The Witch and The Thief

10

When he reached the bottom floor, he glanced at Haggis, who hugged the wall to his right and disappeared into the shadows. Lachlan dimmed the sphere of light until it mimicked silver moonlight and followed the cat through a short maze of passageways until he came to a spacious open chamber.

Haggis meowed and rubbed against Lachlan, as though announcing they had arrived at their destination. Cautiously, Lachlan brightened the orb until it glinted off of a wall of metal bars up ahead. He looked down at the cat in surprise, then watched him slip between the bars and disappear in the shadows.

"There you are," Maera whispered in a voice filled with sadness and defeat, "I wondered where you'd gone off to... "

She picked Haggis up, her lips bending in a small smile as she cradled him against her chest and drew comfort from his purr as he nestled against her. "I shall miss you when I'm gone... will you miss me?"

Lachlan's heart clenched, and he rushed to the cell. "Maera," he whispered as he withdrew the key, "where's the lock?"

Maera's head snapped up, and her eyes flew open wide when she found Lachlan on the other side of her prison, waving the key in front of the bars like a mad man. It would have been comical if the situation weren't so dire. Scrambling to her feet, Haggis jumped from her arms and joined Lachlan with a yowl. "What are you doing?"

Lachlan looked at her and frowned, "I'm breaking you out of here, as promised."

Tears blurred her vision, and her heart gave a funny little kick against her ribs. He'd come back for her. Never in her wildest imaginings did she think he would keep his promise, but she was awful glad he had.

Brushing away the moisture on her cheeks, she hurried over to the middle section of the prison, "The lock's here, hold the key out, and t'will appear."

He crossed the distance between them in three long strides, glancing at her as he held out the key, "Have they hurt you?"

"No worse than before," she whispered, nervously twisting her hands as she waited. "I didn't think you'd return for me."

Lachlan grunted, thinking of how close he'd come to abandoning her until he'd seen the lightning. "T'isn't working... " he waved the key back and forth, but the lock didn't appear. "Am I doing it wrong?"

Maera licked her lips, her stomach knotting with anxiety. "Maybe we're not close enough. Try down here," she whispered, grasping the cold metal in her trembling hands as she walked to a different section.

Lachlan took two steps to his right and bit back a cry of victory when the lock suddenly shimmered into existence. But just as he reached out to slip the key inside, one of the wall torches behind him burst to life. He muttered an expletive under his breath and pulled the shadows around him as he crouched in the far corner to the left.

A moment later, Aggie and Lucida entered the room wearing voluminous dark green cloaks. Aggie glanced toward where Lachlan hid, studying the shadows far longer than Maera was comfortable with before leveling a hard stare.

"'Tis time."

Haggis hissed at the two witches, arching his back before casting a look over his shoulder at Maera and racing from the room.

Maera forced a swallow and closed her eyes as her stomach dropped to her toes. She couldn't blame him for abandoning her, but she did envy his freedom to come and go as he pleased. There would be no escape for her now. Lachlan had arrived too late.

With a brisk wave of her hand, Aggie hissed a spell that opened the prison door, and Lucida entered. She carried a coarse, brown woolen dress and motioned to Maera with a strange look in her eyes as they fell on the sparkling bracers adorning her wrists.