Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
LINDY
“Lindy!” Atlas’s panicked voice roused her from pleasant dreams, drawing her back into the disappointing reality of curses and power-hungry guards. “Lindy, where are you?”
“Here.” She sat up, disturbing the princes, who grunted in annoyance. She rubbed her bleary eyes against her arm. “Did you find Phoebe?”
A disgruntled honk answered her, as did Atlas. “I have her. But we need to get back as soon as possible.”
Lindy was already on her feet at the worry in his voice. “What happened?”
“Elise was arrested this evening.”
“What? Why? On what grounds?” She started shoving all of the completed shirts into her pillowcase bag.
“Haldrick claims that he has evidence proving that she assisted you in getting rid of the princes. The trial is set for tomorrow morning, but they were already building a pyre.”
Ice shot through her veins. She froze, mid-shove. “Why?”
“Whispers are that they’re going to burn her at the stake. Haldrick is already convinced of her guilt, and he wants to make a public spectacle.”
The swans all burst into a noisy cacophony of honks and flapping wings. Phoebe, a tiny white goose who looked even smaller in Atlas’s large hands, wriggled her way out of his hold and joined them.
Atlas held the bag open as she stuffed the sixth shirt inside. “We need to go. How close are you to finishing the last shirt?”
Lindy grimaced. “It’s still only half-finished. I’ll knit while I walk.”
He nodded. “Alright. We’ll take the road. It’s a little bit farther in distance than cutting through the forest, but you’ll be able to keep your feet better. We should still be able to get to the castle by sunrise if we leave now.”
She held up a hand as a sinking realization washed over her. “I’m going alone.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. No, you’re not.”
“Well, technically not, since the princes need to come with me. But you can’t be there, Atlas.”
“Why not?” He crossed his arms over his chest, a stubborn scowl etched onto his handsome face.
“Because as much as I want you to be there, my presence alone is going to stir up enough trouble.”
His jaw worked back and forth, and she hated the hurt she could see flashing in his eyes. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that there are times when it would be useful to have an angry giant barge into a courtroom. When we’re trying to avoid angering a mob who is likely already set on death and bloodshed isn’t one of them.”
“You think I’m frightening.”
“I know you can be terrifying.” Lindy stepped closer, tugging one of his arms loose and sliding her hand down its length until she could slip her fingers between his. “But I also know you’re kind. Patient. Gentle. You wouldn’t hurt a hair on my head.”
He swallowed thickly. “I happen to like your hair.”
“But those people don’t know that,” she pressed on.
“They don’t have the privilege of knowing you like I do, and if Haldrick can convince them a sweet girl like Elise deserves to be burned alive, there’s no telling what he would try to do to you.
Either a lot of people would get hurt when you protected yourself, or else you would be hurt because you didn’t. ”
“You don’t want me to be there?” He tilted his head, looking for confirmation, practically begging for her to tell him otherwise.
She clasped her other hand over the one she held and squeezed. “I want you here, waiting for me.”
He sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear and brushing the back of his fingers against her cheek. “You promise you’ll come back?”
She looked up into his eyes and nodded, unable to find words in the emotion of the moment.
“Alright.” He sighed again. “I don’t like it, but I promised to respect your wishes. I’ll wait, but you have to come back. I can’t keep you alive if you don’t.”
Lindy gave him a sad, watery smile, then melted as Atlas gently grabbed the back of her head and drew her forward as he leaned down to place a soft, sweet kiss on her forehead. “Be safe, Lindy. Remember—you’re not alone.”
He helped her fashion her cloak into a sling so that she could carry the bag with the finished shirts in it, then stood back, holding his goose and watching as she began making her way along the shore of the lake to where it met the road.
She looked over her shoulder one last time to see him lift a hand in a single wave.
She raised her knitting needle in response, then strode purposefully on.
Knitting while walking was not exactly as simple as she had hoped, and after nearly falling on her face for the fourth time, Lindy was thankful for Atlas’s suggestion to take the wide, flat road rather than pick her way through the forest. The swans walked on either side of her, edging her feet whenever she started veering too far in one direction.
The picture they must have formed was ridiculous, like feathered sheep leading their shepherd, and if Lindy weren’t so anxious about getting to the castle in time to keep Elise from a horrible, fiery death, she would have been tempted to laugh.
Streaks of light appeared on the horizon, pinks and purples that were far too gorgeous for the violence they preceded. Lindy quickened her pace. She was still at least a mile away, and there was no telling how long Haldrick would allow the trial to go on.
The swans, Corbin especially, were getting anxious. They hissed and snorted, moving forward in hopping, flapping steps that suggested they were just barely refraining from flying. In the distance, chapel bells rang.
