DUSK'S POV
I wondered why Dalia would help me and stared at her in disbelief. She saw that my horse wasn't moving and went to it. Then she noticed I had tied it down. She released the horse and led it out.
"We should get going if we don't want anyone stopping us," she said. Although I was confused, I knew if anyone saw us, we wouldn't be able to go, and Lucius would die.
"You owe me an explanation," I told her as I climbed atop my horse. We rode quickly, without stopping.
"Do you have the map with you?" She asked, and I nodded.
"You know how to read maps?" She asked me, and I looked at the map briefly before taking my eyes off it to concentrate on the road.
"No, I just figured I'd work it out or ask someone," I said, and she stretched her hand.
"I can read maps," she said, and I looked at her briefly before handing the map to her. We rode out of the Kingdom at full speed, so even if anyone noticed we were not at the Palace, we would have been long gone.
We didn't talk much; the only conversation we had was on the directions to go in, the paths to take, and the roads to follow. It was very late at night when we stopped at an inn. The horses needed rest because the next day would be a full day of riding, and we also needed to get rest. We could risk resting because we were really far away.
"I don't really have much, but I hope this would be enough," I said, trying to take off my earrings. I had jewelry on me, so I was going to make use of it when necessary.
"Leave them on. You might need them later on," she said and brought out money.
"I brought this because I knew we'd need it," she said and walked into the inn.
"Sorry, we need someone to tend to our horses," she said, and a man stood up.
"I'll do that," he said and went out.
"We want to book a room, and we'd like some food too," she said, and the man at the bar grinned at us.
"You pretty ladies going on a journey?" He asked.
"We're not here for conversation. Do you have a room or not?" She asked, and he smiled widely.
"Sure, we have a room, food, and... Men," he said and winked at me.
"How much?" Dalia said impatiently.
~
The room was small, but the food was smaller and tasted awful.
"Alright, explain," I told her, and she sighed.
"I was in the trees when you had a conversation with that little girl. I knew you'd be going to a dangerous place, so I decided to follow you," she said, and I drank a cup of water.
"Did you know Ariadne wanted to kill me?" I asked, and she took a bite of her lamb chop.
"Yes. She told me. I told her to come off it, and we fought. At first, I didn't think she was really serious until she purchased a set of silver arrows. I just thought I'd make it up to you for being there whenever she made things hard for you," she said, and I sighed.
"She's gotten what she deserves already. She's where she belongs," I said, and Dalia closed her eyes.
"I told her. She was going the wrong way. She was taking it to a different level. I told her she was going the same way as Ethan, but she wouldn't listen," she said, and I could see she wished she could have changed things.
"You don't have to be so sad. The only thing that should be on our minds now is saving our Alpha," I said, getting to my feet. "It's best we get some sleep fast. We'll be up early in the morning."
"But Dusk, do you have any plans? I heard they're very brutal people," she said, and I gave it a thought.
"I think we should find out a bit about them first," I replied, and laid on the soft bed.
~
The next day, we left very early and rode hard because we didn't have much time. It was late afternoon when we got to the Kingdom, and people were scarce on the streets.
"I think the horses are thirsty. I think we should stop by an inn to feed them and also to get some information," she said, looking around. But I pointed at a little stall where a lot of ladies were gathered.
"We'll feed our horses some water there and try to get some things out of the ladies," I said, and we approached them. We got off our horses and sat on the spare chairs. They all stared at us.
"Good day, how are you all doing? Uh, my sister and I are coming from far. So we stopped by here," I said, and they looked at us.
"You all are looking so beautiful. The Kingdom must be taking good care of you," Dalia said, and the ladies giggled.
"There's a ball tonight. Every lady has taken care of herself, hoping the Prince might take some of us in," one of them said.
"A ball?" I asked and looked at Dalia. It was the perfect opportunity.
"Who's invited?" Dalia asked.
"Anyone," they replied.
~
That night, we joined the population walking into the Palace, trying to look as normal as ever. Immediately we got in, we started to look around at the flowers and leaves.
"We need to find a way to stay even after the ball," I said, and she looked around.
"I'm thinking about things already. Wait... Let's find the maid quarters. We can steal some uniforms. Maid quarters are usually on the ground floor," she said, and we spent almost an hour before we spotted a maid going down a corridor that didn't seem quite open to everyone.
We followed her discreetly. It was indeed the maids' quarters. We waited until all the maids got out and dug around for spare uniforms. We changed into them and searched for the kitchen next.
The cooks were all busy, and the kitchen was filled with noise and activity. It was easy to go unnoticed. However, when we left the kitchen with a tray of drinks as our excuse to roam around more freely...
We were surrounded by guards.