Chapter Five

An Unexpected Savior

"Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another."

~ Lemony Snicket

Katerina had to force herself to walk slowly as she made her way through the maze-like halls of the castle though that was the last thing her instincts were telling her to do. But in order for this to work, there was no way she could allow even an ounce of suspicion to be directed towards her. Thankfully, it was far enough into the night that not many people were in the halls with her. Just a few guards here and there and none of them paid any of the handmaidens much mind, much less her. She was too quiet for any of them to notice her and she was perfectly happy with that.

At least it wouldn't be too surprising for her to be walking along the castle grounds at night. She often slipped outside whenever she could, even when the moon was at its peak in the dark sky, just to escape the suffocating fear and sorrow of that terrible castle. It was her only time to really have her thoughts and emotions to herself, the only time she could allow herself to remember a time far into the past, a much happier time though it only caused her pain to think of it.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she reached her destination; a piece of the wall mostly hidden from the sentries' line of vision, seemingly as solid as the rest of the thick stone around it, but she knew better. Her fingers ran along the lines of the stones until they found the single stone that stuck out barely more than the others. She stepped back for a moment as a section of the wall seemed to break away, sliding into the wall beside it, revealing a dark passageway ahead. She glanced over her shoulder one more time before hurriedly stepping past the wall, making sure to slide it shut before hurrying blindly through the dark passageway, running her fingers along one wall for guidance.

After what seemed like hours later, but couldn't have been more than a few moments, she sensed the new wall inches from her nose. To anyone else who somehow stumbled upon this passageway, it would seem that it was just a dead end - long ago sealed by the Adderhead or maybe even one of his guards, if any of them were actually smart enough to know just how important this entrance was, but she knew the truth. Running her fingers along the dark stones once more, she quickly found the latch that released the door, silently thanking the stars that she'd thought to memorize the locations of the latches before tonight.

She held her breath as the wall slid away to reveal the end of the dungeon's hallway, pulling the hood of her cloak up to conceal her face. Hopefully, if one of the guards did catch sight of her, she would have enough time to escape back into the passageway before they could catch her or see her face. As quietly as she could, she inched along the hallway, silently counting the doors as she went, though she made sure to stay aware of her surroundings and to keep to the shadows as much as possible.

She paused in front of one of the thick wooden doors, swollen from the moisture of the dungeons and took a deep breath. She slid her hand into the pocket of her apron, pulling a single key out and shakily sliding it into the lock. This was it; she was really going to do it. Once she turned that key, one way or another, there would be no turning back from what she'd done. But deep in her heart, she knew this was something that she had to do. She couldn't bear the thought of that poor little girl trapped down here any longer, even with her father, though who knew how long that would last now? It wouldn't be long before the sweet girl and the fire-eater would both end up back in the hands of Death's daughters unless she got them out of here.

Without another thought, her hand turned, almost of its own accord. The moment she felt the lock click, she pushed open the door just enough for to slip inside before softly closing it behind her. She turned away, her gaze immediately moving to where the fire-eater and his daughter had been that morning, but froze when she saw the man's wary gaze already on her - dull but focused as if he hadn't yet gone to sleep but was prepared for anything that stepped into their cell. She pushed her hood back so that he could see who she was before raising a finger to her lips as their gazes locked. His eyes never moved from her as she glanced over her shoulder once more, straining to hear any sign that the guards were onto her.

When she was sure they were as safe as they could be, for now, she stepped closer, both hands held out before her as she knelt down in front of him. For a second, her gaze floated down to the little girl curled against him with his arms wrapped protectively around her as she slept, a small smile on her lips. Oh, how she missed the days of small fingers wrapped around the fabric of her dress, sleepy smiles at night… so many things she would never experience again.

She blinked as she realized she'd nearly forgotten where she even was. Giving a small shake of her head, she moved her gaze back up to meet Dustfinger's, forcing the corners of her mouth to turn up as much as she could bring herself to through all of her slowly fraying nerves.

"I'm here to get you out," she said as softly as she could, praying her voice wouldn't carry through the dungeon if she whispered her words. She didn't say any more than that though, fear of being caught erasing any other words that she'd had prepared to convince him to trust her.

There must have been something in her expression that convinced him, or maybe he was just too desperate not to trust her because after a moment of looking at her he glanced down at the sleeping child in his arms and seemed to come to a decision. He gave a small nod as he carefully moved one arm to place a hand against the chilled stone, pushing himself to his feet.

