Slave to Sapphire
Chapter 9

The following day Iris was in the kitchen kneading bread, when she heard someone whisper her name. Iris sprinkled some more flour on the dough focusing on the sticky feeling of the dough between fingers as she continued to knead. That is, until she heard Ezekiel’s name whispered as well. Iris turned to see two of her fellow kitchen staff, a man and a woman, with their heads together talking in hushed voices.

Iris faced them. “Is there something you would like to say to me?” she snarled.

They both froze momentarily, the man stepped towards her. “I heard that Sir Ezekiel visited your rooms last night. He has a reputation for visiting whores in Scarlet Town, but you are the first one he has brought back to the Palace.”

Iris lunged at the man and pinned him to the wall, pressing her forearm against his throat. “What I do or don’t do during my free time is none of your business. If I ever hear my name in your mouth again, it will be the last thing you say.” Iris growled; the man’s face was turning a bright red and his eyes bulged with fear.

“Understood?” He attempted to nod in agreement against her arm.

“Enough of this!” Penelope shouted. “Get back to work or I will have you cleaning the ovens.”

Iris released her hold on the man, “And don’t talk negatively about prostitutes, they are working for coin just as you are.” The man only looked back, his hand trembling as he straightened his tunic and wiped the flour from his shoulder where Iris had grabbed him.

Iris returned to the dough, unleashing her remaining anger into it. As she worked, the rest of the kitchen staff regarded her with fear. Cerise. she may have slightly overreacted to the comment. She reminded herself that she wasn’t still in Scarlet Town surrounded by Exodus gang. In Exodus gang Iris’ survival depended on instilling fear in others. In the Palace it didn’t matter what the kitchen staff thought of her or if they gossiped about her. Iris tried to understand what had made her so angry about the comment, she wasn’t offended by being referred to as a whore. Nor did she care about Ezekiel using the services of a prostitute. It was not as if Iris was a virgin. It was the insinuation of a sexual relationship between her and Ezekiel that had angered her. She didn’t want to think about whether it was because the idea of being intimate with Ezekiel upset her or intrigued her.

Iris’ shift ended without further violence and she headed back to her room. Tonight, she would need to start figuring out a way to get to where the prisoners were kept. Inside her room Iris found a package on her desk with a note. Iris picked up the note to read the perfect penmanship

“I will not be able to escort you to the stables until this time next week, please accept the return of your favorite tool as an apology. P.S. Please keep it hidden.”

Iris untied the piece of twine and unrolled the thick brown paper of the package to find her dagger in its leather sheath. She couldn’t help but smile. There were benefits to being favored by Ezekiel. Iris changed from her brown dress that she wore to the kitchens into her leggings and blouse. She secured the dagger to her hip and sighed at the comfort it gave her. Iris sat down on her bed, she would wait until late into the night before leaving her room. She passed the time carefully teasing a matt from Samson’s thick coat and worrying about how she was going to deal with the Horatio situation. Samson was losing patience with her and the height of the moon in the night sky told her it was time. Iris would deal with one thing at a time. Find the prison, discover the identity of who they had captured and worry about Horatio later.

Iris pulled her dark cloak over her shoulders to hide her dagger and make it easier for her to blend into the shadows. She laced up her boots and slipped out of her room. She crept down the hallway, frequently stopping and listening for the sounds of guards as they patrolled the halls. When the sound of footsteps neared, she would tuck herself into an alcove or behind a tapestry until they passed. She explored the palace for several hours and didn’t find anything resembling a prison. With sunrise nearing, Iris returned to her rooms.

Iris spent the next three nights exploring the Palace without success. Each time she left her rooms she added to the mental map that she was forming of the Palace grounds. The year Iris had spent navigating the dark tunnels of the mines had given her the ability to make maps of locations in her mind. The Palace was vast, each side of the square serving a different purpose. One section was the servant’s quarters with the kitchens, the laundry, and servant’s baths. It connected to the section that contained the luxurious rooms of those that lived in the Palace, Iris imagined that she had passed Ezekiel’s quarters while he slept. The next section consisted of the library and government offices. The final section was made up of the Capitol Hall and a grand ballroom. Iris had also memorized the pattern the guards used when patrolling the halls. By the end of the third night, she was able to move unseen through the hallways of the Palace with ease.

