All I could hear were footsteps pattering to the door, and then light flooded the room, and Charlotte was standing by the door with her hand on the switch, blue eyes round with astonishment,

“You think she killed her own daughter?”

Blinking furiously against the sudden brightness, I nodded, “I’ve been having dreams, or…genetic memories, Erik called them. In them, I'm Amora. It's stuff that happened to her, I guess. I didn’t understand why my brain seemed to get stuck on this one dream, a dream about Amora dying in battle. Then it was like that dream shorted out and was replaced by something different, she disobeyed an order from her mother. It's like something was blocking that dream from my memory,” I caught myself chewing my thumbnail anxiously and yanked it away from my mouth, “it wasn’t until now that I had the execution dream. Charlotte, what kind of person does that? Killing your own daughter….”

“That’s disgusting,” Charlotte frowned, “you think she’d do something like that to you?”

“Are you kidding?” My voice was reaching heights it had never reached before, I was starting to sound hysterical, “I’m not even her real daughter! I’m just some magical, freakish copy of her! If she killed her real daughter, you think she’d pause before chopping my head off?” Automatically my hands found their way to my throat, shielding it from imaginary attacks.

Charlotte pressed one finger to her lips. Obviously I was getting too loud. I shut my eyes and took a deep calming breath, at least, I told myself it was calming.

“Okay,” Charlotte walked over to the armoire and tugged one of the doors open, “let’s go. Grab a pillow case and load it up with clothes and whatever else you’ll need.”

I bolted out of bed, on my feet and heading for the dresser drawers when something stopped me in my tracks, “Loki! Charlotte, we can’t just leave him here! The only reason he got thrown in the dungeons is because of me! They’re going to execute him!”

Charlotte glared at me, “Damn it, Megan! Now we not only have to sneak out without being seen, you want us to break a prisoner out of the dungeon?”

“I can’t leave him there.” I tugged the pillow case off my pillow and began shoving underwear and socks inside, then whatever clothes I grabbed went into the bag too. Then to the bathroom for my tooth brush and hair brush. When I reemerged Charlotte was sitting on the bed with a bulging pillow case, chin in her hands.

“Well?” I said.

“I’m thinking,” Charlotte murmured, “I have no idea how to break someone out of a dungeon.”

“I don’t even know where the dungeons are,” I groaned, “this is impossible.”

“They’re just past the training room,” Charlotte punched her over stuffed bag with one fist, looking frustrated, “but don’t ask me how to break him out. They have a guard down there all the time.”

“How do you know that?”  

“Davin told me,” Charlotte looked unhappy, “though I doubt he thought I’d be breaking anyone out with the information.”

I hesitated, “Look, I’m sorry…you don’t have to go with me. You could stay here with him…” Even the thought of doing this on my own made my stomach drop, but Charlotte was already shaking her head.

“You need me,” she said firmly.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, “thanks for choosing me…”

We both let the rest of the sentence hang in the air unspoken. Instead of him. Charlotte was leaving Davin behind permanently to go with me.

“Okay,” she let out of puff of air and stood up with her hands on her hips, “let’s go down to the dungeon. We’ll have to leave our pillowcases in the training room, stash them somewhere, or it’ll look suspicious.” She glanced over at the alarm clock on the side table, “it’s four in the morning, so there shouldn’t be anyone in the training room. The guard should be the only one we have to worry about.”

“What do we do…?” I said nervously, “knock him out?”

“Um, let me see…how about, you go ask to speak to him...to Loki . Tell the guard you want to go talk to him in the cell. Hint that you want to get revenge because he was trying to rape you.”

I winced at how untrue that was, and Charlotte waved one hand at me, “it’s a story, and you had better make it convincing. You need to look pissed. With any luck, the guard will watch you. You'll have to shout at Loki or rough him up a bit, so the gaurd gets destracted. I’ll come up from behind.” Charlotte’s eyes scanned the room and settled on the vanity table. She strode over and seized a tall, crystal stoppered bottle of perfume off the table, weighing it in one hand. “This should do it.”

“Are you sure you’ll be able to…” I mimicked the gesture of swinging the bottle, and Charlotte gave me a wry smile, “didn’t have any trouble with it the other night, did I?”

“No,” I couldn’t help but grin a little bit, “no, you didn’t.”

“It’s a bit different, since the guard won’t be trying to kill you,” Charlotte looked grim, “but it can’t be helped.”

“Okay,” I took a deep breath and tried to clamp down on my jangling nerves, “let’s do this.”

Charlotte, crystal perfume bottle in one hand and the other holding her sack of clothes, gestured with a bob of her head that I should lead the way. I swallowed hard, threw the pillow case over one shoulder so that it bounced on my back with each step, and opened the door an inch at a time, until the hall light was flooding into the bedroom. We made sure to shut the bedroom doors quietly behind us.

