Slave to Sapphire
Chapter 16

The following day when Iris left her room, she found a pair of wooden crutches leaning against her door. She smiled and used the crutches to get to Ezekiel’s study. She sat down at her desk; Ezekiel had brought in another chair so that she could prop up her leg on it while she worked. Iris was flustered by Ezekiel’s attentiveness throughout the day. She wasn’t used to being cared for. Ezekiel brought her everything she needed so she would not have to get up and helped her up when she needed to get up. Iris’ mind was scattered between thoughts of Volos, Lucious’ betrayal, and Maddox’s imprisonment. But Ezekiel’s presence kept bringing her thoughts back to the passionate kiss they had shared.

His sweetness towards her made her feel even more guilty as she covertly copied data on the mine’s production to a fresh piece of paper. Ezekiel had already asked her to copy all of the fraudulent transactions, so it did not raise suspicion to see her copy information from a ledger. She did have to be selective at what she copied though; he would notice if she was writing down pages of information. Iris reasoned that the biggest risk of being caught was if he saw her removing a paper from the study. It would be prudent to limit the number of times that she snuck out the copied information from the study. She would hide the transcribed notes in plain sight under a stack of papers on her desk. The papers on Iris’ desk were carefully organized into neat piles. Ezekiel had done some organization of his desk under Iris’ direction but it was still a mess comparatively. Iris had already admonished Ezekiel multiple times for moving the papers on her desk and ruining her organization. Iris was confident that he wouldn’t riffle through papers on her desk.

After several days, Iris had copied enough information to bring to Julian in exchange for a favor that she needed from him. When Ezekiel had left the office for a moment, Iris folded the paper containing the copied information and hid it in her splint.

Iris didn’t want Ezekiel to come looking for her at the stables again and overhear what she planned to ask of Julian. When they had finished their work for the day, Iris turned to Ezekiel before leaving the study. “The past couple of days of rest have helped my ankle to feel much better, but I need some fresh air. I think I am going to go to the stables and visit Tempest, maybe feed her an apple.”

“Would you like me to accompany you?” He failed to hide the eagerness from his voice.

“No, you have probably spent enough time with me over the past several days.”

“I could never spend enough time with you.” His expression earnest as he looked across his desk at her.

Iris’ face heated, and she struggled to keep a smile from forming on her lips. She shouldn’t be encouraging Ezekiel.

“But I will respect your wishes, say hello to Julian for me.”

Iris left and headed to the stables on her crutches. The crutches that Ezekiel had made for her were padded but it was a long trek to the stables and her armpits were sore and sweaty when she arrived. Her frustration with the inconvenience of her injury worsened. She found Julian out front of the stables in all his shirtless glory, brushing a horse down.

“It seems inappropriate for the stable master to be prancing around shirtless all the time.”

Julian turned to meet her gaze. “I am not prancing, and you seem to be the only person affected by my lack of a shirt.” Iris clenched her jaw and Julian set the horse brush down and went to put on his shirt. “What brings you to the stables, other than the sight of my bare chest?”

Iris rolled her eyes. “I wanted to visit Tempest again, maybe feed her another apple.”

Julian whistled to get the attention of a groom and instructed him to finish brushing the horse he had been working with.

“Tempest is in the stables.”

Inside the stables Iris leaned her crutches against the wall and awkwardly bent down to remove the folded paper from the splint on her ankle. Julian put a firm hand on her shoulder to keep her from toppling over. Iris straightened and handed Julian the folded paper. Julian carefully opened the paper, his eyes went wide. He quickly folded back the paper and tucked it into his boot.

“This is exactly the kind of information that we need. Do you think you could get more?” Julian couldn’t keep the excitement from his voice.

“Yes, but I need something from you first.”

Julian crossed his arms over his chest.

“I need you to sneak me out of the Palace so I can deliver a message to an associate in Scarlet Town.”

“I will need a reason to go to Scarlet Town; even as Stable Master I am not allowed to leave the Palace without permission, unless I am driving the carriage carrying one of the officials.”

“You’re a spy, I am sure you can think of something.”

Julian’s chest shook with a dark laugh, before he fell into silence, contemplating the situation. He finally said, “You could ask Ezekiel to deliver a message for you.”

“No, that won’t work, my associate won’t trust anything unless it comes straight from me.”

Julian grinned, “So if you asked Ezekiel to go to Scarlet Town to deliver a message for you, you think he would do it?”

“That is beside the point!”

“Is it though? If Ezekiel were to go to Scarlet Town to deliver a message for you, I would have an excuse to leave the Palace and take a carriage to Scarlet Town.”

“That’s a brilliant idea, I will hide in the luggage compartment of the carriage. Ezekiel will deliver a fake message to my associate, and I will deliver the real one.”

“Did you just call me brilliant?” He winked.

Iris groaned. “We have to do it tomorrow night, we are running out of time.”

“Before I agree, I need more from you.”

“No, I am not giving you anything more from the ledgers until you help me with this.”

“I understand. Tell me how you survived the mines?”

Iris was surprised by the question, she didn’t see why it was so important to Julian, which meant there was something that she was missing. She needed his help to get out of the Palace though, and even if she told him about the mines, he still needed her to copy more information from Ezekiel’s study.

“When I turned sixteen, I was forced to choose a year in the mines over death. The mines are dangerous, and most people die before their year is up. Those who survive the year usually don’t meet the quota of source stone mined to fulfill their contract and they would rather die than sign another year contract. I got lucky and found a cache of source stone. That year there was a man who also found a large cache of source stone and turned it over to the foreman. The man disappeared the next day. So, I only removed enough source stone from the cache to ensure that my contract was fulfilled, and I would have coin to buy another year of life once I was free of the mines. I collapsed the tunnel to hide the rest of the cache.”

Julian’s expression was grim as listened to her story. “I am sorry that you had to live through that.”

“It was a long time ago; I am sure you have had your own struggles.” Iris’ gaze rested on the long scar that ran along Julian’s temple.

Julian grunted in agreement.

“Come to the stables tomorrow an hour after sunset and I will hide you in the trunk of the carriage. Ezekiel usually doesn’t want to leave for Scarlet Town until late into the night but we don’t want to take any chances. You might end up being in the trunk for a while.” Julian’s eyes fell down to her foot. “You won’t be able to take your crutches.”

“I will manage.” Iris said, straightening her shoulders.

Iris took her crutches from the wall and readied herself to leave.

“Iris, be careful with Ezekiel.” The usual playfulness in Julian’s voice was absent.

Iris was taken off guard by his statement and looked at him with confusion.

“People like him will never understand people like you and me,” he stated.

“Ezekiel has been kind to me, and I don’t need him to understand me.”

“Have you ever questioned why someone like Ezekiel who has access to infinite years of life only gifted you a single year of life when you were dying?”

Iris didn’t like where this conversation was going and she left without giving Julian a response. Iris was angry with herself for not thinking to question why Ezekiel would give her only one year of life. That was what was done though, servants were only given one year of life at a time. It ensured that they were loyal and hardworking. Ezekiel acted as if he cared for Iris, but if he really cared for her wouldn’t he give her more source? That thought further irritated Iris; why did it matter if Ezekiel cared for her or not, she was currently spying on him! How did Julian even know that she had been about to die the night Ezekiel brought her to the Palace. Julian and Ezekiel must have a closer relationship than she thought.