Chapter Twenty-Nine
I leapt onto the nearest guard, distracting him enough that Bri managed to break one arm free, but the other guard still had a grip on her.
“Let her go!” I grabbed the man’s hands, pulling with all my might.
“Willow, run!” Bri shouted at me. “Get out of here while you still can!”
“I’m not leaving you, eejit!”
Then I heard a calm female voice behind me, and I knew we were done for.
“Willow Stokes,” Mrs. Monroe said. The distraction was enough.
Bri was caught, and I was standing between her and the Chancellor.
I wasn’t going to abandon her, and Monroe knew it.
“I’ve heard so much about you. I must say, I’m surprised to see you here.
I would have thought you’d be well on your way back to whatever hole you crawled out of by now. ”
I sniffed, raising my chin, and turned to face her.
Her golden-blond hair was braided into a crown studded with pearls and sapphires.
There were creases around her mouth, clearly caused by the expression she was currently making.
Unsurprisingly, she had no crow’s feet. That would have indicated a habit of smiling, and I could see in her dark blue eyes that wasn’t something she practiced often.
“What can I say, I never miss a good party. Unfortunately for me, this one is minging.”
“On the contrary,” she said, leaning toward me. “I’d say you’re the one who stinks. Lemon thyme and oregano? That’s a new one. Let’s see what you have in that satchel.” She ripped it from my hands, riffling through it until she found the dragon egg.
“You really did it,” Bri breathed in wonder. Even the guards looked impressed.
“How could you let this happen, Bellwether?” Mrs. Monroe demanded of the servant.
“I’m so sorry, Madam,” he squeaked. “She didn’t have an accomplice before!”
She ignored him and turned to a guard. “Take them away before I change my mind and feed them to the cats.”
Two more guards appeared, gripping my arms from behind. “Come on,” one of them grunted in my ear as they shoved me forward, though I hadn’t tried to resist. “Let’s see how smug you are when you’re in a cell in Blackbay.”
I ground my teeth as Bri and I were taken out into the night. I glanced across the courtyard and spotted Torion, who gave a half-hearted shrug at the sight of me, as if to say, Better luck next time, kid.
Guests who had fled the party clustered in the courtyard, watching as Bri and I were paraded past them and thrown into the back of a wagon.
I didn’t know these people, didn’t feel the humiliation I might have back in Ardmuir.
But I had failed in my mission, and now Bri was going to pay for my crimes, the exact thing I’d been trying to avoid by coming here alone.
“What happened?” I asked Bri once we were on the move. “Why didn’t you run when you had the chance?”
“I tried,” she said, voice breaking. “But someone saw me touch the mushrooms, and then it was chaos. I got turned around and couldn’t find the doors, and then a guard grabbed me. I’m sorry, Willow.”
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “It’s not your fault. I’m the one who let you down.”
“I can’t believe we were so close to making it.” She put her face in her hands and sobbed. “Now we’re going to rot in a jail cell and my parents won’t even know what happened to me.”
Even though a large part of me was convinced she was right, I refused to let her see it. Right now, all I could offer her was my strength. “It’s going to be all right, Bri.”
She raised her eyes to mine. “How? They have the dragon egg. They know we stole it. We’re done for.”
“Not exactly,” I whispered, lifting the hem of my skirt to where I’d sewn a hidden pocket. It was currently bulging and threatening to rip at the seams, given its heavy cargo.
“Is that what I think it is?” Bri asked, sniffling.
I raised a finger to my lips and lowered my hem, rubbing my calf where the egg had smacked against me as I ran. “They have the decoy egg. I’m sure they’ll realize it quickly, but hopefully not before we’re locked up.”
“That’s all well and good,” Bri whispered, “except the egg isn’t much use to us in a jail cell!”
The wagon came to an abrupt stop, slamming me into Bri. “Just keep quiet and follow my lead,” I whispered.
The guards yanked us out of the wagon and dragged us toward a large stone fortress. The notorious Blackbay Prison, I realized, hardly able to comprehend that I was standing in front of the place that had once featured in my nightmares as a child.
I was about seven or eight when my father told me about a colleague of his who had been caught trading stolen goods in the Sapphire Isles.
“What will happen to him?” I’d asked my father.
“He’ll be locked up in Blackbay,” he’d said, tucking my blankets around me, reassuring me that I was safe right where I was.
“Mr. Douglas said they torture people in Blackbay,” I whispered, remembering my teacher’s lectures on morality and what happened to naughty wee lassies who didn’t attend to their studies.
“Mr. Douglas shouldn’t be telling you things like that,” he said, kissing my forehead. “But you’re not to worry, because we are not thieves.”
Oh, how I wished that were still true. But I was a thief, and torture was likely imminent. I exchanged a glance with Bri as we were shoved through the massive gates, wishing I could squeeze her hand for reassurance. Right now, I needed it as much as she did.
It was somehow colder inside the prison than out, and I regretted not bringing anything for warmth.
We were led down a long winding staircase into a dank, dark dungeon reeking of piss and vomit.
