Towers [BOOK ONE]

~ Lily ~

She shivered, wrapped her arms around herself and shrinking into the corner where she'd woken up. There were shackles on her wrists and ankles; their rusty edges bit into her skin.

So dark, Lily thought. Everything's so dark.

She swallowed, looking around with pale eyes in the gloom of what could only be a dungeon. It was hard to tell how large, or small, her cell was. She could hear sounds—low mutterings, and muffled clanks, and dismal dripping.

Lily felt as if she'd fallen inside her own soul, right to its very depths.

She slowly tried to stand, but the shackles made it difficult to walk. She crawled instead, gasping at the hot, stinging pain that throbbed in her hands and feet. Tears came to her eyes, but she just scowled and stubbornly refused to let them spill.

Courage, Lily, she told herself. You're the fiercest fighter in your village—remember that? You defeated two mountain men singlehandedly! You escaped from one of the Queen's towers!

She hadn't reached the other side of the cell. It must have been fairly large...and that was what puzzled her. Why would they need such a big cage for a single sixteen-year-old girl?

"B-Bird," Lily said, her voice scarcely more than a breath. She could hardly hear herself. She tried again. "Bird. Bird...?"

No answer.

"Channing," Lily whispered, angrily blinking tears away again. "Channing. Emmy."

Were they... Had they...

No, no, no, Lily thought, no, they couldn't be, they aren't. That's not true. I won't let it be true.

"Lily?" said a hushed voice behind her.

Lily gasped and turned, tripping in her rush to reach the source of the voice. "Ch-Channing!"

"Me, too, unfortunately," said Emmy with a little laugh.

Lily couldn't find words. "You're...oh, sticks and stones, I thought you had..."

Channing grasped her arms. "It's all right. We're here, the three of us. We can find a way out of this somehow, I promise."

Lily froze. "Three?"

Channing and Emmy shared a look. "We...we aren't sure what happened to Bird," Emmy confessed, looking at her hands. "There hasn't been word nor sign of her since we were captured. I think she might have escaped. But we don't know."

"No," said a new voice under his breath. "We don't. And I swear, if anything happens to that mad little blue jay..."

Lily gasped. "Caleb?"

She could hear him breathing in the darkness, weighing his answer. There was his silhouette—almost indistinguishable from the cell's gloom. "Yes. I'm here."

"Oh. Forgot about him," Channing said. "As usual."

Caleb lightly punched him on the arm, rolling his eyes.

"And...what was her name? Tressa? Tessa?"

"Dessa," said Caleb, giving her a look.

"Yeah, her. Where's she?"

There was an uneasy silence.

"They won't let us see her," Caleb said lowly, bowing his head. "She's condemned to be entowered. It's illegal for her to have visitors."

"Not even cellmates?"

"Only if they're like her, condemned. Doomed." He stopped. "I'm worried for her."

Lily nodded, closing her eyes for a moment. "You have every right to be."