But his plans could interfere with my plans…
“Let’s get the mages for now. They’ve been imprisoned for long enough.” I take quiet steps down the stairs, running my fingers along the wall because it’s the only way I can tell when I’ve reached the bottom of the stairwell. The wall slips away, the air feeling colder now.
I could use my magic to light our steps but I’m terrified of being found and questioned by a guard. At the moment, the darkness is our friend.
I race toward the dungeon door. I can’t hear them, but I know Sinister and Kain are close by. Once again, I skim my fingers along the wall until rough wood meets my palm. I fumble and grip the cold knob. Just like before, it doesn’t turn when I try it. It’s still locked.
A frustrated sigh parts my lips, and Kain’s big hand grips over mine.
I push his hand back.
“I’ll just open it,” he says.
“No, you’ll break it. There’s a difference.” I glare over at his shadowed form and can just sense the annoyance in his gaze. “Saying you’ll open the door for me sounds gentlemanly, while what you’ll really do is notify anyone who walks past here that someone broke in.Iwill open it.” I all but stick my tongue out at him before turning away.
“Okay, kids. Let’s just get the door open, yeah?” Sinister’s palm presses low on my back, and I square my shoulders with confidence.
I lift my fingers and do basic but perfect magic, sending tingles buzzing through my veins in a comforting sensation that eases my nerves.
The metal grinds beneath an unseen force, and a little thrill blooms through me when I hear the lock click beneath my hand. I turn the handle, and the door opens with ease. I’m beaming from the simple trick I did.
“Show off,” Kain whispers, bumping his shoulder into mine and I smile even more.
The sound of their boots echoes faintly when we descend. The door pulls closed behind me, and the moment it does, a flame of white light glows from my hand, it’s flickering flames casting crawling shadows all around us. The meager little lighting in the dungeon seems dimmer than I remember. Or maybe I was just used to it.
The three of us walk slowly past my open cell. The bars are endless along this wall, creating cell after cell. A dozen of them at least. Supposedly, the former King of Attika is in the very last one. But he isn’t who we need right now, and freeing him will only gain us more unwanted attention.
The king will have to wait.
Somewhere in the middle, in a random cell, movement scatters, and a white robe scurries away from the glow of my magic.
I lift it higher, revealing a figure hunched into the corner, pressing herself as far away from me as possible. Long white hair hangs in thin strands around her face, her hands held tightly to her chest; she’s keeping very close to the damp, dark wall.
“It’s okay,” I whisper. “I’m Arlow.”
Big eyes look to the two men standing behind me.
“These are my mates, Kain and Sinister.”
“I heard their names quiet enough that last night you were here, girl.” Her attitude is right there in place, but she’s still hunching away from me.
I smile just slightly. I like her. She’s a fighter, even if she doesn’t look it.
“Where are the other two?” I glance around the little square space, but everything is dark and still, unmoving.
“They’re in the bed.” She nods to the cot across the room from her, positioned right in front of me through the bars. She stares there with a vacant sort of emptiness in her gaze.
I glance to the bed, and the tattered brown quilt that’s draped neatly. It’s formed rather tightly to the two figures beneath it, every angle of their body defined against the fabric. It seems thin. Not at all warm enough for two elderly women.
“I need your help. I need to talk to you three.” I try to plan what I’m going to say, how I’m going to ask them, but I don’t want to overwhelm them. “Can you wake them?”
That emptiness in her eyes is like looking into a well. It’s unending and only growing deeper by the second.
“Can you wake them?” I ask again.
She shakes her head so very slowly, holding herself even tighter now.
“It’s just…I need you. I need all three of you. Please. Please wake them.”