It had been four days since Iris had started sneaking through the Palace at night. Having changed into her leggings and blouse, she was sitting in her room waiting for the Palace to settle before she left her room again. Iris studied her mental map of the Palace and grumbled with frustration; she had searched the entirety of the Palace except for the Capitol Hall. The Capitol Hall was where the Grand Ruler did his formal duties such as holding trials, signing new laws, or overseeing votes of the Guild Leaders. The doors to the Capitol Hall were locked and always had a guard posted at them. Iris was working against an unknown deadline. She replayed the moment the arrow had struck Maddox; he was likely dead. Realistically it was one of Lucious’ enforcers that they had nursed back to health to question. They would be loyal to Lucious but not to Iris.

Footsteps approached her door followed by a knock; Iris tensed. Samson paused his grooming, his hind leg sticking straight in the air; he glared at the door from Iris’ bed. She opened her door to find Ezekiel waiting for her. He was sharply dressed but had a disheveled appearance. His hair had a tousled look from running his hands through it and a thick dark curl hung over his forehead. He smiled at the sight of Iris.

“I wasn’t expecting you for another three days,” Iris stated.

“I know but I missed you and couldn’t wait. I am still drowning in work but thought you would maybe like to join me in my study. You could read a book while I work.”

“Hmmm, I would love to, but I have plans tonight,” Iris answered with sarcasm.

Ezekiel looked past her shoulder into her room to find Samson who had resumed his intensive grooming. “I can see that.”

Iris took a step closer to Ezekiel “But for you Ezekiel, I can cancel my plans.” She would continue her reconnaissance once she returned from Ezekiel’s study. She could also use the opportunity to speak to Ezekiel and try to get some more information about where the prisoners were kept.

Ezekiel laughed and offered his arm; Iris took it and they headed to his study.

Iris didn’t think it was possible but Ezekiel’s desk appeared to be even more disorganized than the last time she had seen it.

“What has been keeping you so busy?” Iris asked gesturing to Ezekiel’s desk.

Ezekiel sighed with frustration and sunk into his desk chair, grimacing at the sound of papers crinkling underneath him. He removed the stack of papers from his chair, adding them to the mess of papers on his desk.

“The Grand Ruler asked me to audit the production and profits of the Amarath Mines over the past ten years. Volos’ demand for source stone has increased annually and we have been selling them larger amounts every year, making the profits of the mine increase annually. In addition, with the increase of azure usage there have been more arrests and more bodies to help work the mines. I never questioned the profits since they were increasing annually. But when I calculated the total amount of source stone sold to Volos over the past ten years the profit doesn’t match. It is significantly less than it should be. I have already checked for any omitted sales but have found documentation for all of the source stone mined whether it was sent to the Repository or sold to Volos.”

“Do you mind if I take a look?” Iris inquired.

Ezekiel raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Iris shrugged her shoulders innocently “I am good with numbers, just let me see.”

Ezekiel acquiesced and scooted his chair so there was room for Iris to stand beside him. Iris studied one of the ledgers on the desk. It was simple enough, there was a column listing an amount of source stone mined in a specific time period, another column listed the amount sent to the repository while another was the amount sold to Volos. The final column was the amount of coin that Volos had paid for the corresponding source stone. The date of the sale was also noted. Iris examined the numbers, but nothing jumped out at her for most of the transactions. Then, her eyes stopped on one of them, something about it didn’t seem right.

“Is there a set cost per unit of source stone?” Iris said not taking her eyes from the ledger.

“The cost is set and adjusted twice yearly.” Ezekiel shuffled through the papers on his desk and handed her a chart that showed the cost of source stone over the past ten years with the date of each price change.

Iris found the set cost for source stone that corresponded with the date of the questionable transaction. She did the math in her head and found the price that Volos was recorded to have paid was lower than what she had calculated. She checked several of the other transactions on the ledger and did not find any other errors.

“I think I found something” Iris pointed out the transaction to Ezekiel and explained her findings. Ezekiel took pen and paper and checked her math.

Ezekiel’s eyes went wide, and his brow creased “Dreck, do you think that there are more of these?”

“I would bet my dagger on it.”

“You are welcome by the way, for returning it.”

“Sorry I forgot to thank you for giving back what was taken from me without my permission,” Iris grinned.

Ezekiel chuckled and the worry returned to his face as he looked back down at his desk. “This means that someone is stealing from the mines. Volos is likely paying the full price and the thief is taking a cut and recording the amount remaining as what Volos paid.”

“Yes, you are going to have to go through every transaction. If whoever did this is smart, the irregularities will be rare and intermittent.”

“How did you learn how to read ledgers and do complicated math?”

Iris cleared her throat, “I was a barmaid and helped the owner with his finances. And multiplication is not complicated math, especially for somebody who is over one hundred years old.”