As Katerina stood back up, she'd only just released a sigh of relief that Dustfinger had agreed when a soft whine reached her ears. Her eyes flew to the little girl, her heart sinking just a little as the child began to squirm in her father's arms. Oh, it would have been so much easier if she'd just stayed in her sweet land of dreams until they were well away from the castle grounds.

It was obvious the child wasn't ready to wake up just yet from the way she tried to curl back up against Dustfinger, but after a moment she seemed to realize that something about their position had changed. She raised her head to slowly blink up at her father, sleep still pulling at her eyelids as she rubbed a small hand over her eyes.

"Daddy?" she said, voice tinged with the whine of a child badly in need of more sleep.

Katerina edged towards the door of the cell, ears straining for even the slightest sign that anyone had heard the child's voice. A shaky breath escaped her after a moment of silence filled the dungeon once more. She glanced over her shoulder at Dustfinger, silently pleading him to calm the child down as quickly and quietly as possible. Even now, they would have to be quick about escaping into the woods if they wanted to avoid being seen by the guards.

The Fire-Dancer's only acknowledgment to her silent urging was to turn to the child in his arms as he settled her against his chest. "Shh," he whispered, brushing the little girl's dark curls out of her face. "It's alright little one. I didn't mean to wake you. But I need you to be very quiet, alright?"

Another small whine escaped the child, though this time it was muffled as she pressed her face against her father's shoulder, squirming as she tried to decide whether she wanted to go back to sleep or stay awake. It wasn't long before she lifted her head once more, obviously not happy that her small amount of sleep had been interrupted.

"Why?" she asked, not bothering to make her voice any quieter than it had been before. In fact, to Katerina it seemed to be even louder now that the child was more awake, making her flinch as she looked at the door once more before shooting Dustfinger a look full of impatient desperation. They had to go - now.

Dustfinger nodded quickly before looking back down at the child, rubbing a hand up and down her back as he spoke. "We're going home, but I need you to be very quiet until we get to the trees so that we won't get in trouble. Can you do that for me, Rosie?"

The fire-eater's words seemed to help the child wake up a bit more, the fog of sleep finally clearing enough to understand her father's words. At the mention of home, the little girl's eyes widened, a small smile brightening her face as she nodded eagerly.

"I'll be very, very quiet, Daddy," she said in a hushed voice, wrapping her arms around her father's neck.

While she was glad that the little girl finally understood that she had to keep as silent as possible, the fact that they were all still standing in this cell, wasting the precious concealment of darkness, erased any comfort Katerina could have taken from the situation.

"Please," she breathed, taking a step closer to Dustfinger, "we really do need to go. If we waste much more time, we won't have a chance."

When Dustfinger nodded in response, she turned to the door once more and pulled the hood of her cloak back over her head, concealing her face in shadow before she slowly pushed open the door, keeping a tight hold on the edge to keep it from creaking or slamming as all of the doors in the dungeons had a tendency to do. She glanced up and down the hall before stepping outside, pulling the door open wider for Dustfinger to get through with Rosanna. As soon as he'd stepped out, she pushed the door closed once more, hoping to keep any suspicions low for as long as possible.

Glancing one more time towards where she could hear the guards talking quietly to each other, the occasional bit of laughter echoing to reach her ears, she turned back down the hall, stepping around Dustfinger to lead him towards what would hopefully be the way to freedom for all of them.

She didn't look back as she walked, fingertips grazing the darker side of the hall in anticipation for the door's latch, depending on the sound of quick but soft footsteps sounding just behind her to make her aware that Dustfinger was following. She hadn't realized she'd been almost holding her breath until she reached the location of the hidden door and a long sigh of relief escaped her lips, gratitude to the little girl snuggled safely in her father's arms for not making a sound.

She pressed her hand firmly against the stone before stepping away as the wall slid aside once more, revealing the passageway that seemed to be even darker now than it had been before. She turned to Dustfinger, gesturing silently for him to step inside first. Though his eyebrows were raised in question at the sight of the opening, he kept his lips pressed shut as he stepped past her, his grip tightening on Rosanna as the darkness swallowed them up.

As soon as he'd made it past her, Katerina followed, pausing to close the door behind them, the stifling darkness truly enveloping them in its muffled silence. Her own heart seemed to beat faster for just a moment as the dark closed in around them, though it quickly settled back to its normal steady pace when a faint glow appeared behind her.

She turned to find a small flame flickering in the palm of the fire-eater's hand, his daughter now cradled snugly in one arm. So all of the stories were true after all. Though she'd lived in Argenta for the past few years, she hadn't started working in the Castle of Night until after Dustfinger and the Blue Jay's adventures there had ceased. She hadn't been sure if she truly believed it until now.

