Sixty-eight:
Imperator Zale
The hunting lodge was empty. It was strange, coming here again. The last time I had been there was with Sirena. I had come so close to being with her and everything had gone so spectacularly wrong. “Well?” said Mother as we stood in front of the door. “Aren’t you going to open it?”
I nodded and pulled it open hesitantly. I was worried that maybe the servants would lock it since there was no one there. But it opened just fine. I supposed everyone knew that the lodge belonged to my father, and they would be fools to try and steal from him. “Thank goodness!” I said. “I thought that it was going to be locked.”
“Just because it’s open doesn’t mean that’s a good thing,” said Mother, “there could still be someone in there waiting to kill us.”
“Well, we’re jus
