📍 Chapter 81 – Smuggled Like a Secret
It happened the way betrayal always did.
Quietly.
Under moonlight.
The scent of oil. The sound of creaking hinges. A baby's breath held too long.
In the East Wing, inside a gold-trimmed nursery that Zara had not entered since her return, a woman moved like shadow. Her cloak brushed no surface. Her steps left no echo.
She didn't speak.
She didn't need to.
The child was asleep.
Wrapped in silk.
Kaelen.
The Crownborn.
The unwanted heir.
She lifted him gently.
Just as the secret door behind the nursery creaked open.
---
Down the hall, Zara's eyes flew open.
She sat up in bed, breath sharp.
Something was wrong.
She felt it — in her chest, in her bones, in her blood.
She stood.
Didn't even put on her shoes.
Just ran.
---
In the East Wing, Zaire patrolled the corridor, torch in hand, armor strapped tight.
He had argued to be posted near Zara. But she insisted on placing him here.
"Because this is where they'll strike."
Now he stood alone.
Until a soft footfall caught his attention.
He turned just in time to see a cloaked figure slipping into the tapestry wall.
He ran.
Blade out.
Heart pounding.
---
The maid — not really a maid — moved down the tunnel fast.
Kaelen began to stir.
She whispered something in a language the Hollow once taught.
A word to numb a baby's breath.
But Kaelen didn't cry.
He opened his eyes.
And looked at her.
And smiled.
---
Zara reached the East Wing in seconds.
Leva was already running beside her, barefoot, bow in hand.
"I saw the fire signal," Leva gasped. "From the tower—one blink. The alarm for abduction."
Zara didn't answer.
She was already pulling the wall open.
---
The tunnel was narrow.
Wet stone. Spiderwebs. Roots digging through cracks.
Zara ducked. Her breath was sharp now. Her hand gripped the dagger Auren had gifted her — one that hummed faintly in darkness.
Zaire was ahead now, torch in hand.
"She's fast," he muttered. "But not fast enough."
Then, from up ahead—
A muffled voice.
A baby's whimper.
A hissed curse.
"She's losing control," Leva whispered.
Zara surged forward.
"Faster."
---
The woman in the cloak reached the final bend.
A stone slab waited, half-open, pushed from the outside.
She passed Kaelen into a second figure's hands — a man with a scar across his cheek, clad in Venmire colors.
"Hurry," she snapped. "They're close."
But before the man could turn…
A blade landed in the wall beside his head.
And then came Zara.
---
She didn't shout.
She didn't hesitate.
She tackled the woman to the ground.
Kaelen fell — caught by Leva.
The Venmire man ran, but Zaire took him down with a punch that broke bone.
Zara pressed her dagger to the woman's throat.
The torch flickered.
The hood fell back.
And Zara froze.
Because the face that stared up at her…
Was familiar.
Too familiar.
---
"Ilra," she whispered.
The woman's eyes didn't blink.
"You taught me letters," Zara said slowly. "You held my hair when I vomited after sword practice. You were my mother's handmaid."
Ilra didn't speak.
Zara's hand trembled.
"Why?"
Finally, the woman answered.
"Because I believed in something stronger than your bloodline."
Zara's voice broke.
"And that was?"
"Order."
---
Zaire bound the traitors.
Leva took Kaelen back to the West Wing, arms shaking, eyes wet.
Zara stayed in the tunnel for a long time.
Staring at the stone.
At the path someone once carved through her home.
A secret route to steal a crown before it could even cry.
---
The next morning, she didn't make a speech.
Didn't summon the Council.
Didn't parade the traitors.
She just sat with Kaelen.
Held him in the sunlight.
Watched his tiny hands chase shadows.
Until Leva entered with the scroll.
Fresh seal.
Blood red wax.
> From Venmire.
Zara opened it.
> "This was your last warning.
> The child is not yours alone.
> The crown belongs to the realm.
> We will return for what is ours."
Zara rose.
And for the first time in days…
Smiled.
Not softly.
Not bitterly.
But like a woman who had already written her enemy's eulogy.
---
That night, she stood before her people again.
Not in the throne room.
In the open courtyard.
Kaelen on her hip.
Rain falling.
And she raised her voice.
> "They came for him.
> They crawled through our walls.
> They used my past to poison our present.
>
> But they failed.
> Because they forgot —
>
> I am not the girl they raised.
> I am the woman they tried to silence.
>
> And I will burn every treaty, break every alliance, and bury every traitor…
>
> Before I ever let them touch my son again."
The people cheered.
The bells rang.
And somewhere, in the deep south, in a black tower near the Venmire border…
A hooded figure read Zara's speech.
Crushed the parchment in his fist.
And whispered,
> "Then we'll take her crown instead."