“Princess?” Gwynne said in surprise.
“No,” the girl said, slowly lowering the chair. She glanced to the lump on the bed. “She’s Princess Maelyn. I’m just Maddie. I’m a servant here. Keeps me from being a meal.”
“Where’s the magic, Gwynne?” Charlie said.
Gwynne pointed at the bed. “There. It’s centered around her.” He hesitated. “I think some of it might be her.”
“She won’t wake,” Maddie said. “Ever since she broke the Keystone. It is like her soul has already fled though her body lives.”
That was definitely problematic. Neither Gwynne nor Maddie seemed very strong, and Charlie definitely wasn’t in any condition to carry someone in a coma. “We need to try to wake her up anyway.”
Gwynne crossed to kneel on the chair at the bedside. He pulled down the thin blanket, revealing the princess’s head and shoulders. She looked almost like a porcelain doll, her eyes closed and skin pale, her black curls tumbled in a chaotic mass on the pillow.
“Maybe it’ll take a kiss to wake her up,” Charlie said. Gwynne pulled a face. “Don’t worry,” Charlie said dryly. “I doubt you’re her true love. You seem a little young for her. Start with calling her name.”
“Maelyn?” Gwynne said. He hesitantly reached to clasp her shoulder and shook it, releasing her as if the touch was poisoned.
Something shimmery fell from behind her ear to lay tangled in her hair, looking like a small shard of glass. Gwynne noticed just as Charlie did. He picked it up with two fingers.
It flashed with blinding light in every conceivable color. He dropped it with a small cry. “What was that?”
“The Keystone,” Maddie whispered. Her expression was torn between awe and dismay.
The Keystone. The pale blue shard lay quiescent against Maelyn’s black hair, as if it hadn’t just startled them half to death. This would be the thing to take her home?
Gwynne stared at it with a fresh fascination. He poked it, but it did not repeat the flash. He picked it up. “It feels… it almost feels alive.” He clenched the stone in his fist, features settling into determination. He leaned over and shook the princess’s shoulders again. “Maelyn! Princess Maelyn, wake up!”
***
“Maelyn!”
Maelyn stirred faintly in her ethereal chains, her head too heavy to lift.
“Maelyn!” The voice echoed faintly in her mind, tinged with the swirling colors of the Keystone.
Useless, she wanted to tell him. She could no longer sort memory from dream. Could no longer sort the dream from what was real. There was no use in trying.
Maelyn. A different voice threaded into her thoughts, masculine, warm against her cold soul. Mae, it’s time for you to fight.
Fight? How could she fight? She was no warrior. She could not save her own brother. She could not save herself.
Ethereal arms slipped around her. She felt phantom warmth against her back. Mae. You are stronger than you know. Lift up your head. She felt a light pressure under her chin.
Maelyn struggled to obey. To raise up her face. To breathe air that the Mara’s bonds did not poison. The muscles of her neck strained, pulling. Gradually the bones of her neck and spine straightened, bearing the impossible weight of her skull.
Stand, the voice inside her head demanded.
“I cannot.” She gasped, sucking in air and trembling from her exertions.
“Maelyn,” the other, outside voice called again. It drew her, pulling her tight against her bonds. “Wake up!”
Stand. Fight! An arm shifted to wrap around her waist. Maelyn pulled herself up, kneeling on both knees. She drew a leg under her, resting her weight on it. Pushing upward, she strained against the chains of the mind that ensnared her torso. She gasped in pain as they dug into her “flesh,” splashing visions of horror before her eyes. The steady warmth at her back never left, never faded, an anchor against the tide of illusions. The arms did not let go.
She felt a tug on the chains, pulling, loosening. For the first time, a tiny burst of hope dared to flare in her chest.
Fight, Mae! Who are you?
Maelyn set her jaw, gritting her teeth. I am the daughter of High King Aneirin, she reminded herself. She pulled up her other leg, planting her foot beneath her. Sister of High King Edouard and… and Crown Prince William, may his soul rest at peace. Descendant of High King Gwalchmai, whose blood seals the Gate of Ard Ri. Maelyn pushed to stand, biting back a scream as the chains twisted around her. She dug her nails into the palms of her hands.
She could not breathe. She could not think. All she could feel was the tightening bonds.
