Flight of the Five Swans
Flight Chapter 17

Raia

Raia hadcovered every available inch of her parchment in ink in her attempts to argueagainst their immediate escape. At thebase of all of her arguments was the terrible truth that her sisters would nolonger be able to return to human form once they had fled the castle and itsenchanted lake. Until Raia finishedknitting all five nettle shawls, her sisters would remain swans for all hoursof the day and night. And who knows what that will do to you? Raia had written. What if there are long-term effects?

Yet hersisters had stood firm. They declaredthemselves prepared to risk the unknown eventualities in order to help Raiaslip out of Soran’s net. And despite allof her misgivings and arguments, Raia was forced in the end to concede to hersisters’ wishes. But she did not sleepthat night.

Rather,Raia chose to knit away the hours. Shewas now more determined than ever to finish the shawls as quickly as shepossibly could. While her sisters burnedthe midnight oil as well, they took turns resting in the three large beds inbetween taking shifts at the spinning wheel. The princesses were desperate to make as much nettle yarn as possiblebefore they would be forced to leave the spinning wheel behind.

Finalpreparations for their escape plan began not long before dawn. All of the necessary supplies for theirknitting were packed into a bundle and attached to Raia’s pantaloons, wherethey were completely hidden under her dress—or dresses, rather. She had also donned Cliodne’s larger dressover one of her own garments as a form of extra padding.

Just before their dailytransformation began, Thaleia took Raia by the shoulders and hugged her.

“Remember,Ray,” she told her. “Surprise is key.” Then Raia felt her wince at the pain as shebegan to change.

In the moments immediatelyfollowing her sisters’ dawn transformation, Raia had to work very quickly. Having stripped the sheets from the threebeds, she made her rounds among the swans, tying one of the sheets around eachsister. It was a difficult task, as thesheets needed to be tied in such a way that they would not be noticed by theguards, who were due to arrive at any moment. Raia’s fingers trembled as she rushed through the task.

‘Quickly, quickly!’ she thought toherself.

One of the swans—Raia guessed it tobe Eurielle—honked a warning just as she was finishing the last knot. Raia heard the sound of heavy boots outsidein the corridor, and gave one last tug to arrange the sheet before steppingaway.

The door opened and a single guardstepped into the room, holding the door open for the swans. Raia repressed a hysterical giggle as herswan sisters waddled from the room in a single file line, calm as couldbe. At any moment she expected to hear ashout from one of the guards indicating that the bed sheets had beennoticed. But the shout never came.

The guard closed and locked thedoor behind them once more, and Raia immediately began a mental countdown. It typically took the guards ten minutes toset her sisters loose outside the front doors, after which they would return toescort Raia for breakfast in the south tower dining room. She hoped with all of her heart that hersisters would have enough time to be ready.

Though Raia had been anticipatingthe guards’ knock almost to the second, the rapping on her door caused her tojump all the same. The door opened andshe walked out on shaking legs, though she held her head high. She could feel the pouch of supplies hittingher leg as she walked, but the guards had yet to notice anything different inthe manner in which she moved. She justhoped it stayed that way.

Raia took a deep breath as theyapproached the door to the south tower dining room. ‘Please,’ she thought silently. ‘Let them be ready.’

The guards opened the door andstepped aside to let Raia enter first. She forced herself to not so much as glance at the large stained glasswindow on the wall furthest the door. She walked calmly towards the dining table, taking no notice of thebreakfast foods laid out on the table in front of her. Instead, she kept watch out of the corner ofher eyes, waiting for the moment where the guards moved to take their regularpositions around the perimeter of the room. It was the moment when all eyes would not be on Raia—though just for a moment.

That would be her only chance.

She reached to pull out herchair. The moment her hand touched thehard wood, the guards around her turned slightly to move to their usualassigned stations. Taking advantage oftheir momentary inattention, Raia sprang straight into a run, heading towardsthe opposite side of the room. Theguards had barely enough time to let out startled exclamations before she hadhurled herself through the window. Shehad been worried that what limited momentum she would gather running from thedining room table to the window would not be enough to shatter the glass, buther concern proved unnecessary. Deturianstained glass—coveted for its beauty and artistry—was not known for being thesturdiest of materials.

The beautifully designed windowshattered on impact. Raia felt a splitsecond’s remorse for destroying the masterpiece before she was overcome withthe terrifying sensation of falling. Outof sheer willpower, she choked back the scream that rose from her throat.

‘Please be here, please be here!’she thought, closing her eyes so that she would not be able to witness theground rushing up to meet her.

Ploumf.

Raia’s eyes flew open again as shebounced slightly in the hammock that her swan sisters had prepared. Made up of multiple sheets lying one on topof the other, the hammock was suspended right underneath the window of thesouth tower dining room—the same window through which Raia had burst mereseconds before. Holding the corners ofthe sheets were her sisters, straining to stay aloft now that Raia’s weight hadbeen added to their load. Though theypumped their wings madly, Raia could not help feeling concerned at how theyseemed to still be losing altitude, rather than gaining it. Would all their plans be for nothing?

At last, however, the advantage ofthe swan princesses’ larger-than-normal sizes paid off. Raia felt her hammock slowly rise further andfurther into the air as a result of her sisters’ efforts. She peeked over the side of the sheet andnearly fainted at the sight. They hadrisen even higher than the castle’s tallest tower, moving decidedly westwardsto clear the exterior wars and fly out over the dense Deturian forest. She ducked back in her hammock, resolving notto look down again.

Raia heard shouting below them, but did not dare to craneher neck over the side of the sheets to look again. She could only assume that the guards on theground were rushing about trying to come up with a strategy to stop theirescape.

Raia could not help a smirk. Soran’s soldiers would be at a loss inreplaceing a way to force them down. Theycould not use arrows or crossbows to shoot at the swan sisters’, for Soranstill needed all of the princesses alive for his plans. In truth, the only thing that the guardswould be able to do would be to follow the princesses on horseback and wait forthem to land again. And while the girlshad gained more than a viable head start, being forced to carry Raia betweenthem impeded her sisters’ ability to fly as fast as they were able. Soran’s horsemen would no doubt catch up tothem after but a few moments.

But the princesses had a plan forthat as well.

Raia forced herself to stay asstill as possible in her hammock so as not to make it more difficult for hersisters to carry her. She noticed aslight pain in her arm and glancing down, was shocked to see a small shard ofglass embedded in her skin. She grippedthe piece of glass with the tips of her fingernails and tugged it out. A tiny stream of blood from the woundtrickled from the wound.

‘I’ll have to bind that when weland.’ She thought to herself, then looked at the piece of glass in herhand. For her moment, she imagined howit must have looked when she had crashed through the stained glass window. She felt a distinct sense of pride at her owndaring.

‘Who’s a fighter now, huh, Soran?’she thought smugly.