Julia paced the kitchen like a caged storm, her small frame coiled with restless energy. Each step she took echoed faintly against the stone floor, swallowed by the clatter of distant preparations, yet to her it sounded deafening, like a ticking clock counting down her failure.
Her mind refused to settle. Thoughts tangled and collided, sharp and relentless.
Her knights were gone. She had slipped away to check and they were gone!
The two men she had stationed to keep watch had vanished as if the earth itself had swallowed them whole. They were not at their posts, and they were not at the inn. There was no sign of struggle and no trace of retreat., only absence.
And absence, in a situation like this, could only mean one thing. They had been discovered.
"Damn it all…" Julia hissed under her breath, her fingers curling into fists at her sides. The words slipped out like venom, barely contained.