A chain shattered, flying into a thousand slivers of glass. In that moment, that tiny shard of time before the chains could tighten again, she felt something – someone – slip between herself and the bonds. Felt hands shove her down, the chains slipping free of her.
He had taken her place.
Maelyn scrambled forward, but before she could turn, the bright rippling surface of a Gate swallowed her up.
***
Princess Maelyn gasped, her spine arcing with the force of the air drawn into her lungs. Her eyes flung wide, catching the light like faceted emeralds. The gasp escaped as a moan that she quickly bit down on.
All of Charlie’s envy of her looks disappeared at the sight of the girl’s anguished expression and the glittering flood of tears that suddenly streamed from the corners of her eyes.
“Princess?” Gwynne said.
Maelyn’s head snapped around. She scrambled to the opposite side of the bed, pressing against the wall. Confusion swirled in her eyes as they darted between Gwynne, Charlie, and Maddie. Her hair fell in a riot of tangles to her hips.
“Is this real?” Maelyn’s voice emerged as a hoarse whisper. Her breath came in uneven shudders. “Or is this some new vision sent to torment me?”
“We’re here to rescue you,” Charlie added quickly. Obi-Wan Kenobi brought us. Only Rhys no longer felt like the wise old man archetype of the party, and besides, Obi-Wan didn’t survive Princess Lea’s rescue. Charlie felt a pang of worry.
Maelyn’s eyes snapped to Charlie, telling her that Maelyn was one of those who could understand her in squirrel form.
Maelyn’s eyes flashed to Gwynne. “Are you the one who took my bonds?”
Gwynne’s confusion matched hers. “I called your name.”
Maelyn’s eyes dismissed him and assessed Maddie and Charlie. Apparently neither of them passed muster, for a shutter fell over the princess’s face, replacing the confusion with a distant dignity. She dashed a hand across her cheeks, chasing away the moisture there, and knelt on the bed instead of plastering against the wall. “A boy, a squirrel, and…” Maelyn’s gaze rested on Maddie.
The servant dipped a quick curtsey. “Maddie, your highness.” The girl looked almost as dismayed as the princess.
“Was there anything more to your rescue plan?” Maelyn said. “Such as a method of escape?”
"We get out the same way we got in." Gwynne moved to the arrow slit and measured it with his hands. He nodded in satisfaction. "It may be a little tight, er, princess. But you'll fit."
Maelyn's face went blank. "Out, through the window?"
Gwynne nodded, confident. "There's plenty of hand and footholds. It'll be easy as climbing a tree."
"Princesses," Charlie whispered in his ear, "don't usually climb trees.”
Gwynne started in surprise. "Honest?"
Charlie nodded. "Princesses wear fancy dresses that they can't tear or get dirty."
Gwynne rubbed the side of his filthy nose thoughtfully. "All the same. Just follow my lead and you'll be fine. Just shorten up that skirt of yours so you don't get tangled around your feet."
"Show her legs?" Maddie sounded horrified. "In front of men, and all the world?"
"You too, Maddie, if you're coming," Gwynne said.
Maddie shook her head vehemently. "Oh, no. I couldn't."
"What do you think they'll d
o when they see the princess is missing?" Charlie said dryly. Gwynne relayed her comment.
Maddie's face was torn between horror and fear.
Maelyn sat down on the edge of the bed, stripped off her stockings, and after only a moment's hesitation, started tying knots in her skirt at just above mid calf.
"No, no," Gwynne said. "It needs to be at the knee so you can move.” Without asking permission (and probably without thinking), Gwynne knelt and took the skirt from Maelyn's hands, tying it further up. Alarm flashed across her face, but she quickly replaced it with a blank indifference.
Work finished, Gwynne bade her to stand so he could inspect his handiwork. Barefoot, with her skirt ripped unevenly around her knees, Maelyn looked less like the perfect princess and more like simply a young woman in trouble.
"Lead on," Maelyn said. "I do not wish to delay."
Gwynne popped out the window, Charlie still riding his shoulder. "Put your feet out first," he said. "So you can find a good footing."
A pale, slender foot emerged from the arrow slit and felt along the outside wall for a ledge. Gwynne gripped her ankle and guided it to a hold. She carefully rested her weight on it and slid herself to the edge of the slit. Maelyn squinted out at the sunlight.
