Page 20 of Down from the Tower

“The… scars. Those cuts in your hands. What are those?”

So curious for someone who should be cautious. But I don’t say it out loud. Glancing down at my hands, I study the spades that are carved and faded, inked in later when I needed something to block out the scarring. The slice straight through the designs on the backs of my hands, making it seem like it’s there to cut through the picture. But it’s just another memory in a long line of pain.

Instead I fix my gaze on her again, assessing my options. I won’t kill someone innocent. I won’t claim this princess is the brains behind whatever Midas is up to. She might be powerful, but she’s a pawn at this point. She doesn’t know anything about the world around her, much less what her father’s end game is. Her world doesn’t reach outside these four walls.

“Would you stop using your gift if I requested it?” I ask, studying her. “Just to see what would happen?”

“I don’t know why that would matter,” she says, frowning again. At this point I’ll put worry lines on that pretty face. “I only ever see one person at a time. That’s hardly going to be the reason why people die at a slower rate in Tressa.”

Or not at all. “Princess, when one person’s fate is changed, it can change everything. One altercation can shift fate’s design and create a new future. You could be inadvertently causing things to spiral.”

Her eyes widen, and I doubt she’s ever considered it that way before. In her eyes she’s doing the King a favor, albeit one she has no say in. She wouldn’t consider how it spirals outwards from the individual that she speaks with.

If anything, she probably assumes that her place in all this is nothing of importance. But I don’t think the princess realizes how powerful she could be.

I look out the window again. “If I give you a peek of what’s beyond the wall, will you listen to me?”

Her breath catches. “You can get outside of the walls? Without a ship?”

I don’t bother correcting her this time. “I didn’t say we’d leave the Kingdom. I don’t need to start a war for stealing the princess, and we don’t have that much time as is. But I can show you there’s truth to my words.”

“How?”

Glancing back, I smirk. “With the trees. An ocean is flat and endless. The forest might go on forever, but the wind moves the trees in the distance. And from one of the highest points on the castle roof, you can see over the wall.”

Her face loses some color. “You want to… climb the roof?”

“Don’t tell me you stayed put all these years?” I ask, reaching out to smack the bars across her window. “Someone thought you might be willing to risk life and limb to get out of here.”

“The bars could be for protection.” But her voice wobbles, and I don’t believe her.

“You keep lying to yourself if you want to, but the truth is there if you’re willing to look.” I nod to the window once more. “I’ll take you outside for a bit to show you that the King and Queen lie. I doubt anyone is watching the roof by your bedroom when it should be impossible to leave. I’ll bring you back when we’re finished.”

Some sadness leaks into her eyes, and I’m sure faced with the idea of freedom she’s wary of coming back into her prison of a room. “I don’t think I trust a near stranger to not throw me off the roof.”

This time I do laugh. She isn’t asking the right questions, like how we’ll get out there in the first place. “Princess, if I meant to do you harm, I would’ve by now. No else can see me, remember? I could turn you mad in a matter of minutes and even the King and Queen wouldn’t be able to ignore your sickness.”

Her eyes widen. I’ve already shown I can interact with her even if others can’t see me. Her hands move to grasp the sides of her dress, dropping my gaze, and I know she’s thinking of my trick with the shadows.

Slowly, she steps up beside the window with me. There’s no reason to trust me, especially not with my shadow tricks playing games with her. After a moment she lifts her chin, glaring up at me. “I’ll humor you, shadow man. On one condition.”

“And what is that, Princess?”

She purses her lips. “Your name. I can’t trust you to not throw me to my death if you can’t even give me a name.”

I suppose she has a point. And even if I give it to her… who will she tell who believes her? “You’ll come outside with me?”

“If you have some magical way to get past the bars, then I suppose so.”

“Of course I do,” I chuckle, holding up my hand again. The shadows twist and spin in the lighting of her room, the moon distantly outlining them as they float to the ceiling. More time passed than I thought, and in the early twilight the moon’s crescent shape peeks through at us.

Her eyes round, and I can tell she’s second guessing things. I’m not even sure which way I want this to go at this point. Challenging her is turning into too much fun, and I can get in trouble for that. “Name?”

She’s never going to tell anyone anyway.

I nod to the window. “Braid your hair, Princess. Can’t have you slipping on that and falling off the roof.”

“Name?”

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