Page 97 of Kingdom of Locks

In spite of her rush of panic, Aurelia was weak from her various ordeals. The soldiers had no difficulty overpowering her, and they half dragged her up the rest of the stairs. Even through her terror, she noticed they were taking care to be gentle. Clearly the prince’s word carried a great deal of weight. She would have to hold on to that.

At the top of the turret, there was a line of three strange rooms, each with metal bars instead of walls. Scanning them, Aurelia was greeted by a sight both terrible and wonderful. She again tried to call out, the gag turning her greeting into garbled nonsense. But it didn’t matter. The sole occupant of the tower raced to the edge of her little room, crying in shock.

“Aurelia! Aurelia, are you all right?”

“Know her, do you?” one of the soldiers said to Mama Imelda. “That’s a count against you, isn’t it?”

“Why are you locking her up?” Mama Imelda demanded angrily. “What could she possibly have done to—” She broke off as her eyes dropped to Aurelia’s bound hands. “Aurelia! Whose blood is that?”

“Prince Amell’s, as a matter of fact,” the soldier told the older woman darkly. “So don’t expect any leniency.”

Mama Imelda’s eyes flew to Aurelia’s in horror, but Aurelia could say nothing to reassure her mother that the prince was still alive.

“But what’s her crime?” Mama Imelda demanded, a hint of anger in her voice. “You don’t understand—you can’t trap her up here! She’s finally free!”

The soldier grunted. “If she wanted to be free, she should have served her time. It’ll be doubled now, if nothing worse.”

Mama Imelda’s confusion suddenly melted away, and she raised her hands in appeal. “Do you think she’s an escaped prisoner? You’ve got it all wrong! She’s not a prisoner. She’s a princess! She’s a princess of Albury, and she’s been trapped in a—”

“Sure, lady,” said one of the soldiers indulgently. “Tell it to the bars.” One of the others had been unlocking the door of the middle cell while he spoke, and he pushed Aurelia in. “This cell’s reinforced against magic-users,” he told her, as he locked her in. “So don’t get any ideas.”

“Aren’t you going to take off the gag?” Mama Imelda demanded.

“Nice try,” grunted one of the soldiers, and a moment later the three of them had disappeared, leaving the two women alone.

“Oh, Aurelia,” Mama Imelda said at once, her voice shaking. “I know this is terrible, but you’re alive! And you’re free of the tower.”

Free? At least in Cyfrin’s tower she hadn’t been in a cage, gagged and bound. Aurelia cast a meaningful glance around her, and Mama Imelda groaned.

“I know, I know. I’m just so happy to know where you are. Is Amell…is he…alive?”

Aurelia nodded fervently, and some of the tension leaked from Mama Imelda’s shoulders.

“He’ll work it out,” she said confidently. “He’ll make it right.”

Aurelia swallowed, a lump in her throat. She wanted to believe that, but it was hard to have much faith in anything at that moment.

Her mother seemed to sense it, because her voice turned sorrowful again. “Oh, my darling, I know things are bad right now. But this isn’t normal. Most people won’t treat you this way. I don’t know why they think you’re from the prison, but when they realize you’re not, they’ll release you, I’m sure.”

Feeling skeptical, Aurelia tilted her head pointedly toward Mama Imelda’s own cell.

“Yes, they locked me in here as well,” Mama Imelda conceded. “But there’s a reason for that, too.”

Aurelia raised her eyebrow in a question.

“Sit down,” sighed Mama Imelda. “I think we might be in here for a while. My story is quite simple. Sir Furnis found me a horse at the prison, and we rode here to the city as quickly as we could. But the prince was already gone by then, and when Sir Furnis started asking urgently for him, it created quite a reaction. Apparently the two of them were supposed to be on their way to Albury for a diplomatic visit, and the discovery that Amell wasn’t with his guard, and that his guard didn’t even know his whereabouts, caused the king and queen to become quite…concerned.”

Aurelia grimaced at what was clearly an understatement.

“Sir Furnis guessed that Amell had gone back to the clearing, of course, and he announced that he did know where the prince was after all.” Mama Imelda sighed. “That was a mistake. Because try as we might, neither of us could tell anyone where that might be. The concealment magic Cyfrin placed on the clearing stopped our tongues, just like Amell described. We couldn’t say anything about Cyfrin, or you, or the clearing, or anything. I have to acknowledge it was all highly suspicious. And then someone realized that Sir Furnis was wearing the prince’s own cloak, and everything went downhill from there. It seems Amell’s frequent absences hadn’t gone as unnoticed as he thought, and everyone now suspects Sir Furnis of some kind of plot. I’m not entirely sure what happened to Sir Furnis, but I was locked in here, and told my case would be considered when the prince reemerged. I can only assume he still hasn’t done so.”

The older woman frowned, lost in thought for a moment. “I was able to tell that guard just then who you were, wasn’t I?” Her eyes searched Aurelia’s. “Has the concealment magic been lifted since this afternoon?”

Aurelia considered the point, remembering when she’d thought Cyfrin was destroying the walls of the tower, only to find it intact. Was that what he’d really destroyed? The powerful magic of concealment, and possibly of restraint, that had coated the clearing and the tower for seventeen years?

She nodded tentatively, her mind racing with the implications. If she’d needed more proof that he was preparing to make his move, that was it.

Her thoughts flew to Amell, bleeding on the forest floor, pierced by an arrow meant for her. Aurelia groaned, leaning her head against one of the metal bars. It was a terrible mess, no denying it. And it seemed there was little they could do but wait.

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