“I had to wait for a change in the guard.” He rakes a hand through his messy hair, eyes roving anxiously. “There are two of them posted at the entrance to the cells. We have twenty minutes before they’ll do rounds.”
“You used the entrance to the cells when there’s a perfectly good tunnel hidden down here?”
He shakes his head. “That’s the escape route—no need to risk exposing it before then. I was going to come earlier, but your friend messed up that plan.”
I don’t have to ask who he’s talking about. “She’s not my friend,” I tell him. It isn’t the first time I’ve said that to him, but it’s the first time the words have been true.
“What happened?” he asks. His attention is on my dress, which is now more red than violet.
“I’m fine,” I tell him, but he doesn’t believe me. I can’t meet his eyes when I tell him about Elpis.
I wait for the blame to come. He didn’t want me to give her that responsibility and I insisted. Her blood is on my hands and he has every right to remind me of that. I deserve to hear it, though it might break me.
He’s quiet for a moment, and though I still can’t meet his gaze, I feel him looking at me. He reaches a hand between the bars to take mine. It’s a comfort I don’t deserve.
“You are not allowed to fall apart, Theo,” he tells me. “Not now. Or else she died for nothing.”
I press my lips together to keep my protest down. I know he’s right, but I don’t want him to be. I want to wrap my guilt around me like a cloak, but that doesn’t help anyone but me. It certainly doesn’t help Elpis.
“Her family?” I say after a moment. To my relief, I manage to sound like a queen again instead of the mess of a girl I know I really am.
“Safe. Already with Dragonsbane,” he says.
“And Artemisia and Heron?”
“They’re staying nearby, waiting for a plan.”
“Do you have one?” I ask.
He lifts a shoulder in a shrug. “I can get you out of here easily enough,” he says, placing his hands on the bars. With Glaidi’s strength on his side, how easy will it be for him to pry them apart? The muscles of his arms flex and the steel begins to arc without him shedding a bead of sweat. “The tunnel out of the dungeons leads to the coves on the western shore.”
I turn the idea over in my mind. It’s simple—an escape, perfectly easy with no risk. And yet…
“Something’s bothering you about that plan,” he says, reading my expression. He takes his hands away from the bars. “What?”
I sigh and rest my head against the bars. “It isn’t enough. We were always to strike and run, but we aren’t striking,” I say.
“We killed the Theyn,” he points out.
I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. The Kaiser isn’t weakened and there isn’t enough for the Kalovaxians to turn against him. And after Elpis…”
“There will be time to avenge Elpis—all the time in the world once you’re safe. But today isn’t that day.”
I don’t want to admit that he’s right. There is nothing to be gained by rushing things, but when will we have a chance to get close enough to strike the Kaiser again? I’ve seen the Kaiser’s war strategy enough to know that it involves hiding behind others more than fighting himself. This very well might be our only chance to weaken him, and I don’t want to waste it.
“Maybe it is,” I say to him as a plan begins to form in my mind.
“Theo.” Blaise says my name like a warning. “You tend to get that look on your face before you do something reckless.”
I can’t help but laugh.
“That might be true, but in your experience, Blaise, is there ever anything you can do to stop me?” His silence is all the answer I need. “Good. Because we’re pressed for time, so let’s skip the part where you tell me how reckless it is and list all the dozens of things that can go wrong, and instead just agree to do what I need you to do.”
Blaise’s mouth twitches, but whether it’s with amusement or frustration, I can’t tell. I suspect it’s a bit of both.
“All right, Your Highness. What do you need me to do?”
“For starters, you can fix these bars,” I say. “I’m not leaving just yet.”
I MUST FALL ASLEEP AFTER BLAISE leaves, because the next sound I hear is the jingling of a ring of keys. I bolt upright and squint, half expecting to see a guard there, ready to lead me to my execution, but instead, it’s S?ren. He’s in the same clothes he wore earlier, but now they’re bloodied and torn. A ring holding four large iron keys hangs from his hand. I scramble to my feet, all tiredness leaving me immediately as adrenaline courses through my body.
I should be surprised to see him standing there, but I’m not. I knew he would come for me; I told Blaise as much. Now here he is.
“There isn’t much time.” His breathing is ragged. “Someone will find the guards soon, and you’ll be the first prisoner they check on.”
“You’re rescuing me,” I say slowly.
Even in the simplest plan I spun Blaise, it doesn’t happen like this. In my plan, he comes here angry, hurt, demanding answers I’m not sure how to give.
“Trying to,” he says, swinging the door open.
“I tried to kill you,” I remind him.
“But you didn’t.”
“What I said to the Kaiser—”
“Yes, I would really like to hear more about that, but I’m not sure now is the best time,” he says, glancing over his shoulder. “I promised to take you away from here, and I intend to follow through on that. First we have to live that long, though.”
I can’t begin to make sense of his open face and blind trust, but I know he’s right. We don’t have time for any of this right now. I thought that when he came, I would have to convince him to leave with me, but I’m not about to question this turn of luck.
“What’s your plan?” I ask instead.
He slides one of the keys into the lock, and there’s a heavy creaking as he turns it. “My father won’t stop looking for us, no matter where we go,” he says, pushing the door open. “Sooner or later, we’ll have to take a stand.”
The conviction in his voice takes me by surprise. “You’re willing to do that?” I ask him as I step out of the cell.
“I’ve never wanted to be kaiser, Thora,” he admits.
The name chafes, but I ignore it.
He begins to lead me down the hallway. “But I don’t think I have a choice,” he continues. “Not after Vecturia. What you said in your letter, what you accused him of…,” he starts, but he can’t finish. For all the terrible things he thought his father capable of, he never imagined that.
“I saw it myself,” I tell him.
He clears his throat, focusing on the present instead of the past as he takes a hard turn, pulling me with him. “As I said, we’ll have to make a stand. You have allies, and there are Kalovaxians who would follow me. We might have a chance if we do it together.”
“Together,” I echo.
He glances sideways at me. “I never thought I could go against my father until I saw you do it. You want a rebellion, I’ll help you strike the match.”
I hope my smile looks more real than it feels, but the idea of aligning with any Kalovaxians—even if they stand against the Kaiser—is a horrifying one.
We continue down the maze of hallways in silence, our pace hurried. The dungeon is cold and the air is wet, but I barely feel it with the energy coursing through me. I can’t see a hair’s breadth in front of my face, and S?ren’s hand clasping mine, warm and callused, is more comforting than it has any right to be. It’s the hand that gave the order to kill hundreds of my people, I remind myself.
A groan comes from one of the cells we pass, and I try to ignore it. The man is Astrean, more than likely, and if I were a more selfless person I would stop and save him. But that was the groan of a dying man, and I know there is nothing I can do for him. My hands are already so drenched in blood anyway—Ampelio’s, the Theyn’s, Elpis’s.
My feet trip over something large and I nearly fall on top of it, but S?ren holds me up.
“What…,” I start, but I trail off when I realize exactly what it is.