[Fairytale 02] - Asleep (2013)

by Elizabeth Darcy

  “Anxious?” Tanvir asked, joining her in her vigil.

  “Yes. You?”

  “Yes,” he said. His face was grim as he stared out at the sky and sea.

  Jess thought about her mother, who had left the day before them. Her fleet had looked impressive as it had set out, and Jess said a silent prayer that her mother would have a safe journey, that Toran’s and Mahlia’s forces would join Farah in time. She prayed that Ellaria’s spies wouldn’t catch wind of the approach of three different armies, so that her mother would maintain the advantage when she attacked.

  The fleet Jess sailed with was less impressive, but that had been their intent. Where Farah’s ships sailed with the banners of Lyrane and Estoria snapping in the wind, Jess and Tanvir had chosen a large trader’s ship. Instead of barrels and crates of goods, it was filled with Tanvir’s troops, whose numbers were far fewer than those of Farah. Every bit of intelligence they’d been able to gather had suggested that the forces at Skyhold were minimal, and Jess could only hope they’d received good intelligence. Still, when the reports from Skyhold were combined with Medhan’s own reports from Ygres, the information seemed accurate. Rather than making Jess relax, though, this made her worry all the more. Surely Ellaria would have expected Jess to head straight for Dev?

  “You’re worried about the numbers, aren’t you?” Tanvir asked.

  Sighing, Jess pushed against the railing, feeling the strain in her back, and let her head fall between her outstretched arms. “Yes, I am.”

  “They worry me too. We’ll have to proceed with all caution. But, Jess, it is possible that Ellaria took a much larger gambit than we expected. Just because she aims to conquer the Five Realms doesn’t mean she’s capable of doing so. It’s possible that her ambitions are greater than her abilities.”

  “It is possible,” Jess agreed, raising her head a bit and turning it to peer up at Tanvir. “And believe me, I hope that’s the case. But we don’t know for certain, and I don’t want to bank on such hopes.”

  “Neither do I.”

  “There must be some way into Skyhold,” Jess said, pushing off from the railing and flexing her fingers, trying to get the blood flowing through them again. “Defending such a place is suicidal without some sort of escape route.”

  “I agree, but what hope do we have of ever finding escape tunnels? If there are any, they must extend for quite some distance as there’s no cover anywhere in the immediate area of Skyhold. We could search the forest around its perimeter for the next ten years and never find any traces of an entrance.”

  “I don’t like the idea of sacrificing troops,” Jess said, confessing what had troubled her more than anything else. She didn’t care about the personal cost of rescuing Dev, but she agonized over the thought of using her troops like so much fodder.

  “I don’t either,” Tanvir said, his voice soft. He turned his back to the railing and leaned against it, rubbing his forehead. “But the troops know what this mission means, and they all volunteered for it. They’re ready to give their life for Dev, for you.”

  “I don’t take that responsibility lightly,” Jess snapped, jerking a hand through her hair.

  “Which is precisely why they are willing to place the responsibility in your hands.”

  “Let’s hope their faith isn’t misguided.”

  “It isn’t,” Tanvir said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s talk about strategy again.”

  She was grateful for his support, for his kind words, and for knowing how to soothe her. They’d already talked strategy to death, but it was the one thing that would take her mind from her troubles. Leaning against the railing next to him, she crossed her arms over her chest. “They will see us coming long before we arrive, so we will need to take care to stay as far from arrow range as we can. Our siege engines have a longer range than their arrows, so we will need to set them up first, use them to harry the tower in the hopes of drawing the guards out.”

  Tanvir nodded. “The tower walls are thick. Even if we besiege them night and day, it will be days before the damage threatens the tower’s structural integrity.”

  “And we don’t know where in the tower Dev is—if he’s there,” Jess said, tugging at her hair.

  Despite the seriousness of the situation, Tanvir gave her a half-smile. “You know Dev. Do you think they’d keep him anywhere but in a cell? We know they’re in the upper reaches of the tower.”

  Jess couldn’t help but smile as well. No doubt Dev was proving a less than docile captive. She tried not to think about how his captors might be treating him. “So we want to hit the lower parts of the tower. But we’re limited in how much damage we can do to them as we don’t want the tower to collapse.”

  “It doesn’t matter. We never meant to destroy the tower, just to try to establish two things: how many guards are in the tower, and how loyal are they to Ellaria? Staying back and harrying them from a distance means we can wait and see if they’ll send troops out after us. If they don’t, chances are their numbers are small. We’ll also be able to determine how stalwart the troops in Skyhold are. It’s one thing to imagine a siege, another thing to live through one. Some of them may not have the stomach for it.”

  “Let us hope,” Jess sighed. “It would be decidedly easier if they all came out under a white banner and handed Dev over to us.”

  “Stranger things have happened.”

  “Like princes being snatched from castles under heavy guard?”

  Tanvir winced. “Yes, like that.” They fell silent for a moment before Tanvir said in a soft voice, “I’ll get you into that tower, Jess.”

  “I’ll hold you to that,” she said, but she smiled to take the edge off her words. He nodded and she shoved off from the railing, heading for the ladder that would take her below the deck. She wanted some solitude.

