by N. M. Howell
Rhea smiled her agreement. “Okay, I promise. I’ll get in and out as quickly as possible without being seen. Easy. I grew up here, after all. I know my way around, for the most part.”
Crystalline narrowed her eyes. “And if you get detected at all, even if you get a hint that someone could hear you even if they don’t show up, you run. Do you understand?”
Rhea paused, her eyebrows knitting together. “Not without the guys. I’m not leaving without my guardians.”
“You are more important than they are, Rhea,” Shelton said as he stepped forward. “If you escape safely, you send up a flare of magic and we will go in and rescue your guardians in your place. Do you understand?”
Crystalline nodded her agreement and when Rhea didn’t respond, she stepped forward and placed a heavy hand on Rhea’s cheek. “You protect yourself above all else, Princess,” she said to her, her eyes fierce yet caring. “You get in and get out whether you have them or not, and if not, then we will go in after you to get them.”
Rhea chewed her lower lip but then nodded. “Okay, I promise. But you have to promise to get them.”
“I promise with all my heart,” Crystalline agreed.
They tied the horses to the trees far enough back so that they would be protected from view from the castle, but still close enough that they could reach them should they need to make a quick escape. The group walked within a valley, hidden from the castle by the nearby rolling hills.
As they drew near, Crystalline and her twelve warriors bid luck to Rhea and slowly made their way up to the front of the castle, clinging tightly to the walls to remain hidden from view. The Greystone grounds were absolutely massive, and Rhea hid under a rocky arch surrounded by landscaping as she waited the longest fifteen minutes of her life for them to make their way to the front.
When she was sure they’d had plenty of time to arrive, she tiptoed around the back and climbed into a small ground-floor window, barely fitting her small frame through. She then very carefully began to make her way silently down into the dungeons.
It was dark and damp, even more so than the caves that Crystalline had taken her through to get to the rebel camp. She ran her hands along the wet walls, the water dripping down along her fingertips as she fingered the smooth crevices of the stone. A heavy moss grew over the ground, cushioning her footsteps even more.
She walked slowly and carefully, steady in her step so she wouldn’t fall on the slippery floor and give herself away. Her glamor magic was still concealing her true self, and those who had seen her in the castle before shouldn’t recognize her. She was wearing tattered clothes and could easily be a servant girl. She felt sure in her disguise and moved onward with renewed confidence.
Even still, she knew she had to stay hidden as best she could. Holding her breath and doing the very best to calm her breathing, she made her way slowly down the winding stairs and long damp corridors to where the dungeons were.
She had only been down to the dungeons once as a child when a servant friend of hers was caught stealing a cookie from the kitchens. A lump formed in her throat as she thought of him, Travis, a simple boy who was just hungry and didn’t think before seeking out food. He hadn’t thought anything of getting food from the kitchen where his father worked, and that simple mistake had cost him his life.
Travis had been caught by a guard and Rhea’s father sentenced him to death. She went down to find him as soon as she found out, but she was too late. The boy had been hanged. He had only been twelve years old at the time, five years Rhea’s senior. That was the first instance of her father’s evil that she had seen directly, and after that, she had feared him. For good reason, too, for that was but a small taste of the horrors he had inflicted upon the world around her.
As she walked toward the dungeons, she couldn’t help but cry over her long-lost friend from so long ago, and silent tears streamed down her face. She hoped her guardians had not met the same fate as poor Travis. She held onto the spark of hope that glimmered in her chest, repeating in her mind the that they were still alive.
Rhea jumped when she heard a distant explosion from far above, through the thick castle walls. The sound was faint, but devastating, the walls around her shaking around her as if an earthquake had just passed through. She figured Crystalline had made her distraction at the front gates, and Rhea pressed her back against the stone wall in silence as she waited to hear how the castle guards responded.
She could hardly hear what was going on above through the thick walls, but her senses of hearing picked up the sounds of footsteps and fighting and magic. She waited a few long minutes as the noises grew louder far off in the distance on the south side of the castle near the gates.
Rhea breathed slowly when the sounds quieted, and she continued her descent. She began to hurry now. She had to get there as fast as she could, so she could find them and get out, and still allow Crystalline and her warriors time to escape without harm. A knot formed in her stomach as she could hear the faint sound of screaming in the distance, and she increased her pace even more.
She braced herself as she ran down the last of the stairs, feeling the castle floor shake beneath her as another explosion went off on the surface. It must have been some immense blast of power, and Rhea wished with all of her heart that it was Crystalline or her warriors who had caused the explosion, and not one of the guards in the castle, or her uncle.
She ran down the long corridor that led directly to the dungeons, and skidded to a halt when she came up to the large, metal-studded door that separated her from the cells deep down in the bowels of the castle.
She stood there for a minute, her hands pressed against the damp wood, her fingers tracing the intricate carvings in the metal casings around the door. She let out a controlled breath, steadying herself, and lifted the heavy latch that unlocked the door from the outside.
