“She looks like a mommy,” Brady said.
“How did you get here?” Mira asked.
“They came to Dreamland and got me,” Brady said. “At first I thought they were Blind Ones. They dressed and acted like Blind Ones. But they didn’t kill me. They took me away from Dreamland.”
“We were there too,” Cole said. “In Dreamland. People call it Brady’s Wilderness. We met Amanda.”
“You saw her?” Brady exclaimed, excited.
“She helped us,” Cole said.
“Is she okay?” Brady asked.
“She’s fine,” Cole said.
“I didn’t want to leave without her,” Brady said. “The guys who took me wouldn’t go back.”
“Did they bring you here after Dreamland?” Mira asked.
“Not at first,” Brady said. “They told me if I let them, they could make the dream end. I didn’t want those dreams anymore. I gave away my dreaming. I thought I would wake up and be home.”
“They made the dreams stop?” Mira asked.
“It worked,” Brady said. “My dreams never happen anymore. No giant cookies. No magic toys. But no bad guys either. None of it happens.”
“They took his power,” Twitch murmured.
“After they took away your dreams, they brought you here?” Mira asked.
“Yes,” Brady said. “They can’t take me home yet. They said it’s too far.” Leaning forward, he whispered, “I think maybe they’re kidnappers.”
“They are,” Mira said. “Don’t worry. We’re here to help you.” Mira turned and lowered her voice. “Can somebody distract him?”
Dalton went forward, knelt down, and began asking Brady about the picture he was drawing. Brady responded cheerfully to the attention.
Mira addressed the others. “That kid had serious power. Back in Sambria, they could have made another Carnag.”
“Wouldn’t we have heard of it?” Twitch asked.
“It may not have happened that long ago,” Joe said. “How long has Brady been here?”
“A few weeks,” Oster said. “He could have been held elsewhere before. I don’t know the history.”
“They might have more control of the creature this time,” Joe speculated. “It may not be rampaging.”
“Why bring Brady here?” Jace asked.
“Whatever they did with his power, it can’t reach him in Elloweer,” Mira said. “It would only work in Sambria. Maybe they wanted to keep Brady far away.”
“They probably took all of his shaping ability,” Cole said. “You know, like Carnag tried to do to you, Mira. If Brady volunteered, they could have completely separated him from his power.”
“Then why would they need him?” Jace asked. “What good is he without any power?”
“I don’t know,” Mira said. “There must be a reason. We need to learn more about how shapecrafting works.”
They heard noisy footsteps on the stairs. Minimus entered the room, breathing hard. “We’re under attack,” the Halfknight announced, panting. “The town offered little resistance. Guardsmen are trying to open the castle gates from both sides.”
“Blast!” the Rogue Knight exclaimed. He whirled to Oster. “Do you know the other prisoners up here?”
“There are only a few others,” Oster said. “This tower is for unnamed captives. None are known to me.”
“Will you help Mira and her friends escape?” the Rogue Knight asked. “Can you smuggle them away from Edgemont?”
“I know three hidden ways out of the castle,” Oster said.
“We can help,” Skye said. “Sultan and I will cloak us in seemings.”
“That would give us a fighting chance,” Oster said.
The Rogue Knight laid a hand on the Halfknight’s armored shoulder. “Minimus, stay with Mira until we find each other again. Serve her well. Protect her at all costs. Oster, help them escape, then return to me once they are away.”
“We have to check the other prisoners,” Mira said anxiously. “Just in case.”
“Very well,” the Rogue Knight said. “Be swift. We are greatly outnumbered. Our enemies will overrun this castle shortly.”
“We’ll hurry,” Mira promised.
The Rogue Knight drew his sword. “I must join my knights.” He hurried from the room and bounded down the stairs. Cole suspected that anyone else who tried to run in armor like that would end up in a dented pile at the bottom of the stairway.
“Come on, Brady!” Mira called.
