by L. Danvers
Gregory motioned his arm outward, allowing Daphne to go next. She took the fur in her hands. Her muscles flexed as she lifted herself, but she slipped and found herself back on the ground. Her chest rose and fell in defeat. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, then she gave it another try. Her arms shook as she took turns reaching one over the other. Aside from swinging swords around, she wasn’t used to using this kind of upper body strength. Her heart banged against her chest, and her breaths grew heavy by the time she reached the top. Phillip secured his hand around her wrist and helped her over the edge of the straw-filled bed.
It was Gregory’s turn to climb. Daphne tried not to look worried while she watched him. She was afraid Phillip could sense her concern, and that he would somehow piece together that she cared for Gregory. That was the last thing she needed. Phillip could never know how she felt. He would be so disappointed.
When Gregory reached the top, they allowed him a moment to catch his breath. Then the three of them crept up toward the head of the bed. Climbing had been the easy part. Now they had to figure out how to get that ruby without waking up the king. The constant footsteps thumping down the hall added to their anxiety. It was a wonder the noise hadn’t woken the king. Perhaps giants slept harder than humans did.
They hiked alongside the giant’s body until they reached his chest, on top of which rested the ruby. Every inch of Daphne tensed as she climbed up his hairy arm. The moles along it were too many to count. Every once in a while, his arm would give a little twitch, and every time it did, she feared she would tumble down to her death. But seeing the ruby within reach kept her going.
There was no way they could take the entire necklace off of the giant. If they wanted the ruby, they would have to pry it from its gold casing.
Daphne kept her focus on the gem with each rise and fall of the giant’s chest. It looked like a funny thing for him to wear. She knew the significance behind it, but it was such a tiny gem for such a massive being. She wondered how the giants had even spotted it to begin with when it was lost by King Cedric. The ruby was sizable on a human scale, but to the giants, it must look like a speck of sand. She imagined another giant would hardly notice it there were it not for the elaborate casing around it.
Phillip, Gregory and Daphne worked together to pull back the first golden prong. It took all the strength they had. Daphne decided she would like a word with the person who came up with the idea for this quest. She wondered if all quests were this difficult. She vaguely remembered King Edgar speaking of his. Something about some fantastical creature he had had to defeat in order to secure a legendary dagger. She never paid much attention to his stories. They were less about what happened and more about how brave he was. She should have listened more. Perhaps that would have prepared her expectations. Nevertheless, she and the boys continued tugging until the prong lifted and bent back. However, the ruby was still secured within the casing. They were going to have to pull back another prong.
On and on they tugged. Daphne’s muscles felt like they could rip. She was exhausted, but the rush of nerves kept her going. She felt a tad resentful that Lillian, Thomas and Merek were down on the floor. This would have been a much easier task if the six of them could have combined their strength. But she reminded herself that, in the condition they were in, they wouldn’t have been of much use anyway.
In time, the three of them pulled back two more prongs, and the ruby loosened enough for them to dislodge it from its casing. It baffled Daphne that they had to work that hard to secure something that fit so easily in Phillip’s palm.
They didn’t waste time admiring it, though. Phillip shoved it in his pocket, and he gave the outside of his pant leg a couple of pats to make sure it was tucked away safe. He was about to turn around and descend down the giant’s arm when he stopped himself. There was a wild look about him, and Daphne knew at once he was eying the dragon scale. She had to admit it was tempting, but the scale was larger than the casing itself. Dragons were enormous creatures. Rumored to be as big as mountains. She’d always assumed that, if dragons had existed, their size must have been an exaggeration. By the look of the amethyst-colored scale, she wasn’t so sure anymore. The scale was larger than they were. What did Phillip think he could do with it?
He had an idea, though. He crept toward it, reached down and ran his fingertips along its surface. He stood on top of it with one foot and grabbed a chipped corner of the scale. The light kissed it, reflecting a purple sheen. With some effort, it snapped. A smile spread across his face, and he turned to show it to his sister.
Phillip wobbled as the giant let out a tremendous snore and started to roll over. Daphne, Gregory and Phillip struggled to keep their balance as he turned. Gregory put his arm around Daphne, doing what he could to hold her steady. Her fingers dug deep into his strong arms, and though she worried she might be hurting him, she was more afraid of falling. She remembered hearing of tournaments in faraway lands with events in which knights balanced on logs in the middle of flowing rivers. That was the only thing she could liken this feeling to.
A gust of the giant’s rancid breath blew their way, and she lost her footing. She felt the weight of him crushing her. She bit her lip to keep from screaming. She couldn’t open her eyes. She was in too much pain to think. She gasped for air, buried underneath the giant’s arm. She felt familiar, strong hands take hers in theirs, and with three heavy tugs, her lungs again filled with air. She no longer minded that the air was filled with dust. She could breathe. She flung her arms around Gregory and buried her face in his chest, but, realizing Phillip was next to them, she pulled away fast.
Phillip mouthed the words Let’s go! He took off running toward the edge of the bed, and they followed. Side by side, the three of them bunched up some of the mismatched furs in their hands and slid down the blanket. Daphne had never been so happy to feel her feet on the ground as she was when she landed. Lillian rushed over and hugged her, but they didn’t have any more time to waste. They needed to get out. Fast.
