Page 76 of Joy Guardian

“I’ll cut the rope,” I said, sawing the nearest coil of rope. “We’ll lift the cage and run.”

“Run where?” Shyanne asked skeptically.

“Away from here,” I replied through my teeth, focusing on cutting the thick rope.

“There’s nothing but desert out there. We’ll die from thirst and get buried in the sand during the next storm.”

“Better than spending the rest of our lives like this.” I subtly tilted my head at the cage next to us.

Following my gesture, Shyanne threw a quick glance at Peter and Maria.

“That was messed up,” she agreed, but still looked doubtful about my escape plan.

I didn’t blame her for hesitating. No one wished to live in a cage, but in a cage at least we stayed alive, which wasn’t guaranteed during a journey through the desert. I had spent many nights out there, however. The desert didn’t scare me as much anymore.

Of course, I had been with Kurai. Without him, I would not have survived. But death didn’t scare me as much, either. I’d come so close to it so many times now, I was well prepared to face it. What I could no longer accept was losing my freedom again. And this time, it wasn’t even about losing the ownership of my body. They clearly had the means to mess with my mind too.

How could life with no control over my body or my mind be better than death?

“At least out there, we’ll have a chance to survive.” I strained my muscles, cutting through the rope with all the strength I had.

Having no idea when the camels would come back or if Watrat or someone from his thugs would decide to check on us, I listened carefully to every noise outside. By their muffled noises and a faint crackling of fire, I assumed they must be havingtheir midnight meal. It seemed late, since I remembered Piara had mentioned the night was about to end. But these people didn’t belong to any court or city. They lived by their own rules and probably ate whenever they felt like it.

The rope proved harder to cut than I’d hoped. After working for some time, I’d only managed to free two bars. Each bar was tied separately, when I hoped I’d be able to just cut the rope in one place and unravel the rest. It’d take forever to cut every piece of rope around the entire perimeter of the cage to lift it from the floor.

Shyanne tapped me on the shoulder. “Here. Let me try this.”

She sat on the ground, propping her feet into the two bars I’d freed, then shoved at them hard. The bars cracked where the nails and screws connected them to the bars of the roof.

“Not big on engineering, these guys,” she muttered before shoving again and loosening the joints even more.

“I can fit through now, I think. Let me try.” I crawled closer to the opening we’d created while she shifted aside to give me space.

Pushing the two bars out, I spread them away from each other, fit my head through, then crawled out onto the sand outside the cage.

“It worked!” I whispered excitedly. “Come.”

She shifted closer hesitantly but didn’t leave the cage.

“You go,” she said. “And may the gods of this place help you since all ours have clearly forsaken us.”

I opened my mouth to convince her, then realized that I had no good argument on my side other than the intense desire to be free even if it meant risking to die alone in the desert. How could I force this woman to follow me if I couldn’t guarantee her survival?

“Okay.” I nodded. “Thank you. May they look after you, too, and maybe one day we’ll meet again.”

I glanced at Peter and Maria, but they both turned away instantly. Maria’s shoulders shook as she tried to swallow her tears in vain. Compassion swelled in my heart.

“It’s not your fault,” I said softly. “And it’s not your shame, either. Whatever happened, it’s on the fae, not you. Don’t shoulder the blame for them by feeling guilty or ashamed. Here.” I slipped my hand between the bars of their cage and left my knife on the blanket by Peter’s foot. “Use it however you like.”

I turned around and lifted the edge of the fabric that covered our cages, then peered outside carefully.

I glimpsed the stars, the sparkling crests of the sand dunes, and the glow of embers in the dying campfire surrounded by round tents in the distance.

Then a thundering boom exploded.

Bright, white-green light blinded me. I dropped face down, covering my head with my arms as the sky seemed to crash down onto the desert.

Nineteen

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