Chapter 35 Audryn
AUDRYN
The trembling earth stopped shaking just as we made it to the prison.
Relief found me; my father was safe if he’d stopped using his magic.
Letting it loose, for all to see, had surprised me.
The last time I’d seen him use his magic was when I was a child, and he didn’t even know that I’d witnessed it. Things were so much simpler back then.
I cleared my mind and focused on the task in front of me. I needed to get to Jaspar before it was too late.
Two guards confronted us the moment we entered.
I’d expected them to refuse us entry, but I hadn’t thought they’d outright attack us.
Fisher fought one while Maris and I took on the other.
Without a second thought, I pushed my sword through the man’s stomach, and it glided in like a fiery blade through butter.
Blood gushed onto the floor, leaving the stone slippery.
The man fell swiftly, and I turned to see Maris stab the other guard in his neck with her resistance dagger.
“Okay then.” Fisher lifted a brow. “We only have to do that a dozen more times.”
“Thankfully, I had a big breakfast.” Maris smirked. “Let’s go.”
We moved through the prison halls, taking on guard after guard as they multiplied with each turn.
None of us made it through unscathed. A guard’s fist struck Maris’s face and my left arm was cut while side-stepping a sword.
Fisher only had a minor cut across his knuckles from striking stone when a guard ducked a blow.
By the time we made it to the end of the halls, we found a large holding room filled with people.
A female guard plunged her sword through a young man’s chest. Two other bodies lay lifeless, while more than a dozen people knelt on double knees against the stone floor.
Jaspar was at the end of the line with his chin held high.
The three guards turned on us. I immediately recognized the female with red hair. “Asher, don’t!” My eyes met hers and she looked just as conflicted as she had in the street with Hunt. That was before I ever stepped foot in the castle. “You know me!”
She stepped around me and took Fisher by surprise, slicing into his upper thigh.
Blood spurted, but didn’t pulse; the cut was deep, but wouldn’t be fatal if tended to.
He fought through it at first, but his skin paled and he dropped to a knee.
Jaspar grabbed his sword and directed a male to work on the injury while he entered the battle.
I would’ve taken a moment to appreciate my friend's efficient sword work if I weren’t gasping from exhaustion.
His movements were a dance, gliding and shifting effortlessly across the room while taking on a man twice his size.
Meanwhile, Maris and I were shaking and barely holding off the other guard.
A female stood from the group and threw out her hand. A gust of wind threw Asher against the wall, and her head hit with a sickly crack. Maris flung her sword through the guard’s chest a moment later. My heart sank as the woman fell to the ground, grappling for the blade that remained buried.
Jaspar took on the male guard I’d been struggling to fend off. He ended it swiftly by slicing through his neck. The last guard lay in the corner, body scorched by someone’s fire magic I hadn’t seen deployed.
I turned away and found a blonde woman wrapping Fisher’s leg. I cringed seeing his skin so ashen; he’d lost too much blood. Bending down, I knelt beside him, examining the white bandage that was turning crimson.
“It needs to be tighter,” I said, tearing off the sleeves of my dress and making strips to tie around the leg just above the wound.
Maris and I worked together, each pulling opposite sides tight before knotting the material.
Several ties later, the flow of blood began to slow.
But he still risked losing the limb if we waited too long to get him to a proper healer.
“Audryn,” Fisher groaned, “I’m sorry. For everything. You need to know that, in case I don’t make—”
“The only way you’re dying is if I kill you myself,” I interrupted and smiled. “And that will not happen today. So don’t get your hopes up.”
Shouts roared through the hall, drawing all of our attention. Several pairs of boots smacked against the stone floors, and their echoes grew louder. I looked at the too-small windows, realizing we were trapped if we stayed.
“You three will carry him,” Jaspar ordered. “You two, take Maris and Audryn’s swords and stay at the back while I take the lead and get us the fuck out of here!” Nobody questioned his orders; they simply fell in line, and we moved.
We made our way through the halls of the prison, occasionally stopping to fight off the onslaught of guards coming at us. The hallways felt longer; the guards increased both in size and numbers.
Prisoners shouted as we passed, and as much as I wanted to free them, there was nothing I could do without a key. “I’m sorry,” I muttered as we continued forward.
A single door stood ajar, and I almost didn’t push it open, thinking it might be a trap.
But when my eyes saw the roaring fire, a small table with chairs around it, and food scattered on various surfaces, I realized it was a room for guards to rest. They had left in a hurry, hadn’t locked it behind them and, thank the land, left it open.
I motioned the group inside.
A small rectangular window was toward the top of one wall, a couple of feet from the ceiling. It was the only access to the outside, and since we had found no other exit, it was our best hope for getting out of there.
“Shut the door and lock it,” Jaspar shouted at me, and then turned to a blonde male who looked Kamden’s age. “Push the table under the window,” Jaspar commanded.
I glanced out to the still-empty hall, confirming we weren’t followed. Closing the door and engaging the lock, I finished my job while others worked together to complete their tasks.
“How are we going to get Fisher out?” I whispered to Jaspar, seeing he had the same idea to use the window as an exit.
“I’m not sure.” He shook his head and looked at the guard lying limp next to the roaring flames.
“You don’t have a plan to get him out? He needs a healer, or he’s going to die!” My voice was still hoarse.
“You don’t have a plan either, and he’s your friend,” Jaspar snapped at me, and then paused. “I’m sorry. I just saw my friends killed.” He shook his head and inhaled. “Give me a minute. I’ll figure something out.”
One person knelt on top of the table while boosting another up. The woman standing gave updates while she peeked out. “There are guards running towards us with gaps in between every time they go through the door to the prison.”
“For every gap, two of you go. Take swords with you, but leave a couple behind,” Jaspar ordered. “Find a place with cover until we all get out. We leave together.”
