Sir Callie and the Dragon's Roost, page 10
The triumph on his face turns my stomach, but it’s what we need. The complacency of the win, of absolute dominion over his captives. He relaxes.
Fool.
Elowen slams her elbow straight into his crotch.
It’s a simple move, but effective.
Adan drops like a sack of potatoes with a guttural groan.
Elowen barely manages to scrabble free before he crashes right on top of her. “Get the keys!”
I obey automatically, avoiding Adan’s groping hands to snatch the heavy chain right off his belt, then together me and El batter him right into Teo’s cell, never allowing him a moment to get his footing or catch his senses. It takes both of us, and his flailing fists knock me more than once, but we make it.
We make it.
I slam the cell door shut and I shove the key right into the place my magic was just a few minutes ago.
Relief catches me in the throat and I nearly sag to the ground. The lock is secure and we have the keys. We won. We’re safe.
I still flinch when Adan swipes at us through the bars, his face red and twisted with rage.
“I’ll find you,” he vows, spit flying to splat on my cheek. “I will track every step you take from Helston to the end of the world. I will hunt down that pretty little prince and I’ll do what should’ve been done the moment he was born. As for your brother—”
He startles back when Elowen lunges, grabbing the bars right in front of his face—fearless and furious. “Lay one more finger on Edwyn and I will kill you.”
“El, come on, let’s get out of here.”
But she ignores me one moment longer.
“I hope no one comes looking for you,” she tells Adan, her voice low and shaking. “I hope you rot.”
Then—finally—she turns her back on him and, together, we run.
Adan’s roar follows us through the darkness.
CHAPTER TEN
The cavern spits us out, and we stumble into the moonlight.
I gulp huge lungfuls of fresh air like it’s the last I’ll ever have.
“What happened?” I hear Willow ask, and I’ve never been more thankful to hear his voice. He got out. He’s safe. “Are you okay?”
“We have to go,” Elowen replies. “We have to get out of Helston now. Edwyn, can you walk?”
It’s Willow who replies for him: “I’m nearly done with the healing. Just give us a few more minutes—”
“We don’t have a few more minutes!”
I take one more deep breath and push off from the wall, forcing my eyes to focus in the pale light.
Elowen looks worse out here, her hands bunched into sharp-knuckled fists. Bruises on her bare arms. Blood on her dress. The blood is not her own.
Everyone looks worse out here, and I’m aware of how much my body hurts.
Teo lies a little way away, chest heaving. I can’t even imagine how it feels to be outside after days in the darkness.
“How’re you doing?”
Edwyn looks up blearily from his place on the ground. He looks like he just got dragged out of a heavy sleep and still hasn’t properly woken up. The left side of his face is a swollen disaster. I guess Willow’s been focusing his efforts on the important bits. It’s easier to run with a messed-up face than a busted leg. Doesn’t account for the inside bits, though, and I think the inside of Edwyn’s head is in far worse shape than anything on the outside.
All I want to do is take him home and shut the door on the world. Papa can make bad soup and Neal can gently put all the fallen pieces back together.
But that’s not an option.
Forward only.
El’s right—we don’t have a few minutes.
I push for a smile and my lips wobble. “Come on, let’s take this party over the bridge.”
Edwyn flinches from the hand I hold out to him and shakes his head. Hard. “I—I can’t.”
My heart and my hand drop. “What d’you mean can’t?”
“This is all he’s said since we got out,” Willow murmurs. “He didn’t want to let me touch his leg.”
Edwyn’s glare is dark and deep. I know that look. I remember that look.
I crouch down, painfully aware that we should be running right about now. “We’re leaving,” I tell him firmly. “We’re leaving Helston and everyone in it and we’re never coming back.” Spoken out loud, the words shudder through me. “Everyone” includes Papa and Neal. But I can’t think about them right now. They can take care of themselves. I can only think about my friends. “They’re not gonna catch us and they’re not gonna hurt us again. You got that?”
“That’s what you said before. And it wasn’t true.”
I grimace. I mean, he’s not wrong. “This is different,” I tell him firmly. “This time we’re not asking permission. We’re not making a compromise. This time we put us first. End of story.”
Edwyn’s throat bobs, eyes darting toward the palace. “They’ll catch us. They always catch us. And I…I—I can’t.”
“This is the only chance we’ll ever have.” I twist to see El standing over us, arms set firm across her chest. “I’m going. I’m leaving and I’m not coming back. It’s up to you if you stay or go but I won’t wait for you.”
I gape at her. Even as a hollow threat, that’s beyond cruel.
But it makes Edwyn move. “Elowen—”
“I mean it,” she tells her twin. “We’ve spent our whole life trying not to be noticed to evade trouble. Being good and still and quiet. And what good has that ever done us? What difference did any of it make? Maybe if we go back now and kneel and beg, they won’t kill us where we stand. If we’re lucky—luckier than either of us has ever been—things will return to normal and we’ll be back with Mother, and you’ll be working under Adan and it’ll just be a matter of waiting for the next thing until we’re right back here. I’d rather fight and lose than give up. You choose for yourself, Edwyn, but I am not going to give my life to fear anymore.”
