Chapter 9:

Lies

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It was a miracle that she didn’t get lost.

The castle wasn’t exactly labyrinthical, maybe because it was giant land, and everything seemed big enough to be obvious where every place would be. But Amelia found herself running through those hallways and knowing where the dungeons would be as if she had always lived there. She stopped between runs to take a breath, to hide behind someone every time one of the enormous castle guards came across her path.

She started seeing the unmistakable sight of bars down some stone stairs and across a long hallway. Stopping, she hid behind a threshold and hastily took out one of the parchments, dirtying her fingers with the ink and writing as quickly as she could.

After being called by the king, all the guards left the dungeons.

They had to leave the dungeons, for the safety of their king.

She waited, but nothing happened. She wrote it again, her fingers barely managing a legible sentence in their hurry. Soon, she heard the steps of the guards and ran off the threshold hiding as they left the dungeons almost running.

Amelia nearly tripped while she climbed down the last stairs, calling Briallen’s name.

“Here!” The princess’ arm popped from the bars of one of the cells. Amelia looked around, looking for any key close, but the guard must have taken it with him.

Dammit, I should have made them leave the keys too.

“I can’t open them,” Briallen said. “That giantess put a repelling spell and I don’t know enough of this world’s magic to break it.”

“Where is Ector?” Amelia asked, as she dirtied her fingertips again and wrote open in every surface of the door cell. Her head was pounding as if her skull would split open with every word.

Briallen made a face. “He injured one of the guards, and had a small knife they couldn’t get. They took him… Probably deeper in the dungeons. I—How did you do that?”

“I’ll explain later.” Amelia helped her up and the princess waved a little with her chained ankles and wrists. The next time she wrote the words, her head spun so hard that she had to lean on Briallen to not fall. “You get going, I don’t know how long they’ll be retained by what I did.”

“Are we leaving him?” Briallen asked, incredulous but not… regretful. “He did bring us to this trouble, entering the castle grounds and taking that dammed flower.”

Amelia clenched her jaw, thinking about what Ewen had said about the princess's dislike for the Raven King of the Moorlands and her already latent antagonism with ‘Ector’. She wouldn’t mind leaving him, wouldn’t she? For her, he was an enemy, no matter if they had been sent on this mission together, no matter if they were trying to save the same world. Briallen wouldn’t mind if she said they had to leave him in this strange land where he would surely die once the giants discovered they were gone.

But Amelia cared, and she couldn’t let things unanswered with the one person that might know what happened to her and where she was from.

“Get going, Briallen,” she said again despite her pained head, closing her blackened fingers into a fist. “I’ll find him, get going, find the others and be ready.”

“But—”

“I just rescued you,” Amelia said, irritated. “I think you owe me some trust in my abilities.”

Never mind she had died just less than a day ago. If they wanted to put the safety of their world on her shoulders, the least they could do was trust her she could handle it on her own.

Briallen opened her mouth to protest but a rumbling in the roof of the dungeons made her stop.

“There isn’t much time,” Amelia urged.

“Be careful,” the princess said and took her own bag and sword from where the guards had left them, walking and climbing the stairs outside.

With a trembling hand, Amelia wrote on the skin of her forearm.

And Briallen got safely out of the castle.

It went darkly as she walked further into the dungeons. It was already dark outside, and it would be even darker when the king woke up and the news of the human armies getting close reached him.

Her steps halted at the sudden thought. How did she know that? Had she truly written the king losing against the humans? Why? Had this world become too dangerous? Or had it been something else?

She took a torch when the way became darker… The chill that the notion that no other prisoners were visible nearly made her want to turn around but she steeled up and pinched her chin, checking every cell until she saw him.

They had him chained to a wall, arms and feet, someone had taken his cloak and his weapons but didn’t underestimate him to leave them close as they had done with Briallen. Amelia rose the torch to see his face properly and realised how he seemed thinner and smaller without the cloak. He wasn’t a big man at all, it had been the precedent fear from her dreams that had made him so in her eyes.

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He raised his head and stared at her. “My lady Weaver, have you come to finish what they started?”

“You have no one to blame for this predicament but yourself,” Amelia said mercilessly. “Briallen said you stole from them. Why?”

“It hardly matters now.”

“Oh, truly? So you did it out of a whim? Why would a king want a random flower?”

He tensed at the word, his beaten-up face fully in her view as she stepped closer to the cell.

