by Erin Johnson
I scrubbed my face and groaned in answer.
Maple moved over to me and patted my back. “She had a long night.” She gave Iggy a “be nice” look.
Annie moved from one shining white cupboard to the next, opening each and poking around. She glanced back at me across the massive island and grinned. “My grandmother taught me a wonderful cure for a hangover, if you like?”
Wiley scoffed. “And where was that when we were in the Mermaid Kingdom?”
Annie grinned mischievously, and turned back to a cupboard full of silver mixing bowls.
We’d just been shown to the modern, nearly sterile bakery by a palace servant and left to get oriented ourselves. Apparently the Air Kingdom bakers were savoring every moment of their weeklong spring vacation and couldn’t be bothered to help us out.
“It’s not an alcohol thing.” I yawned again. “It’s a sleep thing.” Hank hadn’t been lying about us waking up at four in the morning… every morning. “I miss my eight o’clock bedtime.”
Maple leaned her elbows on the smooth countertop and bit her bottom lip. “How was it?” She sighed to herself. “An Air Kingdom ball.”
I shook my head. “Not what you’d expect.” I hadn’t been able to find Hank after he’d bolted. I looked for him for a while, then ultimately just went back to my room. But I hadn’t been able to sleep. I tossed and turned, kept up by a mix of emotions—concern for Hank, hurt that he’d just left me, and of course worry over the impending prison break-in.
Yann pushed a button and a wood panel, stained nearly black, slid to the side, revealing a recessed wall oven. “Whoa. Dees keetchen ees full of surprises.”
Annie bounced on her heels. “I like the padded cork floors. It’ll be a lot nicer on my hips than our marble ones back home.”
The countertop formed a U shape around the high-ceilinged room. The walls, ceiling, and countertops all gleamed white and clean, with some cupboard doors and panels stained black. The natural cork floors and the entire wall of windows behind me lent the space a clean, airy feel.
I fiddled with the iron ring at the top of Iggy’s lantern. “Urs Volker was there last night.”
Everyone froze.
“The prison guy?” Wiley slid up behind Maple.
I nodded. “We talked about Carclaustra.”
Maple’s eyes widened and Annie and Sam turned away from the pantry to listen. Annie’d been piling Sam’s arms full of jars of flours and sugar and other dry goods we might need. He peeked around the stack he held.
Maple squeezed my wrist. “Were you scared?”
I scoffed. “Not until he started detailing all the horrible things that would happen to any prisoner who tried to escape.” My voice echoed off the clean, hard surfaces and walls.
“A little fear isn’t a bad thing,” a low voice said from behind me.
I shrieked and spun around. Yann and Wiley shouted, Sam whimpered, and Maple gasped. Horace stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows. The Air Kingdom spread out behind him, islands in the sky with airships zipping between them. He strode forward. “Good. You’re all here.”
I froze as he approached. Annie corralled Sam and Yann behind her and glared at my brother. He wore his usual all-black suit and shirt, which highlighted his tall and trim build. The heels of his black boots clipped softly across the cork floor until he stood at the open part of the U-shaped kitchen, effectively trapping us. He looked down his upturned nose at us, his full lips in a grim line, his sharp jawline and cheekbones highlighted by the overhead lamps. I blinked at him. I couldn’t decide if he was quite handsome, or just quite odd-looking.
He lifted the rolled papers in his hand. “I came to discuss our plan.”
Annie huffed. “We have baking to do.”
His half-closed eyes slid to her. “You’ll do it later.”
She opened her mouth as if to talk back, but closed it and pursed her lips instead.
“How did you get in here?” Wiley scowled at him.
Horace gave him a lazy once-over. “That again?” He lifted his eyes and gave a slight shake of his head. “I can change my appearance and physicality at will. I can draw on an unlimited amount of magical power.” He looked around the room. “You all need to start thinking bigger.”
I folded my arms. “Like break into the kingdoms’ most highly secured prison, big?”
His lip curled. “Precisely.”
I frowned. “Last night Urs Volker said no one had ever broken out of the prison before.”
