Castle of Time and Ash

CHAPTER LVII

CHAPTER LVII

~

Someone screamed.

Valentine's eyes flew open and his body shot upright, the shirt – which he'd borrowed from one of the prepared nobles who had packed a case full of his belongings – he wore clinging to him with his sweat. The people around him stirred, gradually coming alive into reality again. Beside him, Dasher had his head nuzzled in a cold gap between two bars, hand resting on the empty sword belt he still had around his waist. His eyes were open as well, and he was staring off into space, mouth set in a thin line.

No one else had heard that cry apart from him. No one even gave the slightest of reaction. Had he just been dreaming? It didn't feel as if he had imagined it, but if he was the only one who'd heard it, what other possible explanations were there other than a dream mixed in with the sad truth of the physical world? He decided to let it go as a mere hallucination after the shock and pitched his head back to rest against the wall behind him, matted and oily but cool enough to suffocate the heat within him.

Lisabette and Ranorae were only a few people down from him and being the first people he had assured would get out unharmed, they were still sleeping pleasantly – unless they were pretending and trying to blend in – with eyelashes flittering with every breath. They looked too relaxed, too composed, to be here right now, their appearance like that of resting angels. If he didn't make it out alive today, at least the two of them had to. He would make Dasher swear it if need be.

Valentine knew they weren't here by choice, and if they could go back to wherever they came from, he was certain they would. They had always been accepting of him and he was one way or another indebted to them for their inevitable kindness toward him, unlike most women who saw only the bad side of him and refused to acknowledge the good, if there was even much of good in him left.

He thought of Althera, determined to set things right and rescue the two people who did not deserve to be saved. She treated people too well and was bound to be betrayed in the end. But she saw the good in each of them and Valentine wondered if she thought the same about him. Did he count?

Anyone is worth it, even you.

Had she meant that?

And now I need to save Rhaye and Zephyra, because both of them deserve to be given a second chance, whether they are good or bad.

Valentine just hoped she was right.

She had said that if she didn't come back for them, they were to be guided out of the dungeon and back up the tunnel by him. She believed that Valentine could do it, and it was true – it wouldn't take much effort for him to herd all the traumatized nobility and royalty and escort them out of this place. But if Althera thought even for one second that he was just going to leave her behind to be devoured, she was terribly mistaken. He was not about to leave anyone behind.

A sigh slipped out from his lips and he caught a brief glance Dasher snuck his way. Something dark guttered in his eyes – something that made Valentine wheel away and focus on breathing evenly through his nose. He didn't want to see that look anywhere or in anyone's expression. He didn't want anyone to feel sorry for him; he didn't need it.

His eyes winked shut and he tried to calm his mind and the heart. Peace had been far out of reach for him for most of the time he had spent down here, it being the only safest place Althera knew of left in the castle. He hadn't been able to relax himself for quite some time, and it was before he had heard the scream that he had finally discovered enough silence and weariness to fall asleep. And even then he had slept sporadically and couldn't fully confirm that he hadn't been muttering while unconscious.