Eyes of Emerald

Chapter 30 - Dark

   The night was dark, oh so dark. As soon as we walked out of the shining beams of sunlight that streamed through the tiny window high in the corner of my cell, we were plunged into a darkness as cold and dark as a grave. It poured into my ears and eyes and nose and mouth, covering my vision and blocking my windpipe so I couldn't breathe.

        I bit my lip and looked behind me - there was Celie's luminescent blonde hair. I'd never seen hair like it ever before...it must be a Fae thing, having hair so blonde and pale that it shone as bright as the moon. When was the next full moon? I hoped it wouldn't be anytime soon - that would just complicate things. We'd never escape if it was a full moon tonight and Angel transformed, waking the whole castle. When werewolves transformed, they could be dangerous around people who didn't know how to control them. When it was a full moon at the Rebel Camp (there had only been three in the time I had been there), everyone who wasn't a lycanthrope would lock themselves in a vault built into the ground while the wolves ran outside. Most people would expect it to be the other way around, the wolves locking themselves up, but Oberon thought it cruel to the wolves and therefore let them run free.

        I trailed my hand along the cold stone wall, feeling the contours and the sharp shards of rock where the water had whittled away at it, breaking chips away slowly. Maybe one day it would wear all the way through and let the prisoners free. Although, I thought, it would be so much easier to just blow it up. That way everyone would be free immediately - the ones that didn't die in the initial blast, of course. 

        I wondered where they were. Celie had told me there was thousands, and I hadn't seen nor heard a thing about the Rebel prisoners in the time I had been here. I had only been here a short time, and most of it had been spent in the dark, damp dungeons, but even so - dungeons are where you keep prisoners, are they not? And so the prisoners should be here. I didn't think Balthazar would have executed them yet - and he shouldn't, because we had complied with his terms. Shouldn't that mean that he would have to do what he said he would?

        But, we all knew that Balthazar never kept his promises. We had seen that too many times with Ezra and Cain. He killed without mercy or remorse. Maybe he didn't feel remorse any longer, after killing so many people. If it were me, I thought, I would never be able to get over having taken someone's life - a living, breathing person with arms and legs and a heart and a brain...that would stay in my mind forever, and if I carried on killing, then my mind would fill up with all those innocent people I had killed and eventually I was sure it would burst.

        I shivered, hearing a scuffle from up ahead and then:

        "It's okay! Come this way - it's cold and damp and you have to mind your head, but it's the best way out." came Asya's hushed voice from up ahead. She sounded far. I bit my lip, creasing my brow and then put out my hand to feel where I was. My hand immediately encountered Angel's warm back, and I felt her stiffen. 

        "A?" she whispered, and I nodded. "Autumn?" Angel whispered again, her voice more urgent. "Who is it?" I blinked, wondering why she didn't see me nod - oh. It was dark, that was why. Stupid Autumn.

        "It's me." I whispered back, and felt her hand creep into mine. She was warm, even in the frozen underground dungeon that we were in. It felt like being inside a freezer, my bones were going numb, I thought.

        "Don't let go." came Angel's reply, and I smiled slightly, comforted by the fact that she didn't want to lose me as much as I didn't want to lose her. Even though we were now technically different species, we were still best of friends, and that made me happy. Angel had always been the better person out of us two, smarter, more popular, more...well, more everything. I suppose having parents helped. I wondered whether she missed her parents and brothers. She never showed it.

        I heard a creak, loud and echoing in the muffled silence and then a succession of crashes which made me sure someone would come running at any second, their weapons drawn and ready to sink into our flesh and we would die on this floor, either from poisoning from the tips, or from blood loss. Whichever came quickest.

        I looked behind me, still clutching Angel's hand like it was a lifeline. I couldn't see anything, but it was automatic. I could almost feel the gold-tipped swords spearing me like a kebab. I shuddered. I wished Asya would hurry up. They could be coming right now, and every second would count if we wanted to escape.

        "This way," Asya whispered, and I felt Angel move forward. I moved with her, seeing the glow of Celie's hair follow me along into the unknown.

        She seemed to have led us into some sort of tunnel. It was dark, but more shadowy than before. A small torch flickered in a bracket on the wall, casting gloomy shadows which could have hidden an elephant in. Asya was standing beneath it, and the shadows cast on her well defined face made her look ghostly and ghoulish.

        She was smiling as she took the torch from the bracket with a clank. I winced, looking back and seeing Celie smiling bravely, and Iris looking as though she had seen a ghost. My heart gave a small leap at that - but it couldn't be true, because she then dropped her gaze and the guilty feeling was back. I wished I could have not told her that. She didn't seem like she would get over it any time soon.

        Asya smiled, and turned, leading the way down the tunnel. The walls of the tunnel were rough and sharp, like it had been mined quickly. Drips of water fell onto us, soaking us in pure cave water (which also happened to be absolutely freezing). The ground was lumpy and hard to walk on, every now and again we would trip on a growing stalagmite or twist our ankles in an unseen hole that seemed to open up under our feet deliberately to slow us down. And it was very, very slow going. Every minute I seemed to hear stamping feet in the distance and my brain told me that it was the army come to hunt us down. I wondered whether they'd discovered that we'd escaped yet. A thrill went through me - it felt strangely good to be doing something as exciting as this. I felt like something that would happen in The Famous Five, travelling through the tunnels to escape the evil men.  I grinned at that - trust me to end up having the strangest thoughts in times like this.

        It took forever, and after what felt like a lifetime (it could have been, for all we knew. Time could be passing slower for us in here), we began to see a tiny pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel. My heart gave a leap in my chest and unconsciously, we began to speed up.

        We all tripped over our own and others feet, in our race to get out of the darkness. It felt like it was slowly absorbing our life force, and naturally we wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Our hearts were racing and my ears were ringing and pounding like a bass drum was being hit inside there.

        The pinprick soon turned into something larger - about the sixe of a football, then into a doorway. I was grinning, probably like the Cheshire Cat. I couldn't wait to see light again, fresh air. I felt like dancing in delight. Soon we would be free again!

        Suddenly, we stopped. I wasn't expecting it and ended up bumping hard into Angel, who swayed. She grabbed at the wall to stop herself and hissed:
        
        "Don't do that - the moat's just here! Don't. Move." she turned her head slowly. "Okay. Step back." I did as I was told, looking back at Celie who was doing the same thing. I could see Iris a few metres behind, her head down. She wasn't looking where she was going.

        She wasn't looking where she was going. Oh my God! She wasn't looking where she was going and she was going to hit us and Asya and possibly Angel would end up in the moat!

        I opened my mouth to call out to Iris to stop, but it was too late. Like dominos we toppled, Celie into me, me into Angel who fell against Asya who fell into air.

        I gasped, a strangled noise as we heard a scream and a splash. We clustered around the edge of the tunnel, looking out. Al I could see was bubbles from where she fell. No Asya in sight. The moat looked dangerous, with its dark and perilous waters and strange fish leaping out at random moments. I wouldn't have put it past Balthazar to have filled it with poison or something of the like.

        "Oi!" came a yell from above, and we all froze, looking at each other in panic. "'Oo's there?" We didn't move, keeping our eyes firmly fixed upon the water where Asya had fallen and still not reappeared.
        
        Then, an arrow shot so close to our faces that we felt the breeze of it passing by, and all hell broke loose.