Otherbound

42

They needed those keys. Ilanne didn’t care about freeing Cilla—she could detect the spell-caster’s identity with or without bars in the way—but the way Cilla lay there, without her scarf, with bandages extending past her wear, turned Amara’s stomach. They had to get her out.

The moment Nadi turned the corner, Nolan let go of Amara’s body. Out of choice? Because of the pills? Amara faced Cilla to block her signs from Gacco. “It’s a distraction. Pretend—”

Gacco spun her by her shoulder. “Move away from those bars,” he warned, as though she could bend the metal with only her hands. For all she knew, he thought she could. He still thought she was a mage. The days when Amara had believed the same thing seemed so far away, she could almost laugh.

Down the hall, Nadi shouted at the marshal who’d been guarding the guest quarters. “Sound the bells. Find the others!”

No one would be guarding Amara’s room. Gacco must’ve realized the same. “Stand over there,” he said, motioning at the cell diagonally across from Cilla’s.

In the distance, muffled by stone walls, a whistle increased in pitch like some sort of Jélisse firework before sputtering out. A crash followed. Amara could swear she felt vibrations rumble through the ground. The fighting had started.

“What’s going on?” Cilla’s voice was stronger this time, and she offered Amara a nearly imperceptible nod. She’d seen Amara’s warning.

“Do I look like I know?” Gacco thumped back onto the bench. Screams came from the courtyard, followed by another crash. Gacco bolted upright again. The cell wing had no windows. No way to follow what was happening. One hand stayed on his baton, and he looked from left to right as if intruders might burst in at any moment.

They did—but not in the way he expected.

The servant hallway door slammed open. Gacco turned at the sound, baton raised. Ilanne wasn’t impressed. She took in the situation, nodded, and raised her arm. Amara leaped aside. A dry crackle sounded. A shimmer—like the air over a fire—swept through the hall toward Gacco. A second later, he skidded back. He crashed into his bench, then slid off and lay still aside from the moving of his chest. Burns blackened the fabric of his scarf. A nasty smell hit Amara’s nose.

Not burned flesh, though. Thank the seas.

“Get his keys.” Ilanne stalked down the hall. Outside, she’d been intimidating—now, she was downright terrifying. Sharp cheekbones jutted out under blazing eyes. The air around her hand swam and pulsed, ready for another attack. She walked without hesitation, without even a hint of fear. “Which cell is the girl in?”

“Now will you tell me what’s happening?” Cilla laughed nervously. The sound died when Ilanne walked into view. Cilla scrambled onto her mattress, backing as far into the wall as possible.

“We’re getting you out,” Amara said. Then, to Ilanne: “Nadi took the keys.”

Cilla stayed on her mattress, shifting her weight to stay balanced. “That’s her. It’s the knifewielder. What’s going on?”

Now wasn’t the time to explain. Now was the time to free her and run.

“If we get her out,” Amara told Ilanne, “you’ll have more time to detect her spell.”

Ilanne shifted her attention to the metal bars. She nodded. “You’re right. I can open these. Move away.” As Amara stepped back, Ilanne pressed her palm against the metal as if testing it. Nothing happened. Her hand moved back, hovering finger-lengths from the lock. The surrounding air gave a single pulse. “Stand farther back. This metal’s tough.”

Amara moved away. Even then—even then something felt off, something niggling at her, something that whispered wait.

She shouldn’t leave Cilla. She should never, ever leave Cilla.

By the time Ilanne’s arm stretched through the bars, Amara was already leaping forward.

Too late.

Ilanne locked eyes with Cilla. “I’m sorry,” she said.

Cilla made a sound in the back of her throat. The cell lit up white. The air twanged—unevenly, like a plucked string, fading in and out, reverberating, on and on.

Ilanne had betrayed them.

Amara crashed into Ilanne’s side. The mage stumbled, then fell sideways, her arm still between the bars. Something snapped. She screamed. Inside the cell, the light flickered like a torch exposed to wind. Cilla dropped to the ground, then Amara’s eyes went blind from the brightness. Spots floated into her vision, bright greens with pulsing yellow outlines. She couldn’t see beyond a few footlengths away, but there—she could just make out Ilanne, wildly aiming with her unbroken arm. The air in the cell fizzed with magic.

Amara’s open palm hit Ilanne’s chin, slamming her head into the metal bars. Hard. Ilanne crumpled. The magic snapped out, leaving the cells dark aside from a single lamp that was suddenly no more than a glimmer.

Amara’s eyes took forever to readjust. She didn’t know whether to focus on Cilla in her cell or Ilanne outside of it, or on the magic and backlash roaring outside the palace walls, or on the marshals who’d surely arrive at any moment.

Cilla won.

Amara shouted her name aloud, sidestepping Ilanne’s slumped form. The back of the cell looked even darker now, but in the sudden dead silence of the faded magic, Amara still heard the scrambling of Cilla’s feet, her coughing. She was alive.

In Cilla’s case, that might mean little.

