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𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑼𝑵𝑾𝑨𝑽𝑬𝑹𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑫𝑨𝑹𝑲𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑺
𝑶𝑭 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑫𝑼𝑵𝑮𝑬𝑶𝑵
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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐊𝐄 𝐔𝐏 was the stiff coldness that had settled in her muscles and slowly seeped into the very core of her bones. She lay flat on her stomach onto a stone surface that radiated with cold and the thin fabric of her dress formed no protection from it. After she opened her eyes, the second thing she noticed was that wherever she was, darkness surrounded her. The third thing she noticed though, was the pain that washed over her as she regained more consciousness.
Her bruised ribs throbbed slightly and it felt as if someone continuously hit her on the head with the hilt of a dagger, but her throat felt worst of all. She could still taste the sharp bitterness of the toxin that had knocked her out and her throat felt sore and swollen as her every breath scraped over it.
A groan escaped Rosaleen's lips and with some effort she pushed herself into a sitting position, allowing her eyesight to get used to the dark. It took her a good minute before she could make out some of her surroundings, but the shimmering of dewdrops trickling down three stone walls with protruding rocks and the iron bars rising firmly up like a fourth wall, indicated to Rosaleen that she was in a dungeon; most likely underground.
'Rose?' The whisper of Lucy's voice carried far through the still air, making it sound as if she sat next to Rosaleen but she was the only one in this cell. She crawled closer towards the iron bars, noticing the other prison across from hers and around seven feet apart. She wrapped her hands around the cold rods and peered through the hand-broad gap between them.
Lucy's pale skin and cream coloured dress lit vaguely up in the darkness, and the young Queen's face was contorted in a painful grimace.
'Lucy, your shoulder,' Rosaleen began with concern, her eyes falling upon the darker part of Lucy's top. 'Are you alright?'
Lucy nodded carefully but she didn't dare to move too much. 'They stopped the bleeding and bandaged it. It still hurts, but I'll live.'
While thinking about what had happened during their capture, Rosaleen remembered in a flash how the eyes of one of their captors had looked familiar, but she couldn't replace where she had seen them before.
'Where do you suppose we are?' Lucy asked, letting her gaze wander over her surroundings but although there came a faint light from farther up ahead, there was no recogniseable point anywhere nor were there any windows.
Rosaleen answered she didn't know and she pulled herself up by the bars before stepping towards the door made out of iron rods as well. She rubbed her bare upper arms but her fingers felt like icicles, not helping at all and she gave the door a few shakes. The iron however, didn't budge and the rattling sound echoed between the stone walls before it dissolved into nothingness.
Rosaleen searched off the dark hallway with her eyes but her mind remained just as empty; she had no idea how to escape from here.
'Hello?' she called out into the darkness. 'Is someone there? Why are we here? What do you want with us?'
No answer came and Rosaleen lowered herself back on the cold stone ground, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. Her body shivered badly in an attempt to stay warm and she tried controlling her heartbeat by taking calm breaths, but she felt the panic lurking at the edge of her mind. She didn't like confined spaces, especially ones underground.
'It's going to be alright,' Lucy said, the hope not once leaving her voice or eyes. 'Our brothers will come, they will save us.'
Rosaleen nodded slightly, resting her chin on the top of her knees as she strengthened her grip around her legs. 'I hope soon.'
However, the words hadn't faded away yet or a dark silhouette seemed to make itself loose from the shadows surrounding them. Just like their captors from before, the figure was completely clad in dark robes, but an emerald shimmered vaguely at the end of a long necklace and their face was uncovered.
'Don't try anything foolish,' the stranger said, his voice deep and slightly raspy. He walked over to Lucy's cell, carrying two tightly rolled blankets under his arm and his footsteps barely made any sound.
Lucy nodded quickly in agreement, her gaze fixated upon the blankets and he handed her one between the openings of the bar. She took it gladly, careful not to move her wounded shoulder and she swung the thick fabric around her body, letting out a sigh in relief while Rosaleen observed his posture from out of her own cell.
The stranger turned towards her and soundlessly walked over the distance between the cells, the contours of his face becoming clearer to Rosaleen as he did so. Their eyes locked and Rosaleen felt that same familiar recognition shooting through her mind and though she could see his face now, she still couldn't put her finger on it. A silver shimmer fell across his eyes as he handed her the other blanket and Rosaleen draped it around her own shoulders, still looking at him with a deep frown.
The lingering darkness made it a tad harder but his squared jawline, straight nose and slightly asymmetrical cheekbones rang a bell in her mind until it clicked as he turned around again.
