Page 84 of Vale of Dreams

I’m inside the fortress, gasping for breath. Exhausted, I hoist myself onto the ledge beside the river, propping myself up onto my elbows. I want to hoist myself out of the cold, but I still need to take in the surroundings, to check for guards.

I sit up, surveying the tunnel. A stairwell by the water wheel leads up. A few torches glow in the darkness beyond the water wheel, where a tunnel arches over the river. As far as I can see, there’s no movement anywhere, no guards patrolling in the courtyard.

Honestly, I expected more security inside. I suppose Talan might keep personnel to a minimum to make this place as secret as possible.

My feet and my hands are numb with cold, but to Jasper’s credit, my body is almost warm. I hug myself and climb the stairs next to the turning water wheel. When I reach the top, I peer out into a large courtyard, scanning for soldiers. Not a single one. No movement, no patrols. Just stone towers, a water pump, and ivy-lined walls. A narrow archway leads to what seems to be a second courtyard. Torchlight dances over stone and mist. What is this place?

One of the towers is significantly larger than the others, and warm light illuminates the mullioned windows. Keeping to the shadows, I creep toward the tower, scanning for any movement around the courtyard or on the walls around me, but it’s eerily quiet. Why are there no guards within the walls?

I reach the main tower and glance up at the windows—no bars on them.

The wooden door inset into the wall looks enormous and heavy, studded with nails. I pull the handle, and it groans open, revealing a dark stairwell. My heart pounds as I step inside. A winding set of stairs curves up. I listen for the sound of voices, of footfalls, but don’t hear a thing. I start climbing, my legs aching from the frantic swim. One story up, I reach a door.

I press my ear against the wood, listening.

Silence. Slowly, I push the door open. In the moonlit room, I take in the rows of bookshelves, a tapestry, and an enormous desk with unlit candelabras. An upholstered chair stands by an empty hearth. Nothing nefarious looking, more like a giant Fey office.

I step into the hall again, climbing the stairs.

When I reach the next floor, I find a small window inset into the wooden door. I peer inside. A lantern casts warm light over a room of eight small beds—each with little Fey children sleeping in them.

My heart skips a beat. This is not what I was expecting.

What does the Dream Stalker want with children? I can’t even begin to imagine.

My stomach churns as my breath goes shallow. I walk over to the next window and peer inside. The same decor in this room as well and four more children, asleep in beds. These kids seem a bit smaller than the previous ones, and?—

My breath stills in my lungs.

While the kids in the previous bunk had the long fingers and pointed ears of the Fey, these kids look more human—some of their ears are curved like mine usually are, when I’m not glamoured. One of them clutches a little stuffed duck in his tiny hands, clearly a human toy.

Human children and demi-Fey children, trapped in a fortress.

What the fuck, Talan?

I still have no idea what he’s doing here at the Blue Dragon Project. Is he using them for some sort of experiment? Harvesting their little dreams for some dark purpose?

I can’t just leave them here. He’s already confessed to me that he wanted to slaughter all of humankind, so it’s safe to say the children he’s imprisoned are not in a good place. Where to get them to, though? I can’t bring them back to Perillos, but I could hide them until I got word to Meriadec, Raphael, or someone else.

This fortress is unguarded from within. Obviously, they think that the external defenses are enough.

That means if I take out the guards at the main gate, I can free all the kids here and spirit them somewhere safe. The guards are looking for intruders from outside the compound, but they won’t expect someone coming behind their backs.

I need to wake the kids first. Just in case one of the guards raises an alarm, we have to move quickly before reinforcements show up.

I gently push open the door to the room and cross to the first bed, where a little girl with curly blond hair is sleeping peacefully. I softly touch her arm. She sighs, her eyelids fluttering open. Her eyes focus and widen in alarm, and she clutches her blanket.

“Shh,” I whisper. “Don’t be afraid. I’m a friend. I’ve come to get you all out.”

She recoils in horror and scoots away from me on the bed. Then her eyes shift, and I realize that she’s looking at something over my shoulder. Before I can turn, a cold metal blade touches my throat, and someone twists my arm sharply behind my back.

“Really?” a hard feminine voice says. “Get them all out? I don’t think anyone is getting out of here.”

CHAPTER 30

Ifreeze, my heart slamming. The blade held to my neck presses hard, nicking my skin. Any movement might be my last.

“Rosalind, go to sleep,” the woman behind me says gently. “I’ll talk to our visitor outside.”

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