Chapter 11
Ceri
Sconces blazed to life on the stone walls around us, the sparsely filled room now dimly lit. We all looked like we’d just been through a battle, hair going in all directions, clothes rumpled, faces drawn, and our crowns all glowing brighter than they had in the throne room.
“Where is the prince?” Siobhan asked, and we all looked around the circular space.
“If I had to wager a guess, I’d say he’s not here.” Meera studied her long claws.
My mouth dropped open. They were right. Cillian was gone. Panic seized me, and my throat went dry as I imagined him falling in that dark space, getting lost, never coming back.
“Hey.” Marsten put an arm around me. “I’m sure he’s fine.”
“The high prince is safe,” Morton said from above us, perched on a stone that jutted out of the wall. “However, the seven of you are not.”
Everyone gasped.
“I’m kidding,” he said, clearly enjoying this far too much. “I already made it clear that none of you are in danger. Does anyone listen to me?”
“Morton, can you get to the point?” I planted my hands on my hips. “We’re all tired and a little rattled, and frankly, I think we could use some answers.”
He sent me a pointed stare. “Might I remind you that as the master of these trials, I will reveal information as I see fit.”
“Look, I think his head might be growing,” Marsten mumbled.
“Welcome to your first trial.” Morton’s wings spread out like he was making some grand pronouncement.
“Why are there no doors or windows?” Clio asked as the flames around her head whirled and sparked viciously.
Morton sighed. “I would love it if I could get through my speech without any interruptions.” Clio’s mouth snapped shut as she glared at the bookwyrm.
“That’s better. Now, for trial one: the seven of you are locked in this tower, and it is up to you to escape.
A good queen must be the light for her people in the dark. Good luck.”
With a pop, the bookwyrm disappeared.
“Without champagne this is far less fun,” Marsten said.
“What are we going to do?” Lila asked, blue eyes wide and chin trembling. She looked so helpless in this circular room, her small frame trembling. “I have to get back to Grayson. Who’s going to cook his supper?”
“He’s a grown man,” Marsten said. “I think Grayson can cook Grayson’s supper.”
Lila glared at him. “I do it for him.”
“Do you also do all his washing and pack him a lunch every day?” Meera said, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Of course I do,” Lila said.
“Shite,” Meera mumbled.
My mind was already whirling with possibilities as I glanced around the tower. “It’s like a puzzle.”
“Why do you sound so excited by that?” Meera asked.
“Because puzzles are fun.”
Father and I loved doing puzzles, and it was often a way to wind down at night, to calm my father before bedtime, to occupy his brain so he couldn’t worry about anything else.
Siobhan stepped forward, chin raised. “Like Morton said, a good queen must find the light.”
“There’s a light.” Marsten pointed at Clio’s fiery head. “And it’s warm. Ooh.” He rubbed his hands together while Clio swatted at him.
“We’re going to have to work together on this,” I said. “Everyone spread out and study every detail. Mention anything you notice.”
Siobhan pushed in front of me. “Yes, spread out.” She clapped her hands. “Chop-chop, everyone.”
“I suppose if it gets us out of here sooner, I’ll help.” Meera prowled toward one curve of the wall, and Marsten joined her.
I stood in the middle of what appeared to be a tower with its tall, vaulted ceiling and took in each detail as the others had already moved to the walls, most of them feeling for anything out of the ordinary.
“There has to be something,” Lila said, flicking a random stone in the wall. “How does this make us a good queen anyway? What kind of trial is this? We’re not even competing against each other.”
“Maybe good queens don’t compete?” I suggested. “Maybe they work well with others, listen.”
“I’m listening,” Siobhan chirped. “What ideas does everyone have?” She spread her arms. “Share.”
A woman with a gap between her teeth and a short brown bob stepped forward. I believed her name was Liadan. She assisted the blacksmith in his shop and planned to take it over after he retired. “Maybe we need to look for loose stones, ones we can pull out?”
“That’s a good idea,” I said.
“Unfortunately, I need to excuse myself from this challenge.” Meera held up her paw. “My claws will chip if I scratch too hard at the stone.”
“Oh.” Marsten stared at his pink nails. “So will mine. I’m out.”
“Luckily you both have eyes,” I said, “and those can help us even if your claws can’t.”
Meera’s head slumped and I could’ve sworn I heard her mumbling something about using her claws on me.
“I found something!” Clio yelled, and everyone ran toward her, gathering around. “Look at this stone. It’s sticking out at a weird angle, right?”
“Well, pull it,” Marsten said.
The faerie reached out her hand, then stopped. “What if pulling it makes the whole bloody tower come down on us?”