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.”
Wiley slammed his hand on the counter, which made Maple and me jump. “That’s exactly what it means.” He gestured around the room. “And even if it is possible, it’s not going to be for a bunch of bakers.”
“You’d better hope you’re wrong.” Horace stared Wiley down until Wiley’s face slackened and his shoulders slumped.
“Anyone else?” Horace’s eyes slid left and right. “No? Then let’s review our plan.” He blinked. “And do pay attention.” He strode up to the kitchen island and waved a hand. He magically swept all the bowls and utensils we’d piled there to the side. They clattered to the floor.
Annie planted her hands on her hips. “Hey!”
As a bowl rolled across the floor and clunked against the wall, Horace ignored her and spread the blueprints of the prison out on the hard surface. He blinked and a couple of bowls, a salt shaker, and a bag of sugar rose from the floor and weighted down the four corners.
“Gather round, children.”
I brought Iggy and plunked his lantern on the island in front of me. I stood nearest to Horace on his right, though I left him a wide berth, while everyone else arranged themselves as far away from him as possible. I leaned forward and eyed the papers. Blue lines sketched out one floor of the prison. The perimeter formed the shape of a large oval, with concentric rings inside.
“Are these hallways?”
Horace blinked. “Yes. This is the first floor. There are seven others.”
Maple’s face fell. “Seven?”
“The hallways form a maze. This is the current layout, though construction is underway to form this.” Horace magically flipped to a new page.
“It looks the same to me.” I shook my head.
“It’s not.” Horace folded his long hands on the countertop’s edge. “They are remodeling older parts with new magical technology. I’m not sure how far along they are, so the prison layout might look like this now, or it might still look like this.” He snapped his fingers and the initial paper shuffled back to the top. “Or it might be some combination of both of them, if they’re still in the process.”
Wiley folded his long arms. “In other words, we have no idea and these are basically useless.”
Horace blinked at him. “You will be memorizing both plans to give you the best chance of navigating your way through.”
Yann buried his face in his enormous hands, and Iggy snorted.
“Imogen got lost in the Fire Kingdom riad every day. And you expect her to memorize two different schematics of seven different floors of a place designed to be a maze.” He cackled. “Good luck.”
“Your confidence in me is overwhelming.” I shook my head at my magical flame.
Horace leaned forward. “Perhaps she could use some help then?”
Iggy cackled. “Oh, she could use a lot of help.”
“It’s settled. You’ll accompany her.”
Iggy’s eyes opened wide and his flame dimmed. “That’s not what I—”
“Let’s go over the outline of the plan.” He sighed. “Though I certainly uncovered a vast quantity of weaknesses, I have to assume Imogen’s chosen to ally herself with you all due to some hidden strengths, which for your sakes will hopefully become evident.”
Sam blinked through his thick glasses. “I can become a snake.”
Horace stared at him for several long moments. “Good for you.”
I cleared my throat. “Look. Again, your
beef is with me.” Hopefully that human saying translated. I gulped. “I volunteer to go in.”
Maple grabbed my hand. “Imogen. No.”
“How noble of you.” Horace planted his hands on the edge of the island countertop and leaned in. “But you’re all going in.”
Gasps and cries sounded from my friends.
Horace held up a hand until it grew quiet. I pursed my lips together and tried to slow my breathing.
“You’ll need to find a way to get in.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but my brother held up his hand again and I decided to hear him out before I shouted down his insane plan. I wanted to see just how insane it was first.
“You’ll find a way in. You will get to the control room, immobilize the guards inside, and convince them to open the door to the containment theatre. Once inside, you will retrieve your targets, Pritney and Nate, and use a portal mirror, which you’ll find a way to conceal, to escape.”
I leaned in and waited for more.
Horace sniffed. “Questions?”
Annie laughed out loud.
Yann raised a finger. “How?”
I shook my head. “This? This is your grand plan? If you want to kill us, just do it now.”
He narrowed his pale eyes at me.
“Or not. You could wait.” I suddenly found my fingernails fascinating.