'You're King Lune's right hand,' Rosaleen breathed out in the realisation and Silas smirked back to her over his shoulder before disappearing into the shadows.
'King Lune?' Lucy repeated in shock. 'This is Archenland's doing?'
Rosaleen pulled the blanket tighter around herself and her mind spun around wildly. She had only seen Silas a few times, always in the presence of the King and she feared she already knew the man wouldn't do anything without the King's approval, but what did Archenland want with her and Lucy?
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𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐒, 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑, making it impossible for Rosaleen to tell the exact time since the darkness of the dungeon never wavered. Every once in a while, a masked figure brought them a plate of old bread and a small cup of water and Rosaleen suspected it was once every day as her stomach had been growling painfully every time before the figure came.
Her lips felt cracked and her throat dry due to the little water they had to last through the day, but after having observed the figure's routine four times, a plan started to form in Rosaleen's head.
She didn't dare to discuss it with Lucy since the shadows felt unsafe, but the young Queen spent most of her time sleeping either way. Her skin turned more ashen grey after every visit of their warden, lighting up in a ghostly manner in the darkness and although Lucy never complained once, Rosaleen could tell her shoulder wound started to hurt more and more.
The determination to escape as soon as possible for Lucy's sake flowed through Rosaleen's veins like a heartbeat on its own, and when the approaching footsteps of the figure sounded for the fifth time, she decided it was now or never.
She quickly slid over the cold stones until she sat with her right side resting against the iron bars of the cell and her gaze was focussed upon the door that would swing inwards open, towards her.
Like always, the warden first opened Lucy's cell to put the plate with the bread and cup of water on the floor and he pushed it farther inside with the tip of his boot. Lucy woke up when the high screech of the cell door closing echoed through the air and with trembling fingers she reached for the small clump of bread.
The figure locked the door again and walked over towards Rosaleen's cell, and she pretended to be half asleep, keeping a keen eye on the door between slightly closed eyelids. The lock of the door opened with a click and Rosaleen squared her shoulders, preparing her muscles for the nearing action.
When the door swung open and the warden crouched down to put the plate on the stones, Rosaleen jumped up, although she didn't move as swiftly as she had hoped due to the cold that had frozen up her muscles for days.
Still, she managed to grab the iron rods of the door before the warden could act, and she pushed the door close with all her might. The figure got trapped between the sides of the door and the opening, and with another hit of the heavy door, the hollow sound of his body colliding with the iron was accompanied by a loud snap of his bones breaking under the pressure.
The warden let out a painful scream as he tried to wriggle out of the narrowly squeezing opening but Rosaleen knocked him out by swinging the door close once more, hitting his head in process.
She opened the door and the figure fell with a thud on the stones and she speeded around the iron construction, crouching down near his side to grab the keys that dangled at his belt. Sadly, he didn't wear any weapons that she could take from him and Rosaleen hoped they wouldn't come across anyone during their escape.
Lucy had followed everything with wide eyes from out of her own cell and just when she was about to say something to Rosaleen, the blonde gestured she had to stay silent by putting an index finger against her lips. Rosaleen grabbed the warden's wrists and the muscles in her shoulders, neck and jaw trembled with exertion as she pulled him farther inside the cell.
He only slid slowly over the stone floor but when he was far enough inside, Rosaleen dropped his wrists, kicked his feet away from the door opening after she had stepped around him and then she locked the cell to buy herself and Lucy some time.
It took her a few tries to find the right key for Lucy's cell but when the door opened, Rosaleen helped the younger girl on her feet and swung Lucy's good arm around her own shoulders. Rosaleen could clearly feel Lucy's rib cage sticking through the fabric of her dress as she wrapped her other arm around Lucy's fragile body, and she paused for a moment as Lucy let out a shaky hiss.
Cold droplets of sweat streamed down her pale face but with a stubborn look glinting in her blue eyes, Lucy nodded she was ready to continue.
Rosaleen partly dragged her and partly lifted her as they both stepped outside the cell for the first time in days, and they set course towards the direction their warden always appeared from.
Though both girls could usually move around without making any sound at all, their bodies were weakened from the cold and time they had spent locked away, and their shuffling footsteps seemed to amplify in loudness every time it bounced off against the stone walls. Their hearts hammered painfully against their chests and with every rush of adrenaline, Rosaleen strengthened her grip around Lucy's wrist and waist in an instinct until the younger girl whispered the grip started to hurt.
