Peter thought it had been frustrating enough when they took his swords. Being taken to the tiny room wasn’t much better. The whole thing felt like a cage. He glared at the Elf lord, who wouldn’t look at any of them now. A part of Peter wanted to stand and fight, even without the swords or help from the Wisps. He knew it was foolish. But he itched to be away. If all these people would do is hold them here, what point was there in talking?

  Lord Sallowain had already stood and was walking out the door. Andrew shot to his feet as if to follow. “My lord, please!” Andrew began.

  “Sir Naimeh, I’d like to discuss something with you.” the Elf lord said, avoiding turning to see Andrew.

  “You know this isn’t right,” Andrew said. “You know you can’t trust Daniel. Don’t turn us over to him!”

  “I have no choice. Again, I am sorry.”

  “If you’re sorry, maybe you shouldn’t do it,” Peter muttered, crossing his arms.

  This time the Elf did look back. He eyed Peter with a sad look on his face. “Were that I was able to go through life like that,” he said. “But I must look after the well being of the forest. Not a group of strangers, however well meaning.” He turned away again.

  Most of the people Peter had fought before were simple fights, thieves operating on self-interest, and all the pain had been part of the moment. Really, fighting them had felt more like dealing with animals than talking to Jarn ever had. For those that weren’t simple, like Sheil, the whole conflict was a total mystery. But here, he couldn’t fight at all, and for reasons that were perfectly clear. This man was a coward.

  The frustration filled him, made all the stronger by his powerlessness. Until it wasn’t. Some calm seemed to push itself into his mind. He recognized it immediately, and as much as he wanted to push it away, he didn’t. He knew Halcyon, at least, was trying to help. And, as he grew calm, an idea came to him, almost fully formed.

  He spoke just as Sallowain was stepping through the door. “So how do you plan to deal with Jarnvaror without us?”

  The Elf lord stopped and looked once more over his shoulder. “Jarn… your dragon?”

  “Well, yeah,” Peter said. “What, did you think we stopped flying around just because Daniel is angry with us?”

  Lord Sallowain shook his head. “No. I suppose you wouldn’t. So he’s in the forest then?”

  “Waiting for us,” Peter said. “And a lot closer than Daniel.”

  “We can deal with the dragon,” the Elf said, his voice growing colder.

  “Eventually,” Peter said. “But I’d hate to see what happens to the people you send to do it.”

  The lord and his guards all went pale. He looked around and gestured for the one’s in the room to follow him. When the room was empty of all but the three of them, he slammed the door.

  There was total silence for a moment. Peter walked to the bars and looked out the windows. The guards posted outside were still there, standing several paces away from the building. They looked more bored than anything at this point. He walked over by the door and listened. The walls muffled the specifics, but he could tell the Elves were talking on the other side.

  “Well, you made him angry,” Andrew muttered. “What was the point of that?”

  “I not sure,” Peter admitted with a shrug. “I was mostly trusting my gut. And Halcyon. I could have said some much nastier things.”

  “Halcyon?” Anna asked. She’d set her pack next to her chair. The Elves hadn’t mentioned it again after she’d convinced them not to take the Wisps away. Now she rummaged around inside and took her bracelet back out. “I thought I felt his influence, but it seemed so weak without actually touching it.”

  Andrew frowned. Peter thought he might be in for another lecture, but instead, Andrew looked up and said, “Well, your gut might be right.”

  Peter blinked at him. “What?” Peter asked.

  “I was probably a bit too cautious. I let us just walk into this… prison, which is now probably a death sentence as soon as a Wisp Stealer can get up here.” Andrew looked at his brother. “Doing something is probably good. And I think your gut was right. You just took the Elves’ focus off of us and put it on Jarnvaror. I assume he’s not going to check on us for a while still?”

  “Jarn? Probably not,” Peter agreed. “I didn’t ask him to.”

  Andrew nodded. “So he should be relatively safe. And we’ve still got Anna’s enchantments. And her gems. Escaping should be possible.”

  “If I use them, they’ll just take them away from me, and then we won’t even have the Wisps anymore.”

  “Anna, we’re talking about breaking out of jail,” Peter pointed out. “I’m pretty sure they’ll come to take them as soon as they remember they haven’t yet.” As he spoke, he leaned back against he door, and noticed something odd. He bent down and put his ear next to the door, listening as he slowly reached up and started jiggling the handle. A broad grin crept over his face.

  “What is it?” Andrew asked.

  “My gut is the best,” Peter said, keeping his voice low. “I think they completely forgot about us. At the very least, they forgot to lock the door.”

  “How could they forget to lock it?” Andrew asked. He frowned. “Maybe it’s another trap?”

  “Why would he bother with a trap? We’re already locked up,” Anna said. She stepped closer to the door. “Maybe it was one of the guards that was more sympathetic too us. One of them could have just… intentionally forgot. I can check the room outside to see what everyone is feeling,” she added, raising her bracelet. Peter stepped aside to make more room for her.”

  “Peter,” Andrew said, and Peter felt the familiar hand on his shoulder. “Before we get out of here…”

  Groaning, Peter faced his brother. “I thought you agreed we needed to get moving.”