Ezekiel let out a deep laugh. The sound made Iris aware of how close they were, their heads bent over the same piece of paper. Iris straightened and Ezekiel leaned back in his chair. “Understood. Can I ask you to help me go through all this? I am afraid I won’t be free to do anything else until I complete this.”

“Are you holding my trip to the stables hostage?”

Ezekiel gave her one of his half smiles.

“Fine I will help you, but…”

“Let me guess you have a condition?”

Iris laughed, “Yes, you need to first let me organize this disaster of a desk. If you had a better system, you probably would have noticed this earlier.”

“Or if I were better at math,” Ezekiel responded with a mischievous look in his eye.

Iris shook her head and she and Ezekiel set to the tedious work of organizing all the ledgers from the past ten years. It was late by the time they had finished organizing. At some point Samson had jumped through the study window to join them. Samson supervised their work and glared at Ezekiel whenever he came close to Iris. At one point Ezekiel reached a tentative hand out towards Samson, the action eliciting a low growl from him.

Iris had moved to the couch and arranged the papers in neat piles on the floor before her. When she was satisfied with her organization, she pulled a ledger from a pile and began checking each transaction. Her eyelids grew heavy; she had barely slept the past three nights and the couch was soft and comfortable. She lost her fight to stay awake.

She is horrified at the sight of her parents’ lifeless bodies on the ground, their source stones clear and drained of life. Her gaze is ripped from her parents by Anna’s shrieks. Anna is being held down by a brute of a man, his dirt-stained hand around Anna’s slender throat. A pale man with black irises flecked with silver approaches Anna and grabs her wrist. He holds Iris’s stare. Iris tears her eyes from him to see her sister’s breathing shallow and her body relax. The last of the color from Anna’s source stone is leached away. Iris starts screaming and can’t stop.

“Iris, Iris, wake up!” Ezekiel sat on the couch beside her, his voice weighted with concern.

Iris bolted to a sitting position, her pupils dilated, and she couldn’t catch her breath. The image of her sister dying clung to her.

Ezekiel folded Iris into him. She rested her head on his chest and his strong arms wrapped around her. Iris’ breathing slowed, the steady beat of his heart against her cheek. She calmed and her heartbeat matched his. Iris wrapped her arms around his neck and Ezekiel pulled her into his lap. Iris did not know how long she stayed in his arms. She didn’t normally rely on others to comfort her, but she couldn’t pull herself away from his presence. Just a few minutes, she told herself. Ezekiel’s fingers combed through her hair and the images of her recurring nightmare faded further. Samson curled up on the couch next to them so his body was touching Ezekiel’s thigh.

Ezekiel spoke, “We should go to bed.” His voice rumbled in his chest against her.

Iris lifted her head and her eyes were caught by Ezekiel’s intense stare.

“Were you having a nightmare about the mines?” He asked.

Iris shuddered thinking about her dream. For a moment she thought she would tell Ezekiel about her family. “Yes, I was, sorry, I get nightmares about them sometimes.” At least it wasn’t a total lie.

“You don’t have to apologize; I want to be here for you, Iris.”

From her position on his lap she could feel that wasn’t the only thing Ezekiel wanted. Iris disentangled herself from Ezekiel sliding off his lap. “You are right, we should go to bed.”

“If you like, you can stay with me tonight. I promise to behave,” he added knowing what Iris had felt.

“I think it would be best for me to return to my rooms.”

Ezekiel nodded. He turned and noticed Samson sleeping against him. Ezekiel tentatively stroked his coat. Samson narrowed his eye and swished his tail but chose not to swat or bite Ezekiel.

Iris raised an eyebrow, “I think he likes you.”

“Well at least Samson is on my side”

They walked back to Iris’ room in silence, Samson at their heels. Ezekiel paused when they reached the door.

“I could really use your help going through the ledgers. I can ask Penelope to excuse you from the kitchens until you and I have finished going through all of them.”

“I am a servant of the Palace and will work wherever I am told to,” Iris stated.

At her response Ezekiel’s face was cast with hurt and he nodded. “I will send someone to fetch you in the morning.”

Once the door was closed, Iris collapsed on to her bed. Why had she said that to Ezekiel? It was true but it had hurt his feelings; she knew that it would but had said it anyway. Iris didn’t let people get close to her and she was coming dangerously close to doing so with Ezekiel. She needed to cool things down between them. Working with him would be something she could use to her advantage, she needed to get more information about the prison. She could also use his trust to set a trap for Horatio. Samson let out a quiet meow. “Oh, be quiet, you are one to judge! I can’t believe you let him pet you.”

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