“No!” Lindy cried out in panic, hugging the nearly-finished shirt to her chest and hiking up her skirt.
The swans took flight as she ran, guiding the way down the road and through the wide gates of the city.
The streets were mostly empty, nearly everyone having gathered in the town square for the trial and execution.
Those who were left pointed and whispered as she passed, but Lindy barely even noticed.
The crowd in the square was pressed in thick, standing shoulder to shoulder and watching with rapt, morbid attention as Haldrick presented Elise.
Guards were posted on the edges and interspersed among the onlookers, ready to spring into action with their hands on their weapons and intimidating scowls carved onto their faces.
A pyre had been constructed in the middle, grim and ominous against the pastel watercolors in the dawning sky.
Poles on either side held the burning torches that would carry out Elise’s sentence.
Haldrick stood on a high platform on the far side of the square.
His normal guard uniform had been replaced by a fine suit of clothes that looked as if he had pulled it straight from Corbin’s wardrobe.
Elise, flanked by armored guards, stood to the side.
Her hair was frizzy and bedraggled, and her eyes were rimmed by dark circles in her pale face.
Even so, she stood straight and tall, and though her chin wobbled, she held it high.
“Elise Reitzel, you have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder on eight counts, and of aiding and abetting a known criminal to carry out the same.”
Angry rumbles rolled through the crowd. The princes landed at Lindy’s feet, drawing the attention of those around her. Elbows started nudging and whispers traveled as wide eyes took in what Lindy knew must be a rather wild-looking appearance after spending two weeks surviving outdoors.
“With the evidence brought against you, the investigators of these crimes have found you guilty of all charges. You are hereby sentenced to death by fire. May the Almighty have mercy on your soul.”
At his last words, the guards shoved Elise forward, escorting her roughly down the steps of the platform and leading her to the pyre.
The princes took off, flying low over heads with agitated hisses.
Lindy started shoving her way through, ignoring the yells of protest and the grabbing hands that tried to hold her back.
From the corner of her eyes, she could see the guards posted in the crowd move to converge on her, and she moved faster, pulling her cloak sling around so she could reach the sack of shirts.
The guards dragged Elise up the creaky steps of the pyre and began lashing her to the stake. Despite her earlier attempts at keeping a brave face, she was fighting them now, kicking and screaming. Her eyes met Lindy’s over the remaining distance. “Lindy!”
Her cry drew Haldrick’s attention, and he jumped forward, leaning over the railing of the platform and jabbing a finger in her direction. “It’s the witch! Seize her!”
Pandemonium ensued. The princes were swooping low, attacking with wings and beaks. Elise’s guards, having finally succeeded in securing her, jumped off the pyre and tossed in the burning torches before running toward Lindy.
Elise screamed.
The shirt’s not finished, but there’s no time. I’ll just have to hope that it’s enough.
“Corbin!” Lindy shouted. The swan banked toward her on his way to Elise, and she pulled the knitting needles from the last shirt and tossed it at him. The moment it hit his back, he transformed, dropping to the ground in a tucked roll and jumping to his feet.
The crowd gasped as he sprinted to the pyre, clearing the growing flames in a single, desperate jump. Elise melted into him with tears of relief as he clawed away at the ropes that bound her.
“Your Highness!” A man stepped forward from the crowd and tossed him a knife, proving that perhaps not all the citizens of Cygnus were useless.
In the meantime, Lindy was pulling nettle shirts from her bag and throwing them at the princes.
Owen leaped to help his brother, while Lukas and Lance started yelling for water to douse the flames.
Jacques, to Lindy’s utter and complete astonishment, yelled and started swinging his fists at the guards who were trying to grab her.
She ducked under their reaching arms, tossing the remaining two shirts to Alvin and Pierre.
The crowd around her had turned into a mob, with people shoving and shouting over one another, voices raised in both joy and suspicion over the princes’ sudden reappearance.
Owen and Corbin succeeded in freeing Elise from the stake, and the eldest prince swept his love into his arms and jumped down, barely avoiding the soggy wood and dying flames.
Elise buried her face in his neck as her entire body shook violently.
Lindy’s heart filled with a relief that was short-lived as the pressing mob caged her in, and her arms were seized from both sides by iron grips as a heavy boot kicked her legs out from under her, forcing her to her knees.
Someone struck the side of her head, and she tasted blood in her mouth as her ears rang, drowning out the princes’ demands that she be let go.
Shiny, polished boots appeared on the ground in front of her, and her head was yanked up roughly by her hair. A sneer curled Haldrick’s lip as he looked down at her.
“Well, well, well. Look what the swans have dragged in.” He shoved her roughly to the side and barked at the guards holding her, “Take her to the dungeon.”