“What is that?” I asked, reaching out to touch the skull.
“A skeleton key. For the castle.” Ludovico’s eyes twinkled as he yanked the key out of reach. “Don’t ask how it came into my possession. I found it in my bedchamber, along with one of your notes. I immediately went to retrieve the antidote from the laboratory, and found Annette and Blanche locked in the dungeon.”
“My sister is well?” Henri asked, leaning against Ludovico as he shivered.
“Henri, are you alright?” I asked.
“It’s the poison,” Henri waved my concern off. “It will wear off soon.” He glanced back at the window, where I glimpsed a dark sky beginning to lighten.
“Your sister is fine,” Annette said. “She’s just very weak right now, like you. I saw to her injections through the night. She sent Ludovico to save you, and this morning, she wanted me to fetch you before daybreak had fully arrived so we might evade Montoni. She thought she would only slow me down if she came with.”
“So the door is open?” I asked, almost not daring to believe it. “We can leave?”
“We can leave,” Annette said, grinning. “But we should make haste. Blanche is waiting for us.”
“Right,” I nodded, following her down the winding staircase. I sighed as I stepped out through the tower door, as if a portal had returned me to the real world, the nightmare behind me.
I turned back to survey the place that had been my prison for this past week, freezing when that horrid pike inevitably drew my eye. I swallowed hard but was startled to find no head upon the pike. I blinked, as if my eyes were malfunctioning, but it remained empty. “Where is it?” I asked, imagining for a moment that it had rotted so completely that it had tumbled from the pike, and even now was being feasted upon by worms and rats. I shuddered, but wasn’t given time to linger in my grief, as Annette hauled me across the ramparts to a side door into the castle. “What now?” I asked.
“We fetch my sister,” Henri said, sending me a look that told me the answer should have been obvious. And I supposed it should have been.
“What about my aunt?”
Henri hesitated, then nodded. “Right. I’ll see to her. She’s likely in the west wing, close to my uncle’s room.” He pushed away from Ludovico, grunting as he leaned against the wall.
Annette sighed. “Ludovico, go with him.”
Ludovico nodded, helping to steady Henri, who still looked too sick to move quickly.
I winced. “Are you sure we shouldn’t collect our friends together? Henri doesn’t look too good.”
“We haven’t the luxury of time,” Henri said. He sent me a grin. “But it’s nice that you care.”
“Of course I care.” I grabbed his hand and offered it a squeeze before Ludovico pulled him along the hallway and out of sight.
I glanced around to get my bearings and realized that we were in the east wing, near my bedchamber. The dungeon was nearby, at least. “How was Bram in the end?” I dared ask Annette.
Annette hesitated. “He was brave until the last, my lord. He was protective of you, and of me. You would have been proud to see it.”
I nodded, emotion pulsing through my chest, but we’d lingered for too long already. We rushed along the hallway until we came to the stairs up to my room. I bypassed that, making for the door beneath it, which was closer to the recess that led to the hidden passage. A few minutes more, and we were in the laboratory.
Annette tapped a test tube as she passed. “It’s so strange that this has been hidden here all these years. I always thought Monseigneur Schedoni made it with the other monks, his brotherhood, the Order of the Dragon. It’s hard to believe that the family owes their humanity to a bunch of leeches.” She shuddered.
“And don’t forget that Montoni and Schedoni have been murdering people in the dungeons of this castle,” I reminded her.
Annette nodded solemnly. “So much evil in this castle. I’d always felt something wrong with the place. I just never could have guessed how deep that horror went.”
We pushed through to the adjoining room, which held the dungeon. Blanche sat on the floor, pale and breathing through her pain. Her normally flawless skin was lined with dirt, as were her clothes, but she didn’t seem harmed aside from the effects of the antidote.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Blanche greeted, trying for a smile that was more of a grimace.
“It’s good to see you again,” I told her, helping her to her feet. “I honestly wasn’t sure I ever would.” I winced as I took in her short hair anew. “I take it Annette wasn’t able to do much about that?”
Annette huffed. “We’ve been otherwise distracted, my lord.”
“I would have been more distracted by that hair.”
Blanche sent me a look. “I’m sure the hair can wait.”
