Chapter Six
A Hitch in the Plan
"The whole thing is quite hopeless, so it's no good worrying about tomorrow. It probably won't come."
~J.R.R. Tolkien; The Return of the King
Her heart kept its racing beat as she watched him, mind racing to think of a way to get them out of here, but she knew the only direction to run would send them straight into the arms of many angered, armed soldiers.
"Do what you wish with the woman. But I want the child."
Her mind had barely registered the words when a hand tightened around the back of her neck from behind, the breath of a soldier she hadn't even sensed warm against her skin. Before she could react, the soldier in front of her reached out and snatched Rosanna out of her grasp, a cry tearing from her as the little girl's sobs returned, worsening as she was pushed towards Basta. For a moment, flashes of another night, another child, played through her mind, threatening to crush her rapidly beating heart with its intensity. No; this couldn't end as that memory had. There had to be something she could do, something someone could do, to save that poor baby.
The hand that had grasped her neck moved to join its partner that was now wrapped tightly around one of her arms, holding her back as she tried to step after Rosanna. Terror froze any other words from forming as Basta grabbed the child by her curls, yanking her toward him with such force that she stumbled before stopping in front of him, shoulders wracked with sobs as he drew his knife with his free hand, the blade glinting in the pale moonlight.
"The Queen won't be very happy with you, little handmaiden," he clucked mockingly as the soldier forced Katerina roughly to her knees. She stilled as she felt the tip of a sword press against the back of her neck, the threat of what would happen if she moved even an inch painstakingly clear.
"And you," he cooed to the little girl in his grasp, pressing the sharp blade of his knife beneath her chin. "We'll have to find a punishment for you too, little one. I'm sure they won't mind if I step in."
Katerina forced herself not to move as she watched the knife move to trail along Rosanna's cheek, obviously careful enough not to harm her, but it was certainly enough to terrify the child even more as she tried futilely to turn away from it.
"You, and your father too," Basta continued, holding the child's hair tightly. "You'll have to be taught that no one escapes the Castle of Night."
The last straw was when the soldier who had snatched Rosanna away began to chuckle softly at the fear on the little girl's face as she looked at Katerina, gaze pleading for her to save her.
"Stop it!" Katerina yelled, pulling against the soldier's grip, even as the tip of the sword's blade dug lightly into her skin. "Leave her alone. She's only a child."
The soldier yanked her back once more as the final word left her mouth, moving the sword in front of her to press against her throat as he held her against him, the first soldier moving to grip her arm with one hand, though it was nearly pointless. There was no way she could move now without risking an earlier execution than she already faced.
Rapid footsteps and crushed foliage suddenly grew near before Dustfinger burst into the small clearing. Dread filled her heart as she realized their only hope had just walked right into the trap obviously set for him. From where she knelt, she could only see his figure standing frozen in the edge of her vision, not his face. There was no way to see what he was thinking or how he was reacting, but the grin on Basta's face seemed to say it all as he spotted the Fire-Dancer. He seemed almost proud of his actions, though of course, he would be. From what she'd heard, Basta hated Dustfinger more than even Orpheus.
"Well, look who's come to join us," he said coldly, hatred seeming to come off of him in waves as he continued to smile at Dustfinger.
"Daddy!" Before he could continue his taunting, another voice - this one much higher pitched and filled with panic - interrupted him. Rosanna's small hands reached out to her father as she attempted to duck beneath the hand that held the knife so close to her face, completely forgetting for a moment that the opposite hand still had a firm grasp on her tight curls.
Before she could get further than a step, Basta yanked her back to him, pulling so hard that she cried out, stumbling back into his legs. Katerina's breath hitched as Basta placed his knife beneath the little girl's chin once more, causing a small whimper to escape the child as she gazed wide-eyed at her father.
"Try that again, you little brat," he growled, "and even Orpheus' orders won't stop me."
Forcing herself to take a breath once more, Katerina couldn't tear her gaze away from the knife under the little girl's chin, nearly forgetting the blade at her own throat in the process. Even as Dustfinger took a step closer, she could only see the movement of his hands rising in surrender out of the corner of her eye as he spoke.
"Basta, she's only a child," he pleaded. "You're going to take us back to the dungeons anyway; at least let her come to me."
