Warm arms wrap around me and I smile, turning in the circle of his arms to face him. “Hi,” I say with a smile.
“Hi.” He squeezes me tighter and brings me closer to him. I relax in his embrace, nuzzling my face against his shirtless chest, his loose long brown hair tickles my face. “I’ve waited a long time for you.”
“What do you mean? I was just here yesterday.”
“But I awoke in the night and you were gone. It’s a little unnerving to fall asleep with you and to wake up and you’re not there.”
We jump out of bed when we hear a loud boom, followed by the ground beneath us quaking. Furniture shakes, smaller objects rattle off their surfaces, and we hear objects shattering all around us.
“What was that?” My breath coming in sharp pants as my heart beats hard in my chest.
Looking over, he is quickly pulling his clothes on while I stand there, not sure what is happening. “That was the beginning of the battle, Callie.”
“What do you mean?” I ask slowly, my brain not processing what just happened.
“I mean, they have just fired a cannon at the mountain.”
The door opens before I’ve truly grasped the meaning of his words. One of the healers comes in holding a small vial. “It’s time, your majesty.”
“Time, time for what?” I look between the two men.
The beast nods his head and accepts the vial from the healer, removing the stopper and downing its contents.
“What is that? What did you just drink?” I ask as the healer takes the vial from him and leaves the room.
“A healing potion,” he replies.
“Healing potion? Why the hell didn’t you take a healing potion earlier?”
“Because magic has a price, and I will have to pay it later,” he answers.
Kenna comes in, interrupting any further conversation and motions for me to follow her. “We need to get you ready, miss.”
When I move toward her, a warm hand grasping mine stops me. I look up into the bearded face of the beast. He pulls me closer, wrapping his arm around me and holding me to him. “Be careful, Callie. My heart goes with you.” He kisses my temple and releases me.
Kenna and I rush to my room. Laid out on the bed are the same kind of clothes I have been wearing the last couple of times I’ve been here. We take my pajamas off and I slide the breeches up my legs. Leaving my bra on, I pull the shirt over my head and tuck the loose ends in around my waist before lacing them up. Kenna helps me into the leather vest and then leads me through the castle, down, down, down, into tunnels that run beneath the parts of the castle I have never seen before.
It seems whoever spent time creating the castle also left some kind of tunnel system that runs underneath the mountain. I’ve lost all sense of direction, grasping firmly to Kenna’s hand as she leads me left, right, left again, making our way deeper and deeper underground. The air is still here, and I wonder if we should be afraid of these tunnels collapsing if there are too many cannon blasts.
“The tunnels run under the entire mountain range, and the village. There are entrances all over leading down into them. I’m instructed to bring you to wait with the villagers, to keep you safe.”
“Wait, what? I’m not just going to wait here and let everyone else take care of the problem!” I stumble in the torch-lit tunnels, releasing her hand and attempting to make my way back the way we came. Quickly, I give up. I don’t know how to get back to where we started. Instead, I follow her the rest of the way and slide down a dirt wall as angry tears run down my face. “That bastard!” I spit and several eyes turn toward me before acting as if I don’t exist.
* * *
From my spot on the floor, I watch the people move back and forth. More enter the underground cavern and I can’t help but be jealous of them, of the fact they know these tunnels and can leave.
Kenna flits around like a bird, helping entertain the children, getting snacks for the adults, and she even sings for a little while.
Finally, I’ve had enough of sitting here and feeling sorry for myself. How dare he leave me out of this! How dare he leave me to sit here and do what? Pray he comes back to me?
Fuck that.
I stand from my position on the floor. Carefully, I skirt between the wall and the growing crowd. At the entrance, I snag one of the torches mounted on either side of the doorway.
As I get further in the tunnel, away from the noisy people, I slow to listen for footsteps, or any noises I can’t explain. I close my eyes and try to picture the way we travelled here before.
Slowly I inch forward, hoping I don’t die down here in some branch of tunnel no one travels.
When I hear someone laughing, coming down this hallway, I turn around and quickly make my way down the nearest fork in the tunnel I passed just moments before. I do my best to cover the torch, because I know better than to leave myself without any light in these tunnels.
Where there are voices, there is a way out. I peek out of the branch I’m in and see two men I recognize. When they’re right in front of me, I snag James’s sleeve and pull him into the tunnel. Steve follows closely behind.
“Callie! We were just coming to get you!” James says.
“Why are you hiding in this little tunnel?” Steve asks.
Skeptically I ask, “Why were you coming to get me?”
“We don’t think you should be left out. You’ve been the one with us planning this whole time. We don’t agree with the king’s decision.”
I let out a sigh of relief at Steve’s words. It seems being friendly has made me friends. James motions for me to hand over the torch, and I do.
“We must be quick. We don’t want to run into anyone else on the way out of here,” Steve says. He grips my arm just above the elbow to hold me steady as we hurry down the tunnel. A few times, we’re forced to duck into side branches when we hear voices coming toward us.
Finally, we reach the door to the main part of the castle, and I gasp when I see what’s waiting inside. They must have shot more cannonballs at the mountain. There is debris everywhere.
