Page 47 of The Jester

The sound of bodies pressed together rustles in the corner.

I draw closer to the iron grate and take hold of the bars, wrapping my gloved fingers around them.

I peer into the gloom, and the silhouettes of my kin materialise into solid forms.

They’re still chained.

I breathe slowly, my heart straining against my ribs, swelling with the horror of knowing this is how they have been for the last two weeks. While I’ve been comfortable in a bed with a fire, and a maid, and food, they have been here.

“Kayan,” I whisper, “Are you there?” There is a clink of chains, and then Kayan comes into view.

His cheeks are sunken, and his eyes are grey.

Even his hair looks darker, no longer soft and wavy, but a dirty blond that hangs in greasy tendrils around his face.

He grips the chain as if it is helping to steady him and narrows his eyes at me.

“Alana,” he asks, his voice hoarse, “is it you?”

I’m pressing my lips together, trying to find the words to tell him how sorry I am. But there are too many of them, and I can’t put them in any sensible order. So, I just mutter, “Yes, it’s me.”

Kayan looks past me at Finn. “You brought her,” he says. “You finally brought her.”

Before I can ask what he means, Kayan returns his gaze to me and says, “You look well. He is treating you well.”

I swallow, guilt dripping like acid down the back of my throat. “I’m not sure what he wants from me,” I reply, “but he seems to trust me. He has been talking with me, asking me lots of questions.”

From the shadows inside the cell, someone says, “And I suppose you have been giving him everything that he wants. Judging by the look of you, you’re having quite a nice time while we all rot down here.” I recognise the voice. It belongs to Maura, an elder who has hated me with a passion since the day I was born.

Guilt and shame hum on my skin.

For the first time since I was taken away, I genuinely wish I was still locked in here with them because at least then, perhaps they wouldn’t hate me.

Finn appears at my elbow and puts a comforting hand on the small of my back, but I nudge him away when Kayan notices and say, “I’m going to do everything I can to get you out of here. I’m going to figure out a way. I can roam the castle. Eldrion knows I don’t have the kind of magic that could fight back against him, but perhaps I can find a way for us all to get out. If I’m patient and careful and listen.”

Kayan’s lips twitch, and he tries to smile. “That sounds like a plan,” he says. Then he adds, “And when we get out, maybe we can find Rosalie.”

I rub my tongue on the roof of my mouth, trying to stop myself from crying.

I’ve thought about Rosalie every night since we got here. And every night, I’ve come to the same conclusion – that whatever is happening to her now is far worse than what’s happening to any of us.

Some nights, my thoughts become so bad that Finn has to wake me up from a nightmare. But I’ve never told him what I’m dreaming about.

“Yes,” I say, “we should do that.”

“Oh, come on,” Maura tuts. “Do you really think we’re going to get out of here? Eldrion didn’t want us. He wanted you. He’s going to leave us here to rot, and don’t pretend that you care. You’ve never been one of us.”

“I’ve always been one of you. Even when you didn’t want me to be.”

Slowly, Maura steps forward. Her face is illuminated by the lamplight.

She was already old but now looks hundreds of years older. She rubs the chains around her wrist, then braces one arm across her stomach as if she’s trying to quite literally hold her body together.

“No,” she says, “your mother wanted you to be, but your father knew the truth.”

“That’s enough,” Kayan interrupts her sharply. “Now’s not the time.”

“We should go,” Finn whispers to me, taking hold of my elbow. “There’s nothing you can do for them now. They don’t want your help.”

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