The six of them raced out of the room and down the hall, which, by a stroke of luck, happened to be clear. The rocky floor was jagged and uneven, built for giants, not for men and women. Each stride took more effort than the last. It was a good thing Lillian hadn’t climbed up onto the bed, too. She wouldn’t have had enough energy left to run. Daphne wasn’t sure what was keeping her going other than the strong desire not to die.
There was an open window at the end of the hall. The angle at which the sun was perched made it hard to see. The light bounced off the falling snow, rendering the group nearly blind. Daphne cupped her hands around her eyes as they darted toward the opening in the stone wall. Vines hung over the ledge and cascaded all the way down to the floor in front of them. She wanted to cry at the thought of climbing again, but what else were they to do? She had to push through the exhaustion. Push through the pain. She could collapse when they reached safety.
They each grabbed onto a vine and began their ascent. The vines were a faded green and riddled with brown thorns. Scaling them took even longer than it should have because they had to navigate around the pointy ends. Thomas was climbing the vine beside Daphne, and though his lips were pressed tight together, she could hear him grunting each time he had to pull up with his right arm. Knowing how much pain she was in, she could only imagine how much he was hurting.
They climbed, and climbed and climbed some more. Daphne tried taking her own advice—the same advice she had given Lillian what felt like a lifetime ago. She thought of what all she had to live for. She thought of her father. She thought of the castle. She thought of the villagers, the ones she had sworn to herself she’d do a better job of serving. She thought of trivial things, like hot meals and warm baths. How she longed to feel clean again. She used her shoulder to wipe sweat from her brow, and with one final pull upward, she reached the top. Gregory and Phillip were already standing there, catching their breath. The three of them waited for the others to catch up. Daphne bent o
ver and rested her hands on her knees, drawing in deep breaths of the fresh wintry air.
Lillian’s thin fingers clasped around the window ledge, and the boys hurried to pull her up. Before she could get her footing, though, all-too-familiar thumps charged their way. The stone on which they stood shook beneath them. They knew what they had to do. They each grabbed onto another vine and leapt out of the window. Daphne wished she had taken a moment to look out while she had been waiting for Thomas, Merek and Lillian to catch up. She hadn’t expected there to be such a large drop-off.
Her hands burned while she slid. She didn’t have the luxury of taking time to avoid the thorns. There was a rush of heat as her own blood warmed her hands, and now that they were wet, she slid down even faster.
A tremendous roar came from above. She glanced up and saw the giant’s head sticking out of the window. While the window looked massive to her, for him, it was a small opening at chest-height. She was thankful it wasn’t big enough for him to climb through.
Her only solace was knowing that the giants had kept the terms of their banishment. If she and the others could just make it back to Proelium, they would be safe.
The more blood pooled in her hands, the faster she slid. She couldn’t hold it in anymore. She squeezed her eyes shut and screamed in pain.
“Jump!” Phillip called out.
Daphne looked down and saw that they were coming to the end of the vines. Below them, piles of snow sat in heaps on the mountainside. Daphne held her breath, and she let go.
Cold, white flakes consumed her. Aside from feeling wet all over, the snow felt good against her many bruises and scrapes. She stayed belly down for a second or two, too exhausted to get up, but then Phillip came up beside her and helped her to her feet. Above them, the giant roared out from the window, but he didn’t think to look down.
Daphne wrapped her arms around her brother, and he squeezed her tight. They hadn’t hugged like this since their mother died. Daphne didn’t want to let go. Everything hit her at once. She felt crushed by the weight of her own emotions. She sobbed into his shoulder. Her body trembled, be it from the cold or from crying so hard. He patted the back of her head with his hand. His palm was wet. It was trivial, but Daphne pulled back to see if his hands were as bloody as hers. They were. His eyes crinkled and he gave a little shrug. “Oops. Sorry.”
She couldn’t help but smile, too. What was a little blood? Her brother was alive, and so was she.
Chapter Seventeen
“Do you still have the ruby?”
Phillip dug around in his pocket and opened his palm to show his sister. It was a deep, glistening red. Delicate and beautiful. The prince clasped his fingers back around the gemstone and returned it to his pocket. He gave his pant leg a couple of taps, making sure the dragon scale survived the fall, too. “We should head home.”
“I’ve never agreed with you more.”
The group was broken and bruised and worse for wear. Gregory, Lillian, Thomas and Merek were eager to leave, too. They trudged along the snowy mountainside. They went as fast as they could go, which was much slower than they would like.
The sun set. There was something familiar, something comforting in the way the colors took over the sky. Daphne thought of the many sunsets she had watched back home in the castle. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined she’d be watching one from the land of the giants. She thought of the ruby and of the dragon scale. She watched her brother, wading in the snow beside her. “You know what this means, don’t you?”
His eyebrows arched.
“The legends. They were true. Our great-grandfather had a dragon.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t change anything, does it?”
