Wings of Fate: The Lost Ones
Chapter 22

In the stillness of the room an inaudible click bounded off stone walls. The sound was reminiscent of the tell-tale pebble against a window pane alluding to a midnight visitor come calling. Raven opened her eyes and, without moving, glanced around the room for the noise source. Behind her, something dry brushed across the stone floor, whispering.

Had she not been alone, far away from the other inhabitants of the castle, she might not have noticed the sounds at all. And the sounds were nearly missed altogether because she could not hear above the ringing in her ears.

She had no idea how long she lay, curled in a ball, on the floor of the cell. Hours -- days, even, could have passed. Pressing her face against the chill in the stone, Raven tried to soothe her aching cheek. Her left eye was swollen completely shut and it seemed like warm blood dripped from the right. It was difficult to peel the one semi-good eye open in order to stare into the shifting shadows.

At first glance there was only darkness and a blinding stream of moonlight falling into the room through a window placed too high in the wall for her to use for escape. Never mind the bars. Blinking her good eye a few times, she attempted to force the blurred vision away but it didn’t help. The room was silent. Deciding her imagination must have created the noises, Raven relaxed and closed her eye.

Something wasn’t right, she thought, someone is watching me. No, Raven, there’s no one in the room but you. But there was something not quite right with the room. And the feeling of being watched wouldn’t go away. It was the shadows, she decided, flickering along the wall and making it appear as though someone stood there. The shifting of the moon caused the movement in the shadows. Yes, she thought, that’s it.

And the furtive noises behind you? Her mind asked, demanding she pay attention. Raven had an answer for that, though, for she already spied the coarse furred rodents skittering across the stone. She gave a mental shrug. It hadn’t bothered her yet so it didn’t matter. Scurrying rats and dancing moons was all it was.

Memories of the Queen’s Mother’s eyes, and the violence of a whip, returned.

“No more,” she murmured, whispering the words she refused to utter in front of the Queen, refusing to beg. The Queen asked again and again about ‘the plan’ -- insisting she knew something, anything -- and then the woman hadn’t cared whether she knew anything or not. She raged about her death, her kingdom, and the prophecy. All of it to be laid at Raven’s feet.

She learned a lot about the prophecy but Raven had no idea what most of it meant.

Perhaps it was the Queen sitting in one of the corners, hiding amongst the shadows, watching; waiting for Raven to admit her collaboration in the plan against her; the war. Too weak to protect herself from any new onslaught, she settled for pressing her body into the floor. But her body wouldn’t respond to the command to bury itself and so Raven just lay there. Waiting. Too terrified to open her eye in order to see if the Queen was indeed there.

Something skittered across the floor.

A rat, she thought, insisting, just a rat. But the sound was closer this time, and in front of her instead of behind. It circled around her. Or had it been there the whole time? She wondered. The need to know if she would open her eyes to replace a rat’s beady eyes staring at her as though she was food, or the endless black eyes of the Queen, was pressing.

Fluttering her right eye open a fraction of an inch, Raven searched the shadows, hoping the Queen would not notice. The shadows continued to dance along the wall, hidden just out of sight by the stream of moonlight, but there was no rat and no Queen Mother ready to pounce on her.

Expelling a slow, heavy breath, Raven relaxed into the floor again and was about to close her eye when one of the shadows against the wall bent towards her. Raven flinched. The misshapen shadow straightened, then swayed and disappeared into the wall. It moved, then, towards the moonlight. The shadow halted and then moved towards her.

If she had been in a condition to do so, she would have inched away, but instead she waited. The shadow drifted into the moonlight and then a familiar face ducked low in front of her.

“Austin?” she whispered.

He cocked his head to the side with a frown. “No, my name is Nicolaus.”

Raven licked her lips, wincing at the pain the movement caused, and squinted up at him with her good eye. “You changed your name?”

Austin gave her a look that said he thought she was daft. “Did they drug you?”

“What? Uh -- no, I uh -- I don’t think so.” She whispered.

“Good, then gather your legs about you. We must leave.” His fingers pinched her elbow and he pulled hard in attempt to bring her to her feet. Shards of pain spiked through her shoulder and she moaned. “Come on, I will not be able to carry you, you will have to do this and be quiet about it,” he whispered.

Raven inched up into a sitting position, glancing around the room at the four stone walls and the one locked door, and then looked at him in confusion. “How did you get in here?” she asked as he pulled on her elbow again, urging her to her feet.

“I can show you, please come.” She limped across the room, following him to the wall, where he paused with a glance at the door. He stood silent for a moment, listening, and then reached forward, bracing himself. He pressed a stone in the wall. Raven stared in shock as part of the wall slid away.