We’d collected several swords along the way, and nearly half of us had one in hand. I had Jaspar’s dagger and had offered it to him. But when he’d asked if I'd completed the task and I shook my head, he’d told me to hold on to it until I accomplished my goal.
Two by two, members of the resistance left through the window. The opening was so small, only one could pass at a time. One of the larger members nearly couldn’t fit at all, but he sucked in his belly, giving him a few more inches of clearance to shimmy through.
Jaspar, Fisher, Maris, and I were the only ones left by the time the banging on the door started. It wasn’t just the pounding, but the voices behind it that told me their sole purpose would be to kill everyone they found inside.
Leaving Fisher’s side, I knelt down on the table. “Okay, you two next.”
“What? No. I’m not leaving you.” Jaspar’s eyes bore into me.
“No offense, Audryn, but I won’t be waiting around.” Maris stepped into my interlaced hands. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
“Thank you for everything,” I said. “And just so you know, I was never the one that—”
She smirked. “It was that bitch Leanna, wasn’t it?”
I chuckled, and a moment later she was gone. Motioning to Jaspar, I gestured for him to go next. His eyes closed as he drew in a deep breath.
“You have so much left to do, Jas.” I paused. “Thank you for coming when I didn’t deserve your help, and I’m sorry for blaming you for Kam. I should’ve asked.”
“I can’t leave you.” His blue eyes were watery.
“You can.” I bit back tears. “We all have choices to make, and staying is mine.”
Bending down, he laid a gentle kiss on my forehead and waited one last breath to let me change my mind.
“Go,” I said, pushing away tears. “I’ll figure it out one way or another, I promise.”
“And if you don’t?”
I grinned. “Then I’ll tell Kam you said hello.”
The door bowed as the shouting grew behind it.
“Fuck.” Jaspar exhaled, then stepped into my hands, and pulled himself up to the window.
“Tell Col we would have been great together,” I shouted after him, watching his feet disappear through the small space.
My stomach fluttered as I realized I was left alone to face the guards on my own, even though I’d requested it. Forced it. I sat next to Fisher, who was still unconscious. The hum of my magic worked through me as I felt the threat coming closer. I was as good as dead, but refused to go quietly.
In a moment of insanity, I came up with an idea that would not only kill me, but take out every last one of the guards too.
Focusing down through the floor and into the land, I poured out my magic, begging the land to obey faster than it had ever before.
The ground shook slowly at first. Small, smooth waves rolled through the surface, making the stone groan.
I pushed and pushed; pushed down just as I had at the seeps until the land quaked in jerky movements.
Forcing the stone to collapse and crush us all would be my last act of defiance against the Suttons and their guards.
“It’s okay,” I said to Fisher, “I’m with you.”
The irony that I would finally get to kill my brother’s executioner wasn’t lost on me. The situation had played on repeat the last few days, and I’d decided we were all just a part in Sutton’s fucked-up game. Killing Fisher wouldn’t bring my brother back; none of it would.
“I forgive you. Kamden would have forgiven you too.” I leaned down and rested the side of my face on his forehead. “You’ll see, he’s going to tell you when we see him.”
Bits of stone fell away, and cracks formed in the floor beneath us, exposing patches of soil. The flickering flame of the fire waved more violently as if it were a fish tossed around in the ocean’s current. I was the current.
Minutes passed, but the walls refused to come down. I’d nearly drained myself, and even with my mother and my father’s magic, it wasn’t enough. I looked down at Fisher, whose head lay on top of my arm. My eyes roamed over my tattoo and landed on the little sleeping bee so close to the guard’s face.
“Hi, Kam.” My chest tightened, nearly unable to draw in a breath from the grief cracked wide open. Tears streamed, and the threat of sobs was thick in my throat.
Looking at the newly formed cracks, I found a patch of dirt and my mind worked once more. There was another way to accomplish the same goal. Just because the first plan hadn’t worked, didn’t mean I needed to give up. I had to adjust to the land, just as I had in Kuroden.
Carefully, I conjured the earth to form shrubs of oleander.
It required only a trickle of magic for the stems to grow long with the flowering buds blooming on the ends.
With the raging fire next to me, I unsheathed Jaspar’s dagger and cut the sprigs from the bush.
I began hauling them into the flame by the fistful.
I moved frantically with one hand while continuing to cradle Fisher’s head with the other. He looked content, and for the first time I realized I had never seen him at peace. With death pushing down on us, not only had I found my serenity, but he had too.
“My mother is going to adore you,” I whispered in short breaths. “Thank you for keeping me safe.”
Smoke began billowing from the fireplace and crowded the room in thick puffs.
I laid down on the floor, keeping Fisher close to me and hoping to stay below the smoke to give me more time.
Continuing to grab the flowers with one hand, I regenerated growth from the land.
There would need to be a lot of smoke for it to work, and I hoped I could create enough to kill the others before it took me first.
Nausea started to come in waves and I urged my body to hold it together just a little while longer. I’d already failed at so much, I refused to do so with my own death.
Coughing erupted from behind the door, shifting my focus to the other side of the hazy room.
My mind began to spin and hallucinate somewhere amid the chaos.
I saw my father and mother’s figures in the corner wrapped in a warm embrace.
My mother looked happier than I last remembered, with a wide toothy smile; she was beaming.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her so happy.
My parents pulled away, revealing Kamden standing in the center.
He moved to my father’s side and threw his arms around our father’s neck.
They all looked so peaceful; it was a feeling I’d missed for so long.
Our family was together once again. Kamden turned to me, his bright blue eyes brilliantly calling me to him.
“I’m coming, Kam,” I mumbled while I laid on my side, sleep pulling me in. I moved my hand to my mother’s necklace and rubbed the pendant. “Wait for me.”