It wasn’t until we were in the empty, silent corridors heading for the training room, that I realized how vulnerable I felt.  If someone came across us right now, no matter who it was, we wouldn’t be able to explain ourselves. How did you explain away the fact that you’re creeping through the palace in the dead of the night with full sacks on your backs? It was completely and totally obvious we were runaways. I’d never felt so exposed in my life.

Charlotte obviously felt the same way, because each step she took grew faster, until we were both speed walking down the hallway, nearly flat out running. My breath was so loud in my ears, that I almost didn't hear the sound of footsteps coming in our direction until the person was already rounding the corner right in front of us. For a second both Charlotte and I froze, and my heart gave one violent thump and then seemed to turn to ice in my chest.

It was a girl, not more than fifteen or so, with long stringy blonde hair and downcast eyes. A servant, shuffling along with a basket of clothes on one hip. My stomach clenched as she neared me, and for a split second she glanced up and wide turquoise eyes locked on mine. She smiled then, just a faint quirk of the lips on one side, barely noticeable. Then she shuffled past us, head bowed, silent as a mouse. Something in me wondered if she was going to tell someone, but my body seemed to relax unconsciously. It was a good bet that letting us go would sort of be her “screw you” to the monarchy, so to speak. Why should she help her oppressors?

Charlotte seized my arm, dragging me out of my thoughts and down the hallway. Finally we were at the great double doors. Again, she pressed one finger into her lips. I nodded. We had no idea if there was anyone on the other side of these doors. It would be just our luck if there was a late night practice or two. It was possible, what with a battle looming on the horizon.

The door creaked as Charlotte dragged it slowly open, and we both winced.  The room was lit dimly, by thin tubes that ran along the wall, casting flickering light over the room. The swords on the wall caught the light, reflecting it around the room. The boxing ring in the center was mostly in shadow, and we peered more closely, holding our breath.

“I think it’s empty,” Charlotte whispered.

“I think you’re right,” I snuck forward slowly. It was impulsive, but I headed straight for the sword wall. Charlotte hissed at me, “where are you going?” and I held up one finger. I just needed a second. It felt like I needed it.  It was hard to see in the dim light, but instinct guided me towards the far right, the sword on the top row at the end. My katana.

As soon as I had it in my hands I felt better. The queasy feeling in my stomach eased up and the knot in my chest unraveled. I drew in a deep breath for what felt like the first time since we’d left the room.  I nodded at Charlotte, “let’s go.”

She led the way past the archery targets, a place I hadn’t set foot in, since no one had bothered to teach me that particular skill. There was a door set in the wall, and Charlotte tugged it open. She had to put both hands on the knob and brace herself, grunting with the effort it took her. I came around and placed my hand on the other side, we pushed it open together.

A steep set of cement stairs lay before us. My fingers curled around the grip of my sword just a little more tightly, “I’ll go first,” I whispered.

Charlotte nodded, obviously having no desire to protest.  We crept down a stair at a time, tensing up at the slightest scuffling sound our feet made. At the bottom of the stairs the walls fell away, widening into a large hallway that branched off into two different directions. It felt really strange, after being surrounded by pure ice walls and floors for so long, to be completely engulfed by dull, grey cement.

“What now?”  I hissed, the anxiety was back, gnawing at my nerves a little bit at a time, “we have no idea where they’re keeping him.”

“Ditch the bags here,” Charlotte dropped her pillowcase. It sat at the bottom of the stairs, a small white lump in the darkness, “we can’t be seen carrying them. Too obvious.”

I dropped my bag and gestured down the right passage with the tip of my katana, “let’s try this one first.”

The hallway was pretty short, after a few grim passageways lit only by burning torches  -which I thought was sort of archaic and creepy – we stumbled into an open room that came up on us far more quickly then we’d expected. There was a man sitting in the room, his back to us, in a computer chair tapping away at a keyboard. Charlotte pulled me back into the hallway quickly, and we both crouched down, hiding behind the passage wall, trying not to breath too heavily.  The room was pretty massive. It was a strange mixture of modern and ancient, with torches burning in brackets along the wall, casting flickering light dancing over the walls, and a station of several computer monitors on the desk the man sat at. Why not have light bulbs down here when it was obviously wired for electricity. Something told me it was the Queen's penchant for drama. Apparently the dungeon was supposed to look as creepy and unpleasant as possible.

The monitors were obviously being used to track the prisoners. There was a picture on each one of an empty prison cell, bleak and grey. Charlotte nudged me, pointing to the screen on the bottom left. I had to clap one hand over my mouth to keep from gasping. There on the bottom screen was an occupied cell. Loki was sitting right in front of the camera, fingers curled around the bars, face pressed between them. His lips were moving. I could hear him now, a faint voice drifting down the hallway, talking constantly,

“Can I get some fried chicken in here? I’d really like some chicken. And mashed potatoes and gravy. Oh man, I love gravy so much. But only if it doesn’t have lumps. Lumps are no good,” his voice grew louder, “no lumps, please! You got that?”

