Jade was bleeding from some cuts on her arms that the guards had given her, and he could tell by the way she was breathing that she was in pain. She was only taking half full breaths, the way she had when her ribs had been broken. Her left hand lay lightly across the front of her body, which meant that the break would be in her right ribs – same side as before. He watched her, wishing he could go over to her but feeling by her body language that he had to wait.
She looked at him and caught him eyeing her. She had her knees drawn up and dropped her right hand down between them, so that no one could see her hand but him. She pointed to him and then extended the last three fingers of her right hand, making the "ok" sign. He gave her a brief nod. Then he jutted out his chin toward her and glanced down at her ribs. Again, she gave the ok sign.
A soft rustle sounded, and they both looked up to see Belle coming down the corridor, flanked on both sides by guards and Snow following close behind them. Belle walked like a queen to her execution – head high, chin out – just as she had in the picture Jade had drawn of her.
"You crazy bitch!" Jade cried out. She jumped to her feet and ran to the bars, wrapping her hands around them tightly. "You did this! This is your fault! You should be in here, not me."
Belle glared at Jade hard.
"Keep your mouth shut," Belle snarled.
"Open it," Snow said.
"Get back," the guard ordered.
Jade didn't move.
"I said get back!" the guard said.
Jade dropped back away from the bars. For the second time in one night, the lever was pulled and the bars came down. The guard shoved Belle into the cage, and the bars went straight back up, quick as lightning. Belle dropped straight back into the shadows of the cage, not looking at either of them as she passed. Jade matched her movements and flattened herself against the east wall. Not sure exactly what he should do, he resumed his place against the west wall. They all sat down – silent – to wait.
There was a steady dripping sound that came almost constantly, like a big drop of water falling some distance into a shallow pool. He had grown used to this sound over time, but now that they were here, it was as if he were hearing it again for the first time – as if he were hearing it through their ears.
Jade was almost dozing, her back leaning up against the wall behind her. In all the time he'd known her, he had found that the girl could sleep virtually anywhere. She still had her legs pulled up close to her body, but her arms around them had relaxed and then gone slack.
He turned to look at Belle. It was still a thought so foreign and fantastical that he almost couldn't think it. Turned to look at Belle. It seemed such an ordinary thing to do – as if she had been there all along, as if she hadn't been dead in his mind for almost half a year now. Belle sat with her back pressed tight up against the wall behind her. She didn't move at all, and she had refused every attempt he had made to catch her eye. She stared straight on ahead, with a single-minded determination he had never seen in her before. The dripping continued on as before, but he was so conscious of it now that it nearly made his skin crawl.
Belle made the slightest of movements, and Jade responded by coming fully awake. She didn't look at Belle, and Belle didn't look at her. But silently, as if they were of one mind, both of them turned and looked out through the bars of the cage, searching for movement in the dark. But it was silent. The guards had fanned out, taking up their usual posts, facing out toward the entrance to the tunnel. After what felt like half a lifetime, Belle rose slowly to her feet. Jade mirrored her every move.
Then the strange spell was broken, and Jade glanced over her shoulder at him. She joined Belle at the back wall. He stood quickly and met them there.
"Do you still have it?" Jade whispered. She had her hand on Belle's arm, pulling her a little closer.
"Yes," Belle said. "Did you get the walls?"
"All of them, but not the front," Jade whispered.
"Are you out?" Belle asked.
Jade nodded once.
"Here," Belle said. "Take some of mine." Belle reached into a drawstring pouch tied at her waist, and pulled out a handful of that gold, glittery dust.
"I'll take the bars. You get the center," Jade whispered.
"Got it," Belle said.
"Give me a hand?" Jade asked.