The duo rounded dark corner after dark corner, the shadows swirling around their feet, and every time, Rosaleen expected an enemy showing up but the cave-like hallways remained eerily silent ─ apart from their own shallow breathing and staggering footsteps.
'There,' Lucy breathed out, quietly, when they took another turn and they were met with a dull light shining in the distance. It looked like daylight streaming inside and as they made their way over towards the source, they noticed the floor going gradually up and the muscles in their calves started to burn as it turned into a steep climb.
Rosaleen glanced over her shoulder, back into the hallway and unable to shake the feeling that this was going too easy. Where were all the guards? She froze though, and pulled Lucy in a halt as well when a faint vibration travelled through the stones underneath the soles of their shoes.
Rosaleen peered through the flickering darkness of the hallway behind them and at the foot of the tunnel, far below them, she thought she could see a dozen people appear like a seething mass of shadows.
'We have to hurry,' she said to Lucy, pulling her with her as they climbed farther and farther up, and a fresh breeze tickled their cheeks. The dull light morphed into a gaping opening in the ten feet high rocky walls and the sky outside was stark blue, heavily dotted with fluffy clouds in pink and purple hues.
Rosaleen peeked over her shoulder once more as the vibrations of the rapidly approaching enemy grew heavier, but then she glanced at Lucy's pale face ─ her blue eyes glazed over in pain and exhaustion ─ before focussing upon the opening. The frisk breeze carried along the scent of moist earth and the grass leaves danced in the distance, almost in a beckoning manner to Lucy and Rosaleen; to come closer as fast as they could.
Only a few inches away from the eight feet tall opening in the walls, Rosaleen let go of Lucy before she gently pushed the younger Queen outside. Lucy still stumbled over her own feet but quickly whirled around and followed Rosaleen's gaze upwards, towards the iron wrought gate hanging in the arched top of the opening.
The lever to bring the spiked gate down however, was at Rosaleen's side, and Lucy's blue eyes flared up in the horror of understanding what she was about to do.
'No, Rose,' Lucy said. 'We both escape.'
Rosaleen gave her a faint smile although the tears burned in the corners of her eyes. 'We can never outrun them in this state. Make for Cair Paravel. I'll buy you as much time as I can.' And before Lucy could protest, Rosaleen gripped tight the lever and the iron gate came rattling down in an almost free falling manner.
The loud sound drowned out Lucy's sad scream and the spikes of the gate bore into the shallow holes of the stones below.
'Go,' Rosaleen said to Lucy when she didn't move. 'Run, please, get out of here,' she added in a begging manner while Lucy's chest heaved up and down, her shoulders shaking from the held-in tears, but then she slowly turned away.
'We will come back for you, Rose,' Lucy promised in a heartbreaking sob and Rosaleen nodded bravely, although the fear rushed through her veins.
'I know you will. Now, go.' Rosaleen took the keys she had taken from the warden in one hand while Lucy disappeared out of sight, her staggering footsteps slowly fading away but it was replaced by the sound of the enemy's approach behind Rosaleen's back.
Rosaleen observed the mechanism of the gate's lever for a heartbeat until she jammed the keys with brute force between it, sabotaging it and hopefully making the gate unable to go up for a while, long enough for Lucy to create as much distance between this place and herself.
Rosaleen whirled back around to face the people coming towards her and Silas' face in the middle of them immediately drew her attention. She lifted her balled hands into a fighting position, and although she was sure she could never win this, she wouldn't go down without a fight.
'Get her,' Silas growled at the person on his left and while Rosaleen managed to dodge the first attack, she was already brutally hit in her stomach by the second lash out.
The masked figure used his bare hands, not even bothering to use a weapon, and he hit her again, this time shoving her against the iron gate as well and the rattling sound shot through the air as her back painfully collided with it.
Silas, in the meantime, tried the lever and to Rosaleen's relief, the mechanism wouldn't budge, resulting in him letting out a frustrated growl.
Rosaleen's attacker held her in place while Silas stepped closer towards her and though she tried to escape the grip, her weakened body had already given up.
Silas hummed thoughtfully, his eyes travelling over Rosaleen's face for a moment before he focussed on the one who held her up against the gate.
'Looks like we have to speed things up. Knock her out,' Silas ordered and Rosaleen struggled to get away when the masked figure took out a cloth of fabric, the sharp scent of the toxin whirling up from it and burning in her nostrils already.
'No, please,' Rosaleen muttered, chaotically reaching for her attacker's mask and pulling the fabric away. The shock of who she saw however, caused her whole mind and body to go numb until the darkness washed over as the cloth was pressed against her mouth and nose, knocking her out once again.
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