Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 19

As soon as they were out of sight, Cole took a deep breath and realized what she was about to do. She wanted to spy on the man responsible for keeping her mother locked in a dark dungeon, and the man responsible for wars and poverty, and everything that was bad in the city. She was voluntarily seeking him out, to watch him from the shadows and hope that she wouldn't be caught. She didn't even know what would happen if she was caught. Horrible images flickered to her mind, but she forced them all away. She wouldn't be able to do what she needed to do if she thought too deeply about it.

Running back to the dorms, Cole made sure no one was in the beds before digging through the clothes of one of the girls she knew worked as a maid. She pulled out one of the shifts that indicated that she was a general worker in the castle, and quickly swapped it out for her special shift. If she was spotted by anyone on her way to spying on the king, she didn't want them wondering why one of the prince's servants was so far from his room.

In her new shift, she turned to head out, but at the last second snatched a scarf from another girl's bed and wrapped it around her bristled scalp. A shaved head would always lead an enquirer back to her, but hopefully a scarf would only suggest that she wanted to keep her hair clean from dust.

The palace was massive, and Cole had not had any opportunity to explore it beyond the kitchen and the hallway to the prince's rooms. She had no idea where the king might be holed away, or how she could find it. Asking someone felt like it would draw attention, but aimlessly wandering felt too obvious as well. In the end, she made her way down to the kitchens and cleared her throat behind the cook.

"What do you want?" he barked, not even looking at her as he stirred a giant pot of boiling meat over the hearth. Drops of his sweat splashed into the water and his whole face was red and swollen from the heat.

"The king... King Thijs asked that a tray of refreshments be sent to his room," she said.

The cook cursed loudly. "If he wanted refreshments why didn't he have one of his courtiers mark it down on the menu like always?"

"Sorry," Cole replied. "A guest has unexpectedly arrived and the king wishes to give him some respite after a long journey."

The cook sighed heavily, but he turned and briefly waved over one of the apprentices to direct them on how to prepare a small tray of bread and cucumbers. As the apprentice worked, Cole made a point to shift her weight and dance in place. She sighed a few times, glancing back at the door when she was sure that the apprentice would see.

Finally, she burst forward, her hands flurrying up to rest on his arm. "I'm so sorry, but do you think you could get one of the other girls to take it to his rooms? I was needed by Mistress to take care of one of the dukes and if I'm late I'm afraid there will be a negative view of the royal family."

The apprentice looked down at her fingers wrapped around his bare forearm, and a blush grew on his face. "Oh. Y-yes, I can find someone," he spluttered, unable to meet her eyes.

"Thank you so much," Cole said, raising her voice into a happy chirrup that she'd heard other girls use to get their way.

Cole skipped from the room, but as soon as she was through the door she spun into the shadows to await whoever it was that the apprentice would find to carry out her invented chore.