"Don't look down, and don't worry about what's out there," Gwynne said. "Just look at the wall and where you're going to put your hands and feet." He guided her outstretched hand to a hold on the edge of the arrow slit.
Maelyn squeezed herself out through the arrow slit, her eyes planted on the top corner stone. She rotated slightly, pulling her other leg out, and tried to rest it on the same foothold. She quickly learned that it was too small to fit both of her feet. A small gasp escaped her lips, and her foot flailed for a new hold.
"You're ok," Gwynne said, putting a steadying hand on the small of her back. "Just set your foot in a crack."
Maelyn's searching toes found a rest. She clung to the outside wall, eyes closed, her breath coming in short gusts.
"You're doing fine," Charlie said.
Gwynne guided her out a few more steps, and the inevitable happened. In looking for a new foothold, Maelyn's eyes fell to the drop below them. Her pale face went completely white, and she flattened herself against the wall, pressing her face into the stone.
"You're still fine," Gwynne said. "It's not the fall to be afraid of. Keep your head. That's what'll get you. Don't think."
Maelyn forced her eyes open, her mouth pressed tightly closed. She gave a sharp nod. She pried her long, slender fingers from their hold, a little of the stone crumbling from her grip. She took another step, moving a few inches further along.
Charlie saw a flash of movement behind them, at the window.
Charlie's heart jumped to her throat, thinking the guards had already discovered Maelyn's disappearance. But it wasn't a blue skinned terradi that appeared at the arrow slit.
Maddie looked down at the rocky cliff dropping away below them, and closed her eyes. But she felt her way out onto the wall, finding grips with her bare toes, her skirts ripped off at the knees. She worked her way across the wall, faster than the cautious Maelyn.
"Decided to join us, then?” Gwynne said.
Maddie didn’t answer, her eyes fastened on Maelyn ahead of her. She caught up in a matter of moments, climbing along the wall almost recklessly. She reached out, as if to help Maelyn find a more secure handhold. Her hand anchored in Maelyn's hair and yanked.
Maelyn screamed, her eyes flying wide as the force of it pulled her head back. One of her hands came free of the stone, and it scrabbled for a fresh purchase.
Maddie kept pulling, her features twisted into an ugly mask of hatred.
"Let go!" Gwynne cried. Nimble as a monkey, he started to maneuver around Maelyn to get to Maddie, but Maddie began yanking back and forth on Maelyn's hair, deliberately trying to wrench her grip of the wall free.
"Hang on!" Before she could think about the drop, Charlie jumped from Gwynne's shoulder to Maelyn's head and bit down hard on Maddie’s hand. Her sharp squirrel teeth sliced into Maddie’s flesh with very little resistance.
Sour, black blood poured into Charlie's mouth as Maddie shrieked. Her mouth burned as if the blood were acid, and the sore gums around her loosened tooth felt like they were going to melt. Charlie gagged, choking on it, and released her jaws. Maddie flailed, flinging Charlie into Maelyn's hair. Charlie desperately clung to Maelyn's hair, spitting and hacking.
Maddie's face rippled. Her hand darted for Maelyn's hair again, and Charlie in it.
Gwynne's foot slammed down on Maddie's face. She shrieked, her own handhold knocked loose. His foot slammed down again, this time on her shoulder, then hand.
Maddie latched onto his ankle. She yanked.
Gwynne didn't have time to reclaim his secure holds. He fell squarely atop Maddie. With a shriek, Maddie grabbed onto Maelyn’s shoulder, finally jarring loose Maelyn’s precarious grip. With a high-pitched chorus of yells and screams, all three fell away from the wall, plummeting down the castle wall.
Maddie disappeared in a cloud of green mist, leaving the rest of them alone in freefall above the valley far below.
***
Abruptly, darkness closed around them, cool and dank. Charlie's bony squirrel body hit a stone floor.
A stone floor? Charlie rolled to her feet, body aching. She wasn’t splattered on the cliff rocks. She wasn’t dreaming.
She heard a faint whimper in the dark.
“We’re safe, princess,” Gwynne said. “We’re alive.”
Alive, but how? “What was that?”
“A gate,” Maelyn whispered.