The boy looked up from where he sat with Dalton. “We’re leaving?”
“Yes,” Mira said.
“A hostage could prove useful,” Oster mused.
“Not a hostage,” Mira said. “We’re freeing him.”
“Are you sure?” Skye asked. “Joining us may be a rough road for the little guy.”
“He is clearly of high value to our enemies,” Sultan said. “And he doesn’t belong to them.”
“We can’t leave him behind,” Mira insisted. “Who knows what they might do to him?”
“I agree,” Sultan replied. “I’ll watch out for him.”
Holding Dalton’s hand, Brady followed them out of the room. They started down the stairs, stopping at the next iron door. Oster tried a few keys before he found the right one. The room was empty.
Behind the next iron door they found a man chained to the wall. Blindfolded and gagged, his hair was long and disheveled.
“I know this one,” Oster said. “He was an Enforcer and a powerful enchanter. He lost his mind. We don’t want dealings with him.”
They shut the door and moved on. From a distance, through barred windows, Cole heard the clash of combat. A man screamed in pain. Other voices shouted orders.
Cole understood why Mira wanted to check the cells, but the castle was falling. What if they couldn’t make it out? He tried to ignore the churning nervousness in his gut.
Oster unlocked another door to reveal an empty room. The next door opened on a swarthy woman seated at a wooden table. When her eyes found Cole, she glared and snarled. “You?”
“Secha?” Cole exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
She brushed hair away from her face. “Where are the Enforcers?”
“You were back in Carthage with Ansel,” Mira recalled.
“Aye, missy, until the Enforcers came for us. Where are they?”
“No Enforcers here,” Joe said. “We’re in charge for now. You vowed not to follow us.”
“Mayhap I did,” Secha said. “But I never counted on you ruining us. Some Enforcers caught up with us just a few days after you left. Charming lot. One called the Hunter was ready to kill Ansel for information about Miracle Pemberton. And Ansel was prepared to die to keep his oath to you. So I intervened. I volunteered to go with them and help them find you.”
“Is the Hunter here?” Joe asked in alarm.
“Not right now,” Secha said. “Moves around a lot, that one. You’ve made yourselves quite an enemy. And you spoiled my life.”
“Ansel spoiled your life,” Cole said. “He should have left me alone.”
“I reckon he entertains that thought as he rots in a Carthage dungeon,” Secha said darkly. She squinted at Cole. “You’ve changed a bit. You’ve a hint of power in you now.” Her eyes considered Mira. “You’re the royal scion they’re after?”
“How long have you been here?” Mira asked.
“Only since yesterday.”
“Rings true,” Oster said. “Leastways, they brought in a new prisoner last night.”
“How did they plan to use you?” Mira asked.
“I know your faces,” Secha said. “They wanted help spotting you. I wasn’t privy to the full extent of their scheme. This hasn’t been pleasant. I’m a prisoner.”
“Time is against us,?
?? Oster reminded everyone.
“Let’s keep checking,” Mira decided. “Leave her. She’s not important.”
They backed out of the room, and Oster closed the door.
“She broke her vow,” Joe pointed out. “She could still cause trouble.”
“We have bigger problems right now,” Mira said, hustling down the stairs.
“This next door is where we put the guards who surrendered,” Oster said. “There’s just one more.”
He tried a couple of keys before opening the final iron door to reveal an older man with messy white hair and weary eyes. He sat on the edge of a simple cot. One leg was missing halfway past his thigh. The other ended just below the knee.
“Mutiny?” the man asked curiously.
“I don’t know this man,” Oster said.
Mira stepped closer. “Who are you?”
The prisoner leaned forward, eyes narrowing. “It can’t be.”
“Excuse me?” Mira said.
“Miracle?” he asked.
“How do you know me?”
“I was a boy when we knew each other,” he said. “I was a bit younger than you. I’m Reginald Waters.”
“Reggie?” she gasped. “Yes, I see it now. What happened to you?”
