“They’re dead,” he answered flatly.
“Good.”
Slaide couldn’t help but laugh. “My, my. You’ve been hanging around me for too long, talking like that. I like this version of you.” He mussed her hair.
She ignored the quip and looked at the floor. “Well, what are we waiting for, then? Let’s go.” Hazel stood, chains jangling.
Slaide stood and took her hands in his. “Did you get the key? And my letters?”
“I got them. But I haven’t had a chance to make sense of any of it. They dragged me out of the other cell moments after my cat friend delivered the decoder.”
He looked perplexed. “Did you just saycat? As inthecat? The weird one?”
“Hey, he’s not weird. But yes… Did you not send it tied to my cat?”
“That sly girl.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t me. I asked Phaedra if she could figure out a way to get it to you. The slaves have tunnels all throughout this castle, and they keep interesting company. Hence the cat, I suppose.”
“Gods, I love her!” Hazel exclaimed.
“Indeed. She really is something.”
Hazel grabbed his arm, and Slaide shook his head knowingly. “We don’t have time. Once I get you to a safe place, I will see what I can do. But I had a plan in place to get you out tomorrow, when…” He looked toward Agnes’s dark cell.When they puther to the stake.He didn’t have to say it, she knew.“That plan included getting them out, too.”
“How were you going to do that?”
“I’m going to blow these dungeons to shit.” He smirked.
A grunt sounded from the other cell. Not a grunt, a laugh.
“Agnes?” Hazel called.
“That one has a big mouth and a bigger ego,” Agnes mumbled, smirking.
“But, really, Dark One, I’d love to know how you plan to blow this heavily fortified dungeon to shit.As if that hasn’t been tried in the past.” She stepped into the firelight, a condescending scowl etched onto her face as she assessed Slaide.
Hazel noted her use of the phrase “Dark One” again and found it perplexing. Slaide visibly stiffened as she said it. The lighting was low, but there was no hiding the unease it caused him. However, unlike he had in the past, Slaide didn’t correct her. Didn’t demand she not call him that. Strange.
Slaide stared at Agnes, and she him. Something like recognition passed between them. Slaide looked at Hazel, then back at Agnes.
“No,” Agnes replied. “I’ll only slow you down.” Hazel looked at both of them, confused.Did I miss something?“I appreciate the thought, even if it is just a bold attempt at making up for your past transgressions.” She sighed then. “I’m tired. A sort of tired neither of you will understand for a long, long time. As I explained to Hazel, my time has come, and I am at peace with my fate.”
Her heart broke all over again. Agnes was all she had left. Her mother, her father… and now the only matronly figure she’d ever known. It was all the more painful knowing in advance, as opposed to having it sprung on her. Her heart wanted nothing more than to drag Agnes with them against her wishes. But in her head, she knew it would never work.
Voices sounded down the hall, beyond the main dungeon doors.
“Shit,” Slaide said. “Out of time. We have to go, now!”
Agnes gave them a curt nod, and Hazel stifled another sob, knowing she would never look upon Agnes’s warm face again.
Slaide urged Hazel along gently but firmly, forcing her to leave Agnes to her fate.
Slaide and Hazelran deeper into the dungeons. The main entrance was no longer an option, but as Hazel soon found, there was more to the old castle walls than their plain stone exterior led on. These walls held secrets.
They reached what she thought was a dead end. Slaide tapped on certain stones in a pattern she couldn’t follow, and before she knew it, the stones were shifting, turning inwards on themselves, and revealing a crawlspace. He entered first. Once Hazel was within, Slaide tapped on the low ceiling twice, and the stone doorway returned to its unassuming state. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
It was dark. So dark that she swallowed deeply, desperately needing something to ground her.
Slaide remained statue-still for a few moments, which gave her eyes some time to adjust. It was hardly enough. Just beyond the wall, the voices of flustered guards grew louder, their shouts frantic and calling out the escape. Just as quickly, their voices faded into the distance. Without a doubt, they’d scurried from the dungeons to raise the alarm.
