Villainous [Wattys 2021 Shortlist]

MALEVOLENT 8: Ammunition

"I'll boost you up." Nell linked her hands together, but Delilah hesitated. What were Nell's feelings towards her? Nell's confession had been the last normal conversation they'd had before the battle, and the memory was an uncomfortable one.

"Delilah, just do it."

Delilah stepped on Nell's hands, touching her shoulders quickly for balance as Nell lifted her, grunting. Delilah caught the edge of the hole in the ceiling and tried to pull herself up. But her muscles had wasted away. She couldn't do it.

For one heart-stopping moment, her fingers slipped, her heart lurched. But Nell shoved her higher and she managed to drag herself up and into the passage.

"Go now," Kaya whispered. "Before the guards get suspicious."

Nell had given her brief instructions on the route to take – Delilah had given up trying to figure out how she navigated the world with such stealth – so she crawled into the darkness, feeling the rough walls on either side of her.

Her rasping breath was the only sound as she shuffled along awkwardly, muscles already protesting at the exertion she'd put herself through today. The ancient Sun Warriors had built Rhydderch when they had migrated north for the first time, burning everything in their path as an offering to Kane. The old tribal leaders had woven secrets into the stonework like threads in a tapestry, and Delilah betted the Fire Opal's secret spot was not the grandest achievement the builders had made. There had to be more. Perhaps secrets not even Gaol knew of.

How ironic, that Delilah had lived here for seventeen years, yet Nell found something she'd never noticed in... a day? Still, she couldn't help but smile to herself in the dark as she crawled. Despite whatever confusion existed between them, she was overwhelmed with joy to have a friend nearby again. And Kaya serving as her handmaid would be even better.

Kaya and Nell had brought a spark with them. Delilah was determined to shelter it until it could be fanned into a flame.

Even while travelling in the strange gap between ceiling and floor, and between separate walls, Delilah realised it wasn't too hard to navigate the palace. She remembered every sound that revealed the purpose of certain rooms: the tinkling of a piano told her she was above the music room, while the clink of glasses a few moments later had to be one of the dining rooms. The only problem was the tunnel twisted and turned, and she couldn't tell if there were any branching passages. Could this let her go anywhere she wished, or did it just lead to Gaol's meeting room?

After a while, Delilah's skin prickled. The walls she felt her way past were blank and unforgiving, and she began to conjure up nightmarish thoughts of suffocating in stone. What if Nell was wrong, and she was going to hit a dead end or become hopelessly lost? What if, when she arrived, there was no way to eavesdrop without getting caught?

Eventually Delilah spotted a square shaft of light beaming from the floor. She crawled up to it and nearly jumped out of her skin as a clear voice rang as loud as if she was stood next to the meeting table.

"Where is Prince Marko?" Gaol was asking.

Delilah stared down through a grate in the ceiling, amazed. She was in an air vent, constructed to allow drafts into the palace on even the hottest summer's day. The long, shiny mahogany table gleamed, and she had to smirk when she noticed how many of the politicians were going bald. It was obvious, when looking from above, whose hair had thinned the most, and none of them had been brave enough to shave their heads the way soldiers did.

"Sorry I'm late, Father." Marko strode in and took his place on Gaol's right side. "Aylin was in pain and I wanted to escort her to our chambers."

"Is she all right?"