“No,” he replied with a bitter laugh. “The criminals are all in the palace, not the dungeons. Why do you ask?”
“I’m going to need some help. I might be able to unlock Alítheia’s grille, but I’ll never be able to lift it by myself.”
Fossegrim’s eyes lit up. “Do you have a plan?”
“I do. I’ll tell you all about it when we get out of here.”
The tunnel started to narrow, then it abruptly angled toward a thin doorway.
“There are the dungeonsss,” the spider said, pointing ahead. “Alítheia can go no farther.”
“Thank you for getting us here, Alítheia,” said Sera. “Thank you for listening to me, for trusting me. As soon as I can, I’ll come back for you.”
The anarachna looked away. Sera could tell that she didn’t believe her. She swam up, so that she was level with the spider’s eyes.
“Alítheia, look at me,” she said, taking the creature’s face in her hands. “Wait for me by the grille. I will come for you. I swear on my crown that I’ll set you free.”
“You mussst win back that crown before you can sssweear upon it,” the spider said solemnly, delicately touching a claw to Sera’s cheek. “And Lucia will not let you. Ssshhe is very ssstrong.”
“Love is stronger,” Sera said. “And love will win, Alítheia.”
“Once, perhapsss. But not now. In thisss realm, evil hasss vanquissshed love.”
Another huge explosion rocked the stone tunnel. A chunk of the ceiling fell to the floor, narrowly missing Sera and sending up a cloud of silt.
“Go, Ssserafina,” the spider said.
“Alítheia—”
“Go. Before you are crussshed.”
Sera nodded. She hurried Fossegrim through the doorway, then followed him.
Alítheia watched them go, blinking her many eyes. Then, her head low, she turned and made her way back to her den.
SERA CAMOED HERSELF to blend in with the dungeon’s floor and swam low until she reached a window. Then she raised herself slightly to look through it.
It was the guards’ room, hollowed into the rock. Its front wall was made of thick, shatterproof glass that allowed the guards to see out into the corridor.
Just as she’d thought, only a skeleton crew was on duty. There were three guards total, one slim, two brawny, talking among themselves.
“If this place starts to cave in, I’m gone,” one said. “I’m not going to be here when the ceiling crashes down.”
“What about the prisoners?” the second guard asked.
“They can fend for themselves. No one cares if they live or die anyway.”
Sera cased the room, making note of where the keys to the cells were kept, and the weapons. As she returned to Fossegrim, another explosion rocked the palace. The creaks and groans that followed, and the spidery cracks that appeared in the walls, upset the prisoners. Sera could hear them calling to one another from their cells.
“What’s happening?”
“A chunk of the hallway just crumbled!”
“We’re going to be crushed!”
“There are three guards,” Sera informed Fossegrim. “You’ve got to get them all to come out. Are you sure you can do it?” she asked. He looked so weak and so pale to her.
Fossegrim smiled. The light of defiance burned in his eyes. “Watch me,” he said.
Sera nodded, then she returned to the guard room. This time she swam along the ceiling, hoping they would be so preoccupied readying themselves to leave that they wouldn’t look up.
When she was in position, she gave Fossegrim the thumbs-up. He returned the signal, lay down on the dungeon floor, then started yelling at the top of his lungs.
“Help! Help me! Oh, gods, don’t make me go back!”
Two of the guards were out of the room and down the hall almost immediately.
“Please! Help me! The spider bite…it’s so painful! It’s killing me!” Fossegrim shouted, pretending to writhe in agony.
“How did he get out?” one of the guards asked.
“Hey, you!” his partner shouted. “Hands on your head!”
“The tunnels…they collapsed and crushed the spider,” Fossegrim said. “I escaped, but she lashed out…she bit me…help me!”
Sera could see the third guard. He was busy loading a crossbow.
The plan would never work unless he followed the others. Go! she silently urged him.
As if he’d read her mind, Fossegrim started thrashing violently. He whacked one guard in the stomach with his tail fins and punched the other in the head. His strategy worked.
“Leo!” one of them yelled. “Get out here now! Bring the stinger!”
The third guard swore. He put his crossbow down and grabbed a barbed stingray’s tail, used for immobilizing unruly prisoners. As soon as he was out of the room, Sera swam in. She grabbed a sword scabbarded in a chain-mail belt and quickly buckled it around her waist, then picked up the guard’s crossbow. Next, she snatched a ring of keys off one wall, then raced back down the corridor to Fossegrim.
“On the ground! Now!” she shouted, as she came up behind the guards.