A Captive of Wing and Feather A Retelling of Swan Lake - Melanie Cellier Page 0,68

which hung on the wall beside it. As soon as he touched it, I could see why it had attracted his attention. It undulated in the breezes of the room in an unnatural way and, sure enough, when he pulled it aside, it revealed a hidden alcove.

We nearly tripped over each other both rushing into the small depression. Only when I was almost shoved up against it, did I notice that the space held a simple wooden door. I fumbled with the handle, expecting to find it locked, but a simple latch was all that held it closed.

A key scraped against the lock of the main door as I ripped open the one in front of me and threw myself through. Gabe followed behind, so close he was stepping on my heels, before pulling the door closed behind us as silently as he could.

The door—and tapestry in front of it—might hide the light of our lantern, but it didn’t filter out all sound. A muffled roar of anger sounded from the room on the other side. Apparently Leander was able to distinguish his own chaos from the mess we had created. I looked around frantically for something to barricade the door, but the space around us was empty except for one thing. I tugged at Gabe’s sleeve.

“Stairs,” I breathed, pointing downward.

His eyes lit up, reflecting the orange light of the lantern, and he moved toward the hole in the floor without hesitation. I let him go first, taking the light with him, but followed close behind, casting several anxious glances over my shoulder.

The narrow stone stairs wound downward in a tight spiral. No openings or landings punctuated the endless turns, although we must have passed several levels.

“The escape tunnel,” I whispered, hope filling me.

Gabe nodded. “It makes sense. We thought it must open from the locked study, and it certainly wasn’t in that cupboard.” He chuckled. “I’m now intimately familiar with every inch of it, and there wasn’t a secret passage to be seen.”

The spiral meant there was no way to see back up to the top of the stairs, and not even a distant glow would give forewarning if the door behind the tapestry was opened. But I kept looking back over my shoulder anyway. If there was any pursuit, it was silent, and I could no longer hear whatever angry noises Leander was making in his study. Had he found the fragments of glass and worked out what they meant? Did he know I was free?

The stone around us turned colder, as if we had descended below the bottom level and under the ground. Or was that just my imagination? We had been descending long enough that it felt as if we must be underground by now.

Sure enough, the steps ended, the stone beneath our feet abruptly turning to packed dirt. Rough stone walls bordered a short, narrow tunnel that disappeared into darkness ahead of us. Gabe had to stoop to avoid hitting his head against the roof, although I could stand straight.

His pace didn’t slow, however, and I kept close behind him. My mind was now helpfully supplying images of the lake bursting through the ancient walls of the tunnel and flooding us. I pushed the thought away. This tunnel had stood for unknown generations—there was no reason for it to collapse now.

At long last, Gabe reached the door at the other end, nothing but another simple latch standing between us and freedom. This passage had been made for free access from the Keep to the forest, all the protections focused on travelers coming the other way.

A moment later and the fresh night air hit me directly in the face. I breathed it in deeply, stepping forward eagerly. But as I moved through the doorway, it occurred to me that there might be a way to secure the latch so that we could open the door from the outside. I turned back, intending to catch it before it closed, and stumbled over a twisted root.

“The door!” I cried, but Gabe reached for me instead, catching me before I hit the ground. It swung shut with a bang.

“I’m sorry!” I rushed over to see if there was any chance of opening it again. It didn’t budge.

“Don’t worry,” Gabe said. “Eventually Leander’s going to work out that’s how we got out, and I would bet he’s going to do something to secure the door at the top. At the very least, he’ll be watching the passage. I don’t think