He was talking like his old self again. Daphne sighed. That’s what she wanted, she supposed. To have her brother back. “Well... no, I guess not.”
Phillip stared down at the snow, watching his boots sink into it with each labored step. His forehead wrinkled, and he looked back at her and said, “Thank you for coming after me.”
“Of course. The same blood runs through our veins. I had to save you.”
He chuckled.
She wasn’t sure what was so amusing about that. She had saved him.
The sky was filled with magnificent swirls of purple and pink, dotted with fluffy clouds. They reached the base of the mountain, and the outskirts of the Perdeus Ruins stood before them. The snow turned to sleet as they neared the abandoned city. Thomas turned darker shades of blue by the minute. He had sacrificed his cloak back before the giant had first captured them. Gregory removed his own cloak, giving up the warmth provided by the thick, fur-line fabric, and made Thomas put it on. Thomas hugged it around his body and draped the hood over his head. He was shivering, but not as much as before.
The six of them continued traversing across the empty stretch of land that rested between the evergreen trees and the ruins of Perdeus. The trek was an arduous one after all they had been through.
The ground beneath them rumbled. Gregory looked back, and Daphne knew at once what he had seen. Terror overtook his face, and he shouted, “RUN!”
Daphne was overcome with a rush of energy. Her nerves buzzed, pushing her to keep going. Pushing her to survive. She ran as fast as she could. Even Merek was charging full-speed, not minding his injured leg. Pain was fleeting. Death was forever.
Snow turned to slush in Daphne’s boots. Her toes felt hot and cold at once.
Her heart pumped faster than ever.
Sweat clung to her face, and she worried it would freeze there.
Lillian made the unfortunate mistake of looking back over her shoulder. She let out a scream. The six of them found themselves cast in a shadow, and the giant’s meaty fingers reached for them.
He lost his footing and stumbled forward. He crashed into the ground, sending a ripple of quakes outward. Snow flew up into the air, and for a split second, Daphne’s feet left the ground. She didn’t dare look back. She kept running.
She cried when they reached the Perdeus Ruins. She didn’t bother wiping the tears from her cheeks. She didn’t worry whether the others would hear her crying. She was exhausted, overwhelmed and scared for her life. If there was ever a time to cry, it was now.
“We need a place to hide,” Gregory yelled.
He ran ahead of the pack. They followed him past a golden statue that jutted up from a thick layer of snow. He took a sharp turn to his right. The turn was so abrupt Daphne almost tripped trying to slow down and turn to chase him.
Before them stood the crumbling remains of the castle. The stone was almost black, its pores permeated by the ever-falling snow.
Gregory kicked open the wooden door, the boards of which were damp and warped. He ascended up a spiral staircase, skipping steps as he went. The others chased after him, panting. Daphne sniffled, trying to stop herself from crying. Her legs were as heavy as lead, and it took everything she had in her not to give up.
They reached the top of the tower. It was one of the only remaining structures in all of Perdeus. As soon as Daphne burst through the entryway, she fell to her knees. She stayed there, chest heaving as she sucked in air. She questioned whether that wiry-haired woman had really had the gift of prophecy. If Daphne had known quests were like this, she would have predicted Phillip’s death, too. It was a good thing she’d been distracted during King Edgar’s retellings of his own adventures. If she had paid attention, she never would have attempted going after her brother.
She peeled off her boots and turned them upside down. A pile of slush poured out of them. She slipped them back on, and, fearing being discovered by the giant, she found the energy to pace back and forth across the empty room.
Lillian looked like a ghost. She was so much stronger, so much braver than she gave herself credit for. Daphne wanted to comfort her, but it was futile. They were in grave danger.
Thomas and Merek sat together by the empty fireplace. Thomas was huddled over, holding his right arm. Merek m
assaged his leg. He told Thomas he was amazed he was able to run. Daphne was, too. It was funny how the threat of death could bring people to life.
Phillip and Gregory stood together by the window, trying to keep an eye on what was going on outside. Daphne thought it was strange and wonderful seeing the two men she loved together. Phillip was fond of Gregory, but he would feel much differently about him if he knew Gregory was an outlaw. Gregory placed his hands on his hips and shook his head. Daphne imagined the realization of what all they’d lived through was settling in. He walked over to join Thomas and Merek, and he was just about to sit when Phillip gulped so loud it was heard across the room.
He didn’t have time to tell them what he saw. Through the window, chipped teeth gnashed against one another. There was a gust of sour air as the giant roared. He pulled his head back so that all they could see were hairs creeping out from under his dingy shirt collar. The roof turned to rubble with one swing of the giant’s fist. Daphne covered her head and crouched down as stones rained on top of her. She prayed like she’d never prayed before. She drew her elbows up over the crown of her head, bracing for impact. But instead of being crushed by tumbling stone, her stomach flipped, and she went flying into the air.
Darkness.
Her face smashed against the giant’s leathery palm.
Muffled voices shouted her name from below.
There were cries and screams. Shouts and curses.
She tried wriggling out of the giant’s fist, hoping she could slip through his fingertips.
She bit into his hand as hard as she could. It did nothing but leave a disgusting taste in her mouth.