A small whimper escaped the little girl in his arms as she pressed closer to her father, obviously not liking the darkness surrounding them even with the light her father had created. As he whispered soft reassurances to the child, Katerina slipped past him, leading the way down the tunnel, one hand trailing along the wall once more. Even though they were alone - she hoped - she kept her lips in a firm line, fearful of even Dustfinger's quiet words giving them away.

The passageway curved and straightened, seeming to take even longer to reach the end than it had on the way inside. Now that she'd actually acted on her plans instead of just thinking about them, everything seemed so much more dangerous and the desperation to get away from this place seemed to press in on her from all directions, helping the darkness to tighten the noose of fear that threatened to choke her.

She closed her eyes in relief as her fingers finally reached the wall at the end of the passage, just a bit of the fear seeming to lift away from her. Turning to Dustfinger, she motioned for him to extinguish the flame in his hand even though it meant they would be thrown into darkness for another moment or so. As soon as he did though, she opened the door, holding it so that it wouldn't open all at once until she was sure there was no one around to notice them. After a moment, she allowed the door to open the rest of the way, stepping cautiously outside and pressing her back against the cool stone as she waited for Dustfinger to follow.

As he stepped into the soft moonlight, she moved to close the passageway, but at the sound of many footsteps combined with the metallic sounds of armor and swords being drawn, she froze. No. This wasn't supposed to happen. She'd been planning this since the night that poor little girl had first been brought back to this world; there was no way she could have gotten something wrong. How had they even found out what she was doing? She'd been so careful.

As the guards surrounded them, she shrunk back, closer to where Dustfinger stood frozen with Rosanna gripping him tightly. She could hear the soft whimpers of the little girl and the quiet, caution-filled response from her father, but she was too focused on the guards to really hear anything that was said. The gleam of the swords in the faint moonlight made them seem all the more sinister as the guards moved closer.

Movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention, however. She finally tore her gaze away from the approaching guards, meeting the dark depths of the Fire-Dancer's, obviously as panicked as her own expression must have been. In an instant, the panic vanished, hardening into a deep determination.

"I'll be there in a just a moment, little one." He shifted his grip on Rosanna, a subtle plead for Katerina to understand his intentions as he pushed his daughter into the arms of a stranger.

Though Katerina's mind had barely finished processing his intentions, her body seemed to move of its own free will - pulling the little girl tightly into her arms even as she turned and raced between two of the guards. When the absence of a hand wrapping around her arm or a sword being pressed into her back became apparent, she felt a rush of relief that she'd acted so quickly. If she could just make it to the woods, they could hide until Dustfinger got away.

"Daddy! Daddy!" Katerina's steps faltered for a moment at the little girl's sudden cries - startlingly loud compared to how quiet she'd been moments before. She was forced to tighten her grip as Rosanna reached over her shoulder in the direction of her father, wriggling in an attempt to get out of the grasp of the arms that held her, carrying her further away from her father.

Loud shouts mingled with words that she couldn't make out echoed from behind her, but she didn't even so much as slow down despite the worry that shot through her. Were they yelling because Dustfinger had attacked them or somehow managed to get away? Or were the voices calling out in triumph over capturing - or worse yet, killing - an escaped prisoner that the Queen would have had them hanging for should he have escaped?

Her fears seemed to fade just a bit by the sight of the trees coming into her view at the bottom of the hill. She allowed herself to slow as she crossed the border of the woods, stopping to press her back to the trunk of a tall tree. Even as she fought to get some breath back into her lungs, throat burning with the effort, her hand instinctively ran over Rosanna's hair and back, a reflex from soothing countless night terrors and tumbles over nearly four years.

"It's alright, sweet one," she breathed, leaning her head against the little girl's dark curls. "Your daddy will be here soon and then you can go home."

Rosanna had just settled against Katerina's shoulder, her sobs softening to soft, shuddering cries when a rustling from the greenery before them made them both go silent. Katerina's blood seemed to harden into icy cold horror as Basta's smile appeared out of the dark shadows cast by the moonlight. She wrapped both arms tightly around Rosanna as he stepped closer, one of the Queen's soldiers right behind him, sword drawn.

"Well, well, what have we here?" Basta looked the two of them up and down for a moment, a confident smile on his face, sure that they wouldn't be able to escape him here. Without taking his eyes away from Katerina, he stepped closer. "Surely you're not trying to go against Her Majesty's orders, are you?"