  Once inside her tiny, cramped quarters, she sat on the floor, drawing her knees up to her chest and laying her head on them. She wondered what Dev had done during these long days of his captivity. What would she have done? If she didn’t have thoughts of the rescue to distract her, how would she have prevented herself from running mad?

  But, then, Dev had never been like her. He didn’t run his memories through his head on an endless loop, picking apart errors and using them to berate himself over and over. Dev was the type to reflect on his mistakes, decide he would learn from them, and go on with his life. Jess had long envied him this. She had trouble remembering a night where she fell instantly to sleep. Most nights she lay awake for hours, thinking of the day’s training or last week’s skirmish or her raid in the Carpesian Forest, trying to determine what she could have done differently, how she could have better executed her duties. A fierce pain stabbed through her, leaving such a powerful ache that her arms spasmed around her legs, drawing them closer to her chest. How she missed Dev. How she longed for him. It pressed on her like a boulder.

  She thought of the craggy shores of Moritan, how they had looked the last time she had been there. Jess had never been the type of girl to moon over romantic ballads, so when she had seen Dev and his father riding up alongside them, she hadn’t understood why her heart had begun hammering, why she was flushed with excitement, why her head swam as though she had drunk too much wine. She found her eyes lingering on him, drinking in the sight of his face, the way his eyes crinkled at the corners, the way his smile was oh so slightly crooked, his lips lifting just the tiniest bit higher on the right side than on the left. A certain impishness lurked in Dev’s gaze, and his face was so honest, so open.

  Seeing the chip in his tooth filled her with memories of long summer days spent getting into childish mischief, of foolish risks and ill-conceived plans, of cold winters spent exploring one another’s castles, spring days given over to long rambles through fields of flowers, fall days stalking through forests, leaves crunching underfoot, the scent of woodsmoke rich in the air. No matter how many months separated them, it always seemed as if those days with Dev had consumed great
chunks of her life, and the memories of times spent with him were more vivid in her memory.

  Though her parents didn’t talk much about it, Jess had known she would have to marry soon. Her twentieth birthday loomed before her, and, as was tradition, her parents would step down from the throne in five years. The years between would be arduous as she took on a greater number of duties and became responsible for more of the governance of the Realm. Having a partner would make the burden easier, and bearing heirs would increase stability. It had been centuries since anyone had contested Lyrane’s throne, but Jess knew that everyone breathed easier when the line of succession was crystal clear.

  For many years, Jess had looked at marriage purely as a contract. She knew her parents loved one another, but they hadn’t when they had married. They had been little more than strangers, matched because it was advantageous to the Realm. Jess had suspected it would be the same for her. She would find a lord whose temperament was close enough to her own that they could get along, someone who was wise, fair, and frugal, and they would marry and provide Lyrane with heirs. Perhaps at some point the partnership would blossom into love, but it hadn’t mattered much to Jess. As long as she and her husband could tolerate one another, as long as they worked as partners, romantic love was unimportant.

  But then she had grown, and so had Dev, and everything had changed. Her indifference to dancing evaporated when she realized she enjoyed being in Dev’s arms, feeling his body close to hers. When she knew she would see him, she no longer thought about the pranks they could pull. Instead, she caught herself wondering what it might feel like to kiss him, had found herself daydreaming about hours spent tracing the contours of his face with her fingertips.

  Love had crept up on her suddenly but, once it had, it had consumed her utterly. She’d come to realize how mistaken her initial thoughts on marriage had been. She hadn’t understood that a partnership in marriage could be born of love, that love could bind her to her husband in ways that mere accord could not. It was like the whole world had opened up before her, as if her eyes had opened at last.

  A horrible pain ripped through her, leaving her gasping. I cannot lose him. I cannot.

  Chapter 31

  The days passed, and Dev counted. Five different men and women guarded him, and it didn’t take long for Dev to figure out their shifts. He also took note of their armor and weapons, determining that each of his guards wore the same equipment.

  As subtly as he could, Dev sized them up. It had been days since his last drugging and, though they didn’t feed him nearly enough, he’d begun to regain some of his strength, thanks to the exercises he took care to do out of their line of vision. He took advantage of his clarity of mind by observing everything that took place around him, cataloging each bit of information he collected. He was careful not to provoke the guards too much, but he spoke with each of them on occasion, trying to get a feel for their personalities.

  Aside from the one who was susceptible to Dev’s taunts, there was the woman who’d been clever enough to warn the stupid guard to be wary of Dev. A second man mostly ignored Dev, regardless of whether Dev peppered him with small talk or insults. There was a shorter woman from whom Dev had been able to coax a smile or two, though he was careful not to press his luck or allow the small victories to lull him into a false sense of security. Despite the smiles, Dev felt reasonably certain the woman would have no problem running a sword through him, were it required of her. The fifth guard was also male, much taller than the other two male guards but wiry, compact. He worried Dev the most because he looked to be as quick and light on his feet as Dev was.