Bri pinched her nose, and I lifted the sleeve that had contained catnip to my face, but it was no use.
This was the kind of stench that got into your pores.
As we passed down a hall lined with cells, I realized that I had, without a doubt, hit rock bottom. Prisoners leered at us from behind iron bars that seemed far too flimsy. They made crude gestures and cackled at our horror.
“We’re going to die in here,” Bri whispered, shivering closer to me.
Suddenly, I was shoved from behind, landing in a cell alongside Bri. My hands hit wet straw and I instantly got to my feet, wiping my palms on my skirt.
“Trial’s in two days,” the guard said as he slammed the cell door behind us, turning an iron key in the lock.
“Two days?” I asked. “How can there possibly be enough time for an investigation before then?”
The guard barked a laugh in response, which led to a coughing fit as he strolled back the way he had come.
I kicked aside as much moldy straw as I could, finding the ground beneath it mostly dry, and sat down with Bri against the far wall, where the other prisoners couldn’t see us.
Explicit descriptions of what they’d like to do to us reverberated down the hall, but eventually they lost interest. Soon it became eerily silent, save for the sounds of dripping water and low moans of despair.
“They’re going to find us guilty,” Bri whispered to me. “They have witnesses, and Mrs. Monroe herself saw you with the egg.”
I inhaled deeply through my nose and instantly regretted it. The smell was unbearable. Bile burned the back of my throat. “Okay, so they find us guilty of burglary. We didn’t harm anyone. Even those bloody cats made it out unscathed.”
In Achnarach, burglary was punishable by fine, perhaps a month or two in prison.
As far as I knew, Da’s friend hadn’t died here, though I’d never heard of his release, either.
We could survive a couple of months. Maybe.
“I know it isn’t ideal, but we still have the dragon egg.
As long as no one finds it, we’ll make it out of here eventually.
Then we can get The Oxblood Book for you.
Then you can go home.” And I can say all the things to Finlay I should have said ages ago.
“Willow, honestly. We’re two foreigners who broke into the house of a prominent local. I don’t know what fantasy world you’re living in, but they aren’t just going to release us, even in a few months. At best, we’re going to lose our hands. At worst, our heads.”
I sagged under the weight of the truth. Deep down, I knew she was right. No one was going to vouch for us here, no one was going to rescue us, and no one ever escaped from Blackbay Prison.
I leaned my head against Bri’s in a silent apology. When she took my hand, I squeezed hers. Somehow, we both fell asleep.
We woke to the sound of grating metal, as the guard pushed two bowls of unidentifiable slop through the small window in our cell.
“Breakfast. Eat up, girls,” he said, smiling to reveal an alarming lack of dental hygiene.
Bri took a delicate sniff of the bowls and gagged before pushing them as far away from us as possible.
“That bad, eh?” I frowned at the gurgle in my belly. We hadn’t eaten in nearly a day. On the bright side, we only had one more day until our trial. “At least we won’t starve to death,” I said.
“Oh, you prefer to hang?” Bri asked.
“I was only trying to lighten the mood.”
“I have to pee,” Bri whispered, sounding so helpless and frightened I could only hug her.
The day passed at a glacial pace. The guards checked on the prisoners every hour, which was our only way to keep track of time. Every now and again, one of our stomachs would let out a pitiful gurgle and we would eye the slop with ever-increasing desperation.
“Visitor!” a man’s voice called, startling me awake. I’d lost all track of time, though I imagined it must be early morning of our trial day. All the prisoners were at the bars of their cells instantly, eyes greedy and hopeful. Bri and I remained where we were, knowing we had no one to visit us.
To my surprise, it was a woman who walked down the aisle, keeping well away from the bars, though the prisoners within each cell were strangely silent. Her hooded cloak was pulled low over her face.
I smelled a familiar floral scent before she pushed back her hood, revealing raven hair and dark eyes. “Hello, girls.”
“Mrs. Lewis?” Bri and I helped each other up and stumbled to the bars, our legs numb. “What are you doing here?” I whispered. “This is no place for a lady.”
“Indeed, it is not,” she said, scowling at the guard, who shrugged in response. Those decisions were well above his pay grade. “May we have some privacy, please?”
The guard shrugged again, whistling as he went back to his post.
Freya crouched down, motioning for us to do the same. “Torion told me you were here,” she explained. “He tried to pay for your release, but the Chancellor has made it clear you will not be let out on bail.”
I was surprised to hear that Torion had gone out of his way to help us. “Why?”
“He said he was impressed by your burgling capabilities and thought you might come in handy someday. Although personally, I think he’s grown fond of you,” she said with a grin.
Perhaps I’d been completely wrong about Torion, and Sapphire Islanders in general. He did his best to appear as menacing as possible, but I should have known better than anyone that looks could be deceiving. I’d have to thank him, if we made it out of here alive.
“If we can’t be bailed out, what are you here for?” Bri asked.
Freya lowered her voice even further, so I had to strain to hear. “Because witches help each other when we can.”