Allissa

The nursery wing corridor was lamplit and warm … and silent. The first guard lay crumpled at the mouth of it like a dropped coat.

The second lay three steps past him. The two on her door had fallen where they stood, one still half against the wall. No blood. No wounds. Their chests rose and fell, slow, even, deaf to the world, four of the best soldiers in my kingdom sleeping like children while her unofficial fifth guard screamed past them through a door that should have been open two ...