“What did you say?”

“What you heard, Ector. But that’s not your name, is it?”

The chains rattled when he tried to stand up but fell back against the wall.

“You… You remember?”

“Remember what, exactly? That you are the Raven King?” Amelia snapped, almost touching the bars with her face. “That you tried to kill me?”

“Kill you?”

“I really had enough of lies.”

“I’m not lying,” the Raven King snarled. “I didn’t try to kill you, I didn’t know who you were, Amelia Brown. Only that you were somehow in my court but neither me nor mine could remember you being there. It was Lord Merlian who told me about the sorceress that had come to my lands and then disappeared just when the plagues started to return and we were at war again.”

“You are saying I did that?” Amelia shouted, suddenly forgetting where they were, and how little time they had. It felt like they were back in that dream, in that little cabin, with his furious eyes, his hands around her throat and her own voice… apologising.

“You are the one who has such power that no witch or sorcerer must have,” he continued and snorted. “Do not talk to me as I was the one that disrupted your peace.”

Amelia took a step back, thinking of the giant monarch that lay asleep in this same castle. All of what Briallen and Ewen had said about the dragons, the plague and the wars in their world, had she…? No, it couldn’t be. Yes, she had managed to make that giant fall asleep but a war? Why would she want to cause a war? Even without her memories Amelia knew that she wasn’t the kind of person that enjoyed causing suffering just for the hell of it.

Or was she?

“Maybe you are right,” she said after a moment and Almeric of the Moorlands looked up, confused. “Maybe I am the villain here. Maybe, as you said, that city where I was trapped was actually a prison, but I can assure you it wasn’t me who put me there.”

“Who else would? No one else has your kind of magic, not in our world.”

“Then maybe I must find a world that has it,” Amelia said, reaching into her pocket and the ink pot. She wrote ‘open’ on the lock of the cell five times, with the tip of her finger, hissing every time at every needle sharp pain stabbing through her skull.

The door opened and she stepped inside the cell, staring down at the man who had appeared in her dreams, received her in his home and even then neither of them seemed to know who the other truly was.

Almeric stared at the open door then back at her. “We?”

“Why did you lie to the others?” Amelia said to take his attention away from her hands.

He scoffed. “Why do you think? Does it look like that girl would have partnered with me? Weeks travelling with her and I can see she is her mother’s daughter to the core.”

“She thinks you are at fault for her mother having to separate her kingdom from the rest of your continent.”

“She knows nothing.”

“She knew your son.”

“Don’t talk about my son,” he hissed. “If you are going to leave me here, just do it. They’ll come back soon.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Amelia said and walked inside, left the torch to one side, hunched and took one of his wrists, quickly writing on the manacles. After a moment, they fell open to the ground. “Can you stand?”

He stared at her and then tried to get up with his hands against the wall as she leaned down and wrote in the ones on his ankles. Her head spun so hard that she nearly pulled him down with her.

“What’s wrong?” he said and clutched to her side.

“Nothing,” Amelia whispered and shook her head, closing her eyes tight. “Let’s go.”

She took his arm to prop herself up and walked to take the torch, she stayed behind him, not yet willing to give her back to him.

“Are you going to tell them who I am?” he asked and she shook her head.

“The last thing we need is fighting amongst ourselves, we need to get to your world or at least to one we can solve this.”

They were minutes out before having to run from the growing steps and the shouts of the giants. Soon they were back in the forest, towards the temple where they had arrived and the rest of their group.

“Princess, they’re back!” The sound of Ewen’s voice filled Amelia with an unexpected relief. He ran to her and hugged her, she patted his back awkwardly as relief mounted while seeing Ivor awake and well.

“Are you hurt?” she asked the old man and he shook his head.

“Just a few bruises, my lady.”

“Now that we are all here, we need to find a door,” the Raven King said and Briallen glared at him but said nothing, turning to Amelia.

“We found a door here, a broken one downstairs.”

“Lead the way then, there won’t be much longer until they come here.”

“What about the food and water?” Ewen asked and Amelia tried to ignore the way her own stomach twisted with hunger.

“We’ll have to see in the next world since this one is clearly not yours.”

The door was closed, fortunately, and they found it quickly, down musty stairs covered with plants that went to an underground room. It was broken, half out of its hinges. But it worked, once the silver key was in, it worked.

And Amelia let the darkness take her once they were safely inside the Hall of Doors.