know there are intruders in the castle!”
Theon
A s we ran through the dungeon, I recognized one face standing out from the blur, perhaps because it was so vividly cemented in my memory from when he’d been carried off into the sky by an ice dragon. Einhen.
“Theon!” he called, waving his one good arm through the bars. “Theon! Prince! Friend!”
And even knowing what a liability it would be, I hesitated. It was because of me that he was here. Maybe Michelle had insisted on Khem, but I had been the one to invite Einhen to what could very well be his death.
Dammit.
Wincing to myself, I shoved the skeleton key into Michelle’s hands. We didn’t have much time, but they all deserved to be free, didn’t they? “Unlock the cells!”
“Come on.” Michelle pouted, clearly dismayed.
“I said unlock the cells!” I snapped.
This time, Michelle fell back a step, although the smug glare never quite left her eyes. She turned to the lock on Einhen’s cell and jammed the thoughtful key into it. My secret logic was that perhaps she would fare better than me. Amazingly, the key spun and the door popped open. Michelle extracted the key again and ran to me.
“All right. Let’s go!”
So her sense of invincibility did, in fact, know bounds.
Einhen joined us, and with him came a rush of desperate prisoners, more than twenty and as many as thirty; at each cell we passed, I forced Michelle to go and turn the key again. Each time, the damn thing worked and another thirty prisoners came rioting forth. In a throng, they spilled toward the stairs, and with them, Michelle, Einhen, Father and I traveled.
In a sick way, the escaped prisoners from these cells provided us with the perfect cover. Disguised in the rags of the working class, we blended into this throng of malnourished, bedraggled prisoners of war.
I retrieved the key from Michelle and we moved together up the narrow, winding flight of stairs. Although the guards had been alerted that there were intruders, they would not be anticipating a large-scale breakout from the dungeon. I almost lost track even of Michelle several times, and of us all, it was she who typically stood out in any crowd.
The stream of escapees burst from the dungeon door, and already, over the swell of clanging alarms, I could hear the hollers of guards. Their wintry arrows parted the air, and a man disappeared in front of me, trampled by the crowd. I clutched Father to my chest, careful of his arms. Even in all this uproar, he was barely conscious. I could only pray as we milled through the streets and out of the city, that he would survive even the trek to the shelter. If I moved quickly…
If I transformed…
Would I be able to fly? Or would my wings stiffen and cause me to—
My eyes fell on Penelope, and for a horrible moment, surrounded by the madding crowd, the moans of pain and barks of the masked guards, the damnable alarm system which dampened all other sounds, I froze. An onlooker would have assumed that an icy arrow had plunged directly into my chest, and in a way, one had.
She stood at the balcony of the third floor… and she was so very small, looking down on me from up there. She was dressed entirely in white. In fact, if I squinted, it would appear that she was wearing the vestments of purity assigned to brides in the days before their wedding. It had been years ago that I had witnessed a dragon wedding. I remembered the gown she had been commanded to wear prior to the ceremony. It was light, and simple, and pure white.
As was Nell’s.
Was it only my imagination that she saw me too?
Lethe was with her. In fact, as they stood together, his arm wove around her shoulders. He didn’t see me. He didn’t recognize me in these garments. It was only Penelope who would recognize me, because she knew the soul inside my eyes before she knew the style of my dress. It was only Penelope who would recognize me, because we were linked together by something stronger than circumstance
Theon
A s we ran through the dungeon, I recognized one face standing out from the blur, perhaps because it was so vividly cemented in my memory from when he’d been carried off into the sky by an ice dragon. Einhen.
“Theon!” he called, waving his one good arm through the bars. “Theon! Prince! Friend!”
And even knowing what a liability it would be, I hesitated. It was because of me that he was here. Maybe Michelle had insisted on Khem, but I had been the one to invite Einhen to what could very well be his death.
Dammit.
Wincing to myself, I shoved the skeleton key into Michelle’s hands. We didn’t have much time, but they all deserved to be free, didn’t they? “Unlock the cells!”
“Come on.” Michelle pouted, clearly dismayed.
“I said unlock the cells!” I snapped.
This time, Michelle fell back a step, although the smug glare never quite left her eyes. She turned to the lock on Einhen’s cell and jammed the thoughtful key into it. My secret logic was that perhaps she would fare better than me. Amazingly, the key spun and the door popped open. Michelle extracted the key again and ran to me.
“All right. Let’s go!”
So her sense of invincibility did, in fact, know bounds.
Einhen joined us, and with him came a rush of desperate prisoners, more than twenty and as many as thirty; at each cell we passed, I forced Michelle to go and turn the key again. Each time, the damn thing worked and another thirty prisoners came rioting forth. In a throng, they spilled toward the stairs, and with them, Michelle, Einhen, Father and I traveled.
In a sick way, the escaped prisoners from these cells provided us with the perfect cover. Disguised in the rags of the working class, we blended into this throng of malnourished, bedraggled prisoners of war.
I retrieved the key from Michelle and we moved together up the narrow, winding flight of stairs. Although the guards had been alerted that there were intruders, they would not be anticipating a large-scale breakout from the dungeon. I almost lost track even of Michelle several times, and of us all, it was she who typically stood out in any crowd.
The stream of escapees burst from the dungeon door, and already, over the swell of clanging alarms, I could hear the hollers of guards. Their wintry arrows parted the air, and a man disappeared in front of me, trampled by the crowd. I clutched Father to my chest, careful of his arms. Even in all this uproar, he was barely conscious. I could only pray as we milled through the streets and out of the city, that he would survive even the trek to the shelter. If I moved quickly…
If I transformed…
Would I be able to fly? Or would my wings stiffen and cause me to—
My eyes fell on Penelope, and for a horrible moment, surrounded by the madding crowd, the moans of pain and barks of the masked guards, the damnable alarm system which dampened all other sounds, I froze. An onlooker would have assumed that an icy arrow had plunged directly into my chest, and in a way, one had.
She stood at the balcony of the third floor… and she was so very small, looking down on me from up there. She was dressed entirely in white. In fact, if I squinted, it would appear that she was wearing the vestments of purity assigned to brides in the days before their wedding. It had been years ago that I had witnessed a dragon wedding. I remembered the gown she had been commanded to wear prior to the ceremony. It was light, and simple, and pure white.
As was Nell’s.
Was it only my imagination that she saw me too?
Lethe was with her. In fact, as they stood together, his arm wove around her shoulders. He didn’t see me. He didn’t recognize me in these garments. It was only Penelope who would recognize me, because she knew the soul inside my eyes before she knew the style of my dress. It was only Penelope who would recognize me, because we were linked together by something stronger than circumstance
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