CHAPTER 36 #2
Quiet murmurs drifted down from the window despite the lateness of the hour.
Helena grabbed the windowsill with one hand and peeked over the edge.
A single candle sat in the middle of the floor, its flickering light illuminating a small space with ten of her friends packed into it. Including Jean-haut.
Seeing no sign of guards, Helena hoisted herself up and over. She quickly pulled the rope in after her so the night guard wouldn’t see it hanging down the wall. Glancing up at the arrow stuck in the ceiling, she grimaced. Hopefully, he wouldn’t look up and see that.
“Margit?” Jean-haut hissed. “What in the heavens are you doing here? Is Cap with you?”
Digging a knife out of her satchel, Helena stepped over someone’s legs and began sawing at the rope around his wrists. “No. I didn’t have time to search for him if I wanted to rescue all of you.”
The forester held still while she worked on his bonds, but his face was incredulous. “Did you bring anyone else?”
“Was there anyone else to bring?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow. “As far as I know, the General’s men captured all our fighters.”
He exhaled heavily. “They might have. But I think some of our noncombatants got away. And I haven’t seen my sister.”
That was something. “I didn’t stick around to see if anyone returned.” She pulled at the rope, holding it away from a pair of silver bracelets while she cut the last few strands. “Can’t you tell by the tokens? Or is everyone with one here?”
“I can’t access my magic,” he said grimly. He nodded at the bracelets. “They were ready for me.”
Looking at them a little closer, Helena felt her heart sink. “Are those magic-canceling cuffs from the Castellian prison?”
“Yes.”
That would complicate things. But it strengthened Helena’s resolve to find her way to the capital sooner than later. If she could prove Prince Raphael’s innocence, Cap and his band would no longer need Jean-haut’s magic. And surely the prince would free Jean-haut from the cuffs.
“I suppose that means you can’t help me with them,” Helena said, jerking her head toward the one wide-eyed and eight dozing forms around them. “Since I only have one knife.”
The rope snapped, and he pulled his wrists apart to free them. His skin was red and raw underneath. “If I could, I already would have. But maybe I can pick apart the knots.”
They had freed four of them when voices sounded in the hall outside. “The patrol saw something strange in the window. We’d better check it out.”
Helena stiffened, and everyone in the room went still as they listened.
“You really think he would try to free them from the second floor?”
A rattle of keys. “The General says he wasn’t among the prisoners. And he wasn’t the only one who got away; maybe he gathered enough men to feel confident.”
Rushing to the window on light feet, Helena plastered her back to the wall and carefully peered out. The dim light of the candle made it hard to see, but she thought there was a waiting form next to the wagons.
“I’m going to distract them.” She focused her best imitation of her father on Jean-haut. “As soon as the guard is gone, use that rope to get yourself and those four out of here.”
He jumped forward and grabbed her arm. “What about you? Cap—”
“Then find him, and take care of him like you promised my cousin,” she growled. “They won’t catch me, and I have business in the capital anyway.”
Pulling free, she climbed onto the windowsill and reached for the stones above it. It was only a few feet to the roof. Without a rope.
“Cousin?” He sounded bewildered. “Who—”
Helena winced in the darkness. “Just get out of here!” she hissed. Someone shouted below her. Trusting the forester to have the sense to escape, she stopped arguing and began climbing.
The stone bit into her fingers as she struggled her way up. Scaling the walls of the castle back home was much easier. Even the wooden logs of the other buildings in Arles would be better.
But she needed to make it to the roof before any guards did.
Her cloak whipped around her in the wind whisking along the side of the building. Muffled shouts rang out inside. Stretching her arm up, she wrapped her right hand around the top of the wall. She gripped as hard as she could, found a toehold near her waist, and pulled herself up and over.
A smile played around the corner of her lips. She’d like to see the fancy ladies of the Ralnoran court do that. Better yet, Luther or Tobias.
The clatter of a trap door smacking against the wooden roof propelled her back into motion. She sprinted for the opposite edge.
“There he is!” a guard hollered behind her. “Stop him!”
