Chapter One

I closed the door softly and crept down the hallway. It was dark as the castle’s torches were not lit at this hour. I quickened my pace and just as I checked the hallway behind me I walked straight into a man.

            No, a boy. My age. He was not wearing the uniform of the castle guard or a servant’s livery. His clothing was a muted shade of black, as if to hide among the shadows between the lines of moonlight shining through the balistrarias. We locked eyes for a moment before he continued running down the hallway.

            I continued in the opposite direction from him and threw myself headlong down the long spiral staircase into the bowels of the castle. I exited through the scullery entrance into the cool night.

            I followed the narrow river that bisected the city to Madge’s Inn.  When I entered I was startled to find Madge herself sitting behind the counter. No one knew how old Madge was but no one could remember a time before her Inn either. I had assumed she’d died but I was glad she hadn’t.

            Madge nodded at me and moved her stool and the rug beneath it to reveal a small trapdoor. I opened it and climbed down the ladder into darkness.

            I felt for the door and rapped quickly, hoping I remembered the pattern. I heard the latch click. The room was dimly lit but warm. The walls and floor were packed earth but the ceiling was black stone, like a starless night sky.

            I sat at a table. “How many are we waiting for?” I asked the large, black bearded man behind the counter. I remembered him vaguely from the last meeting.

            “Four,” he replied and continued to stare at the door. 

I twiddled my thumbs. My nerves made me feel like a crouched cat, ready to flee at the first whiff of a threat. Four more people trickled through the door over the course of half of an hour. I recognized half of them. One was the town blacksmith’s apprentice. The other worked for the baker.

I sat alone at my table, the only woman in a room full of men.

One of the men I didn’t recognize stood behind the bar and the bearded man sat down at a table. He placed both his palms flat on the well-worn wood and looked out at the room.

He cleared his throat. “I’ve just received word from Gregory,” he nodded at the apprentice, “that we have acquired the maps.”

He looked at me. “We have been trying to acquire these for some time but have been unable to ourselves,” he looked back out at the room, “this was accomplished through the use of an outside…contractor.”

The boy I had seen in the hallway?

“You will receive further instructions when we reconvene in a fortnight.”

That’s all he has to say? Everyone left except for the black bearded man and the man who had addressed us.            

“What the hell has happened since the last meeting?” I demanded. “Why isn’t Samuel running these meetings anymore? Why do I only recognize three people?”

“Such unbecoming language for a lady,” the black bearded man said.

“Introductions are in order,” the other man said more tactfully, “I’m Richard and this is my cousin John, you may remember him from the last weekend.”

“Yes I remember,” I said. “And I’m pleased to make your acquaintance Richard.”

“We had an incident with Samuel last week,” Richard said, “the guards noticed him asking a lot of questions and they took him in to ask some of their own and he hasn’t been seen since.”

“If you kept a better handle on your castle you would have already known that,” John said to me. “And if you’d gotten the map a fortnight ago like we’d planned this wouldn’t have happened.”

I drummed my fingers on the table, ignoring his accusations. “Who was this contractor?”

John and Richard looked at each other. “No one you need you need to worry about,” said Richard. “You won’t ever be seeing him.”

“I like to meet everyone involved at least once,” I said. “You know that.”

“I no longer think that’s the wisest policy, plausible deniability and all that. With the guards taking people I’d hate to see you lovely name tortured out of anyone.”

I glared at them. “Fine, I’ll see you in a fortnight.” I stormed out of the room.

When I left Madge’s it was still dark, the moon was new and there wasn’t even a hint of dawn. In the quiet blackness all I heard was the river lapping against the stone walls that lined it, but I swear I felt someone watching me.

Author's Note

I'm looking to add in more description but I don't want to detract from the action with excessive world building. I'd like to add in some backstory about the protagonist without going to far into exposition.

How can I make this opening chapter more exciting?