A shiver ran down Katerina's spine as Basta gave a quiet chuckle in response to Dustfinger's words. For a moment, he only looked mockingly at the fire eater, but then, as if deeming that a response wasn't necessary to get the answer to such a request, he turned his attention to the soldier who had moved to uselessly grab onto her arm when she'd tried to rush forward.
"It doesn't take two of you to hold a handmaiden," he snapped, his gaze turning scorching as he jerked his chin towards Dustfinger. "Grab the fire eater. He's not getting away from me this time."
Dustfinger didn't move as the soldier took hold of him, pinning his arms behind his back with one hand, even as Rosanna's cries worsened. The child tried once more to go to her father, but Basta just turned in the direction of the castle, yanking her along with him fast enough to make her small hands fly up to where he still gripped her hair as another yelp escaped her.
The soldier holding Katerina finally removed the sword from her throat, though he kept it in his hand as he pulled her roughly to her feet. Tears began to stream freely down her cheeks as she was forced after the others, her heart aching for the small child as the woods echoed with her cries. Oh, those sounds threatened to pull her away once more - to memories that she couldn't bear to revisit just now, if ever again.
She stumbled up the hill after the others, careful to keep the same pace as the soldier leading her for fear of angering him while he still had a sword in his hand. She flinched as the soldier suddenly pulled her back before she realized they were once again standing in the dungeons that only a short time before she'd helped the fire eater and his daughter escape from.
She watched as Basta jerked his chin at the door that belonged to the cell in which Rosanna and Dustfinger had spent the past few days in, keeping his grip on the child as the soldier opened the door and moved to shove Dustfinger inside, neither Basta now the soldier holding her making a move to put them in the cell.
Her muscles tensed as Dustfinger fought against the soldier's grip, both of them seeming to realize at the same time that they would not be imprisoned together. The sounds of Dustfinger's struggle mingled with Rosanna's cries for her father and Basta's many threats as he tried to keep the desperate child in his grasp only made the situation seem that much more desolate. And she could only stand by and watch.
A gasp slipped past her lips as Basta pressed the knife against Rosanna's throat once more, this time forcing a few small drops of blood to fall onto the blade, causing the child's cries to soften to a whimper as she reached for her father.
Dustfinger froze immediately at the sight of the knife once again at his daughter's throat, all of the fight leaving him as he allowed the soldier to shove him into the cell without so much as a word. It seemed to do what he must have hoped, as Basta slowly pulled the knife away, though he made no move to let Rosanna go after her father as the soldier closed the door.
The instant the door slammed shut, closing Dustfinger off from his daughter, the poor child seemed to realize that she wouldn't be joining her father in the cell they'd once shared. Before she could try to twist out of Basta's grasp again, he dragged her down the hall, tossing her into an empty cell a few doors down, still close enough to Dustfinger for him to hear the way his daughter cried for him but not enough to where they could take comfort in each other's presence. He slammed the door shut, the clanging of wood and metal echoing over the quiet sobs of the little girl trapped inside, before turning to the soldiers with orders to make sure the fire eater and his daughter weren't able to speak a word to each other.
Katerina stumbled slightly as the soldier that still held her pushed her towards one of the empty cells separating Dustfinger and his daughter. She stepped in without an argument, despair stealing away any trace of the fight she'd still had left after all Argenta had done to her over the years. As the door shut behind her, followed by the clicking of the lock falling into place, she stepped to the back of the cell, sinking to her knees before pressing her back into the corner of the tight room. Wrapping her arms around her middle, she leaned her head against the wall with closed eyes, taking deep, shaky breaths as she tried to steady her rapid heartbeat.
She would die for this; there was no shred of doubt in her mind that the queen would have her hanging from the gallows by the time the next sun set behind the trees. She'd already been spared from death once before, on the night they'd taken the last piece of her heart away from her. They could have killed her then, but no; instead, they'd dragged her to this cruel place where she'd been forced to see so much suffering at the hands of Orpheus and his terrible words.
Even with these thoughts flooding through her mind, the exhaustion of all that had happened quickly dragged her towards the peaceful calm of sleep. A place where she would still occasionally see the pieces of her heart that she'd lost; pieces she just might see sooner than she'd expected if tomorrow went as she was so sure it would.