“Come on,” says Willow, approaching carefully with soft magic bright in his hands. “We need to go and I need you with me. We stick together from now on.”
Edwyn clenches his teeth and turns his face away, but he doesn’t resist as Willow applies the magic once more to his leg.
“What about you?” I ask Teo. “Are you able to run?”
Teo’s eyes crack open, and they sit up.
This is the first time I’ve gotten a good look at Teo and I know I’m staring.
I’ve never seen anyone like them, not here nor in Eyrewood, but I can’t put my finger on what it is that sets them apart. They’re taller and lankier than I am, though that’s not hard, and their filthy clothes remind me of the ones Rowena used to spend hours lovingly stitching by the fire—all deep browns and greens with sparkling flecks like stars or fire embers. There’s something that looks suspiciously like a wolf’s fang dangling from one ear, and their dirty-blond hair is a mess of wild curls. Their skin is lighter than Neal’s but more tan than mine, and there’re hints of something on their face that I’d thought were freckles but definitely aren’t.
They’re more like…scales?
“I can run.” Their voice is hoarse like they swallowed smoke.
I nod slowly, trying to figure out the question that’s been rising steadily.
Helston folks have been calling this kid “he,” but I know with a deep certainty that it’s not as straightforward as that.
They’re like me, my gut whispers. But I don’t know how to ask without being rude, and what if I’m wrong?
Better to ask and know. That’s what I’d want.
“Hey, uh, what’re your words?” I wince at the awkwardness of the question, but Teo’s whole self lights up, despite the blood and the chaos and the danger, and I know immediately I was right.
“ ‘Xe/xem.’ ”
I grin. “I’ve never heard those before! Like, ‘xe,’ ‘xem,’ ‘xir,’ and such?”
Teo matches my smile, and I recognize the relief on xir face. “What about yours?”
“ ‘They/them.’ And my name’s Callie. And that’s Willow, and they’re Elowen and Edwyn. Willow and Edwyn use ‘he/him,’ and El’s ‘she/her.’ ”
Teo’s yellow eyes go wide. “I know you,” xe breathes, staring at each of us. “Your names are familiar in Dumoor.”
All the good feelings drop away, heavy as stones. I had almost let myself forget this kid is a Dumoor kid. Part of the witch’s army. On the side of Kensa the dragon.
The enemy.
“If we don’t go now, we’ll be caught,” Elowen is growling at Willow, whose hands are still pressed to Edwyn’s calf, brow knotted in fierce focus.
“Okay, I know. We’re ready.” He helps Edwyn stand and test his legs. They’re still wobbly, but it’s the best we’re gonna get.
Time to run.
* * *
The journey up the cliff is a nightmare, and it’s nothing short of a miracle when we all make it to the top in one piece. Well, “one piece” is debatable given that none of us are in one piece ourselves. We make it by sheer force of determination alone. There is no choice but to make it.
Willow, in the best shape of all of us, reaches the top first and lies on his stomach to help pull us the rest of the way. And there we huddle in the scrubby brush, hiding like hunted rabbits.
The bridge is close, and so are the watchtowers looming over it. It’s common knowledge that watch duty is the worst job in Helston, the most boring, the easiest to mess up simply because it’s so easy to stop paying attention. Of course, that was before things started happening. I don’t even know who’s on duty today. It’s weird to think that soldiers I’ve been friendly with, who I’ve sparred with, are tasked with taking us down.
“What if we don’t run?”
I stare at Willow. “What’re you talking about?”
His eyes are fixed on the bridge. “If we take it like we have every right, like we’re not doing anything wrong, we’ll draw less attention to ourselves. No one will hear us if we walk. And maybe…maybe they don’t know yet. Maybe Adan hasn’t been able to alert anyone.” His gaze flicks anxiously to me. “You left him secure, didn’t you?”
“Of course we did. No way we’d have escaped otherwise.”
“That’s what I thought.” Willow swallows hard, fingers tapping a fretful beat. Then, softly, just for me, “We’re really doing this, aren’t we? We’re really leaving Helston.”
“Yeah. We are.”
“Are you scared?”
I nod. “You?”
“Yes. But it’s the right thing to do.”
“It is.”
The bridge has never looked longer, the other side a million miles away. And below…I bite my lip. Hard. The water churns, leaping up the rocks like a snapping dog trying to bite our ankles and pull us down. Hungry. Suddenly Helston guards don’t feel like the scariest threat. I can fight with the best of them, but if I fall, I’m done.
Even the wind is vicious, like nature itself is working against us.
And what are we walking into? Unforgiving, unending moorland. Wolves. Dragons. I can’t shake the little question in my head about Teo and what if xey’re leading us right into a new danger.
I guess it comes down to which enemy is scarier.
The enemy at our backs or the enemy before us?
With one sword between us, how do we survive either?
It’s Willow who takes the first step out of the brush.
Moonlight glints silver in his hair—a crown of stars—as he turns his face upward and looks out across the bridge toward the moorland waiting for us. “Time to go.”
At least we’re shielded by darkness.
