I took a deep breath in anticipation of the claustrophobic sensation which would come from leaping through this portal, then let my feet leave the rocks.
A moment, a gasp, a squeezing sensation and disorienting corridor of absolute dark, and then I was thrust through the portal, onto my knees and into deep snow.
I shouldn’t have been surprised by the frosty bite of Everwinter. I bundled my arms around myself, springing out of the snow. At least it wasn’t snowing currently, and the sky above was pitch black. Perfect visibility, though. A traveler on the ground would be totally unobscured from any skyward dragons. A good thing, or a bad thing. Lethe had been crowned, so he was in control—or he had been last week. Was he still? And was there any love left in his heart for me? Any sympathy to soften his edicts?
Better to hope to pass into the city undetected. The last time I had seen Theon…
Well, the last time I had seen Theon, he had been deserting me on the beaches of Beggar’s Hole. I narrowed my eyes bitterly at the memory.
But the next to last time I had seen Theon, we had been staying at an inn on the edge of the city walls. I wondered if he was still there, or nearby. Probably not. But there was nowhere else to go, nothing else to do, but try. Just try.
From what I remembered of being snatched up and carried to the castle before, the portal and the kingdom were not a great distance from one another. Still, I was cold. I wanted to move quickly, and avoid the detection—
The rush of wind beneath pounding wings caused me to half-turn as a set of shiny black talons stretched to grasp my shoulders and lift me into the air. I cried out and thrashed, but this dragon—probably an ice dragon—was much too large to be very moved by my squirming and shouting. With his snout lifted away from me, his eyes peering ahead, the dragon carried me onward, toward the shadowy city beyond.
Everwinter.
It looked like my wish had been granted, and perhaps at a great expense. I had reentered the fray.
Nell
This time, no member of the Eraeus family came to inspect me. I was not given an elaborate guestroom in the royal wing. The guards took me to the dungeons below. I spouted the same pleas that a person with hope might utter, though I had none. The guards ignored me. I was slapped into manacles which dangled from the stone wall, near the first set of steps. Dear God, I knew my way around the dungeon now. And it didn’t look like I was getting the luxury of a cell this time, either.
Maybe this had been a bad idea.
Lethe will come, I told myself. I’d never just languished down here, not for any longer than a few hours. Someone would come. It wouldn’t be over. It was never over. Someone would come.
The shadows moved across the lit stones of the winding stairwell leading down here, and with each one, my breath jammed in my throat and I sat up a little straighter, anticipating aid. Lethe? A guard? Anyone?
“I see you over there, girl,” a male voice murmured from one of the cells. I peered into the shadows, but could see nothing. “Thinking somebody’s gonna come,” he added.
I stretched my neck, but couldn’t see.
“Who’s there?” I asked.
“Ha,” the voice barked. “Doesn’t matter now, does it?” A fair face came to the bars, the puddle of torchlight barely touching his features. He was familiar. I squinted at him. Where—where did I know him from?
Then I saw the tattoo of a fireball on the back of his hand. I remembered that tattoo. He’d been a prisoner in that same cell the last time I’d been here, too.
“If you can convince the guards to move you into one of these cells,” the young man whispered to me, “we can get you some water. There are several leaking pipes overhead.”
“Hey,” I said, my voice changing into something like a greeting. “I thought all the prisoners got released from here.”
“Yeah, well. You got out for a little bit too, didn’t you?” Although his tone seemed harsh, the light of the torch glinted off his teeth. He was smiling. “But now we’re back.”
“I’ve been gone for a week,” I told him. “What have I missed?”
“I can’t honestly say I’ve had the best view of the goings on in the city from here.”
A shadow moved over the stones of the winding stairwell corridor, leading down into the dungeon, and I held my tongue. Someone was coming, and I feared what a guard might do to us, finding us conversing. I pressed my back against the wall and tried to imagine that I was invisible. I had begun to think that it somehow helped.
“Well, well,” a familiar female voice, throaty and cultured, purred. My shoulders sagged. Dammit. Michelle. “You know, I’d heard some maids saying that a human had been brought to the dungeons, and I dared to hope, but I didn’t really think you’d be dumb enough to come back.”