Page 58 of Once Upon a Midnight Clear

“They may have taken my sword, but I still have my dagger.”

“You do?” She hadn’t seen that on him.

“Hidden in my cloak.”Scrape. Scape. Scape.

She caught a glimpse of him as he passed in front of the cell door, then more scraping noises.

“This mortar is weak,” he said, his voice strained with exertion.

“Even if you managed to get out, how are we going to get past the locked gate?” she asked.

He stopped scraping and silence descended, then he said, “I’ll worry about that after we get out of here.”

He sounded so confident it was hard not to believe him. Ella peered out of her cell bars, straining her eyes to see movement across from her. She saw a flash of his hand every now and then as the scraping continued.

Footsteps echoed in the stone hallway. But not the thump of boots. No, this was at a much faster clip as the shoes struck the stone with every step. The woman came into view then wearing a thick hooded cloak concealing her face. She flung off her hood revealing shining silvery hair piled high on her head and propped her fists on her hips.

“Fairy godmother?” Ella breathed. She was truly shocked to see her fairy godmother here.

The scraping came to an abrupt halt. Nicholas’s face appeared between two of the bars as he looked out.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, not bothering to hide his surprise. “And how did you get in here?”

She ignored his first question. “I see I can’t leave you two unsupervised.” She huffed out a sigh. “The girl from the village is two cells down.” She nodded backward.

“Gee, thanks. Did you come to help us or merely give us that information?”

“Don’t be cheeky,” she snapped. “I told you not to come here. Especially with the…” She paused, glancing around, and then whispered, “…slippers.” As she said it, she looked at Ella.

Guilt swarmed through Ella as the heat rose to her cheeks. “I-I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I should have left them hidden in the cave, but I was worried—”

“Pish posh, dear. No need to explain. I know why you did it.”

“You do?”

She nodded. “Of course, I do. You were trying to protect them and keep them safe. However…” She cut Nicholas a glance. “I specifically saidnotto bring them into the fortress.”

“You did,” he agreed with a nod. “Now that we’ve established what a terrible idea it was, are you going to help us or not?”

Something about the way he spoke to Noella made it seem he was familiar with her. Ella tipped her head to the side, trying to understand their dynamics.

“I can get you out and past the gate but that’s all. I shouldn’t even be here.”

She stepped up to his cell door and pulled out a magic wand seemingly out of the air. She pointed it at the key hole. Sparks flew as she used it to melt the lock. The cell door came open with ease. Nicholas stepped out, sheathing his dagger. Then she turned to Ella’s cell and did the same. When the door was open, she stepped out.

“The girl is just down here.” Noella motioned to the other cell.

“What about the others here?” Ella asked.

Noella paused, turning back to her with question in her eyes. “Others?”

“There are more prisoners here,” Ella said.

“Ella, we don’t know why they’re here or who they are,” Nicholas said. “They could be dangerous.”

“And they could be innocent like Ingrid,” she countered.

“Who’s Ingrid?” Noella asked.

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