We all paused, but Morton’s words echoed through my head. “Morton assured us we weren’t in danger. So the tower can’t crash down.”
Marsten raised a finger. “Or it can, but it won’t hurt us.”
“Maybe we should think this through,” Meera said as she wound her body around my leg.
“Oh, just do it already.” Siobhan pushed forward, elbowing Clio out of the way and yanking on the piece of stone until it slid out with a raspy sound.
No one breathed, all of us staring at the little hole, waiting for something to happen.
Marsten flipped his hair over his shoulder. “That was anticlimactic. This is starting to get boring.”
“I’ll take boring over dead,” Meera said, and Lila squeaked at her use of the word.
“No one is going to be dead,” I said.
Siobhan dropped the stone piece onto the ground, and we all stood there, no one knowing what to do with it.
A good queen must be a light for her people in the dark. Those had been Morton’s last words.
I blinked a few times, staring at the little hole. “Wait a minute.” I pushed my way through the others and peered through the tiny gap, light piercing my eye. I spun to face them. “I think we’re on the right path. Let’s keep finding the loose stones, letting in more light.”
“And then what?” Lila threw up her arms. “I’ll never get back to Grayson. He won’t have anyone to feed him.”
Marsten raised a brow. “You do know the whole point of this is that you’re to marry another man.”
Lila’s bottom lip wobbled before she burst into tears.
“She finally stopped crying, and you go and say that,” Meera mumbled.
Marsten wrinkled his nose. “Sorry?”
I massaged my temples. “Let’s give Lila some space and get to work looking for loose stones.”
* * *
My hands were red and swollen and throbbing from yanking stone after stone from the tower walls.
Light splintered in, revealing shocks of blue sky and green treetops outside, but all the gaps were so small it was hard to see anything other than that.
Marsten frowned at his long painted nails, one of which was now broken. “It took so long to grow these.”
“And what do we do now?” Liadan gestured to the small, flat stones spread out in the middle of the floor.
We’d let the light in, which I thought would be enough, hoping Morton’s words were some kind of clue. Now it felt like we’d just wasted all our time and energy on the wrong thing.
“That’s odd. It looks a little bit like a puzzle, just like Ceri said,” Lila said from where she sat, knees drawn to her chest. She hadn’t moved in an hour but had stopped crying, which was an improvement for all of our ears.
“Oh, now you choose to help.” Meera’s tail flicked back and forth behind her as Lila hiccuped.
“Who’s antagonizing her now?” Marsten mumbled under his breath.
“How are you seeing a puzzle?” Liadan frowned. “All I’m seeing is a big pile of blocks.”
I stared at the jagged edges of the pieces, thinking of all the puzzles my father, Cillian, and I had put together over the years. The way Cillian and Father could look at all the pieces and immediately begin picturing how they fit together.
Cillian would grab my hand, then take my finger and slide it along the smooth outer edges of the pieces. Start at the border, he’d whisper in my ear, and it’ll all slowly come together.
“The border,” I said, then knelt and picked up one of the flat stones that had a curved, smooth edge. “I think Lila is right.”
Siobhan picked up another piece with a rounded edge, reaching it out and fitting it with mine.
Everyone was still for a second before we started moving at once, picking up pieces, laying them out, yelling and switching them around.
Even Lila had jumped into action. The excitement in the room built as the puzzle slowly came together.
We moved and pieced and talked, and then finally, we stood back, all of us craning our necks to try and figure out what we were looking at.
Clio tilted her head, her fiery hair flickering. “A circle?”
“Perfect,” Meera said, “another thing that makes absolutely no feckin’ sense.”
The puzzle trembled, and it began shifting, opening, making all of us back away.
“Not this again.” Liadan bit her bottom lip.
I braced my legs, my whole body tensing, but this time, the floor didn’t drop from beneath us. Instead, the circle puzzle began to break apart piece by piece, all the chunks falling into some dark abyss until the whole circle had broken away to reveal a gaping hole in the middle of the tower.
“At least we didn’t fall into this one,” Marsten said.
Siobhan took a cautious step forward, peering down. She gasped and pointed. “A way out!”
The rest of us rushed forward, and I could just make out stairs that led downward in a spiral. They unraveled step by step like a rug into the depths of the tower.
“Oh my godwitches.” Lila fell to her knees. “We’re free. Grayson, I’m coming back to you. I swear it.”
Meera’s eyes rolled upward. “You’d think she’d gone to war and back with how she’s acting.”
Marsten snorted.
“So who’s first?” Liadan asked with a shaky voice, peering down into the dark abyss.