Forged in Frost

Leo's Escape

Asher and Alec are both still awake in their room, waiting with armour on. But Evelyn's bed is empty.

"She left a little while ago," Alec says, answering Caius' unspoken question when he glances at her bed.

"Where?" he wonders.

Alec shakes his head. "Just said she had to settle a score before we go."

Leo. Caius clenches his jaw. "You two head for the southeast exit. Stay close to the wall. Evelyn and I will follow."

"Are you sure?" Asher asks, rising from his bed.

Caius nods. "It's best to go in pairs anyway, not as a big group."

They agree and leave him. Caius turns and heads down the hallway, back to the empty main room. At this hour, the only guards passing through would be the ones changing shifts for the night, and that won't happen for at least another hour.

But the dungeons will be guarded. They're always guarded. Caius turns toward the stairs spiralling downward, where Leo had been taken late last night.

A guard sits outside the door to the main prison, arms crossed, head nodding as if falling asleep. He jerks upright at Caius' arrival.

"I need to see a prisoner," says Caius.

"At this hour?" grumbles the guard. He sits up straighter. "You got permission?"

"I need to see the man we brought in yesterday," Caius tells him.

The guard makes a low sound of irritation, but nods in the direction of the door. "Be quick."

Caius goes on through. The dungeon is dank but blessedly cool, the cobblestone walls around making for a tight, cramped feeling. He passes through the row of barred cells, thankful he's never had to be imprisoned in a place like this. Most prisoners are asleep on cots in the corners of their cells. One holds a prisoner who paces back and forth down the length of his cell, muttering to himself, not acknowledging Caius as he passes.

Caius peers in each cell, searching for Leo. But he doesn't search long. At the end of the passage, he spots Evelyn's golden braid. She sits outside the last cell in the row, speaking softly. She glances up at Caius' arrival. Caius peers inside the cell.

Leo is lying in his cot, naked except for a loincloth and grey bandages over his head and abdomen, where Caius pried open the healing stitches during their little "talk." His eyes are closed, his face shiny with sweat.

"I think he's going to die," Evelyn says quietly.

"Good riddance," Caius mutters. "Evelyn, we have to go."

Evelyn looks up at him. Tears are running down her cheeks. Caius stares at them, confused.

"We can't just leave him here," she says.

"He hurt himself trying to escape." Caius lowers his brows. "After threatening to kill you."

Evelyn turns her eyes again to Leo. "He wouldn't have killed me."

Not for the first time, Caius finds himself completely undone by her. How she could continue to have compassion for a wretch so utterly undeserving makes no sense at all. It rattles him like nothing before.

"I thought you wanted nothing more to do with him," Caius says.

"And I thought they'd treat him properly, with a good physician. Give him some decent place to sleep. Not here where it's cold and damp. He'll die down here."

"It's what he deserves, Evelyn," Caius says quietly. "He betrayed his vows, assaulted you, nearly killed you... He's responsible for Countess Ilvara being kidnapped."