Grinning, she placed a foot on the ledge and jumped. The mercantile next door wasn’t as tall as the guard outpost, but it had an upper level where the family lived.
But the gap was a little wider than she’d thought.
Her lead foot barely caught. Throwing herself forward, she reached for the clothesline strung up nearby. It sagged toward her, giving her a face-full of trousers and shirts. But it held long enough for her to pull herself up.
“He’s running across the rooftops! Head him off!”
An arrow zipped past her. Whipping her bow out of its sheath, she spun and released an answer before launching herself off the far side of the mercantile. Someone yelped in pain, but she could hear the sound of guards surging down the street.
Despite her bravado, Helena knew her chances of escaping into the forest were slim. But she would lead the guards in a merry chase for as long as she could. Every minute they followed her was another minute her friends had to slip away.
She hoped they found Cap. He was probably worried about them.
Would he be worried about her?
The memory of their dance crowded her mind as she paused to send an arrow toward a guard pointing a bow at her. Cap clasping her in his well-formed arms. Wrapping her tighter, leaning down to kiss her…
Helena’s eyes jumped between the guards and the next building. It was too far to make the jump, especially with her head annoyingly full of a certain outlaw.
No, not annoyingly. She would gladly dream about him, waking or sleeping.
But now wasn’t an ideal time.
Jogging to the back of the building, she searched for the one behind it. It was a little closer, but not enough.
Her pursuers would have her surrounded soon. Before she could talk herself out of it, she set her hands on the edge of the roof, flipped around, and let herself drop to the ground. She’d reached single-story homes. It wasn’t that far.
The ground sent a jolt through her, even with bent knees to absorb the impact. She shook it off and darted into the row of houses behind her.
“Is he still on the roof?”
“I can’t see him. Did he jump?”
Maybe she would get away, after all.
Helena plastered herself against the front of the building, listening.
“Split up. Search the village!”
Pounding footsteps surrounded her as guards ran between the houses. One passed a few feet from her as he bounded into the street.
A breeze curled around the corner of the house and fluttered Helena’s hair. She blew it out of her face, then froze when her scalp prickled.
This wasn’t a normal breeze.
It whirled away down the road, scattering dust that she could barely see in the moonlight. After looping around the guard trotting away from her, it rushed back to the outpost.
Maybe escape had never been more than a dream.
Taking advantage of the guard’s back to her, she sprinted across the narrow street.
Trees crowded the houses in this part of the village; perhaps she could lose herself in them yet.
Assuming the magical wind didn’t locate her for her enemies.
But how quickly could it relay her location?
If she kept moving, could she stay ahead of it?
Could the user even identify her if she was silent?
Too bad it was Katy who had researched magical theory. Helena had only studied old languages. A lot of good that did her now.
She ducked under a low-hanging branch and focused on the last house in the village. It was just ahead. Her breath was coming in louder gasps now, but she couldn’t slow to a more sustainable pace yet. Not with the—
A sudden gust of wind knocked her sideways. Throwing an arm up, she barely managed to keep her head from smacking into a nearby tree. Her forearm stung from the rough bark, even through her sleeve.
Straightening, she lunged forward, but the wind struck her again. She staggered backward, wincing when her back collided with the tree and her head swung back to join it.
The wind was only hitting her chest. Dropping to her knees, Helena crawled toward freedom.
She felt the wind swirl angrily above her, but she didn’t stop.
It could be as upset as it wanted; she couldn’t find what she needed if she was in the dungeon of the Laurier castle.
And if General Valentin hung her for her association with Cap, she would never get that kiss Cap had been about to give her.
She grinned despite herself. Incentive, but she needed to focus. One step at a time.
The wind blew away down the alley. Helena staggered upright as she reached the cover of the last house. She was going to make it.
A sudden gust plowed into her back. Helena stumbled forward, throwing out her hands to catch herself. But she tripped over the homeowner’s wood-splitting stump, falling headfirst into the round stack of split logs that rose in front of her.
Stars burst in her vision, and then everything went black.