We jump from roof ledge to roof ledge, like we’re hopping across stones in a shallow lake.
“Through that window!” Selestra says, pointing to the patterned glass on our right. “It’ll lead to the servants’ staircase.”
“Back into the castle?” Micah asks. “I thought we wanted to escape.”
But it’s a good idea.
We’re sixty feet in the air and running out of rooftop. We can’t exactly scale down the castle walls without rope.
Selestra grabs Irenya with a gloved hand, pulling her injured friend toward the window.
Irenya limps and I see the way she grits her teeth, swallowing down the pain like I’ve done so many times after a rough training session at the soldiers’ barracks.
Whatever Seryth and his witch did to her, she’s lucky to be alive.
Selestra pushes the window open with enough force that it almost shatters against the wall on the other side.
We clamber through, one at a time. I wonder if the king’s immortality has already begun to stitch his skin back together like a fine quilt.
The staircase is dark, barely any light afforded to the black steps. It isn’t a route the wealthy take to navigate the castle, but one for people who need to be invisible.
The spiraled steps seem almost never-ending.
“You couldn’t have a bedroom on the ground floor?” I ask.
Selestra’s eyes shoot to mine, bright and angry.
“Why did you come back here?” she snaps. “I said you’d die.”
“You said I’d die days from now,” I say pointedly. “Besides, you were late. I only came to see if you needed a hand with your bags.”
Selestra rolls her eyes and brushes past me, her shoulder gliding against mine as she runs down the steps.
“I believe you said you’d leave if I was even a minute late,” she reminds me, calling over her shoulder.
I shrug, following her down the steps. “Lucky for you, I’m not a man of my word.”
I know it was risky for me to come, but I can’t find a mythical sword on an island of deadly warriors without the use of her visions. Especially if Seryth and his witch are onto me. It made sense to go back for her.
Besides, I owed her a life debt for the tavern.
Now it’s repaid, I can breathe easy knowing that I don’t owe her a thing. This partnership is strictly business.
I follow Selestra farther down the winding staircase, Micah and Irenya in tow.
The walls are high, barely broken by the light from an occasional window. When we finally reach the end of the staircase, the door is dark and narrow. It’s at the edge of the shadows, jutting from the chasm of the stairwell, barely as tall as I am.
“Where does it lead?”
“Out into the gardens,” Selestra says.
“The guards will be waiting for us there,” Micah says. “As soon as we open that door, they’ll have their swords at our throats.”
“Maybe.” I take out my own blade. “But our swords will be at their throats too.”
The familiar weight of the weapon in my hands is a small comfort. I’m glad I didn’t use it to stab Seryth.
Not yet.
I’m glad I stole the sword from one of the guards instead. This is my father’s blade and it’ll meet the king again, when he doesn’t have his immortality to protect him.
I kick open the splintered door and charge out, Micah beside me with his own weapon raised.
The gardens are empty.
Deathly quiet, save for the roaring of the waterfalls.
“Maybe the king hasn’t had time to alert them yet,” Irenya suggests. “You injured him quite badly. It could be he’s still healing.”
I doubt it.
With all their power, the king and his witch would have recovered quicker than this.
“I don’t care about the reason,” Selestra says. “Just get me off this mountain.”
I raise my hand in a salute. “As you wish, princess.”
We head to the maze formation. The hedges are high enough to hide buildings, entwined with purple flowers that reach out like hands toward the sky, beckoning us inward.
“If we follow the outer maze, it’ll take us to the platform,” I say. “From there, we can blend in with those coming for the banquet.”
Selestra nods, pulling her hood up and dipping her head low to hide her eyes. She’ll be recognized in an instant otherwise.
We walk slowly, careful not to draw attention to ourselves, as though we’re meandering through the gardens, admiring the sapphire waterfalls and the way the strong mountain winds blow flower petals across our feet and into the air like butterflies.
“Keep your head down,” I whisper as we approach the platform.
I count the guards.
Twenty. Far more than usual.
“Let me do the talking.”
“It’s what you’re best at,” Selestra mumbles under her breath as the four of us approach the platform.
“Names?” the guard asks.
“Kell Rain,” I lie, giving the name of a soldier in my regiment. Hopefully he won’t pay the price for that. “Corporal in the Last Army.”
“Sebastien Hart,” Micah announces, following my lead.
“And you?” The guard gestures to Selestra.
“She’s my date for the evening,” I say, pushing Selestra behind me. “Lady Sophia.”
Selestra snorts in disbelief.
“And that’s her handmaid.” I gesture to Irenya. “Lady Sophia is feeling unwell, so we’ll have to miss the banquet.”
“Fine,” the guard says, with a roll of his eyes. “We just need her to remove her hood so we can check her over.”
“My hood?” Selestra keeps her head dipped low. “I’d really rather not. It’s about to rain.”
The guard sighs, tired of us already.