There was sudden movement on the monitor next to his, someone shot out of the darkness and crashed into the bars of a cell I’d thought was empty. His blonde hair hung limp and greasy in front of his face, and there were huge dark circles under hollow blue eyes,

“Shut up!” he screamed, “make him shut up! He never stops talking!”

Lief. A smile stole across my face, I couldn’t help it. Loki was obviously just doing it to piss Lief off.

“Or a roast,” Loki didn’t seem to notice that someone was screaming obscenities at him, “yeah, that would be brilliant. Or even a cheese sandwich. I wouldn’t mind a cheese sandwich. Do you eat cheese here? Or you against having fun in general around these parts? You can’t possibly have any fun without cheese.”

It went on. The guard sitting in the computer chair groaned and dropped his head into his hands. I wondered how long this had been going on. There was suddenly a vice grip on my forearm, Charlotte was digging her nails in my arm. I turned around to hiss at her and saw her staring back over her shoulder with huge, frightened eyes. Directly behind us stood a man, and I found myself staring down the blade of a very long broad sword. My hand tightened on the hilt of my sword and I gasped. There was no way I could get the blade up on time. We were screwed. To my surprise the man put his finger to his lips.

He lowered the broadsword and leaned forward to whisper, “sorry, I didn’t realize it was you.”

When he leaned closer I recognized his face, the light blue eyes and scruffy blonde beard. Lady Edda’s guard boyfriend.  He whispered, “I’m guessing you’re here for your fire jotun?”

My fire jotun. That made my pulse jump. I nodded silently.

“Didn’t think he was attacking you,” the guard grinned, “I still owe you for saving Edda. Run down the hall and hide in the forked passage. I’ll get rid of this buffoon for you. I’ll pretend it’s my shift.”

We thanked him profusely, and silently, and ran back down the hallway as quickly as we could, darting into the left passageway when we came to the fork.

Gradually the sound of stomping boots echoed through the cement passageways, and a tall shadow passed by, made long and stretched by the flickering torchlight. I peered out cautiously, waiting until he had rounded the corner and was out of sight,

“Okay, he’s gone, let’s go.”

We walked back to the big monitoring room as quickly as we could, relieved to see that Edda’s boyfriend was the only one there. He was leaning back in the computer chair, feet propped up on the desk.

“One of you will have to hit me,” he said as we entered.

I paused, “What?”

He turned around. His face was serious, “There’s no cameras in here, but the cameras in there will catch it all. Since I’m not going with you, I’ll need an excuse. Someone has got to hit me. Punch me in the face and I’ll pretend I was knocked out.”

Charlotte was shaking her head, “not me, I don’t punch people.”

I raised a critical brow at her and she shrugged, “What? I only use inanimate objects to clonk people on the head with, not my fists.”

“Kind of you,” I muttered, “okay, I’ll do it.” I braced myself, muscles tense. It wouldn’t be much different than hand to hand practice, I’d swung at Lief before. How was this any different?

“Make it good,” the guard stood up and walked toward me, “try to get me square in the face, I want some bruising in case anyone is suspicious.” He stopped right in front of me.

Oh geeze…I took a deep breath and drew my arm back, curling my fingers into a fist. I can do this. Pretend he’s Lief. It wasn’t hard. Lief’s voice was drifting down the corridor.

“I demand you let me out…” he was saying, “this imbecile is going to drive me insane.”

I pictured Lief’s face instead of the guard. Gritting my teeth I drew back and swung. My fist connected, sending pain jolting through my hand and up my arm, stinging my knuckles. The guard staggered back with a grunt,  holding his nose. Crimson liquid was dripping past his fingers.

“I’m sorry!” I cried, “I’m so sorry! Are you okay?”

“It’s fine,” he mumbled, shaking his head, “this is perfect. I’ll lie down and try to get some of this blood on the floor. Here take these,” he handed me a ring of keys, which I took in trembling fingers.

“Keys,” Charlotte snorted, “this place is totally archaic. I expected a punch code or something.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” the guard groaned, still holding his face. To my relief the blood flow seemed to be slowing down.

“Are you going to be okay?”  I stood over him, feeling sick, “should I get a cloth for you or something?”

The guard snorted with laughter, and then winced, “Sweetheart, I can’t very well tell the Queen you punched me out to go save your boyfriend and then went and got me all patched up. You punching me is saving me from getting my head chopped off. Now go save your boy, I’m going to just lay here and pretend to be unconscious.”

