Riella was still inside the ground-level prison cells.
Sev could sense that his place in this conflict was changing… that the conflict itself was changing. The small battles and subterfuges were now turning into all-out war. He didn’t know where he fit in that new landscape—but he did know that watching and waiting wasn’t it. He had to decide to involve himself once more, or to leave a situation that was out of his depth and get him and Kade to safety. Sev might be able to retain his position as a soldier for the time being, but Kade was a bondservant on the run. His time as a spy in the empire was over.
Before Sev could decide what to do, the tension in the tower exploded. The Phoenix Riders had been facing off against Rolan without their phoenixes, no doubt in an attempt to defuse the situation. But then out of nowhere Val’s phoenix—Sev recognized it because of the long, dark tail feathers—appeared from the top of the tower, where it had clearly been perched out of sight, waiting to be summoned.
Sev watched, mouth open, as Val and Veronyka fell over the edge of the railing, only to land on the phoenix’s back and soar away. Then, like a kicked anthill, the soldiers inside the tower poured back outside, running to horses and following Val and Veronyka in hot pursuit. Normally such a venture would be pointless—a full-grown phoenix could outstrip a horse any day—but the sisters had crashed not far from the prison tower, landing in a cloud of dust and sparks a few miles outside Copper Hill. The Phoenix Riders had summoned their mounts too, and now both sides converged on the place where the sisters had fallen, leaving the tower suddenly, conveniently, empty.
“Now,” said Kade, his voice flat with shock.
“Now,” Sev said in agreement.
They ran the rest of the distance to the tower, the double doors wide open. When they approached Riella’s cell, they slowed their pace.
“Riella,” Sev called as they made their approach. “It’s us. It’s Sev and Kade.”
While Sev squatted to pick the lock, Kade peered in through the window again. He murmured apologies for taking longer than expected and explained that they had to hurry—the tower was empty, but they didn’t know for how long.
When the lock sprang open with a loud clang, Sev stood, and together he and Kade swung the heavy door wide.
Riella’s cell was easier to see now in the daylight than it had been in the dead of night; there was a cot, a table, and some other assorted items. She hadn’t been shut away in a dank underground hole, but it was still no place for an innocent young girl. Some of the rats were still there, crawling over her ankles, clearly there as a comfort to her.
She’d slung what looked like a threadbare blanket across her shoulder, with assorted items bundled inside like a satchel. She seemed uneasy at the open door and looked warily at the pair of them standing there. Sev knew that he looked too much like the soldiers who had imprisoned her, too much like the men who had dragged her from her home and kept her from her family.
Kade recognized this too and stepped forward. Like Sev had seen him do multiple times before, he withdrew his animage pendant. “I know what it is to be mistreated by the empire. That’s not who we are or why we’re here. We’re both animages,” he said, gesturing to Sev, “and we’re going to take you to your brother.”
Riella stood as tall as her short frame would allow, her fists clenched on her blanket-sack, her chin held high. Her lip trembled slightly, but then she nodded and crossed the threshold of the cell.
Sev led the way, leaving Kade to walk alongside Riella. He poked his head outside the doors and raised a hand for the two of them to remain inside until he’d had a quick look around the perimeter. There were no soldiers, so Sev waved them out.
Riella seemed a bit wobbly on her legs—and Sev wondered if she’d been given any exercise or time outside her cell over however many months she’d been here—so Kade was holding her hand as they crossed the open space toward the old stone wall. The problem was, Kade wasn’t much better off than she was, his face tensed in a grimace and his brow dotted with sweat.
Sev paused halfway toward rejoining them, then hastily diverted his steps. “I’ll