Page 33 of The Emerald Dragon Prince
“I knew he would make another chain to use against you,” Obi said, pressing himself up against the bars of the cell. “We can take it off, can’t we?” he asked, reaching for Osric through the bars. “It won’t affect us, right?”
“Let’s see,” Osric said, lurching closer to the bars.
As soon as Obi touched the chain a wave of nausea passed through me. It made no sense, but I hated the idea of my brother touching something that had been made with dark magic and I had a physical reaction to that revulsion. It was minor, all things considered, and even though the chain was heavy and Leo had to reach through the bars to grab it as well, with the two of them holding it, Osric was able to crouch down and move to the side, freeing himself from the horrible thing.
“Aah!” Osric made a deep sound of relief as he straightened, looking instantly better. “That thing is poison.”
Leo and Obi dropped it, and immediately, I felt better too.
“Now,” Osric said grasping the bars of his cell…which dissolved into dust in an instant. “It’s time we end this war once and for all.”
Chapter
Ten
Rumi
Obi shouted for joy and even Misha burst into tears of relief as Osric stepped out of his cell looking ready for battle.
“Where is Freslik now?” he asked, striding up the long row of cells toward the dungeon stairs.
His progress was interrupted by cries of, “Help us! Help us, please!” from the ragged men in the other cells.
Osric stopped and surveyed the men in the cells immediately around us. “Are these noblemen who helped plot against Freslik?” he asked.
“They must be,” I replied, my heart aching for the prisoners.
No, it wasn’t my heart that was aching and it wasn’t just the prisoners who made me feel miserable. My egg felt like it was growing with every second that ticked by, quickly getting too large for either of our health. And myheart was heavy because my bond with Emmerich was still dark and cold.
I didn’t realize that I’d stopped again and hunched into one of the walls separating cells until Osric glanced back at me with concern. “Rumi, are you well?”
“I—” If I was honest, I wasn’t well at all.
“He’s half-bred,” Selle answered for me in a quiet voice. “And his mate and ours are prisoners of the evil sorcerer Nazeing.”
“Nikkos is Nazeing,” Obi rushed to add, his eyes large and his face flushed. “The enemy really has been in your camp the entire time.”
Osric scowled as if furious. “I knew I should have checked,” he said, mostly to himself. He shook his head, took in a breath, then looked back at us. “There will be time to right all our wrongs later,” he said. “For now, we need to move quickly to end this war.”
“But how?” Tovey asked, catching up to Osric as we marched on toward the stairs. “Nazeing has all of our mates in his grasp. We don’t know what happened to your army.”
That caused Osric to stop and turn back to us again. “They aren’t still in the field?”
I shook my head. “We came up with a plan to make doorways into the castle so that we could reach here before our father. The main doorway led straight into the Great Hall, but as soon as the six of us and our mates walked through it, Nazeing must have closed it before any of your men could follow us.”
“There were other doors, though,” Selle remembered, excitement lighting his expression. “Bronnen and Hellis and some of your other lieutenants were planning on taking troops into the gardens so that the castle would be surrounded inside and out.”
“But did those doorways close when Nazeing took over our mates?” Misha asked in a quiet voice.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Osric said.
He raised a hand, dissolving the bars of all the cells in the dungeon. Cries and moans of relief echoed off the thick stone walls as the captive noblemen and merchants rushed out of their cells.
Osric continued forward, the six of us following him. “We have to hope that my men were clever enough to go through the other doorways when the one leading into the Great Hall closed,” he said as we headed up to the corridor.
“Will they know what the doorways are?” I asked. “How much experience with the magical world do your men have?”
Osric turned to grin at me as I flanked him, Leo marching on his other side. “More than you might expect,” he said. “It’s been known in my inmost circle that I am a dragon from the very start.”
