Flames [Slow Updates]

Chapter Seventeen

Two days after that, the unexpected happened. 

For two days, I had sitting and fretting, unpicking golden threads from the cord and threatening the servants whenever they brought up my meals. I demanded news of how the decision of my fate was getting along. When I found that none of them knew anything, I said that they would have to call Alabaster or Thristle, or, in my more desperate moments, even Adeline. None of them even bothered listening to my threats. They knew I couldn't harm them anyway. It made me feel ridiculously helpless.

For two days, I had paced back and forth and screamed and raged and slept uneasily in the small fluffy bed. For two days, I had swung between anger and passivity. Then it happened.

The unexpected arrived in a fairly normal manner. I was only half awake when my lunch arrived. I had thrown a tantrum in the morning when someone announced that Eva was coming to see me. I knew by then that if I was deemed unsafe, she would not visit. It worked that morning too, but I was so tired afterward that I fell asleep. Even then, though, I thought tat something was off. Even with my sketchy sense of time, I knew that lunch had been brought up to me far too early. But who was I to doubt it? Besides, I was a little hungry. I wasn't going to question it.

"Have they decided on it?" I asked the servant boy as he slid it underneath the bars.

"Decided on what?" He asked, straightening.

"My death," I said, but then I wasn't really listening. I had noticed the first strange thing. I had been served nothing but some kind of disgusting-looking bruise purple thing, and it didn't have any dragonsbane in it. I knew there wasn't any because I couldn't smell it. "What is this?" I asked him.

He shuffled his feet slightly, and I realized that he hadn't backed away from the bars at all. Normally, the servers would jump away as soon as they had pushed the tray through, as if I was going to go into a feeding frenzy with the overcooked lump of meat I had been given and claw at them through the bars. "Something. But you must eat them."

"No." Now that I was paying attention, there were other odd things about this situation. The boy, who was small and had pale hair, was younger than any of the other servers. He looked only ten or eleven. He was unaccompanied. And, like I already said, he was far too early.

"Look." He leaned in, just as I stepped back. "I'm here to help you."

I gaped at him for a moment. "Are you sure that you're here to bust me out of here? Not your long-lost sister or something? Cause, as much as I'd like to ditch this place, it's probably not fair for you to get me and not your sister." As I talked, I pushed the bowl behind me. There'd be plenty of time to figure out what those did. I could probably use them to smash the bars to kindling. They certainly looked hard enough.

The corners of the boy's mouth turned up slightly, and I wondered what was so funny. "If you are Samantha Summers, the Dragon who was captured in the process of opening the Dragon prison, yes, I am here to 'bust you out'." He sighed, digging around in a pocket of his patched coat. "Where are those picks?"

I narrowed my eyes at him as he finally produced skinny pieces of wire and began to work on the lock. Could I trust him? Of course not. Would he be a help? Doubtful. Could I overpower him? Yes. He was so small.

I decided to play along.

"What's your name?"

"Zeddlin. I was sent here to retrieve- to help you by our mother."

I nodded. "You're a Dragon too!"

A loud, exaggerated sigh. "Yes. Do you want to get out of here or not? Because, if you do, I highly recommend that you occupy yourself in eating the desurs and let me pick the lock in peace."