One step, two steps, three steps, four…
Enough to tease at hope and half make me believe we stand a chance.
The salt-worn wood complains with every footfall, and I have to remind myself over and over that if this bridge can hold whole companies of horses and armored knights, it can hold five kids.
And then the warning bells ring.
High-pitched and angry, they are nothing like the low pulse of the funeral bells. They are a call to action: Rise, Helston, and fight!
Fight us.
“Run!” Willow screams the moment before the first arrow thunks into the wood at my heel.
I grab Edwyn and drag him, apologizing internally every time he trips. We stop, we die. The end.
“Turn back!” a man’s voice booms, amplified from one of the towers. “Turn back and you will be shown mercy! Halt!”
“Don’t listen! Keep going!” Elowen yells as Willow falters. “They’re lying!”
I don’t know if the watch would knowingly shoot down the crown prince, but the not knowing cinches it. I grab him with my free hand.
And then the thunder starts.
The pounding of boots, the thuddering of horses’ hooves. Adan’s promise that he would hunt us down ringing in my head, louder than any bell. Did they really find him already, or are these someone else’s orders?
The bridge feels endless, like every step we take, two more get added onto the other side.
Even if we make it across the bridge, they’re not gonna stop. Even if we could run for a hundred miles, they can run for a thousand.
The thought is so heavy it nearly crushes me.
We were so close.
Solid ground feels like a blessing, but there’s no time to relish it.
“Go!” I shout, dropping the boys’ hands and drawing Satin. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can. Split up if you must, just keep going!”
Edwyn stares at me in horror. “You can’t fight them all on your own!”
“I know that,” I snap back. “But I can fight some. It might not be much but it might give you enough time to—” I stop.
Willow and Elowen stand with me, fierce magic flaring on their fingers; their faces set hard in identical determination.
Even Edwyn, barely able to stay upright, stands by my side.
“We stay together,” he says when I open my mouth. “And we go together.”
We don’t have as much as a hope, but we have each other and we stand together as Helston’s army bears down upon us.
We’re ready to fight and ready to fall, but then Teo pushes through our ranks and plants xemself between us and the bridge.
I move to drag xem back. “Hey—”
But I stop as xir body starts to shift and change.
It’s small, barely noticeable, but xir ears lengthen—poking out from the crop of xir hair—and what I thought might be freckles become undeniable scales, glinting metallic in the glow of the magic exuding from xir whole body.
The word hits me—Dragon!—half a moment before fire bursts from Teo’s body and devours the bridge.
I shield my face with my arms. I can’t look. Even if I wanted to, it’s too hot to open my eyes. My blood feels like it’s boiling; my skin and hair singeing. The roar of flames mingles with the men’s yells and horses’ screams.
Someone grips my arm, fingers pinching, and when I force my eyes open, Willow is staring at the burning bridge in horror, tears streaming from unblinking eyes. Elowen and Edwyn stand together in identical shock, unable to believe the picture in front of us.
Fire races across the boards and beams, eagerly consuming every inch until there’s nothing left but ash that disappears into the wind.
The impenetrable bridge. Helston’s greatest defense.
On the other side of the ravine, through the smoke and the flames, we are reflected by the soldiers in horror and hopelessness. There’s nothing they can do. They can’t reach us. They can’t touch us. They can’t hurt us anymore.
We are safe.
I drop to my knees on the scorched ground.
We are safe.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The air is thick with smoke that stays burning in our lungs long after we make it to the other side of the hill. We don’t stop until we cannot see Helston any longer. And then we collapse.
A stream bubbles not very far away, but none of us have the energy to do anything more than lie in the stubby grass and breathe.
My lungs hurt. My chest hurts. My eyes hurt.
My heart hurts.
Papa and Neal will be awake now, summoned in a panic by the bells. They’ll look for me and I won’t be there, and I wonder what they’ll think. I wonder what they’ll be told.
I wonder if they’re disappointed in me, and my stomach cramps.
Elowen and Edwyn lie curled up together, so still they might be sleeping. Willow is a shaking ball, bundled beneath his cloak. I don’t know how to comfort him. I don’t try. I don’t have enough to give anyone else.
Only Teo stays upright, looking out in the direction of the sea.
Dragon.
The word is a warning in my head. One that means—has always meant—enemy, and rage starts to roil in my gut.
It’s Teo’s fault, a little voice whispers in my ear. If xe hadn’t attacked and got caught, Helston would’ve left us alone. If we hadn’t wasted time rescuing xem, we wouldn’t’ve been there when Adan found the twins missing.
And if it wasn’t for Teo, we would all be dead right now.
Xe has xir back toward me, allowing me to stare without guilt. Xir horns are small but blatant, the same color as xir dirty-blond hair. The patches of scales have a strange blue hue. Xir clothes are what I’d assume to be human clothes, the same loose-fitting tunic and breeches that I like to wear. Teo looks like any other kid. Not a dragon at all.
Dragons lie, Papa told me. Everyone knows that. Never trust a dragon. They change and trick you soon as look at you. That’s how they lure you in.
Is that what Teo’s doing? Taking the shape that would make us trust xem the most?
