I gave him a look - he had to understand my meaning.
“Look here now. What you’re implying is dangerous,” he whispered seriously.
“I think staying here, trapped, just waiting until they come for us, until we’re adding to the noise of, of dying, is dangerous too,” I told him.
He huffed loudly.
“We don’t know the castle. We’d be caught quick and the punishment, it would be worse than what’s awaiting us now.”
“But if we made it out of the castle, you know the land,” I told him.
“If we made it out. If. It won’t be that simple. Nothing ever is,” he replied.
I leaned back against the moss-covered wall. I wouldn’t argue with him. But I was getting back to Selene - Remy could help or not. He could escape with me, or stay in this nightmare. I would be leaving.
“What’s your plan?” he asked, after a very long time. It was odd how the sound of others in pain and fear could fade to the background. Now and then, a particularly terrible wail would startle me and it would be in the forefront, loud again. Remy’s voice startled me too.
But I was excited by Remy’s question. Help was better than no help.
“I think I could weaken the stones, enough for them to break and fall. We could climb out to the room above. There must be windows for so much light to leak through the cracks. It could be as simple as climbing through a window.”
“After we somehow get through a small hole, up there,” he said, pointing.
“It is high,” I agreed. “But I could help you up. You would then pull me up after. You’re strong as a bear, right?” I asked him, smiling hopefully.
“Yeah, I am,” he replied, grinning with me. “Well, if we’re going to die down here anyway, an escape would make it more interesting,” he said and reached his hand out to me. “If we’re going to do this, we need to shake on some ground rules.” I nodded. “First ground rule, we help each other as much as possible, but if it comes down to it and only one of us can go, the one that can get gone does. The second rule; if I die, you tell my wife I love her. My village is the one with sunflower fields, about ten miles east of here. Do you want me to get a message to someone if the worst was to happen?” he asked.
“Yes,” I choked a little. The thought of never seeing Selene again was like having a hole burned through my chest. “My message is for Princess Selene Borealis. Tell her I love her.” He smiled warmly at me, and I grabbed his hand in a firm shake.
I stood to investigate the cracked stone further. Touching the wall I channelled my magic into the moss, encouraging it to grow as much as possible in and around the cracks; I hoped that a bit of pressure would be enough to weaken the rock until it crumbled.
It wasn’t easy to direct the moss to a specific small area. But I kept at it, and soon the crack was so filled with moss that no light bled through to us.
Remy pulled me roughly to the ground.
“Shh, someone’s coming,” he told me and listening carefully, I could hear footsteps under the noise of the other prisoners.
The footsteps got closer and louder until I was sure they were for us.
“I bet that dress was flattering last night,” Clara said when she stopped in front of the cell.
“Hi,” I said softly and got to my feet. What was I meant to say in such a situation? Clara wasn’t a nice person. During the time I had spent in her company, she had struck me as jealous and mean-spirited.
She laughed and waved her hand. A guard stepped forward from behind her and unlocked the cell, pulling the barred door open.
Clara stepped into the cell. I was rooted to the spot as she took a few steps toward me.
She reached out, running her hand from my head to my throat.
“I couldn’t resist coming down here to see you for myself. He did it. He managed to wrangle you away from her. Oh, to see her face when she realised you were gone.” She laughed. I stayed very still, her hand resting against my throat.
Clara inhaled deeply through her nose and her face contorted in disgust.
“This place stinks,” she said, and her hand around my throat tightened as she pulled me abruptly closer. I stumbled into her and felt sick as her lips pressed against my neck. She hummed pleased against me. “You’re the only pleasant scent down here,” she told me. “I can almost understand how Selene became so obsessed with a slave. Almost.” She pulled back to look at me and in the glum light of the dungeon, her glowing green eyes were menacing.
“Why?” I croaked. “Why are you doing this?” I asked her. I understood Valen, he wanted to be King, but I didn’t believe that Clara’s purpose was to be Queen. She pulled back further from me, her hand grasping the fabric of my dress at the chest.
“Why?” she asked and hissed in my face. “She was mine, long before you appeared. We were together. And then she showed up mid-spring term, with a useless slave hiding behind her, and she doesn’t want me anymore. She’s no longer interested in me,” she told me, and I felt my chest contract at the thought of Selene with someone else, properly,together.Clara’s sneer morphed into a sort of smile. “Oh, she wanted my body, of course. I’m certain having to restrain her innate strength with you is more than slightly frustrating, but she no longer wanted our relationship.” Selene had told me there had been no others, and I didn’t have even the smallest of ideas that she and Clara… that they were - but why would she do this to me, go to such extremes, if it wasn’t true? A tear escaped my eye; this seemed to please Clara, and again she was at my throat.