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I DON’T WANT TO TALK to her, but like Finn said, before he double crossed me, two heads are better than one.
And we are in a bit of a bind.
I can tell she’s relieved by what I told her. Probably wants to know more details but I won’t help her out. Maybe she was under a spell, a love potion, but I reckon she didn’t try hard enough to fight it. It would be like me suddenly grabbing Wolf for a quick fondle, ridiculous. Disgusting.
She had choices. And she made bad ones.
That’s what I reckon.
But we are both tied up, tied to chairs, with my hands behind my back and a vial of death draught. That’s it. I can’t reach my weapons, and unless Ginata can lift herself and the big old arm chair she’s sat on, she can’t either.
“Do you think they’ll come back tonight?”
“Why? Are you missing lover boy?”
“No! I was just wondering. I don’t see what we can do.”
Neither do I and I hate it.
I try to wriggle and jiggle myself free, twisting this way and that, but my ropes are tied so tight, I just end up sweaty and aggravated, my hair flopping in my eyes, so I have to flick my head like a crazy bat to try to move it. I have an itch on my nose that I would kill to scratch and I let out a screech of frustration, as tears spring in my eyes.
“Do you want the vial?” Ginata offers it to me, her voice all sarcastic now she thinks she’s in the clear with Everleigh.
“If I am going to die, I will die kicking, screaming, yelling and fighting. I will not bow down to that man and I will not go easily. Not me.”
“Nor me. I want to live.”
“Now you know you’re in the clear?”
“In the clear?”
“Well, we’ll never know if you wanted to help Millard or if you were forced into it against your will. Pretty convenient. Playing both sides, with a good excuse.”
“You are so bitter and twisted because of the life you’ve led with that thing on your face, you can’t believe that people are good. Want to say good things, do good things, be good. You can’t stand it. The purity of it. You want to sully everything because you’re angry. But I won’t have it. I did betray Everleigh and it broke my heart even as I did it. I had no choice, no way to stop what I was doing. I was a puppet. And now I know why. I feel good and yes, I’ll be glad to face Everleigh and beg her forgiveness despite the fact that I couldn’t help what I did.”
I don’t even answer her, just give her a look that tells her plainly that I’d like to punch her in the eye and I close my eyes so I don’t have to see her smug face anymore.
If hers is the last face I see before I die, that’ll be a pretty sad ending.
Is this it? Will he kill us here or take us to the castle like he promised. If he does, then there’s more chance of us getting free. Especially if Weaver gets back with troops.
If I wasn’t tied to this chair I could do it. I could wriggle enough to get a hold of my dagger.
I open my eyes.
“Ginata. I’ve got a dagger in my boot.”
I start moving backwards and forwards, rocking the chair, getting it to move forwards. Ginata does the same with her chair, bucking herself this way and that and soon the chairs have moved enough that our legs are touching. Only our middles are tied, not our feet. I can get my leg up so that it’s lying on her chair, next to her leg, but she cannot quite reach me, even though her hands aren’t tied.
“I’m not tied as tightly as you.” She wriggles and squirms, shifting her weight to one side so that the other side of her can get closer to me.
Then she does it, she reaches into my boot and pulls out my dagger.
I forget how much I hate her in that second. “Quick!”
She cuts at the ropes on my hands first, and then at the ones around her middle. I am almost crowing, I am so pleased. Millard really is terrible at this.
If you tie someone up and they’re not locked up as well, you have to check if they have any means of escape. He is either completely stupid or completely arrogant. Or a bit of both.
We stand, both of us groaning, our ropes pooled on the chairs. She slips the vial of death draught into her pocket and I let her keep hold of my dagger.
“Let’s go!”
I swing open the door and halt in my tracks, holding up a hand for Ginata to be quiet. At the end of the path, facing away from us is one of the King’s men. Millard can’t have many left at this point and I am happy to kill another one.
I hold up my sword as I approach him and before he even knows we are there, I slice his head clean off. I grab hold of Ginata before she can look too closely at the blood and we run through the trees as though we are being chased by Millard and all his hounds.
We jump on Pitch, good old Pitch, waiting for me, and we ride like Millard’s hounds are actually on our tail.
The courtyard is in uproar when we get there, and we jump off Pitch, standing together to catch our breath and see what the fuss is all about, when I spot the flames shooting out of the stables.
“Ginata, get inside!”
I don’t wait to hear her answer, I run towards the fire, sword out, ready to go again.
The stable boys are crying and pulling at the horses, trying to get them out of there, before the flames engulf them. The pages are filling buckets of water, throwing them on the fire.
“Archer!” I spot him easily, his hair the same colour as the fire he’s trying to put out. “What’s going on?”
“Same as before. Some hooded idiots, shouting in the name of the King. Ran through with flaming torches, threw them in the hay and bolted.”
I am shaking with anger again. If I get my hands on Millard I will kill him slowly.
“Ink?”
“Safe. All of them safe so far. Some singed tails and manes but all alive.”
“That’s worse than evil.”
He sees me properly then, for the first time, and puts a hand to my face. I must look more of a mess than usual. My lip feels twice the size and I can feel the crusted blood on my lips and under my nose with my tongue.
“Ceryn, what happened to your face?”
“Millard.”
“You’re kidding? How did you get away?”
“He’s not dead, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Why not? Slacker.”
I punch his arm, and I’m glad I’m not in love with him anymore. He can be a right smartass.
“It’s a long story.”
“Another one...”
“Yes. And I know at least one person who’s not going to want to hear it.”