The men who had grabbed her and taken her away from the old mage were not nice to her. They walked, dragging her along, each holding and arm. “Barinon told me that he would show me where Aaron was!” The one with the bald head and red beard squeezed her arm too tightly. They were bigger than she was and even if she turned invisible, she couldn’t get away from them if they were going to hold on to her like this.

The man with the blonde hair was shorter but wider than the other man. He let go of Hailey’s arm for a moment and opened a trap door to a dark pit. Hailey couldn’t see the bottom of it. She began to panic. They were going to throw her in there.

She clung to their arms. “Don’t do this to me!” She screamed at them. “I didn’t do anything wrong!” The one with the bald head tried to lower her into the pit, but she clawed at his arms. She didn’t want to go down there. He looked annoyed and peeled her fingers off his arms. She collapsed in a heap in the ground. The pit was not as deep as it seemed. She thought she might twist an ankle or break something when she fell to the ground, but she landed on her feet.

“Let me out of here,” she commanded but no one came back. No one answered. The trap door closed, leaving them in darkness. Then she heard a voice in the pit with her.

“Hailey?”

She gasped. “Aaron?” So they hadn’t lied about that at least. They had taken her to where Aaron was. “Are you ok? Did they hurt you?” She could hear him move around.

“I’m fine. I just don’t like all this darkness.”

“Me neither. Did they ask you a bunch of questions first or just throw you down here?” If she looked up, she could make out a faint outline of the trap door. It wasn’t enough light to see her hand in front of her face and it smelled down here, of wet dirt and human waste. She crinkled her nose.

“They asked a few questions, like what I was doing in the castle.”

“They didn’t take away your present did they?”

“No. They just said that I wouldn’t be much of a threat and then they put me down here. You might as well try to find a place that’s sort of comfortable. They might leave us in here for a long time,” he said.

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“But why?” Her voice sounded whiney even to her own ears. “Don’t they put bad people in dungeons? We weren’t doing anything wrong.”

“I suspect it’s because they want to make sure you didn’t go anywhere. You’re the one who can go invisible. I don’t think they want to keep you in here. You know stuff about the castle that they don’t. You’re the only one that can go in and out of there. Maybe they just want to know about their daughter.”

His words made sense when she thought about it. Hopefully he was right and they wouldn’t keep them in here for too long. “Maybe. I’m sorry that you got caught, too, though. It isn’t fair.”

“It’s ok,” he told her. “It’s not your fault. Besides, it was an adventure, roaming the halls of the castle. I never thought I’d get the chance to go in there. That was amazing.”

She could hear the smile in his voice. She had forgotten how different the castle must seem to him than it did to her. “Is it selfish of me to be glad you’re here?”

She finally decided to sit next to him. She sat and came down on one of his legs. She was glad that he couldn’t see the heat rising in her cheeks. She moved over and sat next to him.

“I’m glad I’m here, too,” he said. “I wouldn’t want you to be stuck in here all by yourself.”

“That’s what I love about you. You’re such a good friend.”

Aaron didn’t say anything for a long time after that. Hailey started to think that he was upset about something and didn’t want to talk anymore. Maybe he was upset that he had ended up stuck in here but she didn’t like all the silence. It was too much with all the darkness and so she started humming to herself.

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Hailey worried about Henny. She had left the chicken out and it was warmer now, but nights might still be too cold for her all by herself. Most of the time chickens had other chickens to keep them warm. Everyone else would be stuck without blankets, even the princess that they seemed to care so much about. If they really did care about her, they should let them go. She looked over the people in the castle, and now there was no one there. No one would cover them up or sing to them before nighttime.

Hailey cries. Aaron comforts.

“We should probably figure out how to get out of here. Could you cut little places out of the wall for us to put our hands and feet?” She asked him. She didn’t want to wait for the mage to decide to let her go. What if he took his time? What if he needed something from her? At least she should try to get Aaron out of here. If she could sneak him out, they might let him go.