The tunnel they took led them neither up or down but into the heart of the mountain. The air was cold and damp and the stone echoed back every breath like a shout.
O'rian slowed to a walk for Rosalyne as they neared the dungeon, fingers curling tighter around hers as they approached flickering light around a bend.
Several branches led into a small cave in the rock that had been artificially widened and mounted with sconces. A body wrapped in furs slumped up against the wall next to a barred door.
O'rian left Rosalyne and darted forward into the light. "Asida."
He hunkered down and pressed a hand to the warrior's cheek, but Asida just slumped to the side, breathing shallowly.
O'rian checked her pulse and tapped her cheeks. "Wake up! What the hell is wrong with you?"
The jaquelle stepped around her husband and brushed her fingertips over the warrior's brow.
«Influence.»
O'rian grabbed Asida's shoulders and shook her, face screwed with worry.
Rosalyne pulled him back to his feet. «She'll sleep it away.»
O'rian hesitated another moment, clicking to himself. «Can't you help her?»
She arched a brow. «I could, but she would be better off letting the grip fade and reviving naturally. And I do not know how long it would take me.»
He nodded and started searching his aunt's cloak for the keys to the gate behind her.
Rosalyne tried the handle and the bars swung open.
O'rian took the lead Rosalyne's gloved hand again and guiding her down a narrow hallway that branched off every few paces to another pocket of cells. They stepped over a sleeping guard in front of the archway to the barred cave where Dys and Lucas were being held.
The sconce in the hallway reflected off the walls and glinted off streaks of blonde hair huddled under a woolen blanket. Dys shifted as they entered, eyes squinting into the light.
The jaquelle was at the bars in a moment, hand slipping from O'rian's and leaving her glove between his fingers, <Mae - oh, Mae, look at the state of you.> She slipped down to her knees, reaching her arm through the bars to brush the fringe of the wool.
Dys tilted her head, blanket falling away and revealing her soiled yellow dress, «Rosalyne?» Her face lifted, fear falling away and teary relief cracking her face.
Rosalyne gripped Dys' face through the bars, fury from the past few days mixing with her relief and filling her eyes with emotion.
Lucas, pressed up against the same wall in his cell, jumped to his feet. His pale eyes caught the torch-light, searching the hall behind her. «Her highness cannot be here.»
Rosalyne reached her other hand through the bars and touched his face, absorbing every pain and feeling settled in his chest. The cold and ache from the hard ground soaked through her fingers, the anxiety and anger soothed through her eyes.
She frowned at them both, cataloguing complaints to settle with the king when she got them out of this hole. The cells were unlivable and their 'protection' was laughable.
She paused and pulled back. «Where is Clovis?»
Dys shook her head. Lucas confirmed that they hadn't seen him since the day before when a warrior came down to fetch him.
Rosalyne rested her forehead against the bars, twining her fingers around Dys'. «I won't leave them here.»
«Move back from the bars.» O'rian fastened his cloak around his shoulders.
YOU ARE READING
The Jack of Hearts (House of Cards Book 1)
FantasySince the reign of her grandfather, the Aertisians have been at war with the United Clans of the Cluvani. But when her father's prophecy declares that the Jaquelle of Aertisia will bear the heir to the Cluvani throne, her destiny is transformed. Yea...
