by Megg Jensen
“How?” I said, not knowing what else to ask.
The librarian shook his head. “Don’t ever underestimate love.” Then he chuckled. “And a determined boy with magic.”
“So this whole thing was a hoax? All of this questioning?”
The librarian laughed again. “No, that was real. The king wants to know exactly how your magic works and how you were able to use it against him so successfully. I needed to have answers that sounded like you otherwise people might recognize it as a forgery. It helps that I knew the whole story from Bryden already so I knew what questions to ask you. I could get answers without giving anything away. It had to be natural, organic, or someone would see through it.”
“But why?” I asked.
“I have no problem helping you escape, but I don’t want to be the next neck on the chopping block. I’ll give the king exactly what he asked for.”
“But he’s going to know I escaped. He’ll think you had a hand in it.”
“Doubtful,” the librarian said. He walked over to the door and listened. The fighting had stopped. What was happening out there?
He knocked twice on the door. “I’m done interviewing the prisoner.”
The door opened and John stuck his head in the space in between. “Ah, just in time.”
John’s lip was bleeding and puffy, but he smiled in spite of it.
“It’s a good thing you left before the fighting started,” he continued. “Wouldn’t want the librarian to get hurt in a prison break.”
“No, that wouldn’t do,” the librarian said. “The stool is over there, if you need it.” He looked at me and motioned with his head. I nodded and ran over, grabbing it in my hand.
I followed the librarian into the hallway and at the other end, leaning up against the wall was Bryden. My heart fluttered. I saw the line of five guards on the floor, unconscious I hoped, in front of him.
“Who says a warrior needs two good legs?” he asked.
I ran past the librarian as he shook his head at us. I didn’t care if he thought we were ridiculous. Throwing my arms around Bryden’s shoulders, I pressed my lips to his, hungry for his touch.
He pushed me back with a grin on his face. “Not now. Later.”
“Hey, lovebirds, you forgot something,” the guard called from the doorway. He waved to us from the other end of the hall as the librarian stepped carefully between the bodies in the hallway. He walked past us without a word and left the dungeon.
“Oh yeah,” Bryden said. “He helped me, but we can’t leave him under any suspicion, just like the librarian. One of us needs to knock him out.”
“And don’t you dare use any of that magic on me,” he said. “Looks like it hurts. You’re a warrior and you know how to knock a guy out without hurting him too bad, right Lianne? Get me with that stool.”
I walked over to him, gripping one of the stool’s three legs in my hand. “Are you sure you want me to do this?”
“Gently,” he said still grinning. I couldn’t believe he was enjoying this so much.
I cocked my arm back, stool in my hand, and cracked him over the forehead with it. He fell backward to the floor, his head landing on the dirt-packed floor with a soft thud. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, then turned back to Bryden.
“He’ll have a headache, but nothing serious,” I said.
Bryden laid his arm across my shoulder as we stood alone, except for the unconscious guards on the floor. “Now about that kiss.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
We walked through the halls of the dungeon, hoping to find our way out. We didn’t head toward the entrance I had used to see Mags, but instead we walked deeper into the bowels of the dungeon. Bryden knew the way to go since he’d just been through to rescue me, but the labyrinth was too confusing for me. Even if I’d managed to break out, I would have been caught long before I found my way out.
I wanted to go faster, but I didn’t press Bryden. His injury didn’t allow him to run. If he tried, he’d only fall to the ground and we’d waste more time getting him back up and risk further injury.
“Go ahead,” he said when we reached the doorway to the outside. The locks were undone, hanging loose. Obviously no one had discovered Bryden’s handiwork yet. I stopped counting the knocked-out guards on the floor when I got to ten. I wondered if he’d been fighting the entire time the librarian had been with me.
“I’m not going without you,” I said. “I’m not even sure I know where I am.” I’d worked in the castle for years, but never come down to the dungeons except for recently and this way out was different than the way I’d come in to see Mags.
“This is the side that backs up to the sea. No one ever comes this way because there isn’t a path back here. It’s rocky and filled with weeds.”
“Then how do you plan on getting free? With your leg, I can’t imagine you could climb down a hillside.”
Bryden laughed. “I don’t have to. There’s a friend waiting for me outside.”
I raised an eyebrow. How many people were working with him to free me? The librarian, the guard and now another one waiting outside. He was filled with surprises.
Together we pushed the heavy door open and I was surprised to see two mules standing side-by-side, eating grass.
“Mules?” I asked.
“We can ride them to the bottom. There’s a boat down there waiting for us.”
I craned my neck, looking out over the edge. Sure enough, there was a tiny boat bobbing in the water.
“A boat?” My stomach flipped, the nightmares rushing back. Boats, pounding waves, and danger haunted my dreams. Now they invaded my waking hours. “Do I have to get on it?”
Bryden laughed. “Are you still afraid of the water after all of these years?”
I didn’t have to answer. He saw my eyes widen as I realized this was our only way of escaping. I took a deep breath and tried to ignore the queasy feeling in my stomach.
“How did you manage all of this so quickly?”