“I’m fine,” Cilla said, coughing again. “She aimed at the ceiling.”

“Blood?” Amara’s eyes slowly adjusted. Cilla was hunched over on her mattress. Dust billowed in the back of the cell. Chunks of the ceiling lay scattered on the bed and had knocked over Cilla’s pot.

“Don’t think so.” Cilla squinted through the dirt cloud. “Any chance you’ll explain what’s going on?”

“What’s going on is that we’re in trouble.” Amara swallowed. She’d told Ilanne how to reach the cells via the servant passages. The few servants who’d see her would hesitate to stop her, and with a full-on attack going on outside, it’d take long enough for them to get a minister’s attention that Cilla would be long gone by the time they discovered her empty cell.

That’d been the plan, anyway.

Outside came more shouts, searing wails of magic, shattering glass. Once, the walls shook.

“Are those mages outside coming for me?” Cilla’s voice sounded neutral. If there was one thing she knew, it was mages trying their damndest to kill her.

“If they have the chance.” Amara crouched to check Ilanne’s pulse. She should be scared. She’d never killed someone, and she’d never wanted to. Few things upset the spirits—real spirits, not fakes like Nolan—more than murder.

When she felt the soft beat in Ilanne’s throat, though, all she could think of was how Ilanne would try to kill Cilla again when she woke. And how easy it’d be for Amara to make sure she wouldn’t do either.

That thought did scare her.

She looked back at Cilla, with her sharper cheeks and dust-smeared bandages. She seemed nowhere near as desperate as she had a few minutes ago; she stood upright in the center of the wrecked cell, her head high, unbothered by her exposed shoulders.

It had to do with power. Put Cilla in a position where something was happening, where she could take charge, and she thrived.

Take that away, and she broke.

Amara was used to having no power. Her response to a crisis was to plan.

“Ruudde is possessed by a traveler from Nolan’s world named N-A-D-I, Nadi,” Amara signed. Her gaze flicked to the end of the hall. No marshals yet. Cilla was safe for now—the cell wing was secluded—but Nadi would soon send anyone she could spare from the courtyard.

By now, Amara smelled the faint, distant whiff of fire. Clangs from the bell tower rolled over the palace and grounds. She explained what she and Nolan had discovered as quickly as possible. Whatever else happened, Cilla needed to know the truth.

“We need to get you out.” Amara pressed her hand to the cell’s lock. Rust crumbled against her skin. “We’ll find another mage to detect the spell-caster. Someone we can trust.”

Cilla said nothing for several long seconds. Then: “You can still walk away.”

Cilla didn’t move. Amara wanted to think the rawness of her voice was from the dust in her throat, but she knew better.

“You can pretend you didn’t know about the mages’ attack. They caught you by surprise, too. Look. You even knocked one out. Ruudde will thank you.”

“No. This is our one chance—”

“What happens if you break me out and we run?” Cilla said, looking gray. “They’ll keep threatening Nolan’s family. He’ll give in eventually. He’ll possess you and take you back.”

“His pills are wearing off. He’ll only be able to watch.”

“Nadi can still travel to his world. She’ll ask where we’ve run to.”

“We have to try!” Amara gripped the cell bars, yanking, pushing, but the metal was embedded so deep in the stone walls it didn’t even rattle. “I can’t go back to before. I can’t. We’ll contact other mages. Most don’t know you’re not—they’re loyal to the princess. That Dit mage from Teschel is alive. She’ll pin down any spell you ask her to.”

“Amara …” Cilla looked at her for too many, too valuable seconds.

“You weren’t even eating.”

“I only wanted them to tell me what was going on.”

“You hurt yourself.”

“I …” Cilla swallowed, as though it stung to see those signs. “It’s no use. You can’t get me out, anyway.”

Amara checked the lock again. The rust made it look deceptively weak. She looked sideways, counting the number of cells between them and the end of the hallway, and—yes. This was a different cell from Cilla’s earlier one. That one must’ve gotten too torn up from the effects of the curse, when the stones had come loose to crush her.

Amara tugged at the bars another time. The walls resisted every fraction of movement. That could change, though the thought of how she’d make that happen dried her throat and made her want to turn and run.

She crouched, feeling Ilanne’s clothes, the leather of her boots. Her fingers closed around the handle of a familiar knife. She banished old nightmares and clamped the hooked blade between her upper arm and body to free up her hands. “I can cut you.”

“Perfect plan,” Cilla said humorlessly.

“I’ll take your blood and stay close to the bars.” Amara gestured at where the metal punctured stone. “The curse has nothing to work with except the stones or bars. It might give us an opening.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt again.”

“It might be the last time. It’d be worth it.” As she said it, the memory of pain sent her heart churning against her ribs.

Cilla stared at Amara with those shiny, narrow eyes, the dark bags underneath setting them off all the more. A smile hovered on her mouth, not quite managing to crease her cheeks, not quite tugging up the corners of her lips. It was enough. “If that’s what it takes,” she said. She glanced at Ilanne, whose hair splayed out over bare stones. The mage’s arm rested awkwardly on her hips, pointing in a direction it shouldn’t. Cilla stepped closer to the bars. She moved to the side, where Amara could reach her without Ilanne’s body in the way.