Wiley sneered. “I hear a lot of ‘you will’s’ in there.” He jerked a hand in Horace’s direction. “And where are you in all of this? Since this is our plan?” He twirled his finger in a circle.
Yeah. Good question, Wiley. I turned to Horace.
He blinked. “I’ll be eagerly awaiting your safe return.”
My jaw dropped. “You—” I was so angry I had to close my mouth, take a breath, and start again. “You’re not even going in with us? Why not?”
Horace cleared his throat, but the only answer he gave was to stare me down with his half-closed lids.
Annie doubled over and laughed so hard that barely any sound came out.
Yann eyed her warily. “I do not find thees funny.”
She wiped a tear from her eye. “Oh. It’s not. We’re all gonna die.” She burst into laughter again.
Maple and I exchanged looks.
Iggy shook his head. “Okay. Annie’s lost it.” He sighed. “But she’s right. We’re all gonna die.”
Sam rubbed himself against the wall as if scratching an itch. I frowned. “Is he trying to shed his skin?”
Maple nodded at me, her eyes round. “I think he’s a little stressed.” She gripped my arm tight. “We all are.”
My brother cleared his throat. “Finished with your outbursts?”
Wiley pounded a fist against the countertop and leaned his tall frame toward Horace. He bared his teeth. “I haven’t even started. How can you—”
Horace talked over him. “Let me remind you that yesterday was the first day of the spring celebration. You have until the end of your week’s stay here to break into Carclaustra. I suggest you spend what little time you have creating a plan instead of whining like children.”
Wiley’s nostrils flared and his chest heaved as he stared down Horace. But he kept his mouth shut.
“First,” Horace looked at each of us, “you’ll need to find a way in.”’
I shook my head. “Madeline L’Orange.” I turned to the others. “The journalist. She told me even she couldn’t get in, and she has credentials. Not even the prison board is allowed inside. How do you expect us to do it? We’re bakers, what excuse could we possibly have?”
“Maybe we make a ssspecial sssurprissse for the prisonersss?” Sam lifted both index fingers. “Or for the guardsss.”
I nodded. “Good thought, Sam. We’d have to think up a reason for them to let us in.” I glared at Horace. “All of us, apparently.”
He shrugged, but only watched us with his intelligent, calculating eyes.
Annie folded her arms across her apron. “For the record, I am vehemently against this.” She sighed. “But if we must…. Maybe once we got there, one of us could faint or have some sort of attack. They’d rush us to the infirmary.” She narrowed her eyes at Horace. “Is there an infirmary?”
Horace gave a slight nod and pointed at a spot on the map. The room sat in one of the inner rings of the seventh floor. He flicked a finger and the sheet of paper changed out for another one, which showed the outline of the third floor. “The entrance to the containment theatre is here. If your plan succeeded, you’d be led deep into the prison, but you’d still be several floors away.”
I nodded at Annie. “It’s a great thought. Let’s keep brainstorming.”
My friends all frowned at me.
“Is that like an aneurism, or…?” Wiley lifted a brow.
I swiped my hand across my forehead. “It’s a— Never mind, let’s keep coming up with ideas.”
We talked for another fifteen minutes while Horace mostly just observed. But no one had any plans that topped sneaking in as bakers and faking a medical issue.
“Okay. Maybe let’s table the how we get in part for now?” I planted my hands on the counter and looked around. My friends nodded back at me. I turned to Horace. “Let’s say we think of a way in. What then?” A part of me still couldn’t believe we were discussing how to break into Carclaustra. I shoved down my rising panic and focused on the task at hand. There would be plenty of time for screaming into my pillow later.
“You’ll need to find your way to the control room. Guards patrol the hallways, but you’ll need to get there, unseen.” He pointed to the room marked “control room” on the map. It butted up against the containment theatre. “You’ll need to take over this room without the guards sounding the alarm, then convince them by some means to open the chamber to the containment theatre.” His eyes flicked around the room. “Perhaps that’s a job for the bear of a man there.” He blinked at Yann, who paled.