“I had charge over Honor for years,” he said. “Not at first. She has been in my care the last five decades. Until I failed her.”
“When?” Mira asked. “How?”
“Not long ago,” he said. “Weeks, not months.”
“Her star was in the sky,” Mira said.
“It appeared the day she was taken from me,” Reginald said. “I had a way to contact your mother. I informed her I had lost my Honor.”
“Is Nori all right?” Mira asked. “Where is she? We’ll help her.”
“I’m not sure anyone can help her,” Reginald said. “She was seized by men loyal to Trillian.”
“The torivor?” Dalton exclaimed, eyes bulging.
“Who?” Cole asked. Dalton clearly knew enough about this Trillian person to be afraid, but Cole had never heard the name.
“The caged demon,” Oster said grimly. “The bane of Elloweer. Trillian the torivor.”
“His men cut me down,” Reginald said. “They left me to die and took her to him. Enforcers were on our trail at the time. They found me and stanched my wounds. Brought me here. Several days later her star went out.”
Cole tried not to stare at Reginald’s maimed legs. The man didn’t look frail, but he was definitely old. Perhaps in his younger days he would have won the fight.
Oster crossed to a window. Craning his neck, he leaned against the bars. “The gates are breeched,” he reported.
“Come with us,” Mira said to Reginald. “The castle is under attack. We have a chance to flee.”
“I can weave a tight seeming,” Reginald said. “But changing these stumps into legs is beyond me. Go. Get the word out about your sister.”
“Can we carry him?” Mira asked.
“Go!” Reginald demanded. “Leave the door open, and I’ll manage. I’ve failed one princess. I won’t risk slowing you. It’s not negotiable. Run!”
“Time grows short,” Oster warned.
“All right,” Mira said. “Thank you, Reggie. Take care.”
“I’ll leave the doors open at the base of the tower,” Oster said. He exited the room and started down the stairs. The others followed.
CHAPTER
25
ESCAPE
Cole focused on descending the stairs as quickly as he could without tripping. Ahead of him, Sultan raced down two steps at a time, toting Brady over one shoulder.
“Why are we running?” Brady asked, looking up at Cole.
“It’s good exercise,” Cole told him.
Brady looked doubtful. “I think the bad guys found me.”
“We’ll be okay,” Sultan assured him as they jounced downward. “We’ll get away.”
They reached the iron door at the base of the tower. A bulky knight stood guard there, holding a large flanged mace. Several broken bodies lay scattered around the hall.
“Which way?” Minimus asked the knight.
He pointed down the hall with two fingers. From the other direction Cole heard fighting.
“That will work,” Oster said hurriedly. “Follow me.”
Unlike the men who rode with the Rogue Knight, Oster did not wear a full suit of armor. He had a long shirt with metal scales, a helmet, and leather guards on his arms and legs. As Oster jogged in the lead, Cole could tell the armor weighed him down enough to make running a chore. Minimus trotted beside Cole, but despite his complete shell of solid armor, the Halfknight moved as if unburdened.
They raced down the hall, turned a corner, went through a door, then rushed down some steps. At the bottom they charged along another hall toward a T intersection. Composed of dark stone blocks, the corridors all looked the same to Cole. He knew they were a few floors above ground level, but otherwise he felt completely disoriented.
As they passed a window, Cole glimpsed two knights out in the courtyard pressed by attackers on all sides. Bodies had piled up around them. Most of the attackers wore the uniforms of Merriston guardsmen.
Oster turned left at the T, then stopped short and raced the other way. When Cole reached the intersection, he found they had run into a large group of legionnaires. Cole sprinted with everything he had as the legionnaires gave chase.
Up ahead, where the hall elbowed, the Rogue Knight ran into view with three other knights. They charged down the hall past Cole toward the legionnaires. Glancing back, Cole saw the legionnaires jostle to a halt. Standing shoulder to shoulder, the four knights filled the hall, weapons drawn, blocking the way. Cole followed Oster around the corner and lost sight of them.