  Dev also did his best to establish some sort of rapport between himself and the serving girl. No matter what time of day, she was always the one to carry his tray to him, and Dev wondered at this detail. Was it an oversight on Ellaria’s part, or was the serving girl the biggest threat of all? Perhaps Ellaria had hand-chosen her, using her to spy on Dev. At first Dev kept his tongue, fixing a wary eye on the girl whenever she entered his cell. But then the girl began to drop details every so often, and Dev’s sense of caution was mixed with a wary sort of interest.

  “This tower can hold as many as five hundred, but there are only fifty guards here,” she told him one night, as she set his dinner tray down on the table. He sat on his bed, his eyes following her every move.

  “Is that so?”

  The girl nodded. “The Lady Ellaria took all the rest with her to Ygres.”

  Dev noticed the girl didn’t refer to Ellaria as if she were a queen as the guards were wont to do. “She must have a great many troops,” he ventured, testing her.

  “I suppose,” the girl said, shrugging. “Probably you can’t see much from your window, but all of her troops were camping here.”

  “All of them?”

  With another nod, the girl picked up his waste bucket and left the cell. Gnawing on his stale crust of bread, Dev wondered if he ought to trust what the maid had told him. It all seemed a little too convenient for his tastes; then again, what she had told him did seem to match what he himself had observed. Whenever he could, Dev stared out his window for hours, making note of how many people came and went. There were a scant few servants, and the occasional wagon delivering supplies, but Dev had seen no more than a handful of guards head out to scout and patrol the area. The tower was very quiet, though Dev knew the heavy stone could be deadening the sound. Still, from what he could determine, only a skeleton crew had been left behind to man the stronghold.

  It made sense. Ellaria’s numbers had been higher than Dev might have expected, but if the troops who had camped outside Skyhold formed the entire strength of her army, it was modest. That wasn’t a guarantee of anything, though. Mallaric might have lords raising their banners to fight for him, but Dev didn’t doubt that plenty of them would switch sides with alacrity if they felt Mallaric would lose or Ellaria might have more to offer them.

  The serving girl didn’t say a word to Dev when she returned, even though he ventured a smile at her. Instead, she acted as if he didn’t exist, replacing his bucket and taking his tray with brisk efficiency.

  Glancing up at his window, Dev decided it was too dark to bother looking outside. Skyhold was so far from the nearest village that the nights were especially black, the darkness broken only by the pinpricks of stars—when they were visible. The sky was often cloudy, the tower’s proximity to the rough sea bringing in inclement weather far too often for Dev’s comfort. He’d tried asking his guards for more blankets, but they’d ignored his request, and what bedding he did have was damp, courtesy of the rain that blew in through his barred window. Dev had begun to worry that he might molder along with the straw in his mattress.

  He decided to give up for the night and did his best to settle himself on the straw mattress. He’d tried sleeping on the floor a few times, but the cold penetrated through the stone and made him shiver throughout the night. His bed was now infested with fleas, which meant he spent most of the night either scratching himself or wincing in pain as the straw stabbed him, but he was able to snatch some sleep, and it would have to do for now. When his dreams weren’t of Jess, he dreamed of being warm, dry, of having a hot bath. He’d never been the sort of man who needed to be surrounded by luxuries, but nor had he appreciated the many creature comforts he had once enjoyed. If he ever got out of the gods forsaken tower, he vowed he would take the time to savor the feel of fresh linens, of lying on a mattress stuffed with goose feathers. After tossing and turning for what felt like an age, Dev gave up on sleep and allowed his mind to drift, remembering his last visit to Moritan.

  That first kiss with Jess seemed to last an eternity and, yet, it was over far too soon. Dev could not let her go when their lips parted, and so he held her in his arms, resting his cheek against hers. He closed his eyes, filled his senses with her scent, with the sound of her slowly steadying breaths, with the feel of her cheek against his. With a deep sense of wonderment, he lifted a hand to her other cheek,
catching his breath as his fingertips touched the softness of her skin.

  “Dev,” she whispered in his ear, the way she caressed his name making him shiver. “Dev, I’ve been in love with you for so long now.”

  “You have?” he asked, pulling back a little in surprise.

  “Yes, I have.” Her eyes were soft, her smile full of joy as she rested her hand against his cheek. His eyes drifting closed, he leaned into her palm.

  “I’m an idiot,” he groaned.

  “What do you mean?” He opened his eyes again to see her looking at him, her expression a mixture of confusion and concern.

  “Not for loving you. Never for loving you,” he said, lowering his voice and cradling her face in his hands. “I’m an idiot for waiting so long to tell you I love you.”

  She looked as shocked as he’d felt by her declaration. “How long have you waited?”

  “Years,” he whispered, caressing her face as he stared into her eyes. Looking at her, seeing the emotions in her eyes, was such an exquisite pleasure he could hardly bear it.

  Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, and he gently wiped them away with his thumbs. “Years.” She breathed the word, sounding as if she were afraid that, by speaking it aloud, she would steal the truth from it.

  “Years,” he agreed, brushing his lips over her smooth cheek. “Years.” He trailed kisses over her nose, her other cheek, her forehead, her chin, her lips. She wound her arms around his neck, her hands caressing the nape, sending tingles of electricity up his back.