“Okay,” I backed away, chewing on my nail anxiously. Charlotte jingled the ring of keys at me,

“Let’s go, we don’t have time to stand around and chat.”

We entered the hallway of cells. My pulse seemed to permanently reside in my ears now, and my entire body shook with each breath I took. I was hyper aware that, now, as we walked down this corridor, we were being caught on camera, recorded. It doesn’t matter anyways, I told myself, when they find Loki gone and we’re gone too, it’s going to be obvious what happened. Cameras or no cameras.

We passed by the first cell, and I glanced in and went cold. Lief was standing in the middle of the dirty cement floor, glaring through the bars. When he spotted us his eyes went wide with rage.

“You!” He spat, “why are you here, filthy half-blood? The only reason I’m happy to be here is because I didn’t have to see your ugly face anymore.” He lunged at the bars, and Charlotte backed up a step.

White hot anger seized me, and I stepped forward and thrust my katana through the bars at him, enjoying the look on his face when he jumped back, “Are you enjoying your stay, Prince Lief? Are they treating you like a prince? Are they serving you wine and roast pheasant every night? Oh look, there’s a dead rat in the corner. It must be stimulating company for you. “ I drew the sword back, and Lief came closer to the bars again, snarling with outrage, his face bright red. Spit literally flew from between his lips, “Once my mother finds out you’re down here-“

“She’ll what?” I spat back at him, “you think she cares about you, Lief? She was going to execute you if I’d asked her to. She doesn’t give a flying crap about you. About anyone.”

“Treason!” Lief growled .

“Come on,” Charlotte tugged on my arm, “we don’t have time for this, let’s go.”

“What are you doing?” Lief howled after us.

We ignored his rantings, continuing down the line of cells. Most of them were empty, dark and filled with rat droppings. Some had a pile of hay in the back, which would apparently serve as a bed, some had nothing but cold, hard cement and a burlap sack or two.

“This place is barbaric,” Charlotte shuddered, rubbing her hands over her arms, “I can’t believe the Queen would throw her own son down here, no matter what he did.”

“I don’t think there’s much she wouldn’t do,” I said grimly.

A voice rang out down the hallway, “Megan? Is that you?”

Loki’s voice. Even in the circumstances, it sent a shiver of anticipation through me.

“Loki, we’re coming!” I ran the rest of the way, and Charlotte tossed me the keys as I went. I caught them awkwardly, almost tripping in my haste. Loki’s cell was just around a slight bend in the corridor. He was pressed against the cell bars, his dark curly hair was messier than usual, like he’d been running his hands through it, and the skin around one of his big brown eyes was purple and black.

“Who did that?” I gasped.

“One of the guards. It doesn’t matter,” Loki’s hand shot out, curling around my wrist. His skin was hot on mine, “I’m so glad you’re here.” His grin was huge, in spite of how painful his face looked. My hands shook as I scrambled to find the right key, trying to fit several in the lock.

“That one,” Charlotte leaned over my shoulder and pointed at a rusted looking key with a curled top.

“How do you know?” I plucked the key and thrust it at the lock. It sunk in with a clunk, “it works!”

“It looks old and rusted,” Charlotte said, “more so than the other ones. And these cells look like they haven’t changed the locks, “ she looked around, expression disgusted, “or anything…in a very long time.”

The lock clicked, and I yanked on the cell door. It swung toward me with a rusty creak that sounded like a tiny scream, and Loki shot through as soon as the opening was wide enough, crushing me in a bear hug. I held my right hand out akwardly so that neither of us would end up being cut by the katana.

“I knew you wouldn’t let me die!”

I drew back a bit and gaped at him, “that’s why you were so calm? You were waiting for me to come rescue you?”

Loki’s arms tightened around me, “I was counting on it.”

It felt like my heart had stopped, “holy crap, no pressure or anything.”

Loki laughed, then he looked down at my hand, "cool sword."

"Thanks."

He released me and stepped back, turning to Charlotte, “thank for busting me out of there.”

“No worries,” Charlotte said, “but let’s get out of here fast. The guard is pretending to be knocked out, because Megan saved his horrible girl friend from being killed, but we don’t have any other friends here. We got to sneak out….and I mean now.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

We passed Edda’s boyfriend on the way out, and Loki stooped down to give him a wave, “thanks, mate. Wow, you look rough.”

“Thanks a lot,” the guard gave him a thumbs up and shut his eyes again, “good luck.”

We traveled quickly through the passage, and found ourselves at the bottom of the steep staircase leading up to the training room, where Charlotte and I grabbed are pillowcases again. I heaved mine over my shoulder and took a deep breath before ascending the stairs to the main part of the palace, grip tight on my sword to reassure myself.

“Alright,” I breathed, “here we go.”