I’d be tired too if I spent all day dealing with the wealthy elite of Vasiliádes.
“We’re checking everyone,” he says plainly. “New measures from the king. No hoods or cloaks.” He looks to Selestra with a glare. “And no exceptions.”
Which means there’s no way for her to leave this mountain without being noticed. One look at her eyes and her hair and they’ll scream for help.
The king has prepared for the chance of her escape.
Somehow, he knew something was wrong and made sure that even if Selestra left the castle, she wouldn’t be able to leave the mountain.
That’s why there’s no alert.
Why would the king panic people and put a damper on his celebrations with news of a missing heir, when there was no chance of her escaping?
I lean over to whisper into Selestra’s ear. “How good are you in a fight?”
She blinks. “What?”
“You take the ten on the left and I take the ten on the right?”
“Are you serious?” she hisses. “No.”
The guard narrows his eyes. “What are you two whispering about?”
“Just a lover’s tiff,” I say. I look to Micah. “Plan B.”
He nods.
I elbow the guard in the face.
Micah follows suit, punching the man beside him.
I swing my knee into another guard’s stomach and then throw him to the floor, pushing my way through the new gap in the line of guards.
Quickly, Micah and I shove Selestra and Irenya onto the platform, then turn to hold out our swords, keeping the other guards at bay.
They glare at us, their own weapons drawn.
“You’re going to pay for that,” one says. “You can’t take us on just the two of you.”
“He’s got a point,” Micah tells me. “We’re looking a little outnumbered here, Nox. Need a plan C?”
“We’ve already got one,” I say.
I look over to Selestra.
“Take off your hood.”
“What?” she asks.
The panic is clear on her face, far more than it was a moment ago when we attacked.
“Why?”
“So they know who they’re dealing with.”
Selestra sighs and throws it off.
Her leafy hair tumbles down her shoulders.
The guards’ eyes widen at the sight of it and her serpent eyes glaring across to them. A real witch, ready to kill them and drain their blood along with their souls.
They back away, swords still out but not daring to attack.
“That’s right,” I say, all bluster. “She’s the heir and if you come any closer, she’ll turn you to dust.”
I can practically hear Selestra roll her eyes as we step backward to join them on the platform. I keep my focus on the guards as I fumble around with the chains, trying to find some sort of an on button.
“How do we get this thing to go?”
“You really are ridiculous,” Selestra scolds.
She pushes me aside and leans over to reach behind the stone wall.
The shadows move and Selestra’s hand curls around something.
A head.
There’s some kind of creature peeking out from behind there. It’s a bird I’ve never noticed before but that’s more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen.
“Ready for one more adventure, old friend?” Selestra asks.
From the shadows, the bird nods.
Then it jumps.
I nearly fall as the platform descends, quicker than it ever has.
“You’re friends with a magic bird?” I ask as the sky flicks by.
“It’s one more friend than you have,” Selestra says.
I pretend to laugh.
The platform is heading to the ground at record speed.
We shoot past the central waterfall, its waters gleaming blue, clear as the sky on a summer’s day.
Micah peers over the edge and whistles.
We can see the ground below.
Just a little bit farther and we’ll be free.
The platform jolts.
I barely keep my footing as it comes to a sudden stop, just feet from the ground.
It starts to move back up.
Selestra looks up to the echoes of the Floating Mountain. “It’s my mother,” she says in horror. “She must be calling the Lamperós back to her.”
“Can you stop it?” I ask.
Selestra shakes her head. “The bird is compelled by our family’s power. It can’t fight her magic and neither can I.”
I curse under my breath as the platform gains traction, ferrying us back up the mountain and toward the king.
“Let down your hair.” I gesture to Selestra’s braid. “We can use it as rope.”
She’s unamused.
“Did we have a plan D?” Micah asks with a groan.
I peer over the edge, to the pool of water below. “We have to jump.”
Selestra gapes at me. “It must be forty feet! What if we die?”
I shrug. “We die if we don’t.”
“That’s comforting,” Micah says. “I’m so glad I decided to come with you.”
Thunder rumbles above us as the sky itself loses patience with our uncertainty.
“Nox is right,” Irenya says. “We don’t have a choice.”
She squeezes Selestra’s arm, but when the heir looks down at her hand, pressed against the long sleeves of her tunic that don’t end until they meet her gloves, she barely offers Irenya a weak smile in return.
Selestra can’t be touched.
She can’t be properly comforted.
“Trust me,” I say to her. “We’ll make it to the pool below.”
We’re not supposed to die jumping off a mountain, after all. Selestra would have seen it when she predicted my death in her bedroom.
Unless jumping off the mountain is your next death, a voice in my mind taunts.
I ignore it.
Selestra clenches her gloved hands and turns to me. Her bright eyes twinkle with fear.
“I really hate you,” she says.
I grab her hand. “Fair enough.”
Then together, we jump.