Chapter 50 Ahnna #2
All around was thick woodsmoke, the space beneath the cells illuminated by an enormous glowing furnace. Flames flickered in its core, pumping out the endless heat that kept the cells so ungodly hot, but someone had to fuel those flames, which meant there was a way out.
James landed with a thump next to her. She caught hold of his hand and dragged him along the perimeter of the space.
Her eyes burned, tears running down her cheeks, but what scared her more was the need for air. It wouldn’t take many breaths of this smoke to knock them unconscious, and by the time the soldiers found them, they’d be dead.
Though it hurt to do so, she used her broken arm to feel along the walls, searching for a door. A hatch. Any form of escape from this hell she’d delivered them to.
James broke first, drawing in a breath that immediately set him into a fit of coughing, and if she’d had the air to do so, Ahnna would have screamed.
Another few seconds and they’d be done, be dead, and they’d only be the first to fall.
Clenching his hand, Ahnna kept moving, and then through the smoke and her own tears, she caught sight of another flickering flame. A lantern, and next to it was a narrow door.
She slammed into it and it mercifully burst open, and once James was through, she sealed it shut behind them. He fell to his knees coughing as she sucked in a mercifully pure breath of air, taking in the narrow hall, which was lined with endless bundles of sticks.
A skinny man with soot-stained skin stood in the center of the hallway, gaping at them.
“I won’t call the alarm,” he pleaded. “Just please don’t hurt me.”
“On your knees,” she ordered, and when he fell to the ground, Ahnna snatched up some discarded twine. James was still coughing, but he deftly bound the man and they pressed onward down the dark tunnel.
It stank with the smell of smoke, a faint haze swirling overhead in the light of the lantern she’d taken from the man. On and on they walked, and at one point, water dripped from above.
“We’re beneath the moat,” James said softly. “They’ve designed this so that the workers can access the furnace but not the prison.”
“You think that the entrance to this tunnel isn’t guarded?” she asked.
“Not a chance.” He pushed the knife into her hand. “Make it count.”
The light from the lantern revealed a heavy door ahead, and Ahnna’s heart lurched as she saw there was no way of opening it from the inside. “What do we do?”
James gave a soft cough, still suffering from the smoke he’d inhaled, and reached for the door. But Ahnna caught hold of his wrist.
Lifting the lantern, she looked at him. Truly looked at him for the first time in so long, because she’d lost track of the days they’d spent in those tombs.
He was filthy, his beard thick, and his cheeks gaunt, but he was still the most beautiful man she’d seen in all her life. “Show no mercy,” she whispered.
He huffed out a breath. “You know that I never do.”
Then he rapped his fingers against the door.
“You’re not done,” a voice called through the door, but it started to swing open. “I told ya—”
James’s hand closed around the soldier’s wrist, and he yanked him into the corridor. Ahnna saw him slam the man’s skull against the wall with a brutal crack, and then she was out in the open.
There was no chance to take a mouthful of air and relish her first breath of relative freedom, because four Amaridian soldiers were gaping at her.
Ahnna didn’t hesitate.
Lunging, she slashed Carlo’s knife across one man’s throat, then twisted and slammed the blade into another’s chest. The third reached for her, but then James was on him. He caught hold of the soldier’s skull, and just as the Amaridian began to shriek for help, he twisted, breaking the man’s neck.
James dropped the body and picked up the man’s sword, his eyes going to the prison. It was blazing with torches, the alarm bells now silenced but not the shouts and running boots. “They’re coming. Run!”
They sprinted through the city, weaving through the dark alleys and racing across streets. Ahnna stole a cloak from a wash line to cover her filthy clothes, and then another for James.
“They know our goal is a boat,” James hissed, then gestured toward the harbor. “Look at the torches heading that way. We’ll never get through that many soldiers.”
All of Riomar was coming awake and civilians poured onto the streets, gasps of horror rising to their lips as they learned that prisoners had escaped from the Furnace.
Shouts from captains filled the air as they dispatched soldiers on horseback to secure any vessel that floated within a day’s ride.
Ahnna cursed, because they were as trapped as they had ever been.
“We go out of the city and head east and north,” James whispered, pulling the hood of the stolen cloak forward to hide her face. “They can’t guard the entire coastline. We just need to keep going until we get ahead of them.”
“We don’t have time.” Her hand balled into a fist. “Ships full of poison are already on their way to Ithicana, James. Within a day or two, they’ll be unloading the grain and dispersing it, and it will be too late.”
“We can’t stop them if we get caught!”