“I have friends,” he said, but he didn’t elaborate and I didn’t ask. I’d learned enough over the last few weeks that Bryden would tell me things when he was ready. Or when he thought I was ready. I’d trusted him and he had always been right so far.
We mounted the mules. I held on tight to my mule’s neck as we bumped down the hillside. Every time he stopped to eat a patch of grass, I spurred him on with my heels. I hadn’t heard any of the alarms sound and no one was after us, yet, but I didn’t want to waste one minute getting out of there.
As we descended the hill, I spied a huge ship in the distance. People milled about on deck, except for one person who stood still, staring in our direction. I squinted, but the picture didn’t become any clearer. An arm raised and waved to us. I looked back at Bryden and he waved back. I raised my hand with a tentative wave. We were close. Only a few more turns and we’d be at the bottom and one step closer to freedom.
When the mules stepped down to the base of the hill, I jumped off mine and ran to the edge of water. The ship was moored pretty far away from the shore. A tiny little rowboat bobbed on the water, waiting for us to take it out to the ship. Bryden slid off his mule as well and he pointed to the rowboat. I didn’t know why we were being so quiet, no one was around to hear us, but I nodded back at him.
I grabbed his hand and we picked our way through the brush to the rowboat. He sat down while I pushed the boat away from shore. The bottom of my dress soaked up the water, but I didn’t mind. It was filthy from being in the dungeon anyway. The water’s touch on my legs felt great. I tried to focus on that instead of how it would feel once the little boat began rocking.
As Bryden began to row, I climbed into my side of the boat, careful not to tip it over. While I would have loved a soak in the shallow water, now wasn’t the time. I looked up at the hill and saw guards coming through the door we’d used to escape. Bryden must have seen the expression on my face because he quickly turned around to look behind him. They shou
ted and bells clanged all around the castle. We’d been found.
“Put the oars down,” he said while I scrambled to get them in the water.
“But if I don’t row, we can’t get to the boat faster.”
“We don’t need to row,” he said. He turned around and faced the hill. Bryden held his hand up. I held my breath, preparing for the blast that was to come.
“If you blast at the hill it could cause a landslide,” I screamed. “Don’t!”
Bryden laughed and his shoulders shook. “You think I’m stupid? I’m not going to blast them. Now hang on.”
I clenched my hands around the sides of the boat as it began to move faster through the water. My stomach pitched and rocked with the boat. I looked over Bryden’s shoulder. His hand was pointed at the water and not the hill.
“Are you moving the water?” I asked, amazed.
“It’s the same thing I always do,” he said, not looking at me as he concentrated on the water. “I never moved the rock or caused an explosion. Neither did you. I’m creating movement in the air focused at a particular object. This time I’m focused on the water. It’s like making a concentrated breeze to blow at only one thing.”
I’d never thought about it that way. All this time I thought I had picked up a really heavy rock and moved it when all along I had been moving the air. I did still have a lot to learn.
The guards yelled at us, but they didn’t have bows and arrows with them. Feeling brave, I raised my arm and waved to them. I giggled. We were so close to being free and I felt confident we’d escape. Nothing could stop us now.
Bryden yelled as arrows rained down on us from the highest ramparts of the castle. I covered my head with my arms and pleaded with Bryden to do the same.
“No! If I stop moving the water now we’ll never make it to the boat on time.”
Without stopping to think about whether or not I could, or should, do it, I held up both of my hands to the sky. I reached down into that part of me that loved Bryden, the part that always calmed the fires within and I felt the refreshing chill course through my body.
I pushed the air, just like Bryden had, and pushed back against arrows. Instead of hitting the air and falling down to the water, the arrows spun around. They flew back to their source. Screams echoed through the air as men dropped away from the walls of the castle, now protecting themselves from the arrows they had shot at us.
My laughter joined with Bryden’s as our boat slowed to a stop in front of the ship.
“I didn’t know you could do that.” He scrambled over to the side of the ship and grabbed the rope ladder hanging over the side.
“Neither did I.” I held my hands in the air against the arrows some brave warriors were still shooting at us, despite receiving as many in return from my shield. I glanced behind me. Bryden pull himself over the edge of the boat with help from a white-sleeved arm.
“Your turn,” Bryden yelled over the edge. His hands went up in the air, like mine, and after a nod of his head, I dropped my hands. I spun around and grabbed the tight rope ladder. It was rough and scratchy, tearing at my skin, but I didn’t care. I scaled the ladder, trying to be careful not to go too fast. One false step and I could lose my grip and fall into the water. My legs trembled. I couldn’t save myself if I fell in.
As I neared the top, the same arm and hand appeared over the side. I took hold of the arm, clasping the elbow and pushed up and over the edge. I rolled along the floor and stopped. Pulling myself up to sitting, I looked up at the mystery friend Bryden had mentioned earlier.
I gasped. She looked like me. It wasn’t just that we shared the same skin tone or hair color. No, we looked exactly alike.
“Hey twin,” she said.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Before I could answer, she spun around and headed for the wheel. Bryden unfurled a sail while I sat on my behind and watched the two of them. Where did he find her and how long had he known her and why didn’t he ever mention I had a twin?