She held out a clump of gold dust to him, and he took it. They approached the bars without making a sound, and he watched as Jade began sprinkling it along the very edges of the bars. He followed suit, covering the west half of the ground beneath the bars. A look over his shoulder showed him that Belle was doing the same in the center of the cell, only she was holding her bag out, sprinkling the gold dust heavily throughout the center of the cell and burying it quickly by dragging her foot behind her. He didn't pretend that he could understand this shorthand form of communication they seemed to have adopted, but he had faith that they understood it, and that's all that seemed to matter at the moment.
Jade looked up, dropping instinctively into a crouch, listening with her whole body for any movement of the guards. Behind him, Belle froze too. After a minute, Jade continued her work, and Belle finished burying the last of her dust. They stood, Jade dusting the dirt off her hands onto her leather pants. She turned and went back to the center of the floor where Belle was standing.
"Ready?" Jade asked.
Belle nodded once. She reached down and moved her cloak aside, pulling something heavy and shiny from a strap on her inner thigh. She brought it out.
"Where did you get that?" he asked.
It was the first time he had spoken to them as himself and not as part of the show, and it made them both jump as if they had forgotten he was there.
"It wasn't easy," Jade said. She tossed him a half smile.
In Belle's hand, she held the dagger – the one with his name on it – the one he had hidden so carefully inside the castle.
"Do you want me to do it?" Jade asked.
"Yes," Belle said. She nodded.
Jade reached over to Belle and untied a strip of black cloth from around her left upper arm. She handed it to him.
"Hold this?" she whispered.
He took it. It smelled familiar to him – like that antiseptic solution Jade used to use on her cuts. He looked both of them over. They each had several of these black strips tied around their arms and legs. They were ready-made bandages, he realized, so that they could treat themselves in the field.
Jade removed one from her leg, while Belle pulled off the shoulder-length leather glove on her left arm.
"Ready?" Jade asked.
Belle nodded.
Jade held the dagger out to Belle, blade first.
Belle wrapped her hand around the blade, and Jade pulled it back toward herself with a quick jerk, Belle's blood staining the steel around his name. Belle bit down hard, fighting back tears.
He grabbed Jade hard by the arm. "What are you doing?" he hissed.
Belle held up her hand.
"Wrap it," Jade whispered.
He glared at Jade, not understanding this game, but tied the bandage carefully around Belle's hand.
"Make it tight," Jade whispered. "She's going to need it."
He glanced back over his shoulder at Jade and then tightened the bandage around Belle's hand. He heard the knife move again, and he turned just in time to see the blade leaving Jade's left hand in the same way, her own hand holding the handle. Jade, too, bit down against the pain, and her hand trembled just a little as she handed him the dagger.
"Don't wipe it off," Jade said. She clenched her teeth together tight.
She handed Belle the bandage she was holding, and Belle tied it around her hand so tightly that it made Jade wince.
Belle nodded at Jade once, and Jade nodded back.
"It's time," Belle whispered.
"I know," Jade whispered. She closed her eyes for a fleeting second and then opened them, clear and calm.
Jade turned to face him, and for a terrible moment he thought she might cry. Instead, she reached forward with one arm and pulled him tightly against her chest, squeezing onto him so hard that it hurt. Then she let go.
He stood back – stunned.
Then Jade reached out and took Belle's hand.
"Whatever happens," Jade said. She looked Belle right in the eye. "You stick to the plan, understand?" Jade asked.
Belle nodded.
"I stick to the plan," Belle said.
"That's right," Jade whispered. She reached out and touched a strand of Belle's hair. "My brave warrior girl," she said. She smiled, and her hand lingered there on that strand of Belle's hair. "You can do this. You have to do this."
Belle nodded and fought back tears. "I know," she said.
Then Belle reached out and wrapped her hand tightly over his – the one holding the dagger – so that the dagger's handle was pressed between their two palms. The feeling of her skin against his would have undone him, had he not been distracted almost right away by Jade's hand, slipping into his other one.
He turned to look at Jade.
"Those are the bars, the ones at the end, that are the weakest," Jade said. She nodded toward the bars at the far end of the cell. "Concentrate on the last one and imagine yourself removing it. After that one's out, continue on to the next one and then the next."