Carefully, she pulled it open. The creaking noise sent a chill down her spine and caused her to freeze. The sound echoed in the damp, cavernous space around her, and she held her breath as she listened. She counted down from ten, but didn’t hear a stir. It didn’t seem that anyone else was down in the dungeons, fortunately for her.
The guards must have all run up to the front gate at the distraction Crystalline had caused. A small smile formed on Rhea’s lips at the simple genius of her cousin. She pulled the door the rest of the way, allowing the creaking to fill the air around her and echo deep within the corridor until it is dissipated into the heavy stone walls.
Stepping forward into the dark space, she reached out and grabbed a torch on the wall, looking desperately for something to light it with so she could see going forward. There were no windows down below, and the small light from where she came dimmed to near blackness as she entered into large cavernous space.
Cells upon cells lined the far wall, thick heavy metal bars separating the small rooms from the large outer area. The corridor walls were bare apart from the row of unlit torches and heavy metal manacles nailed deep into the walls. The place gave her the creeps and she couldn’t help but shiver as she walked past the metal rings.
Rhea ran her hands along the bars that lined the cells as she slowly began making her way down the length of room. They seemed to go on forever, disappearing in the distance, running the full length of the castle deep beneath the surface of the earth.
Why any castle needed so many cells, she had no idea. Even her father would have trouble filling this many cells, though she wouldn’t have put it past him to try.
A sinking feeling in her stomach grew stronger with every cell she passed as she saw they were all empty. Empty of life, anyways. She had to press her lips together to prevent herself from sobbing as her eyes caught the remains of creatures that had once been locked up, long forgotten.
Skeletal remains in tattered clothing lay on the floors of some cells. Her heart ached that these people had been left behind to die.
She hated the gods. She hated her father. She hated everything abou
t this place. She began to wonder why she’d returned, questioning their decision in the first place. This had all been such a terrible idea. There was nothing that she could do to help with this war, and by returning here, she had risked her guardians’ lives. They were probably dead by now, and it was all because of her.
Her stomach clenched tighter as she passed a large, empty cell. She had to turn away and press her hand against her mouth to prevent herself from hurling on the floor as her eyes caught sight of what lay inside.
The skeletal remains of two small forms at behind the bars, clinging onto each other in the far corner of the cell. They looked to have been children and couldn’t have been more than five years old at the time of their deaths. They’d been left behind, forgotten. Probably died from starvation, clinging to each other for dear life as their poor bodies withered away to nothing. What could a child possibly have done to deserve this? She knew there was no answer in the world that could justify it.
The sight of all the remains made her sick. She felt responsible. She hated being a god, being related to the evil beings who had done this. She was glad her father was dead, but hated the fact that her uncle was still alive and laying claim to the throne. He had proven himself to be no better.
This was but a small taste of the evil that he would inflict on the world, and she knew her father wouldn’t even flinch had he known what he had done to these small children.
Her heart began to ache in her chest as she forced herself forward, willing herself not to look into the empty cells as she moved. By the time she made it to the middle of the room, she let out a soft sob, collapsing to her knees and pressing the palms of her hands against the damp soil that lay beneath her feet. They were dead, they were gone. Her guardians weren’t there, she just knew it.
She sucked in a shuddering breath and was about to let out a scream of frustration when she heard a soft voice echo from a far distant cell at the other side of the massive room.
“Rhea?” the voice whispered.
She pushed herself up and froze, standing on her feet with her knees bent and hands out, bracing for attack. Had she just heard what she thought she’d heard?
“Yes?” she whispered back, her voice hardly audible through the dampness around her. She tentatively walked forward, listening and looking around to see if a guard or anyone else had arrived. But they hadn’t. She was alone in the large empty room, hearing the voices of the dead.
“Rhea, is that you?” the voice called again. She recognized it, and her heart skipped a beat in her chest.
It was Keaven.
She bolted forward, her shaking legs carrying her as fast as they could until she reached the far end of the dungeon. She stopped before she hit the end, skinning and sliding and nearly slamming into the stone wall. She caught herself and stood facing the locked cells.
“Oh my God,” she gasped, falling down to her knees once again. Her body shook and she could hardly suck in a breath, this time from relief, though, not from despair. She looked up into Arry’s bright eyes, his face bloodied, but alive. She crawled forward and grasped the thick bars with her hands, tears streaming down her face, blurring her vision.
“It’s okay, Rhea,” he said quickly to her.
“Are you okay?” Keaven’s voice sounded from the next cell over. She pulled herself up and ran to it, gazing into Keaven’s eyes. She shook her head, unable to speak. She then ran to the next cell and caught sight of Roan, who slumped in the far corner unconscious. The next cell held Taelor, who stood straight up, his body stiff and his arm sticking out at an odd angle, severely broken in multiple places. He returned her gaze with strained eyes, but then his expression grew angry with rage. He stepped forward, wincing, hardly able to move.
“I’m so sorry,” Rhea said. “Are you okay?”
She directed her question to all of them, stepping back and looking in the next cell over. Her heart sank as her breath caught in her throat, turning furiously back to Taelor.
