Echo in Amethyst (Uncommon Echoes Book 3) by Sharon Shinn

Author:Sharon Shinn [Shinn, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency
Published: 2019-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I woke with a start when I heard Elyssa moving about her room. I hadn’t expected to sleep at all, but I must have dropped off at some point because I had that sense of drugged disorientation that came from sudden waking. Judging by the uncertain light peeking through the window, it was around seven in the morning.

Lady Marguerite was scheduled for execution at eight.

And Cormac might be dead by midnight.

During the hours of tossing and turning, I had come up with something like a plan. As Elyssa led us down the stairs and across the foyer, heading toward the malodorous back passage, I would be on the lookout for anyone else we might encounter in the hallways. Lourdes, if we were really lucky, but almost anyone would do. And then I would fall to the floor in a simulated faint, which would cause a great deal of consternation. If Lourdes was involved, servants would be called, and possibly even a physician; Elyssa would not be able to simply leave me behind, but would be subject to questions and her own examination from concerned onlookers. No doubt someone would insist on seeing her back to her room, and people would watch her solicitously all day. She would never have a chance to sneak to the back door and unlock it.

Marco might find a way inside on some other day, but I would have done my best to keep Cormac safe at least for a few hours.

Sitting up in bed, I listened closely as Elyssa moved from bed to washstand to armoire. She was getting herself dressed, I realized. Last night, she had told Gretta that she didn’t want to be disturbed until ten or eleven, which meant that she didn’t want the maid to know that she was planning to be up and about much earlier.

Up and about and letting murderers into the palace.

Suddenly she grew very still, as if she was listening intently. Then she crossed the room and pushed open one of the leaded windows that overlooked the palace courtyard. Instantly, the warm, heavy scents of summer came drifting into the room—and behind them, the muffled, excited chatter of a large crowd. I could hear indistinct sounds of people calling out to each other, or shouting insults, or just talking in loud voices to their friends. And then there was a swelling roar, as if something thrilling had just occurred. That heightened sound continued for another five or ten minutes before slowly receding, as if a large mob had moved off in one direction, leaving the courtyard deserted and eerily silent.

I knew what had happened, of course. Lady Marguerite had been brought out of the palace while a crowd of onlookers gawked and jeered. Now they were all racing to Amanda Plaza so they could get a good seat for the execution. I wondered if all the other nobles, like Elyssa, had stayed in their rooms and watched from their windows, or if any of them had followed the procession to the plaza to bear witness.

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