when Basen arrived, but the guards had taken their swords before opening their cell. They celebrated their freedom with an amusing display of dancing to a chorus of grunting and humming. They squatted up and down, jumping off the ground upon rising and throwing out their arms in rhythm to the coarse music.

“What will we be doing in Corin Forest with Krepps?” Juliana asked.

His poor mother; she must be so confused and worried about all of this. He tried to think of the single most important thing he could tell her to ease her mind.

“We’re headed back to the Academy, where Henry awaits.”