The Blade and The Bird

Chapter 13

"Just help me," Sidra said as she motioned for Baron to come closer. As he walked over Sidra started to look over the guard's clothing for where a loop of keys would be. She found it on the belt loop and pulled it off. When she was done she walked over to one of the empty cells and unlocked the door with the large skeleton key that hung from the metal loop. Sidra walked back over to the guard and picked up one of his feet.

"Grab the other foot," Sidra instructed Baron.

"Just what are you doing?" he asked but he complied. The two of them dragged the guard into the now open cell.

"You should take his clothes so we can blend in," Sidra said. She looked down at the guard on the floor. She didn't want to kill anyone else if she didn't have to. He'd wake up in the cell and seeing the neglect of the prisoners, it would take some time for someone to find him.

"That's your first good idea," Baron said to her. He started to take off the guard's shoes so he could remove his pants. "A little privacy?" he asked her when he noticed she was still watching.

"Okay," she said and turned in the other direction. There were thick walls between each cell in the dungeon.

"Alright, I'm done," Baron said and Sidra turned back around. She didn't like to see him dressed the same way as the men that had tried to hurt her twice now. The thick cloak hung around his body.

"Great," she said and motioned for him to step out of the cell alongside her. She shut the door of the cell with a resounding click. The guard was still out, she didn't realize how hard she'd hit him.

Sidra shut the door of the cell with a resounding click. She'd locked up the guard.

"Excuse me?" Sidra heard from behind her. She looked over to see a woman in the cell across from the one they had just locked. She tried to get a better look at the woman through the gloom of the dungeon. The woman's skin seemed to give off a blue sheen as she shifted her body in the cell to face Sidra better. Her clothing was filthy and ripped and Sidra watched as the woman tried to pull the collar of her shirt over her neck, she had three sharp gashes on each side, and it took Sidra a moment to realize they reminded her of the gills she had seen in some of the ocean books Selene had.

As Sidra looked her over she tried to remember what Mythic from her childhood stories matched that description. There were mermaids, but they had long tails and died outside of the water and there were river spirits but they were supposed to be ghostly pale with deep red eyes. Maybe a water nymph, Sidra thought as she looked over at the girl, she had feet and looked mostly human and that sounds about right.

She wished her grandmother was here for her to ask, now that she knew they weren't just silly stories of the past that her grandmother had been telling her. The girl's eyes were red and puffy, it seemed like it was from crying, and she looked to be around the same age Sidra was. That made Sidra feel a certain way, what if this had been her? Her grandmother had said that the cloaked men had originally come for her. She swallowed a knot in her throat as she thought about it.

"Who are you?" The girl stared at Sidra as she spoke and Sidra could see that her eyes were the same blue color as her skin. She had freckles across her nose and hair that was cut short around her face in a deep green. It was rare to see a Mythic that stood out this much and Sidra found herself staring a little too long at how the girl looked.

"I'm Sidra, what's your name?"

"Kaephei."

"That's a nice name. Do you mind answering a few questions for me?"

"I-I guess," Kaephei said. She lifted one of her hands back up to the collar of her shirt and Sidra noticed that she had webbing between her fingers. She wondered if being so far away from the water hurt the girl.