“A gate?” Gwynne squeaked. “A real mage’s gate?”
"I... I cannot be sure," Maelyn said, her voice shaking, “but I believe it must have been me. Gating is the only magic I have ever accomplished.”
“You picked a great time to do it,” Charlie said. If Maelyn could open a gate, they could get out of here.
But.
They couldn’t leave without Rhys. She didn’t want to give the princess the idea of gating out until they found him. If they could find him.
No, they had to find him. "Marco," Charlie said, making her way toward Gwynne's voice.
"What's that?" Gwynne said.
"You're supposed to say 'polo,'" Charlie said. "It's a children's game. They use it to find each other."
A heavy foot came down on Charlie's tail. "EEK! Watch it!"
"Polo," Gwynne said sheepishly, scooping Charlie up and depositing her on his shoulder.
"Polo," Maelyn echoed and Gwynne turned toward her.
After a few more rounds of “Marco!” “Polo!” Gwynne tracked her down in the dark.
“Where are we?” Charlie said.
“Inside the castle,” Gwynne replied, subdued and thoughtful.
“Inside this castle is hardly safe,” Maelyn said.
“Better than the outside,” Gwynne retorted.
“I would agree with that,” Charlie said. She still shook. But they were alive. And first chance she got, she had to clean out her mouth. She could still feel the burn of Maddie’s blood, the sticky sourness clinging to her teeth. Whatever Maddie was, it wasn’t even remotely human.
Her heart suddenly jumped to her throat. “Gwynne! Where’s the Keystone piece?” He’d had it in his hand, but then in that whole altercation…. He hadn’t dropped it, had he?
Gwynne didn’t answer right away. “I… it’s safe,” he said vaguely.
“Safe where?” That bit of crystal or whatever it was, was her key home!
“Hey, I feel magic nearby,” Gwynne said, dodging her question. "Near enough, but it's weird. Like it's fading in and out."
“Gwynne,” Charlie said, trying to pack as much warning into her voice as a squirrel could. “I need that Keystone piece.”
“It’s safe,” he insisted. “No one can get to it without me.”
That wasn’t reassuring.
In the pitch darkness, Charlie's en
tire world was reduced to Gwynne's shoulder. By the faint echo of their breath, they were in a small space, but Gwynne continued to feel his way forward without encountering an enclosing wall. A hall then?
The air felt eerily dead. Heavy and completely still. It felt as if her lungs couldn’t draw it in because there wasn’t even the slightest flow of air to bring it into her nostrils.
"Watch out for stairs there," Gwynne said, half a moment before Maelyn let out a muffled, "Umph," as she stubbed her toe.
Charlie felt Gwynne's arms moving, searching along walls on either side of them.
"Wait," he said. He leaned against the wall, giving a small grunt of effort. Charlie heard a faint click, and felt a small brush of cooler air pass over her hands. The breeze slid over her face, and she sucked it in, suddenly grateful for even that small touch of air.
Gwynne pushed harder, and part of the wall gave way with a louder click. A small seam of light appeared, outlining the door in the wall. Gwynne shoved it the rest of the way open, revealing a room lit with dozens of torches.
By its layout, with two large fireplaces inset with ovens, the room had once been the castle's kitchen. It no longer served that purpose.
Piles of skulls sat in individual pyramids, decorated with broken weapons and bits of colored cloth. Each pile evidently belonged to a different individual. Some piles were neatly stacked, others were slaphazardly dumped. Some were cleaned and polished, while others had gobbets of decaying meat clinging to them.
Head obsession. This would be where the terradi lived then.
“Hello? Can someone, perhaps, help me?”
Charlie jumped straight in the air at the unexpected sound of an impossible voice. “Jack?!” she shrieked, elated and shocked. She scampered down from Gwynne’s shoulder and into the grisly trophy room. “Where are you?”
“Marco,” Gwynne chimed in.
“Here.” Jack’s faint voice trailed off.
“I don’t see any – ” Gwynne began.
Maelyn’s startled scream sliced through the trophy room. Gwynne spun and slapped a hand over her mouth. Only then did he notice the headless body grasping her ankle. Gwynne shrieked and leapt away, scrambling up a nearby support pillar.
Keystone (Gatewalkers) Page 22