The secret passage was dark, but Austin stepped inside and beckoned her forward. When they both stood inside, he pressed another stone. As the door closed, Raven watched her moon-lit prison disappear. Grabbing her arm, he slid his hand downwards until he found and clutched her fingers. “No one will be able to see us, but if we make noises, they will hear us so there can be no talking. I will lead the way because I know where it is we need to go.”

“How do you know where to go?” she whispered.

“I know everything about this castle.”

“How?” she asked.

“I used to live here,” he said in a voice laced with sadness. Then he moved away, still clasping her hand.

Raven limped along at a snail’s pace and liked to think she was following him, but the truth was he was dragging her along. Nothing was visible in the corridor and, though muffled sounds filtered through the walls, it was disorienting.

The passageway was reminiscent of being on the airplane before they woke to sunlight, trying to feel her way around the passenger seats, trying to replace things using only her hands, unable to see. Yeah, it was definitely like being back on that plane and look where that got me. Raven shelved the morose thoughts and tried to distract herself as they moved along.

The pads on the bottom of Austin’s shoes rustled against the stone floor but no matter how hard she focused on it, her own footsteps remained silent. In the darkness it was confusing as to how her feet landed at different times than she felt they did. One set of feet, one set of footfalls. Step down -- wait for it, wait for it -- footfall. So weird¸ she thought.

The floor started to change then, dipping lower and lower until she had to lean backwards in order to keep her balance. Something squeezed her hand, something wet and smooth. Raven tried to pull her hand away from it; tried to stop moving forward as though propelled. The something jerked her hand.

“What are you doing?” a voice whispered, agitated.

“Au-Austin?” she asked, terrified.

He paused. “Yes, it’s me, Austin, shush -- remember? We have to be quiet or they will replace us. Please, Raven, quiet?”

That’s right, she thought, Austin. They were in the castle, trying to break out. They had to be quiet. “Yes, okay. Keep going.” What was wrong with her? She was losing her mind. Raven didn’t want to tell Austin but she was in a lot of pain. He kept tugging on her arm and each time it sent spikes of pain through her shoulder where the muscles burned.

Her neck felt twisted, knotted to the point where trying to turn her head left or right hurt like hell in between her shoulder blades and neck. Her head pounded and trying to follow any coherent thought made the back of her head and forehead feel like they were going to implode.

And he just kept on moving. She wanted to rest. And he just kept on moving.

It seemed like hours, days even, to her crazed mind, but when they stopped moving forward -- when Austin allowed her a breath -- she looked up and stared in wonder at the sky. Tens of thousands of stars twinkled in the midnight sky, each one representing other galaxies, other planets -- other beings.

The thought sobered her. Definitely other beings. She hadn’t realized how true the theory about other planets and beings could be until she awoke on DeSolar.

The stars formed a bowl in the middle of the sky, blinking as if a dark blanket of holes shielded the planet from the sun. Several yards away, the trees rose up to meet the sky, cutting off the pattern of dots. The blank region stretched to either side of the door way where she and Austin stood but, between it and the building, the starlight lit up the ground.

Shorn grass blanketed the ground all around the doorway and was interrupted by a massive garden taking up the entire left side of the courtyard. To the right there was nothing but grass and a long wall covered in snaking vines. Glancing at the sky, Raven stared unblinking, until tears filled her eyes. On Earth she never stood in any one place at night and been able to see so many stars. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

Raven stepped towards the light but was jerked back by Austin. He pressed a finger to his lips and, widening his eyes at her, pointed to the right of where they stood. Cocking her head to the side, she listened for whatever it was he waited for. Heavy footsteps drummed against the ground. Murmuring male voices accompanied the tread of boots in the grass as the men moved away.

When their voices grew so quiet she could no longer hear them, Austin shifted his head closer to the wall’s edge. “Now, we have to go now.” He whispered, pulling her hand behind him. He dragged her along as he ran towards the stone wall surrounding the castle.

Fear of discovery pumped through Raven’s legs -- energizing her movements while turning her legs into jelly. It made the running almost impossible. Long minutes stretched, the fear making each second feel like an hour, and Raven held her breath so the Queen’s soldiers would not hear her panting.

Having spent so many hours feeling frozen, the summer heat provided a welcome relief as it rushed against her face. With one swollen eye, she prayed Austin paid attention to where he led her for she could see very little in their rush.

When they reached the wall, Austin pushed aside the vines and he drew her in after him. Raven pulled in an unsteady breath, grateful to be under cover. They crept along, careful to stay concealed behind the vines, until they came upon a small arched opening in the stones.

Austin disappeared through the opening, his hand still clutching hers and forcing her to follow him. They stayed close to the wall as they ran east, towards the dark looming forest, until they came to the corner of the stone wall and then they headed for the trees. They were twenty feet into the forest when Austin stopped, bent over and gasping for air.

