‘Yes you are.’ He coughed, his chest wheezing. ‘Crawl to the stairwell, then get down those steps as fast as you can.’
Again, she shook her head.
‘Stop telling me no and leave!’
She looked around, thick smoke in all directions. ‘There has to be a way.’
‘There’s no time. Think about your sisters.’
She gripped him through the bars, crying.
He kissed both of her hands. ‘I love you. Don’t let your death be the last thing I see. It’s senseless.’ He coughed long and hard into his arm.
Dropping her head to the bars, she knew he was right.
Arms wrapped her middle, lifting her. Lyndal turned to see Blake’s soot-covered face.
‘There’s no key,’ Lyndal said, a sob tearing from her. ‘I can’t get him out.’
Blake’s eyes were raw from the smoke, tears rolling down her face. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she told Astin. She coughed, and it was so violent Lyndal felt it through her own body.
‘Take her,’ Astin said, bloodshot eyes pleading with Blake.
A thought came to Lyndal as she was pulled away. ‘Wait!’ She reached up and pulled two pins from her sister’s hair. If Harlan knew how to pick a lock using pins, then maybe Astin did too.
‘We have to go,’ Blake said, her voice unrecognisable.
Lyndal pulled free and stumbled back to Astin, pressing the pins into his hands and closing his fingers around them. The room spun, and she fell forwards, her cheek smashing into the bars.
‘Get up,’ she heard Astin say. ‘I’ll be right behind you.’
She looked up at him to see if he was telling the truth but could no longer see him through the smoke. Then Blake was dragging her away.
Heat hit her once more, flames ahead of them, above them. The stairwell seemed like an impossible target. When Blake hesitated, Lyndal knew it was time to take charge. She tugged her sister’s hood up over her head and face, knowing the wool would protect her, then ran for the stairwell, turning her own face away from the flames.
They part ran, part fell all the way to the bottom of the steps, then headed for the light. The second they emerged outside, Lyndal said to Eda, ‘Take her.’ Then she took a few steps and threw up.
‘Where’s Astin?’ she heard Eda ask.
Lyndal pressed her eyes shut and threw up again. Eda appeared at her side, pulling her away from the smoke, away from the tower. Away from him. That was when she noticed the prisoners nearby. Blake had gotten them out before coming for her.
‘I’m so sorry,’ her sister said, coughing and crying.
She had nothing to apologise for. The choice was one of them dying or both of them dying, but she knew Blake would see his death as her own personal failure.
Lyndal shook her head and wrapped her arms around Blake. ‘Don’t. He’s coming. He said he’d be right behind me.’ She was trembling so badly she had no idea how she was standing.
Eda looked in the direction of the door, her expression doubtful. All three of them stared at it for what felt like twenty minutes but was probably more like twenty seconds.
Twenty eternal seconds.
‘There,’ Eda said as a figure came staggering out into the daylight, coughing and gasping.
Lyndal ran to him,flewto him, leading him away from the smoke, then taking hold of his blackened face while crying.
‘It’s all right,’ Astin said, his voice hoarse. His reddened eyes met hers. ‘I’m all right.’
She wrapped her arms around his middle while he continued to cough. ‘Thank God.’ When she drew back to look at him, she saw his gaze had drifted to the castle.
