This information sent the king into a blazing fury. “How is this possible? I’ve set up wards against this very thing.” The king spun on Percy. “You were supposed to protect my daughters.”
Percy’s jaw clenched. “We are commanded to protect your daughters from death. Every . . . single . . . night. The day . . .well, that’s another matter.”
“Remove this glamour!” the king shouted, grabbing my arm and squeezing painfully.
“This isn’t a glamour. This is what I look like.”
King Leonel released my arm and froze. He took three steps back as if he had seen a ghost. “Tell me I’m dreaming. It can’t be her. What is she doing here?” He waved his hands between us like I was smoke he was trying to dissipate. “Guards!” he yelled, and the two on either side of the king stepped toward us, followed by more from down the hall.
The king was still stuttering, murmuring to Captain Lathe as soon as he appeared with the last set of guards. “It can’t be. I don’t understand how she’s here when there are antimagic wards.” He spun on me, his eyes flaring to life with hatred.
It was as though a light had been snuffed out. Quickly the king switched between calm and collected, to paranoid and enraged.
“Arrest her . . . Now!” he screamed.
“You won’t get away with this. My sisters will come, and they’ll stop you.”
King Leonel laughed. “By morning, my daughters will have given their lives, and my armies will invade all of the kingdoms at once. Without their kings to lead them, those kingdoms will fall. And the kings’ heads will fall soon after. I will be the high king of all seven kingdoms.”
“My sisters will stop you!” I yelled.
“They will be too late.”
My cries fell on deaf ears as Captain Lathe’s men pushed me to the ground, burying my face into the rough stone floor as cold manacles clasped around my hands.
My knees scraped against the stone, the thin dress doing very little to protect my skin. I gritted my teeth as they hauled me to my feet, and I noticed that I was alone again. Percy had abandoned me.
“What would you like me to do with the witch, Your Majesty?”
King Leonel waved his hands. “Put her in prison. We’ll execute her at dawn.”
My heart hammered against my chest as they dragged me away.
What had I done?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The scratching of rats’ claws echoed loudly as they scurried along the edge of my cold and dank cell. In the darkness, a rat brushed against my foot, and I recoiled in surprise. Pulling my knees up to my chest, I wrapped my arms around my legs and rocked myself, trying my hardest to keep my wits about me.
I replayed the confrontation in my mind. The king had reacted like he had seen a ghost. He wasn’t at all surprised that there was another who looked like his daughter. In fact, he seemed to have known all along. Did that mean we were related? Could Grace really be my blood sister?
The squeaking of rats grew louder as they became braver, scurrying closer to my leg.
“Shoo!” I lashed out with my foot, sending the large gray creature scampering away.
Alone with my thoughts was a dangerous place to be. In the prison, there were no windows, and I couldn’t tell the passage of time. A lone guard stood at the end of the hall, and every once in a while, he would walk down the row of cells.
From the dry hacking cough I heard farther down, I gathered I wasn’t the only guest residing in the king’s prison. The cell bars were solid, with well-oiled hinges on the doors. Rhea would have been impressed by the blacksmith’s workmanship.
I stayed curled in my position, counting the steps the guard took on his rounds, listening to each step and the echo. I tried to judge how long the corridor was before the echo stopped as he turned a corner, and how many seconds before I could hear him return on his round.
I would have one chance.
Stretching out on the cold floor, I faced the door and feigned sleep, peeking an eye open slightly to watch him.
The prison guard, his hair dirty and eyes red-rimmed from heavy ale consumption, took a torch off the wall near his post. Pausing to check at my cell, he raised the torch, and I closed my eyes, focusing on keeping my breathing even and deep. When my cell darkened, I knew he had moved on. I sat up and slipped the dagger out of my skirt. Thankfully, the guards hadn’t thought to check me for weapons, and I worked on sliding the blade tip into the lock on the u-shaped hinged shackles. In the silent dungeon, each time the thin blade slipped, it scraped against the metal and sounded like a loud, echoing screech. I was sure the guard could hear everything I was doing.
Halfway.
I knew my time was running short. Sweat dripped down my brow as I released the first cuff and worked on the second. I wasn’t sure if I’d get another chance to escape. I didn’t know what time it was, but I knew that all the kings would arrive by morning, and that my execution was scheduled shortly after. I didn’t think there would be another change of the guard before then.
Click.
The second manacle released, and it dropped from my hand. I kneeled in front of the lock on the door. My hands slipped through the bars. Turning the knife around, I dug into the keyhole searching for the pin, hoping to twist the blade and release the lock.
My hands trembled in the cold, and the blade slipped from my fingers to clatter loudly on the stone floor outside the cell.
I froze.
The footsteps sped up.
Laying prone on the ground, I reached through the bars, my cheek pressing into the cold metal as I grasped at the edge of the dagger, but it was just out of reach.
The hall grew lighter as the guard returned with the torch lighting his way.
My fingers dug into the earth, and I scraped and stretched, trying to claw for the weapon. I brushed the handle, and it spun further out of reach.
My face dropped onto the ground, straw stabbing my cheek and I could feel my heart aching. I laid there helpless, watching my last chance of freedom slip from my grasp.
Then the blade lifted up into the air, suspended as if by magic, and shot through the bars toward me. A shimmer in the air made me smile. Nimm had found me.
I grabbed the dagger, tucked it under my body with the shackles and lay back down facing the wall, tucking my hands into my stomach just as the guard returned and stared into my cell. His torch rose high into the air while I froze with fear. Did I cover the shackles? From his higher angle, could he see I was free?
My heartbeat pounded loudly in my ears, surely even the guard could hear it. The light on the wall flickered, and the guard moved back to his post, the light growing dimmer until I was left in darkness again.
A few moments later, Nimm slipped through the opening in the bars and materialized in front of me.
“Nimm, I’m so glad to see you.”
Nimm lifted his hat, and his beady eyes gleamed at me. He handed me his scarf, and I unwrapped it to see the gnome had pilfered the guard’s keys and wrapped them in the fabric to silence the rattling.
“Oh, thank you so much,” I whispered to him.
He gave me a wave and disappeared again. I was surprised he left me alone. Then I saw the guard’s torch suddenly flicker out.
A high-pitched scream pierced the air. “What is that? What touched me?”