She did, and I tucked it up the back of my tunic. I looked ridiculous, but there was nothing for it. At least the bag was light. I pulled one more time on the knot, and then climbed over the window ledge. The moonlight was close to this side of the tower, now. We would have to go quickly.
I let myself down slowly, despite my rapidly beating heart, but it was only a matter of moments before my feet touched the ground. I looked up, and saw the Little Rose sitting on the ledge. She had kilted up her skirt so it would not billow in the breeze or get caught on a protuberance of stone. It was not as practical as Arwa’s wide trousers, but it would have to do.
Her descent was much slower than mine had been. I barely breathed as I watched the line of moonlight get closer and closer to where she climbed. Then she dropped and was standing beside me, unwrapping her hands. She smiled, a true smile this time, not the bitter thing I had seen in the tower.
“It’s nice outside,” she said, like she had never been outside the walls before. I knew that she and Tariq had been taken out together, for riding lessons and the like, but I shuddered to think of how long it been since the last time she had been free of stone walls and narrow windows. “Shall we go?”
“Follow me,” I told her.
She did. Down the ditch, through the dirt, and up the other side. We didn’t speak as we walked, keeping low and quiet, as I had done on my way in. My mind continued to unfreeze, and I realized that, for all my bravado, I had kidnapped the Little Rose. That she had come willingly—in fact, she had all but insisted—would not serve as an adequate defense if we were caught. And I couldn’t just send her on her way. She had no shoes. Saoud was going to kill me.
Before we got to the others, I pulled her into a little hollow, and put my face next to hers.
“The others,” I said, my voice low. “They are my friends. I take care of them.”
“You don’t want me to put them in danger,” she said. “I’m sorry, Yashaa. If I could get away without you, I would. But I need you.”
“I know,” I said. Her cold practicality was no different than my mother’s when she had sent us away and separated me from Saoud. “We will manage somehow. That is Arwa—she’s nearing twelve, and is the youngest of us. Tariq is fifteen, and Saoud is of an age with me.”
“They will know me?” she asked.
“They will,” I said. Even if her hair did not betray her, they would know her. “Princess, we were your friends once. Tariq and I were, at any rate. Arwa wasn’t born until after you were cursed. We lived here, and then we left.”
“You’re spinners,” she said. It was a surprise. The unicorn’s gift hadn’t told her that. She didn’t sound frightened, though, merely determined.
“We are,” I said. “Saoud is not, but he is my friend and my brother, and he will stay with us.”
“All right,” she said. “I will try my best, Yashaa. And I am sorry.”
She could have been apologizing for any number of things, but I chose to believe she meant the kidnapping.
“Come on,” I said, and pulled her to her feet.
We kept going through the dark. The way was easy enough, but there were thistles on the ground. I could only barely see them in time to step around them. The Little Rose didn’t know what she was looking for. She must have stepped on at least three of them but made no outcry and voiced no complaint. If she kept this up, I thought, we might actually make it back to the mountains. She would need shoes, though. There was no getting around that.
At last we drew close to the place where Saoud, Tariq, and Arwa were hidden.
“Yashaa,” whispered the Little Rose. I stopped. “There is one thing I have to tell you.”
“What?” I asked.
“No matter how I ask, not if I beg and not if I order you, you must never, ever give me a spindle,” she said. Her eyes shone in the light of the moon.
I nodded, thinking that the sky was bright enough that she would see, and understand.
“Yashaa, promise me,” she said. “Promise me that you will never let me spin.”
“I promise,” I said. Her voice was almost regal, where it wasn’t edged with frenetic worry, and I responded automatically; a spinner to the request of a princess. She would explain it when she was ready. Despite her gift-given trust of me, there was something she feared.
“All right,” she said, her voice calm again. “I am ready to meet the others now.”
We took the last hundred steps, up the low hill and down into the little dale where the others were hidden. They were sitting right where I had left them, ready to run at a moment’s notice. My shoes were in Arwa’s lap. She heard us first and looked up. I saw the light of her eyes as they widened in the dark, though she made no noise, and then Tariq turned, and then Saoud.
“Yashaa,” said Saoud. “Yashaa, what have you done?”