“Where’s Grayson?”
Taelor frowned, stepping forward and grasping his free hand on a bar as he stared at her, his eyes imploring.
“Rhea, you have to get out of here.” His voice was hurried. He looked like he could barely stand.
“Yes, we will. But first I need to get you all out of there,” she said, running her hands up and down along the thick bars of the cell walls, trying to find where they locked. She came upon the massive lock that held the door to the wall and tugged hard, but there was no use. She didn’t have a key.
She looked around frantically, trying to find where the guards would have left a set of keys. Surely there must be multiple sets for a dungeon so large; it was just a matter of tracking them down. And quickly. She tugged and pulled on all four of the cells in turn, hoping that perhaps one of the doors would give, but her guardians all shook their heads, sorrow filling their eyes as they watched her in horror.
“Rhea, you have to get out of here,” Arry said to her, his voice a whisper.
“Rhea, run,” Keaven whispered.
She couldn’t run. Frantically, she felt along a tall ledge on the opposite side of the wall. She couldn’t find a key, all she wanted to do was scream, to let out her frustration and anger and get them out of there as fast as she could. She looked around the room desperately, running to an adjacent small nook, trying to think where the keys would be.
“Rhea, get out now,” Taelor hissed at her.
She turned to him, running back to his cell and reaching her hand through the bars, grabbing his face in hers, stroking his delicate skin and pushing his tattered midnight-blue hair back from his eyes. “I’m not leaving without you guys,” she said to him.
A thud sounded from the far side of the room and Rhea froze, her blood turning to ice.
Taelor’s face grew even more sullen, and he stepped back from the cell.
Her guardians all cowered back, their eyes full of so much fear. Rhea heard another thump and winced. The sound of a heavy foot meeting the ground echoed around them.
“Run,” Taelor mouthed to her, his expression frantic. “Now!”
Rhea stood frozen in place, looking around her for somewhere to run. Her body shook uncontrollably when she saw there was nowhere she could escape. The passageway behind her was blocked off. A tear streamed down her cheek as she met Taelor’s gaze once more.
Taelor stepped forward again and reached his hand through the bar, grabbing hold of her wrist. He squeezed as hard as he could. It hurt when she tried to tug her wrist back from him.
“Run,” he insisted. His voice came out louder, nearly a yell. It startled her and she jumped back, her gaze falling onto a figure that formed at the far side of the room, moving forward with each heavy step, his large boots leading him toward her.
Rhea stepped away from the cell and stood in the center of the room, watching the large figure approach. She glanced back to her guardians who looked lost, as if they had all given up. She must be in a grave situation for them to respond that way, particularly Arry, who always seemed to find a positive spin on things. Her resolve broke when her eyes fell on him. He had fallen to the ground as he recoiled from the incoming footsteps.
Rhea shook so violently from the fear of what was coming at her, she could hardly stand. She leaned against the far wall to brace herself as she waited for whoever it was to draw nearer. She clasped her hand around the hilt of the small sword on her belt as she held it, waiting for the figure to reach her.
It was likely a guard, and more were surely to come. She slunk back against the far wall, hoping he would walk right past her without noticing her. Perhaps he was just on his regular rounds; he certainly didn’t seem to be in any hurry. Her heart thundered in her chest, but she tried to remain calm. She would be fine until she was seen, and for the moment she remained concealed by darkness.
The exit from her side of the dungeon had been closed; heavy boulders had been pushed up against the door, blocking her exit. She looked up to see if there were
perhaps windows above them that she could escape from if necessary, but there was nothing. They were shrouded by darkness. Her eyes had grown accustomed to it, but only just. She hoped whoever approached didn’t have enhanced sight.
Her breath caught in her throat when the hooded figure stopped in his tracks in the center of the room, not four feet before her. He turned toward her, clearly seeing her through the darkness.
She didn’t think it possible, but her heart beat even more heavily now, threatening to break through the surface of her chest. She held her breath, her body petrified by fear.
Massive arms raised and pulled the hood back from his face, and she gasped. Her uncle’s dark amber eyes stared back at her, sparkling somehow despite the fact there was no light around them.
She glanced back furiously at her guardians, terror filling her very core. Tears streamed down her eyes as she looked at all for them in turn, wishing there was something she could do to help them, to help herself.
She wished she had the type of magic that could blast the gates open and kill her uncle right then and there, but she knew even if she somehow managed to absorb all his magic at that exact moment, she wouldn’t be powerful enough to protect them all. She wasn’t strong enough to save them, and the weight of her current situation pressed heavily on her shoulders, making her want to collapse on the ground and give up.
A small sneer formed on her uncle’s lips as he stared at her in silence for a long, utterly terrifying moment. He let out a deep laugh, the sound so eerie as it echoed around them, making her want to scream. She held her hand against her ears as she looked up at him, bracing herself for his attack.
But he didn’t. He simply stood there staring down at her with a large smile spread across lips.
“Well, hello again, my beautiful niece.” He peered down at her, his expression oddly radiant. “I was wondering when you would show up.”