“I know.” She crouched low, trying to curb her rising panic so that she could think. Then she lifted her head. “We swim.”
“What?”
Smearing her finger in some mud, she drew a basic map.
“There’s an island within spitting distance of Riomar.
It’s full of villas owned by Amarid’s wealthy, and they will have vessels that they use to go back and forth from the mainland.
If we can swim across, we can steal one of those ships and be gone south before they know it’s missing. ”
“Never mind the waves, the current, the sharks, and your broken arm, Ahnna.”
“We find something that floats to hold on to. It’s not that far.” And because she knew it would piss him off, she added, “I’ll go by myself if you don’t think you can manage.”
His shadowed eyes fixed her with a glare. “Or how about I tie you up, flip you over my shoulder, and carry you away from this plan that is sure to get you killed?”
“You’ll have to catch me first!” Ahnna broke into a run, heading through the crowded streets toward the water.
Many people were running, keen to get a look at the Furnace prisoners when the city guard finally hunted them down, so no one paid her any mind.
Not once did she look back, because Ahnna knew that James was hot on her heels.
Knew that the only reason he wasn’t shouting at her was because his Harendellian accent would draw immediate interest.
Riomar’s harbor was huge, but Ahnna headed south of it even as she bent her mind to remembering what she knew about Riomar. Vaguely she recalled that the city was protected by a high seawall where no vessels would be moored, which meant it wouldn’t be a priority for those hunting them.
Carlo included.
Her skin prickled, and Ahnna pulled her hood farther forward even as she hunted the crowd for any sign of the prince.
He was injured but not so badly that he wouldn’t be dead set on being the one to find them.
It struck her that the Beast might rather die than allow anyone else the pleasure of killing James.
James drew alongside her, hood casting his face in shadows. “You’re going to be the death of me, woman.”
“You like the thrill of it. Don’t pretend otherwise.”
“Ahh, yes. The thrill of being swept out to sea. The thrill of being eaten alive by sharks.”
“But when you survive, you’ll never feel more alive. This way.”
They headed down an alleyway, and Ahnna couldn’t help looking over her shoulder.
Her skin was crawling with the certainty that they were being watched, but the alley was empty.
The streets grew less and less crowded the farther they moved from the harbor, and when they broke out onto the pathway atop the seawall, they were entirely alone.
Going to the edge, Ahnna looked down. The tide was out, revealing a small stretch of rocky beach onto which the waves rolled.
Dawn was beginning to glow, and very faintly, she could make out the shadow of the island in the distance.
With two arms, she could likely have swum the distance in half an hour, but this would be slower going.
Sitting on the edge, Ahnna slid down the steep incline of the seawall, wincing as her bare feet struck rough rock. James landed next to her.
“Find some driftwood or debris,” she said, hunting the rocks for something that would serve to keep them afloat as they kicked across. “We want to be in the water before the sun rises.”
“The thrill intensifies,” James muttered, but he started searching in the other direction.
Then the sound of a man singing a nursery song broke the silence, and Ahnna’s hands turned to ice.
Whirling around, she watched as Carlo jumped down from the seawall.
He sang the final notes of his song, and then drew his sword.
“I sent my men off on a fool’s errand so that we might have a final moment alone, my dear nemesis. Let’s finish this before they return.”
James drew his sword. “Ahnna, get in the water and start swimming.”
“No.” She pulled her knife. “We kill him together.”
He moved between her and Carlo. “There’s not enough time. His men will be along soon enough, and if they see you in the water, they will catch you.”
The logic of his words caused sickness to pool in her stomach, because Ahnna knew what he’d say next.
“My life is not worth the lives of everyone in Ithicana. Go. Warn your brother. Save your homeland.”
“James…” It hurt to breathe. “I can’t…”
“Oh, I love this,” Carlo breathed. “I could not have envisioned a better moment.”
James ignored him and turned, his hand coming up to grip the side of her face. “I love you, Ahnna Kertell.”
Her lips parted to tell him that she loved him.
To tell him that despite having every reason to hate him, if she could have chosen her own future, it would have been with him.
But James’s lips descended on hers, silencing her as he kissed her with enough ferocity to bruise.
Like he knew what she would say and could not bear to hear it, because that dream would never be.
“Go.” He pushed her to the water. “Save them.”
“I will.” Tears were pouring down her cheeks. “But only if you promise to slit his fucking throat.”
Knowing that if she didn’t leave now, she wouldn’t leave at all, Ahnna turned and sprinted into the waves.