“Nice work,” Sultan told Skye.
“Won’t hold them long,” she replied.
Only then did Cole realize that the Rogue Knight and his three companions had been illusions. That made more sense. The timing had been unbelievably lucky!
Oster led them down branching hallways, some narrow, others wide. While the others ran hard, Twitch hopped and fluttered. They hurried through a dining room with long tables and into a corridor on the far side. Around the next corner they ran into several oncoming guardsmen with crossbows. As the men took aim, a stone wall appeared, blocking them from view. Doubling back, Cole crouched and weaved as quarrels clacked against the wall beyond him. At least the crossbowmen couldn’t see their targets.
As they raced down halls and around corners, walls kept appearing behind them, blending with the actual walls of the castle to obscure their trail. Cole was out of breath, but he kept running hard.
“They shot you,” Brady said from his position draped over Sultan’s shoulder.
Cole noticed Brady staring at a quarrel buried under Sultan’s unburdened shoulder.
“I’ve had worse,” Sultan replied.
Brady reached a tentative hand toward the protruding projectile.
“No,” Cole warned. “You’ll make it worse.”
They came around another corner, and another fake wall arose behind them. “We need disguises,” Skye panted. “I didn’t realize how many soldiers we would encounter.”
“Legionnaires?” Sultan asked.
“Anything so we’re not instant targets,” Skye replied.
“I’ll have to let some of the walls drop,” Sultan said.
“Just leave the last one up,” Skye suggested. “If they don’t have the castle memorized, that should be enough to shake them.”
Cole watched as everyone in their group became legionnaires. The kids and Minimus appeared much taller. Instead of making Brady a legionnaire, the young boy merged with Sultan’s false persona.
“I thought we’d try the dungeon exit,” Ost
er said from the front. “That way is cut off now. We’ll have to use the champion’s quarters. There will be guards out front.”
“We don’t have to run from every enemy,” Minimus said, his high voice incongruent with his full-size seeming. “Let me handle the guards.”
“Some of our best guardsmen get posted at the champion’s quarters,” Oster explained. “Keeping all but the champion out is their duty. I’d hate to harm them.”
“Nonlethal force,” Minimus replied. “Got it.”
“How can I help?” asked the legionnaire with Dalton’s voice.
“If we run into more trouble,” Skye said, “I may have to drop some of our disguises to raise defensive seemings. You can help cover for me.”
“Why did you all turn into soldiers?” Brady asked. It was strange hearing his voice without seeing him.
“It’s pretend,” Cole said. “Like rainbows.”
“Rainbows aren’t pretend,” Brady argued.
“I mean like how rainbows aren’t solid,” Cole said, short of breath from all the running. “We’re using magic costumes.”
“Are we still in Dreamland?” Brady asked.
“Kind of,” Cole said. “But not like before. No dinosaurs.”
While passing through a doorway, their disguises dropped. “Scrubber,” Skye called.
“I’m on it,” Sultan said. Their legionnaire seemings promptly returned.
They rushed up some stairs into an anteroom with a large pair of double doors on the far side. Two guards protected the doors, armed with polearms.
“The old champion is dead,” Oster declared. “The new one has fled. We’re under orders to secure these quarters.”
“Hold it,” one of the guards said, pointing the blade at the end of his pole at Oster. “These quarters are secure. The doors only open under direct orders from the champion.”
“We currently have no champion,” Oster said.
“Until that is resolved, nobody enters,” the guard insisted.
“Drop my disguise,” Oster said.
Instantly the seeming vanished.
“Oster?” the guard asked. “What’s going on?”
“I’m here under orders,” Oster said. “With the Dreadknight gone and the Rogue Knight on the run, Desmond is now master of Edgemont. He wants me here to protect our sensitive documents from Merriston intruders.”