“I am impressed Nicolaus.” A female voice rose out of the darkness.

“I told you I could get her out.” He pointed out, defensive and breathless.

“Yes, you did. Raven?”

“Who is there? Austin where are you? I can’t see anything.”

“They drugged her. She said they did not but she is so confused about everything I have no doubt they did.” Austin said.

“Raven,” another female voice moved towards her. “It’s okay, you are okay now. It’s me Klotho.”

“Klotho?”

“You remember me, don’t you?” she could almost see Klotho biting her lower lip, as she seemed to do when the uncertainty came into her voice.

“Of course.” Raven muttered, pressing a bruised hand to the ache in her side. “Is it time to leave now? Austin, who are you riding with? Where’s Bael?”

Silence greeted her questioning.

“Raven, Austin and Bael are stilled headed to Allegora.” Atropos’ voice came from the shadows on her right. A horses’ heavy breathing echoed from the same direction and Raven figured Atropos was on her horse, ready to ride.

“Am I imagining this whole thing?” she asked, her words forming out of frustrated exhaustion. “Austin was just here.”

“No,” Klotho replied, “Raven, the boy is not Austin -- he is Nicolaus. Prince Nicolaus.” The group fell silent, waiting.

“Nicolaus.” She murmured in monotone, trying the word on her tongue though the sound of his name rang in her head like bells at Christmas time. When he told her his name back in the castle, it had not registered. “You are the missing son of the Queen Mother, the one I was beaten half to death for?”

“I apologize for that.” He said, mumbling as though looking away. “I could not do anything to help until they left you alone in the room.”

“Can we talk about this some other time? Any moment they will realize Raven is gone -- it took you twice as long to return as we thought it would.” Atropos added. Footsteps moved along the ground. Raven stood where the prince left her because she couldn’t see a thing.

Lachesis placed gentle fingers on her shoulder. “Here’s your horse Raven, we brought Rohan for you.” the woman said, pressing Rohan’s leather reins into her hands. Raven turned towards the horse -- rubbing her hands down it’s silken side until she knew where she was in relation to his body. Grabbing a fistful of mane she dragged herself over his side. It seemed to take a lifetime to get situated on the beast, but she was exhausted.

Loosening her grip on the reins, Raven rested her head against Rohan’s neck. When she wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes he turned and followed the group deeper into the forest.

“What do you mean she’s gone?”

A young soldier lay on the floor at her feet with his face buried in the stone floor. His voice cracked as he answered. “She was not in her room when the witch was sent to heal her wounds, Queen Mother. The halls and servants quarters were checked, the closets and the bailey and the stable yard were checked, Queen Mother. The woman is not here.”

She stared down at the top of his brown head thinking, furious. How could she have gotten away? How could she have escaped? “Have men been sent to scour the forests? Are any of the horses missing? She could not have gotten far on foot.”

“Yes, Queen Mother, all of the horses are accounted for and the men just returned from their searching. She is nowhere to be found.”

Slapping her hand against the wooden armrest of her chair she railed at him, “She could not have just disappeared Isaiah!” his body shook but he did not reply. “Where is Bosnik?” she yelled.

The slinking man Raven referred to as the weasel appeared at the end of the hallway near the doors. “Yes, my Queen?” he whined.

“How could you have let this happen?” she bellowed.

Bosnik shuffled up the hall with bare feet silent on the floor. The old man’s white tunic hung sloppy to his thighs, covering a good portion of his unkempt pants. He bowed his head and raised his arms to her as he moved closer to her chair, and then stretched his hands before him in a placating manner.

“I cannot say how this has happened My Queen, the girls’ door was locked, two armed guards stood outside the door, more armed guards stood at the bottom of the staircase and there are dozens of armed soldiers all over the castle. She could not have escaped, Queen Mother.” He stopped a few feet away and dropped to one knee, bowing his balding head to stare at the floor.

“And yet -- and yet she’s gone.” Tapping one long red lacquered nail against her front teeth, Nadia considered the situation. She stood then, dragging the long gray dress behind her as she stepped around Bosnik to pace the floor. “She had to have had help escaping,” she mused aloud. “Bosnik, are all of our men accounted for?” she asked.

“My Queen?” he asked in confusion.

“Our men, Bosnik, it’s not difficult to follow the reasoning she was able to escape because someone helped her and she had no one here to help her except our men. So, are all of our men accounted for?”

Bosnik shifted on his knee in an attempt to relieve the soreness caused where the stone bit into bone. “I will check, my Queen.”

“Do so. Leave me Bosnik, and take this sniveling child with you.” She demanded, turning away as they left. That girl was going to pay for this, she fumed, no one escaped her.