I plunged toward the ground two floors below so fast that I felt my stomach whoosh up into my mouth. Clearly, I was significantly heavier than the food the counter weight usually balanced. The opening into the kitchen appeared, but the top half of the box still opened only onto a wall when it jerked beneath me and came to a shuddering halt. The wood creaked ominously as I bounced hard against the wooden bottom.
I hadn’t made it all the way down, but I thought there might be enough of an opening for me to squeeze through. As I moved to slide out, however, the box jerked again and began to move back upwards. I gulped and scrambled in the small space until I crouched on my feet, head bent and shoulders, along with both my hands, pressed against the top of the box. I grunted and strained with my legs, pushing upwards with all my strength.
The wood creaked and groaned, and then splintered apart. I plummeted down, fast, landing hard on my rear, and the top of the box shot upwards, now carrying almost no weight. I heard the guards curse, but I didn’t wait to see their next move. My plan had worked better than I could have hoped, the wood obviously starting to rot with the years of disuse. But it was only the first of the obstacles that had to be overcome.
Clambering to my feet, I shoved my cloak into one of the large empty fireplaces and ran from the room. I pulled my hair down around my face and slid my hands into the bundle of cord. As I neared the part of the palace where Lily and Jon were being held, I slowed, checking around each corner first. It wouldn’t do to be discovered too early.
Finally, I reached the corridor where Lily had said I would find them. Sure enough, three guards loitered around a door half way down.
Are you ready? I asked Lily. I’m here.
Ready!
I took a deep breath and knocked a candle sconce on the wall with my elbow. It rattled loudly enough for my purposes, and I ran along the passageway past the opening to the corridor with the guards. I stopped just out of sight, pressing myself against the wall.
“Hey!” shouted one. “The prisoner!”
“Impossible,” said another.
But the third one spoke over the top of him, “I saw her, too.”
“Here, I’ll show you.” I heard the rattle of a key as the disbelieving one spoke. I held my breath. This was the moment when everything needed to work perfectly.
Inside the room, I knew Lily had thrown herself against the wall on the inside of the door. I could picture it all happening in my mind. The confused guard would be flinging the door open and scanning the room. Inside he would see Jon and the other guard, but no Lily since she was blocked from view by the now open door.
I heard the guard inside call out a muffled question, at the same time as the guard with the key called out, “It was her! She’s escaped somehow. Quick! After her!”
I heard the pounding of two sets of boots and took off running as fast as I could down the corridor. I ran heedlessly, my knowledge of the castle’s layout exhausted. All that mattered, though, was that the two guards continued to pursue me, and that Jon and Lily now had only two guards and an open door between them and freedom.
The second the two guards had taken off, Jon would have leaped up and incapacitated the guard in the room. Hopefully by the time the guard in the doorway realized what was happening, and that he was needed in the room rather than in pursuit of me, Jon and Lily would have been able to attack him together.
I ducked through a small indoor courtyard and burst into another corridor.
We’re free! Lily’s jubilation rang through my mind. You did it! Now all we need is to get into the city, find each other and find somewhere to hide while we come up with the next plan.
That’s all, hey?
I slammed a door behind me, but it was being pulled open before I was more than four steps away. I was losing my lead.
I don’t know if I’m going to make it out, Lil.
What! Where are you? We’ll come for you.
No! I snapped the word as I tried to push some extra speed from my now exhausted legs. Cole can’t force me to marry him unless he has you and Jon. You’re the ones who need to get away.
He could still kill you!
But he won’t. Not right away, anyway. He’ll be hoping to recapture you. Make sure he can’t!
As I projected the final word, a hand landed in the center of my back, and I sprawled forward across the floor, a heavy weight falling against me. I tried to push up and crawl away, but strong hands gripped me.
“Oh no, you don’t. I don’t know how you managed to get out before, but we’ve got you now.” The two men still assumed I was Lily then.
“I demand to see Cole,” I gasped between shuddering breaths, my lungs burning. Anything to prevent them returning to the room they had been using as a prison and seeing that both prisoners were now gone.
“He’s not going to like it that you tried to run,” said one of them, dragging me to my feet and pushing me roughly down the corridor.
I stayed silent, keeping my hands tucked against my dress in the hope they wouldn’t notice the strangeness of my apparent bindings. When they shoved me through a small side door into the throne room, I tripped and nearly fell, but one of them caught me by the arm. He pushed me forward to where Cole still sat on the throne, talking quietly with a man beside him.
“The door never opened, we swear it,” said one of the guards. “But somehow this one escaped. We ran her down half way through the east wing, though.”
Cole stood up and strode over toward us. “Lily, Lily, Lily. Don’t tell me you still have some surprises left in you after all. But where is the oh-so-tiresome Jonathan? I cannot believe you have escaped without your ever-faithful swain.”
I spat at the ground at his feet, since it seemed like the sort of defiant thing Lily would do. He raised an eyebrow at me.
“Really, was that necessary?” Then his eyes narrowed, and I saw his gaze fasten on the gold cord looped loosely around my wrists. It moved up to my dress. “What is this?” His eyes flew to my face.
He yanked me away from the guards and turned on them. “Fools! This is Sophie! Where are Lily and Jonathan?”
They looked at him in bewilderment.
“Go!” he screamed at them. “Check on the prisoners!”
Both men lumbered around, still clearly confused, and raced out of the room.
Cole turned on me, his face white with fury. “How have you managed this? By what magic have you switched places with your sister?”
I shrugged. “My sister is long gone and her betrothed with her. You may have caught me, but you no longer have any leverage over me. I won’t be telling you a thing, and I certainly won’t be marrying you.”
Before he could reply, the two guards who I had left behind in the dining room came rushing in, their faces red.
“We’ve lost her…” one of them started to say before trailing off as he looked with confusion between me and Cole. “Wait. Is that…?”
“Yes, idiots!” Cole’s volume had dropped, but the menace still lingered in his tone. “This is the girl you were meant to be guarding. And now I find that somehow she has helped the other two to escape.”
“Escape? But how is such a thing possible? She didn’t even know where they were being held. I swear we did not take her near that wing.”