“Come on.”
He pulled her onward, through the stone-flagged darkness to another, older, door. One with rusted hinges and weak, rotting wood. Torwin pressed his eye to the sliver of light carving a line through the dark, peering into the room beyond, checking to see if it were occupied.
Asha leaned against the cold, damp wall. As her heart slowed and her breath came easier, reason came crashing down around her. They were surrounded; every soldat in the city was looking for them now; and once caught, she would lose him all over again.
“Torwin, there’s nowhere to go.”
Didn’t he realize that? They were deep in the palace, with every soldat alert and looking for them.
Keeping his eye pressed to the slit, Torwin said nothing.
“Even if we manage to elude them, even if there were someplace safe to escape to, my brother would be obligated to hunt me down. He can’t just let me go.”
Torwin whirled on her then.
“Listen to me.” He took her shoulders in his hands. “We’re in this together now. So we can give up and hand ourselves over, or we can run. But whatever we do, we’re doing it together.”
Asha looked up into his shadowed face. Lifting her fingers, she traced his cheekbone and jaw.
“Okay,” she said. “I guess we’re running.”
He grabbed her wrist and kissed her palm, then turned back to the door.
“Ready?” he asked, sliding the rusty pins out of the hinges, then dropping them to the floor.
“Ready for what?”
“The door’s locked. We have to break it open.”
Asha froze. “What?”
“On the count of three,” he said, coming to join her against the wall.
“One...”
“Torwin—”
“Two...” He twined his fingers through hers.
“I don’t think—”
“Three!”
They ran at the door, charging it with their shoulders. It broke open on the first try. The rusted hinges gave and the rotten wood cracked away from the lock. The door fell flat to the floor with Asha on top of it and Torwin on top of her.
“By the skies, did youcrawlhere?”
A familiar, silhouetted form leaned against the wall. Arms crossed. Knee bent.
“I left you in that dungeonagesago.”
Torwin grinned up at Safire as he hopped to his feet, grabbed Asha’s hand, and hauled her up.
“Come on.” The new commandant pushed away from the wall. “We need to hurry.”
They were in one of the orchards. Safire led them through the silhouetted trees, their twisted branches reaching for the lightening sky.
Dawn had arrived.