Amara breathed deeply. She followed Cilla until they stood close together, only metal bars and shallow breaths between them. The shouts came closer every minute. In a nearby hall, footsteps slammed. Amara took Ilanne’s curved blade with one hand and reached for Cilla’s lips with the other, her fingers running over the dips and curves and warm skin. She wanted to kiss those lips again. The cut had healed over, leaving a mark that’d fade in time.

Amara’s fingers trailed lower, over Cilla’s shoulder and down, resting on Cilla’s wrist. She pulled it through the bars and pressed the blade to the fragile flesh on the inside of her forearm.

She could still back out.

She could still leave Cilla for the mages to kill.

Part of her wanted to call in Nolan. She was risking his family’s life in doing this. Could he even control her anymore? He ought to. He could do exactly what Cilla said. He could step away, claim he had nothing to do with the mages’ attack, and point at Ilanne’s unconscious body as proof he was on Nadi’s side.

That would make it easy for Amara. Not having a choice was always easy. It was always safer. However bad things were, you kept your head down and did as you were told in order to avoid worse.

The world always wanted people like her to believe those lies.

You were never safe as long as you were at someone else’s whim.

Amara’s eyes met Cilla’s, dark and beaten and haunted.

Not having a choice was the worst thing in the world.

Amara pushed the knife down. Nolan didn’t stop her. And in that moment, with her enemy’s knife in her own hand, a point pressing on Cilla’s arm, Cilla’s skin familiar against hers, relief sneaked up on her and refused to let go. Because what she’d told Cilla wasn’t true. It wasn’t that she couldn’t go back to her old life; she could. If she went back, she’d hate herself, but it meant survival. It might be worth it or it might not be, and she’d never have to find out because it would never happen. She wasn’t going back.

It wasn’t because of what Maart wanted, or because of what Cilla asked, or because of what Jorn said. She’d made the choice. It was hers alone. This or nothing.

Blood welled up from Cilla’s arm. Amara let the knife clatter to the ground. She reached for the cut. She was almost smiling now, a desperate smile that had her lips trembling, that came with tears burning her eyes.

This or nothing.

Cilla pulled herself loose. She stepped away from the bars.

Amara reached through. Her fingers found only air. Her smile faded, and she shouted, her voice hoarse. Cilla couldn’t—why was she—

“Ilanne said she was sorry,” Cilla said.

Amara yanked her arms back to sign. “Because she knew she was wrong! You need to—”

Cilla’s dull eyes hardened. “No. Because she knew she was right. She felt terrible, and she did it anyway because she knew she had to.”

“Come back! We need to—we need to try—” Amara stopped talking. She crouched and took the fallen knife, smearing every drop of Cilla’s that still clung to the blade onto her own arm, but it wasn’t enough. It didn’t compare to the amount of blood on Cilla’s arm. And more kept coming, and once the curse hit, there would be more and more—

Cilla went on. “No more Nolan in your head. No more ministers. No more backlash. No more curse. You’ll be safe, and his family will be safe, and the Dunelands … We won’t have to run anymore.” A drop of blood trickled down Cilla’s arm, changing its path when Cilla reached up to unwind the bandages from her chest, letting the glow from her false, torn-up mark shine through. “I don’t know what else to do,” she whispered as the rocks in the walls started to shift.

Amara couldn’t make signs anymore. Her hands wouldn’t listen, and she didn’t know what to say if they did. She clawed through the bars. Her muscles stretched so far they hurt, the beams pressing into her shoulder and against the side of her face until she couldn’t go any farther. Cilla stood footlengths from even the tips of Amara’s fingers. She backed up farther. Stepped onto the cot without looking.

“I’m sorry. For this and for everything else over the years. It wasn’t right.”

Amara knew it wasn’t right, she knew, but it wasn’t Cilla’s fault, and if she got down from that mattress, if she just—if she just came toward the bars, they could try—fix it—

“You probably shouldn’t look.” Cilla smiled wanly. “It’s not pleasant.”

It wasn’t.

Cilla’s turn to hurt. Amara’s turn to watch.

Amara screamed so loudly she didn’t recognize her own voice as the first stones wrapped around Cilla. They pulled her into the wall. They pressed her tightly. Stone crunched. Other things did, too. Amara kept screaming. As long as she kept screaming, she couldn’t hear Cilla’s.

She screamed until footsteps came down the hall, finally, finally, until Jorn’s arms circled her and yanked her away from the bars. Metal clinked against metal even through Cilla’s cries tearing the air in half. Someone had the keys. Someone opened the cell. Jorn pushed her inside, and Amara stumbled and almost fell.

“Go!” Jorn shouted, but there was no point. No amount of Cilla’s blood on Amara’s skin would distract the curse this time. There was too much of it, and even more kept coming.

Cilla’s scream ended in a choke.