The arrows clunked the side of the boat, no longer having enough force behind them to reach us on deck. We weren’t blocking them, but it didn’t matter, they were just throwing away good arrows. The sea swallowed them, hungry for anything they threw at it.
The boat lurched away from the castle and toward the open sea. I’d looked out on this sea so many times in my life, wondering how close we were to my people and feeling like they were so far away. I never knew they were seafaring. Apparently I had a lot to learn.
I stood, wavering from side to side as the boat pitched. My stomach flipped and I closed my eyes. I tried to focus on calming my body and not on the fact that I was on a rocking boat.
“We can’t leave, not yet,” I said to Bryden, opening my eyes and watching my sister. It was hard to take my eyes off of her. “We have to save Mags and Trevin.”
Bryden put his hand on my shoulder. “Trevin is safe with his old midwife, Renee. I know her well, she’d never hurt a fly. I don’t know where Mags ran off to, do you?”
I shook my head. My only hope was that she’d found the horses we stashed away and galloped off on one to safety. But where could the ex-queen, wanted by the king, probably with a huge reward on her head, go? There was no one to guide her, no one to help her. No one she could trust.
But without knowing where she was, there wasn’t much I could do to help her either. I stared off into the distance, wishing her well wherever she was and hoping we’d be reunited soon.
“Something’s not right,” I said. I couldn’t discount the nightmares that had shown this ship more clearly than I ever could have imagined on my own.
“Everything’s fine,” Bryden said. “We can trust them. These are Dalagans, our people, Lianne.”
I took a deep breath, vowing to trust Bryden. He’d never led me astray yet. “So, where do we go from here?”
“Well, first you should be properly introduced to Sebrina,” he said, motioning with his head to my sister. I gulped. I was suddenly more afraid of her than I had been the king. She represented a world I didn’t know, but wanted to know so desperately.
I wasn’t ready, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t escape or hide anywhere. We were trapped on this boat together.
I nodded and Bryden put his arm around my shoulders, guiding me over to the wheel where Sebrina looked off into the distance. I blinked twice, sure that it was impossible for her to look so much like me. But she stood in front of me, even stood in the same stance I frequently found myself settling into. I couldn’t deny it. This girl was an exact replica of me.
“Hi,” I said, shyly, not sure how to talk to her.
“Hey,” she answered. “I know this is really strange for you, Lianne. I’ve known about you my whole life and for you to find out about me now, so unexpectedly, it must be shocking. Don’t worry about feeling shy around me. I get it. We have the rest of our lives to catch up. You don’t have to do it all right now.”
“You’ve known about me this whole time?” I asked.
“Sure, everyone in our country knows all about you, Bryden and Kellan. We’ve grown up hearing stories about the sacrifices our families made for the three of you. I’ve always wondered what you look like, since twins aren’t always the same, but it’s kind of shocking for me, too, to see how much we are alike.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” I asked Bryden. He nodded and his face lit up.
“A little sister and an older brother,” he said. “I haven’t met them yet. But I hope I can soon.”
“So are we headed back there? Back home?”
Sebrina’s shoulders shook when she laughed. “Just wait until you see what’s around this bend,” she said, guiding the boat around a curve in the waterway.
My eyes widened as I took in the scene before me. Hundreds of ships lined up and down the river, most as big, if not bigger, than ours. I forced the nightmares from my mind and focused on trusting Bryden.
“What’s going on?” I asked, stunned at how little I k
new about our circumstances. I looked to Bryden, but he didn’t look surprised. “Where did you get all of these ships? I thought Dalagan was poor.”
“There’s a lot you have to learn about us.” Sebrina smiled. “There isn’t time now, but soon, I promise. The land we come from is riddled with disease. It’s uninhabitable. The Fithians have plenty of bountiful land to share.”
I pulled away from Bryden and stumbled over to the side of the boat, gazing at the only place I’d ever called home. I’d estimated about fifty people on my ship and I couldn’t even count the ships in the distance. I didn’t know if there was room for everyone in Fithia.
I’d loved Fithia my whole life. The green grass in the summer, light snowflakes in the winter. While I wanted to go home to my people, in my heart, I feared moving to that icy landscape I’d heard so many horror stories about. I wanted to stay here. If they took Fithia, then I could.
I didn’t hear Bryden walk up behind me until his lips were on my ear. He kissed me lightly, relaxing me a bit. He had a knack for doing that.
“I know it’s all very confusing.”
I whirled around and looked him in the eyes. “How much do you know?”
“They didn’t tell me much after my accident. Just enough to make sure I kept quiet about the magic. If anyone had found out, I might have been killed. It was a big burden to carry alone. Then they waited and they watched.”
“Watched? Watched how?”
“They have seers, Lianne. People who can look in a pool of water and see what’s happening in other places. It’s amazing, really. I thought the magic I’d taught myself was fantastic, but it’s really so basic. We have a lot to learn. Anyway, once they felt I was ready, they made contact with me again for the first time since I was five. The small group of three men snuck across the border and I met them in the grove.”