I shook my head. “So, if we can find our way through the maze without getting caught—”
Horace titled his head to the side. “You’ll need to memorize both layouts, as I mentioned, and I suggest you all practice your concealment and disguise spells to get through undetected.”
Wiley scoffed and threw a hand at the blueprints. “Who could memorize that?”
Iggy sniffed. “Apparently that’s my job.”
I looked over the schematic. “Okay. So Iggy guides us to the control room. How do we take over a room of armed, trained guards without them sounding the alarm?”
Horace flashed his eyes. “The element of surprise is your best ally.”
I shook my head. “Great. No help there. But moving on. The guards open the door to the containment theatre. Then what?”
Horace tapped a slender finger to the blueprint. “The entrance to the theatre is off the control room on the third floor, but the theatre itself is tall—it spans four stories of the prison.”
Yann let out a breath of amazement.
“There is a balcony that runs the perimeter of the third floor with a staircase that zigzags down to the bottom area where the prisoners are kept.”
“In cells or shackles or…?” Wiley looked to Horace, but my brother ignored him.
The oval-shaped room took up nearly half the size of the whole prison. I frowned. “Geez. How many prisoners are there?”
“Unimportant.” Horace tapped the page. “Once inside, you’ll find a single prisoner stationed on the balcony. He or she will be the only conscious one.”
Annie huffed. “Come again?”
Horace sighed and looked around at each of us with his bored expression. “The prisoners are kept in a state of unconsciousness for hours, days, sometimes weeks on end. In the control room, they direct the one conscious prisoner to cast a spell which keeps all the others this way. It’s extremely draining for the spell caster, so they can only keep it up for a short while. This benefits the guards, because they never have to go in among the prisoners. They simply slip the conscious p
risoner some gruel and water, force them to imprison their peers in their own bodies and minds, and then are so drained they pose no threat. The officers direct the exhausted prisoner to awake the next one, who takes over casting the spell from the balcony and puts the previous caster back to ‘sleep.’ And so the cycle continues… forever.”
Wiley scoffed. “So they’re all basically napping? Doesn’t sound so bad to me.”
Horace’s pale eyes slid to Wiley. “It’s almost exactly the opposite. The spell essentially puts the prisoners into hibernation. They can survive weeks on very little food or water. Though kept weak and immobile in body, their minds are very much awake and plunged into a nightmarish world where their worst fears and memories are replayed and amplified. And year after year, their muscles weaken and their bones grow brittle from lack of exercise, while their minds break from the constant torment. The spell keeps them from ever really sleeping so there is no relief, no rest. Their only reprieve from the horrific visions is the hour or so a week, or month, when they’re awoken to climb the balcony and cast the spell over all their withering fellow prisoners.”
Goose bumps crept up my neck. “How do you know this? Madeline said she could never get anyone to talk and there were only rumors about—”
“I know.” Horace’s low voice stopped me. “Let’s leave it at that.” Horace pressed his eyes closed for a moment, then continued. “You’ll need to stop the prisoner who’s casting the spell. It should not be difficult. But as soon as you do, all the prisoners below will begin to stir and awaken.” Horace leaned forward and laced his thin fingers together. He gave each of us a hard look. “There are men and women and creatures in that place that even weakened and half-mad make me look like a baby kitten compared to the violence and cruelty that they are not only capable of, but thirst for.”
I shuddered, and Wiley hugged Maple tighter to his side.
“You will need to act quickly to find Pritney and Nate. Once you do, they may or may not be responsive. You’ll use a portal mirror and escape through it, smashing it behind you to prevent any of the other prisoners from following.”
“How do weee get da portal mirror een?” Yann wrung his tanned hands.
Horace shrugged. “You’ll likely need to shrink it, then enlarge it once you’re ready to escape. But, if at any time the alarm is sounded, an emergency spell will blanket the entire prison, preventing any magic use inside its walls. It won’t stay in effect for more than a few minutes, due to the size of it and the amount of power required, but during that time you’ll be unable to cast any spells. That is why Urs and all his men are trained in hand-to-hand combat, in the event they are unable to use magic.”