Page 42 of Cinder
The watch member shook their head all the harder, pushing against Cin’s mount as he hissed. “You don’t understand, you mustgo! Leave—leave thecity; it’s not safe for you here!”
Not…safe?
But no one had come for Cin. The prince would have told his parents where Cin lived if he meant to turn Cin in, wouldn’t he? Cin had no time to dwell on the matter, though. As Berit continued their attempt to steer Cin’s mount away, a commotion set in behind them. Servants and crown’s watch scampered aside for half a dozen watch members who Cin could only classify as soldiers, each uniform utterly practical and every belt weighed down with a different weapon.
Cin’s flock-creature pranced beneath him, but as his mind screamed to turn and run, his heart held tight to what he wanted—what he was going to take, watch or not, soldiers or not, Prince Lorenz be damned. With a nudge of his heels, he urged his steed into a gallop straight through the castle gates. Berit stumbled back with a cry of surprise, and none of the mounted soldiers had time to react before Cin was charging through their midsts,his flock-creature’s magic carrying him between their flesh-and-blood horses like a ghost.
“Prince Lorenz!” Cin screamed. His steed’s fantastical hooves threw sparkles of light against the stone of the pathway as he ascended the stairs toward the castle’s entrance, aimed to shoot like an arrow straight through the main hallway.
A servant waiting near the front dashed for cover, but two of the watch newly stationed at either side grabbed the metal gates and pulled them. They shut just as Cin reached the top step. His mount tossed its head as it came up so short that he had to grip into its feathery mane and sink his hips to keep in the saddle. Each of his ribs seemed to scream out in unison.
The flock-creature dancing back into motion beneath him, Cin frantically searched for a new plan between the hollowing pain in his sides.
Around the back: through the gardens?
But two more soldiers were coming up from that direction—that was where all the crown’s watch were congregated, after all, with the ball in full force. If Cin could get somewhere less exposed though, climb up and through a window, perhaps—
It was enough of a plan to pressure him into motion as a crossbow bolt shot over the side of his mount’s rear and clattered into the metal of the castle’s gate. Cin took off around the far side of the castle from the ball. It was darker in that direction, barns and storehouses and orchards instead of royal gardens. Two more crossbow bolts whizzed by his head, so close his hands shook as he turned out of sight of the castle’s entrance.
It thundered behind him like a thousand watch members were chasing him.
Panic welled in Cin’s chest, pressing up against the pain that shot between his ribs. His mount clattered down smaller steps, past a muddle of buildings, around a tiny, enclosed garden, under a row of apple trees, but it all seemed like a blur, a nothing—nothing that could help him. He had to get to Prince Lorenz. It was the only thing that felt real.
Cin’s world tunneled again, but the blackness didn’t dissipate, clinging to the edges of his vision, of himself, tight and unrelenting. The path curved suddenly, right up against the castle wall. He pulled his steed up short, his heart thrust into his throat. His breath came faster. He could still hear the castle soldiers clattering behind him.
Suppressing the growing terror in his chest, Cin leaped off his mount.
All he had to do was climb—and that was something Cin had plenty of experience in. As he fit his fingertips into the bricks of the wall, though, the magic of his shoes letting him stick to the side like a spider, his head grew light. Cin tried to take a deeper breath, but his chest caught on the binding he’d reapplied before leaving home. The presence of it—always an annoyance—felt ruthlessly constricting now. He’d climbed with it plenty of times, he told himself.
But those times were never with this speed, never this fear.
As he pulled himself farther up the side of the wall, it felt as though each breath provided only half of what he needed. Perdition swooped at his back, like her single small body could lift him up—and maybe if the whole flock joined her, it could work, but as Cin thought that, the castle soldiers came whipping around the corner and into the alley. Still in their horse-mimicking form, the flock-creature bolted at them. It startled the soldier’s mounts, giving Cin another few seconds.
A few seconds he desperately needed.
As Cin climbed past the second story, stars danced across his vision. The ache in his sides sharpened with each grab and pull of his arms. He pushed himself harder for it. He was so close, he could feel it, Perdition cooing in his ear and beating against hisbackside in a vain attempt to support him, his feet stable with the aid of the elvish magic.
Below him, the castle soldiers shouted—to each other, to him, he couldn’t tell. He just needed one more hand in front of the other. One more tight, terrible breath against the screaming of his ribs. One more...
Cin’s fingertips missed the next brick’s edge. He tried to shift his feet to balance his weight. The world seemed to tunnel in, a flurry of darkness. He grabbed again, fingertips skidding against stone.
He fell.
The only thing Cin could think as it happened, was that it couldn’tbehappening—he hadn’t fallen, not in years, not since his flock had first taken to him—but that flock was now dispersing from its creature form far below, only Perdition left to pathetically tug at his clothes. The rest made it to him only as he neared the ground, their little bodies battering into his, slowing his fall until—
A pair of strong arms caught Cin.
His mind went, hopelessly, to Prince Lorenz, but then hands clamped down, four, then six, latching onto his arms and legs—then suddenly he was dangling between two of the soldiers, another tying his arms behind him. Some alarming part of his brain screamed at him to squirm, but too much of his body had already shut down with horror. This was it. The Plumed Menace had killed a man. The crown had figured it out. He had run, and they caught him.
This was it.
And Prince Lorenz wasn’t even here.
Cin’s body went numb as the soldiers shoved him forward—back the way they’d come.
Perdition swooped down at them, her tiny feet outstretched as she dove for the nearest soldier’s eyes. The soldier ducked herassault the first time, but then they drew the long wooden stave from their back. Cin’s heart stopped as they swung. The sound of Perdition’s body colliding with the wood shot through him like a bullet, seeming to tear him apart as it went. Her body fell into the darkness, and then they were moving, and she was gone. Just... gone.
Cin craned his neck as though that could bring her back, as panic set deep into his bones. She had to be all right; she was knocked aside, that was all. Thathadto be all. But every second that neither Perdition, nor any of his flock, reappeared lodged a fresh blade in Cin’s chest.
