Chapter 22: THE KEY OPENS THE DOOR

DIANA’S POV

A household guard reached the eastern service door before Diana and pulled the handle.

"Locked!"

Another guard shouted over the crowd, "Find Mistress Hale."

The senior housekeeper was somewhere near the opposite end of the hall.

Diana pushed through the people between them with Alma at her shoulder. The ring at her belt struck her hip with every step.

At the door, Diana pulled the keys free.

"Your Grace, you have the service-passage key?"

Mistress Hale had shown it to her that morning. The emergency stair. Two square cuts near the base.

Diana found it on the daily ring, but the key struck the lock at the wrong angle. Smoke stung her eyes as she tried again.

The mechanism turned.

The door opened inward, and cold air rushed through from the stone passage beyond.

The guard stepped into the corridor and checked the first turn.

"Open route! Clear to the lower east household court!"

Another officer took up the route immediately.

"Move families east! Wounded and children first!"

He was already directing the evacuation. Diana pointed toward the older veterans nearest the wall instead.

Alma understood.

"Those men first. The stairs are narrow."

The guard captain followed her indication.

"Agreed. Two men on the lower turn."

Soldiers moved.

Diana nearly followed them.

The first families were already disappearing down the emergency stair, and every instinct she had developed before Blackharrow told her to make certain they reached the bottom herself.

Then she looked at the doorway.

Two guards were controlling the entrance. Another pair had already gone down to manage the lower turn. The officer beside her was counting people through while someone in the east court shouted confirmation that the route remained clear.

They did not need the Grand Duchess on the stairs.

Worse, if Diana went down, one of her own guards would have to follow her. Probably both. Men who were currently helping evacuate everyone else would become responsible for protecting her instead.

Diana stayed where she was.

That decision felt less satisfying than running toward the problem.

It was also more useful.

She looked back across the hall for the people the narrow stair would not serve well.

The first families entered the service passage.

The smoke thickened in the great hall. Behind her, officers continued directing the fire response.

"Cut down the rest of the cloth!"

"Buckets from the west corridor!"

"Keep the northern doors clear for the fire crews!"

A woman appeared carrying a child who was coughing hard. Diana motioned her into the passage, and another family followed.

Writing would have been too slow now. Diana signed quickly to Alma.

Infirmary side. Old men. Different stairs.

Alma translated.

"Her Grace says the infirmary corridor is better for the injured. Do not send them down these steps."

The nearest officer nodded.

"Take the injured through the western infirmary route."

The officers gave the orders and people moved. Alma only had to make Diana understood.

A crash sounded behind them as one of the smaller decorative frames fell from the wall. Two servants dragged it away from the fire.

The old military banners had been pulled down and carried outside. The mourning cloth was ruined.

A burning strip fell across the main route, and guards beat it out before anyone stepped on it.

Daric appeared through the smoke with blood marking one side of his forehead.

"What happened?" Alma asked.

"Decorative ironwork."

He took in the open service door.

"You opened this?"

Diana raised the key.

"Useful."

That was all. Diana preferred it to being congratulated while people were still leaving a burning hall.

Daric turned to the guards.

"Has the lower east household court been checked?"

"Yes, Commander."

"Keep them moving. Nobody returns for belongings."

He disappeared back into the hall.

Alma followed him with her eyes for a second before remembering the evacuation.

"Children."

Diana nodded.

They returned to the service entrance.

A boy stood alone near the service entrance, frozen in place. Diana recognized the wooden horse in his hand.

It was the child from beneath the brazier.

She crouched in front of him. His eyes were red from smoke.

"Mother," he said.

No woman nearby reacted.

Diana signed to Alma.

"Your mother’s name?" Alma asked.

"Lysa Marek."

Alma repeated it to the nearest guard.

The man shouted the name into the lower passage.

Another guard answered from below.

"With us!"

The boy started toward the stairs.

Diana caught his shoulder before he could run. The steps were steep.

She pointed down.

Walk.

The boy understood.

A guard took his hand, and Diana waited until he disappeared around the first turn before returning to the hall.

The worst of the fire had been contained near the eastern wall, though smoke still filled the upper space. Servants carried water across the floor while officers checked beneath tables and behind hanging dividers.

The great hall no longer resembled the room Diana had entered two hours earlier.

One table had collapsed. Black water streaked the stone. Part of the old mourning display lay burned along the wall.

The suspended brazier sat broken on the floor where the child had been standing. The officer who had pulled him clear was having one hand bandaged.

Above the broken brazier, a chunk of stone had come away around the iron fitting. There was no obvious cut like the one beneath her carriage, no black resin, nothing Diana recognized from the attacks on the road.

Perhaps the anchor had simply failed.

Daric crossed the hall again.

"All guests accounted for."

Diana waited.

"Six treated for smoke. Three burns. One broken wrist from the main-door crowd. No deaths."

Alma exhaled.

Daric continued.

"The child is with his mother."

Diana nodded.

"The hall is closed until engineers inspect the anchors."

Diana had no objection.

The emergency key was still in her hand. Yesterday, it had been one piece of iron among seventy-three. Tonight, she knew exactly what it opened.

Daric’s attention settled briefly on her mouth.

Diana understood.

He had been across the room when the brazier began to fall, but others had been closer. They had watched Diana open her mouth when a child was in danger and try again when nothing came out.

On the road north, Raigoro had allowed that her silence might be a protest against the marriage. Anyone who had been close enough tonight now knew otherwise.

Diana had not intended to give Daric that piece of the truth.