I opened the door and dashed in, finding smaller keys on the ring that looked like they would fit the cuffs on the chains that tethered him to the wall. His cuffs came loose, and he lowered them to the ground to prevent them from clattering and drawing attention.
I headed for the door and held it open, and he stepped through, rubbing at his wrists. “You haven’t told anyone you can do that?”
I shook my head. “Only a few in my kingdom know.”
“Good. I wouldn’t. Not even the future king. If you need it, you don’t want them to prevent you from being able to use it.”
“I’m not sure I would have told you if we hadn’t been locked up,” I admitted. I knew better after the ways my father found to prevent me from escaping.
He hesitated. “Can you scout the other sides of doors before we go through?”
I shook my head, considering my words. “I can only do it a few times before I need to recharge.”
“Were you taught how to call power?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” I gave him a questioning look.
“We’ll talk later. We need to go before someone comes looking for us.”
I held up the keys. “Want these?”
“You keep those. If I need to shift, it’s better for you to have them.”
I nodded.
He went to the door but paused and looked over his shoulder. “Have you ridden a dragon?”
“No, but I’m excellent on a horse.”
Faolan gave me a flat look.
“Oh, please. Of course you are far superior to a lowly horse—I would never compare you. But I’m quite sure the principle is the same.”
“If you try digging your heels in or shouting giddy up, I’ll throw you,” he growled.
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, your dragon-ness.”
“If I need to shift, get on my back by any means necessary. Understand?”he instructed, ignoring my snark.
“Yes.”
“Right. Let’s go.”
We headed back to the anteroom, and, using his special dragon hearing, he listened ahead. We were able to avoid two priests and find our way into a courtyard of some kind.
“It’s some kind of fort,” Faolan whispered.
We had no idea how long we were out when they moved us or how far we travelled. We could be in a different kingdom. But the climate felt the same, and the sound of nearby running water made me think we were still in the River Kingdom.
“Do you hear any fae?” I asked, assessing our options. Ahead, there was a small doorway, open into a dark-looking corridor, and a cobbled road cut through the small yard from right to left,clearly for carts to gain entry to the inner fort. There was no one around, but we couldn’t stand here all day. We would get found. Faolan peered around the wall and took a short glimpse of the cobbled road, then ducked back into our alcove.
“There is too much activity that way, and I’m guessing the same can be said for the other side. And through there," he pointed at the door are kitchens of some kind, “I can hear clattering and smell food, so we can’t go that way.”
I was not getting any of that. I just had to take his word for it. But we were stuck—there were no two ways about it.
“We need to climb.” He pointed up, and I saw what he saw. The road passed into the courtyard under a stone archway and exited on the opposite side under the mirroring arch. And across the tops were battlements that, if un-manned, we could use to scale to the outer wall and escape. I looked up the wall for potential handholds and, without any sign of another choice, I reluctantly agreed.
Going first, I hauled myself up onto a barrel and began climbing the stone wall, grateful for every day of my rebellion from the life my father preferred for us and all the times I’d tried to run away over the years, each a lesson in the survival arts.
