- Kady -

I am tired. I've been up all day, and have had a generally busy week. Today was (well, I shouldn't say was, because it is only 8:00) the princess's birthday. Her sixteenth birthday. Her Royal birthday. Meaning nearly every Noble house in the Kingdom was represented. Meaning there was a lot of food involved. Meaning we had to start organizing it weeks ahead. And as the daughter of the First Chef, I find myself always in the Kitchens, helping out anyone who needs it, and cooking things myself. But my job is finally done (at least until tomorrow morning when we'll have to serve another large breakfast for Nobles staying over night). Although there is still the ball, no more food has to be made and I don't have to wait on anyone, although I feel really sorry for anyone who does.

My father was practically forced out of the kitchen by the Second Chef, Jack. Although it was much earlier that we usually leave, my father was so exhausted he nearly filled the salt container with sugar. Jack told me to follow him, so he didn't simply pass out in a hallway. I was glad to leave, though. The kitchen was a mess, despite countless scullery maids rushing around and attempting to clean it, and the oven fires had been roaring throughout the sweltering summer day. It was blisteringly hot in there, even now, at night. If my father hadn't fainted from exhaustion, he would have collapsed from the heat.

Still, Jack had fairly pushed him out of the kitchen, ignoring his complaints. I opened the door to leave the kitchen a few moments later, and found my father in the hallway leaning against the wall, letting down his guard now that he thought no one was around. I closed the kitchen doors for a few moments until I guessed he had recovered, and then came out to see him beginning to trudge down the hall. When he saw me he straightened up, and smiled.

"Hello dear. I must say, I'm glad it's all over." I reached him, and he squeezed my hands. "But I do feel guilty about leaving everyone else to finish. I am, after all, the First Chef. I really should be there."

"Father, you hardly left of your own…" I trailed off as I heard voices down the hall.

They were loud and male, and from the look of the spear butt leaning into the hallway, they were guards. Although soldiers weren't horribly unusual in a palace, there generally weren't any down this corridor. It was a truly useless place to have guards, unless they were trying to keep something safe in the Servant's Quarters. The passage lead to the kitchens one way, and the other just a complex of paths through the servant's quarters ending in a small, shadowy door letting out near the Noble's rooms.

But it wasn't just the rarity of guards that confused me, but what they were talking about. I caught 'The King's orders', which would mean that the King was doing something. Which didn't make sense because he was an extremely peaceful king, who didn't generally go about doing things with guards, which could only mean something was going on in the servant's quarters. I wanted to hear this then. I stopped and shushed my father, beginning to inch along the wall toward their voices.

"He said to wait here for the signal, then to block off the servants from escaping. His Highness doesn't want them to ruin anything. We should follow his orders." As we neared the corner, I could see four men standing in a circle.

The man talking sounded frazzled, as if this wasn't the first time he had said this. And there went 'his orders' again. But what would we ruin by…escaping? And from what? As far as I knew, we weren't prisoners; I had left the castle walls many times. The King wasn't a believer in using punishment to keep the servants in line, and as far as I knew no one in the palace had broken any laws recently… well not anything major. This made no sense.

"But what does he think servants can do against armed guards? Maybe they'll dust us." The guard across from the first one was talking now, and the guard next to him seemed to think this was funny. "I really don't see why we have to stand here without any part of the action and just wait. I'm bored. We're part of the Elite Guard, why are we sitting in a corridor waiting to stop silver-polishers." The man's voice took on a mocking tone.

"We were ordered to stay here. Servants can do more than you think. They have to keep the whole castle running. They could pose a problem if they wanted to." This comment was said with a sigh. Although I couldn't see much of the new speaker from my spot, I could see a little bit of honey brown hair peeking around the first man's head, and slightly appreciated his words.

"Stay out of this Nathaniel. You would stand up for servants, you practically are one. You wouldn't even be here if your uncle hadn't pulled some strings. You're still too inconsequential to decide what we are going to be doing anyway." The man who had laughed before said it in such a way that you could tell he was sneering.

"And you do have the authority to do so, Johnson? I outrank you, and it isn't any of our business anyway, because it was the king who ordered us here, and here we will stay. It's not a question of the servants' threat to the plan; it's about making sure the plan is flawless, without even the most minor interruption. Our leaving would cause a minor interruption, something I won't stand for." The first man had a commanding edge to his voice, and his head moved to look squarely at the two men leaning against the opposite wall. "When the king gives the signal, we will make sure all the servants are here, and make sure they won't rebel. If they do, it's our job to make sure it is quelled. We may as yet see some action." At these words, I could see a slow smile begin to work its way across the second man's face. "And besides, the signal should come soon."

I mulled over the words in my head. The plan, the king's orders, the signal? What would we rebel against? What was the king planning… the king! There's another king, the king of Nirdan, visiting for the princess's birthday. He was up to something. That was why there were guards here. Something was happening, something that shouldn't be going on.

"Kady!" My father pulled me back from the corner, whispering urgently. "I don't know what's going on, but I do know that something dangerous is going to happen and I don't want you in it. I believe that it has something to do with King Gandon, and I want you to leave the castle, and don't come back until it's all over. Do you understand?" He began motioning me back toward the kitchens, which opened to the courtyard on one side.

"But father, I can't leave you. And what will you do?" I knew from the look in my father's eyes that anything I said would go unheeded; he was stubborn even in this tired state.

"I will try to warn the king and anyone else I may see. I need to know that you are safe, that you have been warned." He began pushing me at the doors.

"But father-"

"I know you want to help, and you can do that by warning the kitchen staff."

"Father I won't-"

"You will just leave me. I can take care of myself." We were in the kitchen now, and Jack was glaring at us, opening his mouth to say something and was cut off by father.

"The King of Nirdan is planning something, something that will happen soon. I don't know exactly what it is, but…" He petered out, when we heard yells coming from the great hall, and the sound of heavy booted footsteps down the corridor. Father blanched. "But it's happening now. Go Kady!"

With that he pushed me toward the courtyard and spun away out of the kitchen. Everyone erupted in shouts, some struggling through the mess toward the hallway, others going the other way and trying to escape the castle. Jack grabbed me and hurried me along toward the night outside, telling me that he would watch out for my father. Three guards leapt up from the outside night, dressed in green and gold, trying to hold back the torrent of people trying to leave.

Panic infused me, and I managed to push past all of them and run toward the side drawbridge before I could think, following the last order that had entered my mind: go. I didn't know where I was going, I just went, and my mind finally caught up with me three streets outside the castle. I began to turn back, when I heard a shrill scream, all the way from the castle, and saw a figure running toward me through the night.

I turned again and fled. Was it one of the guards, coming after me to make sure I didn't ruin whatever plan it was they had? Or was it someone else who had escaped and was going the same place I was. Whoever it was, the figure's sudden appearance spurred me on and I began to run toward what I realized now was the wide meadow outside the city. I came here in the summers, to fly kites and have picnics, and when I had a day off I would come and climb up in the tree to read or daydream of far away places.

And here I found myself, this terrible night, climbing up the tree, and trying to hide myself among its branches.