Kaia barely made it two corridors away from the parlor before a hand shot out from behind a velvet tapestry and yanked her into a dark, narrow servant's passageway.
She opened her mouth to scream, but a familiar, panicked voice hissed, "Please don't, My Lady. I have a weak heart, and I think I am developing an ulcer."
Caspian.
The valet was leaning against the stone wall, looking as though he had aged a decade in the last ten minutes. He pressed a damp, folded white towel into her hands.
"The antechamber to the War Room," Caspian whispered, pointing a shaking finger up the dark stairwell. "Take these stairs. Do not be seen. If Lady Victoria catches you, I am throwing myself off the Astronomy Tower."
"Caspian, I can't," Kaia pleaded, her legs still trembling from the adrenaline of the Valerius encounter. "My knees are giving out."
"My Lady, he snapped a mahogany table yesterday. Today, if he does not see you, I fear he may snap a continent. Please. Go."