“First, we need to get you into some armor,” Steve says. He takes me down a wing I have not been in before. Both of them do not falter in their path. They know exactly where we’re going. Finally, James opens a door and Steve pulls me in after him.
I notice something as soon as I step in and the torch illuminates the room. Someone has set up a suit of armor in here. “What…” I trail off, my brain working quickly to process all the new information.
“We have an armorer in the village. They made this for you. His daughter is about the same size as you. He fitted it to her,” James tells me. He sets the torch in a sconce and moves to stand next to the armor.
His hands make quick work dismantling it from the mannequin-like thing it rests on, while Steve helps to secure it around me. He is careful to tighten all the straps, making sure it’s secure but doesn’t hurt me. It fits like a glove.
When the last piece is strapped on, I run my hands over the smooth, cold surface. I admire the craftsmanship that went into making this.
“Now for weapons,” Steve says. “What do you know how to use?” At my clueless expression, he moves to the side of the room where various weapons are laid out. With my attention focused on the armor, I hadn’t noticed the weapons until now.
“Well, even unexperienced you should be able to figure out how to use these.” James holds up a leather belt that has two sheaths hanging from it. He slides out each of the blades and hands one to me. Briefly, he shows me how to properly hold and use the weapon.
He puts each of them back into its sheath and demonstrates how to remove the blade. Only after I’ve successfully removed the blade several times do they both fasten all kinds of straps and things to me, and fit weapons into many places all over. They instruct me on how to pull each one free from its position on my body. Before we leave, they show me a few more moves for each weapon, and then tell me to be careful with all of them.
The last thing James hands me is a recurve bow after he fastens a very full quiver to my back. I hold the bow in position and pull back the string, being careful to hold it as to avoid getting slapped with the string.
“You know how to use one?” Steve watches me reach behind myself to pull out an arrow from the quiver and nock it, again drawing the string back to my chin. Slowly, I release the tension I’ve put on the string and continue to hold the bow to my side.
“It’s been a few years, but at summer camp one year, I learned how to use one of these. I was the quickest to pick it up and won the summer games. I loved it so much, I joined the team at my school and continued all the way through college.”
“I don’t know what most of that means, but I’ll take that as a yes.”
Removing the arrow from the string, I place it back in the quiver, looping the bow across my back as well.
“Well, in that case,” James begins removing the metal armor on my arms. “Why don’t we put you in something like this to help you move better?” He pulls out a set of leather armguards that he secures around my forearms.
I pull the bow off my back again and test the movement. It’s much easier to pull the string back without the armor hindering the motion.
I watch as they both strap on armor and outfit themselves with the leftover weapons.
We follow back hallways and exit out a door I’ve never seen before. Steve looks both ways before motioning for us to follow him. This side of the mountain looks out on trees and fields. When I turn around to look at the door, I think it must be the one the beast described in his journal.
“We came out on the other side from where they are getting ready,” James says.
“We’re hoping we can sneak in among them without anyone noticing who you are,” Steve tells me.
“And if they do?” I fear if the beast gets wind of my being here, he’ll be distracted, possibly even get himself injured.
“He may not know it yet, but he needs you.” James tips his head at me, and a smile ghosts across his face.
We move at a quick pace until we can hear people talking. The closer we get, you can feel the energy, the excitement of what is coming. When we finally come around the bend, there are people as far as the eye can see.
I whisper to them both, “I still don’t see any boats in the water. Where were they shooting the cannons from?”
Steve jerks his chin to the trees across the clearing, the business end of a cannon barely visible in the shadows of the trees. “Our guards were able to take out the men manning the cannons relatively easily. One of the first tasks is to get together groups big enough to bring the cannons over to our side of the line. But first we need to make sure there aren’t other men hiding in the trees. That’s what they’re doing now.”
I nod. “Where’s the king?” Suddenly, a hush falls over the crowd, as if a wave of silence is making its way toward us. Above the crowd, we see a head pop up, and his eyes immediately lock on mine across the wide expanse of people. A scowl comes to his face, and his eyes move to either side of me, focusing first on James, then Steve.
“Oh, shit,” Steve says.
He jumps down from his perch and we can’t see anything for a minute or so, then the crowd in front of us parts and he marches his way through them. His gate shows no signs of the injury, and I’m amazed at how quickly he was able to recover with the “magic potion.”
“What are you doing here? I told Kenna to take you down to the tunnels,” he growls. Steve and James step behind me as he again glares first at one, then the other.
I step up into him, my armor brushing his. “How dare you!” My nostrils flare in anger. “How dare you think after all this time I would be content to sit on my ass while all of this happens above me? It seems you really don’t know me at all.” Shoving past him, I make my way to the rest of the crowd.
Behind me I hear him tell them, “If anything happens to her, I am holding you two personally responsible.”
His shoulder brushes mine as he moves past me. My eyes follow him while he marches through the parting crowd to the front of the group. Steve and James settle in on either side of me. I reach out and squeeze each of their hands in a show of thanks.