"But those bars are reinforced with magic," he said.
"Just trust us," Belle whispered.
He turned to look at her.
"Do what she asks," Belle said.
He stared at her. Time had changed her. Hardship had changed her, and there was a hard edge in her eyes that nearly broke his heart to see. He nodded once. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When he opened them, he could feel a familiar resolve come over him. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the furthest bar away from him. And he concentrated.
He felt Belle and Jade turn too, training their eyes on that one bar. He felt a heat igniting between their joined hands, and the ground seemed to shiver with an electricity that resembled a thousand shards of pulverized gold thread.
He had been imagining it so hard that he was almost not surprised when the bar started twisting within the earth and lifting itself off of its base. The bar worked its way clear and then fell to the ground with barely a sound. Without hesitating, they turned their attention to the next bar. This one was easier because it was suspended from the ceiling, and gravity helped to work the bar free. The third bar came out faster and the fourth faster still. And then he was feeling both of them pulling him toward the little space between the wall and the fifth bar.
Jade moved to the opening first. Just before she climbed out, she took a hold of his arm and leaned in.
"Be careful. You're not strong yet. If you take a hit down here, you could still die," she whispered.
He wasn't sure what she meant by 'not strong yet', but he nodded anyway.
Jade led them out into the corridor, her hand trailing behind her to feel for Belle. Instinctively, he placed Belle between himself and Jade – in the middle – the safest position. Jade pulled them to a recess just behind the last guard. There were eighteen of them now – not six. Snow had tripled the guards.
Jade looked at Belle, and Belle nodded.
"You have to make a run for it, now, while they're still quiet," Jade said. "I'll be right behind you."
"You're lying," he said. He stared at her.
"Whatever happens, keep running. Keep Belle behind you, and keep her close," Jade said.
"But we can't just," he said.
"Go," Jade hissed. She pushed him hard and the momentum of it awakened a primal instinct within him – the instinct to run – to escape – and to protect Belle.
He bolted for the corridor, Belle's hand clutched tightly in his. As soon as he passed the first pair of guards, they were up on their feet, swords drawn. He pulled the daggers, the one with his name on it and the one belonging to Zoso that Jade had handed him, out of the belt around his waist. He heard steel clashing against iron and turned just in time to see Jade slashing through guard after guard, blood glinting on the surface of her sai. But the real surprise was Belle – she had drawn two slightly curved blades from her back – resembling sickles but not quite as curved. And she turned with a grace and deadly precision that reminded him more than a little of Jade.
One of the guards went for the rope, to call for reinforcements, but Jade threw one of her sai into his back. Another one was right behind him, and she threw her other one before he could touch the rope. She was unarmed now, and he didn't want to see what would happen. But Jade reached behind her head and pulled out a series of long hairpins, letting her jet black hair tumble free. With her free hand, she whisked a series of rope coverings off the ends of the pins in one movement and began throwing them. They landed in soft tissue, one in a guard's neck, another in a guard's thigh and one in a third guard's face. Their eyes widened – they looked stunned. They each took one, maybe two haltering steps before they fell to the ground. The darts were poisoned.
Jade took three running steps and swept two of the fallen guards' swords up as she ran. Then she positioned herself in front of the rope, like an ancient warrior princess making her last stand. She raised one of the swords to her eyebrow level, loading it for the next slice. The other, she held out low in front of her hip, knees bent, using the sword to block off her body from incoming attack. The guards charged her – nearly all of them, leaving him only one to dispatch before he and Belle were free to run.
He hesitated there, his eyes meeting Jade's.
"Go!" Jade shouted.
And then iron sparked against iron, and he felt Belle pulling him down the corridor.
"We can't leave her," he called to Belle.
"We stick to the plan!" Belle said. And the look in her eyes was terrifying.
He felt his feet moving fast, even as the clash of blade on blade grew louder and then fell terrifyingly and utterly silent.
