Chapter 16 #2
Because … Six’s ankles were already bound in chains. She stared at them, the deep black shackles that were so like her own, the heavy bolts in the stones that the raphon was connected to, and it broke her.
She’d carried the burden of them for two long years, alone and forgotten.
A prisoner to a life she had not chosen.
No, someone else made that decision for her, and it was hers alone to drown in. Hers alone to suffer through in silence, and she would have lost herself entirely, if it weren’t for the birds.
‘Cut them loose,’ Ezer said.
Six was huddled in the corner. A predator, acting as prey.
And Ezer – the halter at her feet – had been the catalyst.
She threw it out of the cell. The sound was deafening, the slam of chain upon ancient stones. She flinched at the same time Six did.
‘What are you doing?’ Kinlear asked.
She heard his cane as he came as close as he could towards the bars.
‘What I should have done first,’ Ezer said.
She didn’t know if it was the sound of her voice, the stillness of her body, but when she turned to look at the second Prince of Lordach …
He was staring at her, his eyes haunted.
‘Please,’ she said, swallowing the lump in her throat. ‘Cut her loose.’
She expected him to laugh at her, to ask whether or not she was concussed. But instead, he swallowed and said, ‘Okay.’
He reached inside his cloak and produced a ring of keys, which he passed through to her.
They were warm in her hands.
Her heartbeat roared in her ears as she cautiously approached the raphon. She lowered her gaze, not wanting to challenge the pup.
Tonight, they were one and the same.
After all, they shared a cage.
She felt Six’s hot breath on her neck as she knelt and reached out, ever so slowly, towards the first shackle.
‘I’m setting you free,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t eat me.’
She nearly broke again when she saw how utterly raw the skin was beneath each ankle. How the lovely dark fur was matted and wet from blood. Her hands shook as she reached out, not making a sound.
She didn’t even dare breathe.
The key fit into the lock, and the shackle came loose.
Six hissed.
Ezer flinched but held fast. The pup waited patiently, a statue, as Ezer moved to the other front paw and removed the shackle.
And when the final two were off, when the raphon was truly free, enough that it could kill her, devour her, feast upon her bones if it wanted …
She felt something nudge up against her shoulder.
She flinched again, but it was warm, and it was gentle, and when she risked a glance down, she found the beast’s head pressed against her.
Six’s eyes were closed.
Her purr filled the cage, the sound rumbling off the walls.
Ezer reached out and placed her hand on her beak. So large, it spanned her entire torso, and Six wasn’t even fully grown. The scar was deeply indented, like a blade truly had swiped across her, barely missing her throat. She probably carried the memory of that blade, the feel of it …
Like Ezer carried the whisper of shadow wolf claws against her skin.
‘No more chains,’ she promised the pup. ‘I swear it.’
The moment she said it, the beast leaned forward, pressing harder against her palm.
She was gone in an instant.
Her body, here in the cell. But her mind …
It carried her away, back to that same vision as before.
She saw that dark, endless sea, the waves rocking slowly from side to side. There was no shore in sight, nothing to mark where it was, beyond the single feather.
It floated alone. No matter which way the waves carried it, it never sank. And there was that awful feeling again. A deep, unending sadness, like Ezer was lost. Like no one would ever find her, and this dark, endless sea was all she would ever know.
Ezer gasped as she pulled her own hand away.
The vision cleared at once, and there was Six, standing there before her, dark eyes intent.
‘You’re lonely,’ Ezer whispered. ‘Aren’t you?’
The raphon’s tail twitched once.
And she swore Six inclined her head.
So Ezer lifted her other hand and placed it on the raphon’s neck.
The feathers were soft, delicate and silken.
She’d never felt anything so lovely before.
‘It’s all right,’ Ezer said. ‘I’m here now.’
And she meant it.
Before she left, she removed her outer cloak and dropped it on the floor of the cell.
It was something Ervos always did, when a new raven arrived at his tower. A way to get the birds to trust him, to know him, not just when he was there in the present, but when he wasn’t there at all.
He wanted them to think of him like a fond memory. A space to be safe and sound.
‘She’s done for the day,’ Ezer said, as she turned away from Six.
She met Kinlear’s eyes, nearly forgetting he’d been there the whole time.
‘I expect a new halter for her, one without chain link of any kind.’
‘I’ll see to it,’ Kinlear said.
He was looking at her like she was a puzzle, like a set of stars in the sky that he couldn’t quite remember how to name.
He stood slowly and opened the door for her without a word. His eyes were limned with silver.
He coughed, and turned away, leaning heavily on his cane.
‘Are you all right?’ she asked.
‘Never better,’ Kinlear said, and offered her a small smile. ‘Thank you.’
‘For what?’ Ezer asked.
She couldn’t help but notice how hollow his breathing was, how he sniffled and ran a hand across his eyes again. How his cane rapped heavier than it normally did as they walked away.
‘For hope,’ he said. ‘Someday, they’ll sing songs about you. The Raphonminder who changed the fate of Lordach.’
And then he was silent.
She turned back only once to find that the raphon had scooted a bit closer to her cloak. And buried her scarred beak in the fabric, as if to breathe Ezer in.