Sehun’s face had turned a very unhealthy shade of green by the time that Seoyeon finished speaking.  She kept the story as short as she could, because she was aware that sooner or later they would all have to leave for dinner, and she also tried to give them as many details as she could remember about the Dark Solstice.

“I have two days to learn how to do this?” Sehun said weakly once she’d finished.  “Two days?”  He turned to Lieutenant Kim.  “We have a better chance of busting Chanyeol out, sir.”

“At least we have somewhere to start,” Jongdae said grimly.  “And if we can figure out where Captain Park is, we can ask him even if we can’t break him out.”

Seoyeon looked anxiously between the three men.  “Do you think Chanyeol’s going to be okay?” she asked.

“No,” said Lieutenant Kim shortly.  “He was in terrible condition when he arrived back, and if we don’t know what was wrong with him or how to treat it, there’s no chance somebody from outside the Borderlands will.  If your father was letting anybody from the fortress treat him, we’d know where he was.  Every soldier here knows how important Captain Park is.”

Seoyeon blinked.  “What about the servants?”

“You think my men haven’t been asking them?”

Seoyeon shrank back at the sharp tone in Lieutenant Kim’s voice.  His face suddenly looked tired and worn.

“My apologies, Lieutenant,” she mumbled.  He waved it away with an apology of his own.

“Everything’s stressful,” he grumbled, sparing a glance at Sehun.  Sehun’s face was still a sickly green colour, and he looked like he might throw up at every moment.

Before Seoyeon could say anything in response, a loud gong sounded throughout the fortress, making them all jump.

“Dinner,” Sehun managed to say weakly.

“We shouldn’t be late,” Lieutenant Kim agreed.  “Ma’am, you should return to your room before somebody notices you are missing and your father starts defying heaven to find you again.  I’ll send somebody up to you afterwards because I think more discussion about the situation would be worthwhile.”

Seoyeon nodded.  “My room’s guarded,” she said.  “My father will be told about everybody who comes to speak to me, so maybe it’s best to use the servant door to be more discreet.”

Lieutenant Kim gave a curt nod.  “I’ll ask Minseok to put aside something tasty for you for later.”

Gesturing to the other men, he made his way over to the door.  Seoyeon looked back at the secret door, hesitating.

Jongdae was the one who noticed.

“Let me guess,” he said, taking pity on her.  “You don’t know your way back?”

Seoyeon smiled sheepishly at him.  “I was lost when I accidentally found this place.”

“Typical.”  Shaking his head, Jongdae opened the door for her.  “You two go on ahead while I accompany Seoyeon back to her room.  Nobody will be that bothered if I’m late again.”

Jongdae seemed to know the secret passages well enough not to bother carrying a torch.  Seoyeon clutched the back of his shirt, surprised at how comfortable she was in the dark.  She supposed that the first few days in the Neuma must have been what caused that: even though she couldn’t afford to be caught in the servants’ tunnels, nothing was as scary as the suffocating blackness of the deepest Neuma planes.  Also, there were no lurking monsters.  As far as she knew.

“Jongdae,” she piped up after a few moments.  He hummed quietly in response as he paused at a fork in the passage.  “You’re the best tutor ever, you know that?”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, sunshine.”

“I’m not flattering you.  I would have died without the stuff you taught me.”

Jongdae chuckled warmly.  “Imagine if I’d taught you all the city stuff you were supposed to learn,” he said.

“I would have been pretty useless,” Seoyeon agreed.  “Well, maybe not with the sewing, but then if you hadn’t got me to practice stitching up people I probably would have been too squeamish to try—”

Jongdae turned around.  Seoyeon only felt the movement, since it was too dark for her to see.  For a moment, she wondered if the fact that she’d taken medical care of Chanyeol had shocked him, but he broke the short silence with something completely different.

“I’ve just realised,” he said.  “We can probably use Minseok to find out where Captain Park is.”

“What?”

“Your father wants Chanyeol to be court-martialed for abducting you – he won’t be content with him dying in prison, especially not when that could land him with a criminal charge of negligence.  That would torpedo his career.”

“He seemed to want him executed,” Seoyeon mumbled.

“There’s a difference between legal execution and manslaughter through negligence or murder from battery.  I wouldn’t be too surprised if your father has had Chanyeol beaten - I’ve never seen somebody so beside himself as when he realised you were gone, but I don’t think he’ll neglect to have Chanyeol fed.”

Seoyeon pursed her lips.  She had rarely ever seen her father angry, and she wasn’t sure how much she agreed with Jongdae.  “I’m not so sure.”

“Well, even if he doesn’t feed him properly, he’s not going to let him starve completely.”  Jongdae touched her hand briefly and chose the passage to walk down.  “Watch out for steps.  We’ll be climbing in a couple of seconds.”

Fortunately, when Seoyeon arrived back in her room, it appeared that nobody had been aware that she’d sneaked out, and once Jongdae had left, she changed back into bed clothes and resumed her pretence of being ill, just in case.

About twenty minutes later, there was a knock on the main door and Jongdae poked his head around.

“Are you well enough to eat dinner, ma’am?” he asked loudly, giving her a little wink.  “Your father sent me to see how you were.”

Seoyeon gave a loud fake cough and waved him in, pretending to be frail and weak when one of the guards leant around the door to check on her situation.  Jongdae slipped around the door and closed it behind him.  He had his medical satchel on his shoulder and was carrying a small tray of medicaments.  Seoyeon sat up when she saw it and frowned.

Jongdae deposited the tray on the bedside table and pulled up a chair beside her.