  “You’re right,” Andrew said, but he held on tighter. “I just want you to wait a bit.”

  “For what?” Peter asked.

  “For us,” Andrew said, gesturing between himself and Anna. “You’re right. We need to go. But we can’t just dive in without thinking. Do you plan to fight all of the guards? Do you think you can outrun all of them in their home town? What direction would you be going in? The town is almost a maze remember?”

  “We can’t just wait around,” Peter said.

  “We won’t,” Andrew said. “But we can’t just run either. I have an idea.”

  Peter grinned. That, at least, was worth waiting for. His brother’s ideas were usually pretty good. And this one, as it turned out was nice and simple. They would go slow until they couldn’t. The first step would be to get out of this room. But it would be best to wait until the hall outside was mostly empty. From there, they just had to find their way back to the edge of the city without being noticed.

  “How will we manage that?” Anna asked.

  “There will definitely be some guards out there. If you can slow them down, we can knock them out and take their cloaks before making a break for it.” He turned to Peter. That’ll be your job.”

  “They probably have enchantments to protect them from magic,” Anna pointed out.

  “Then that’s what the element of surprise is for,” Peter said. He was liking the plan so far. He clapped his brother on the shoulder. “I don’t think we’ve schemed together like this since we were little.” Peter said.

  “Let’s just hope that it works,” Andrew replied. He turned to Anna. “Can the Wisps sense how many are still in the room?” he asked.

  Anna closed her eyes to focus. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure they’re picking up on the guards outside, too.” Her frown deepened for a moment. “But I think Naimeh, the guard captain is gone.”

  “Here, let me,” Peter said. He pressed his ear to the door, listening more intently than before. He could only make out a few scattered words through the heavy wood, but this way he could tell about where people were in the room outside. At least, when they moved. “There’s at least four of them in the room,” Peter said. He looked at Anna. “How many total are you feeling?”

  “Ten, I think,” Anna said.

  Peter looked at his brother. “What do you think?”

  “There’s probably at least two guards outside the window,” Andrew said, glancing over his shoulder. “Two at this door, then two at the entrance. Plus Sallowain.”

  “That’s only seven,” Anna said.

  “There could be more than two in each spot,” Andrew said.

  “Well, some good news is that I don’t think anyone is standing very close to the door here,” Peter said. “Unless they’re as still as statues. We should go.”

  “No,” Andrew said. His voice wasn’t as sharp as Peter normally expected from his brother. “Let’s wait for Sallowain to leave. He’ll probably take a few guards with him. If not, we lose nothing, but if he does, it will be a lot easier to get away.”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Peter nodded. As much as he itched to move, he didn’t like the idea of fighting any number of guards barehanded. He wondered if he’d be able to take one of their spears or swords in the confusion. Then another thought occurred to him. He turned to Anna. “Can they sense Liosfalda?” he asked.

  Anna caught on right away, closing her eyes and whispering the name. It only took a moment for her to look back up. “Yeah, they sense her very strongly.”

  “Our stuff was probably left on a table right outside the door,” Peter said, grinning. Then his grin vanished. He looked at Andrew. “They only would have done that if they completely forgot about us, right?”

  “Probably,” Andrew agreed.

  “So why is Sallowain still here?”

  Andrew didn’t answer right away. When he did, he gave the answer Peter was dreading. “He might be using this place as the base of operations to set up his hunt for Jarnvaror.”

  “Great,” Peter muttered. He decided his gut might not be so great after all.

  “I doubt it’s the real base,” Anna said. “He just already had his captain and a bunch of guards here.”

  “What makes you say that?” Peter asked.

  “Because he’s not panicky any more,” Anna said. “He was only panicky when you mentioned Jarnvaror. He’s still anxious, and pretty annoyed at you. But he doesn’t feel like he’s all that urgent about anything.” She frowned. “That’s odd, isn’t it? Shouldn’t he be working on getting news of us to Daniel?” Then her eyes went wide. “But his captain was on our side,” she said. “At least, he was a little sympathetic. Maybe he talked him down.”

  “What good does that do us now?” Andrew asked.

  Anna shrugged. “I think Sallowain would leave the details of dealing with Jarnvaror or assigning guards to us to Naimeh. If he’s on our side… well, leaving the door unlocked might not be an accident. And maybe the real number of guards here will be…” She trailed off turning to the door. Her face was alight with wonder.

  “What’s going on?” Andrew asked.

  “Sallowain just left, along with half the guards. And none of them felt urgent.” She looked back at Peter and Andrew. “His personal guards, I think. In fact, I think he was just doing paperwork. Just enough official records so that Woadrok will know he didn’t just let us go, maybe.”

  “I think you’re giving him too much credit,” Peter said. Then he blinked, and a grin spread over his face. “But then again, you said he left with half. So there’s only five guards, now?”

  “Including the one’s outside,” Anna nodded.

  Peter almost whooped. He liked his gut again. Because that was a far more manageable number.

  Peter thought it had been frustrating enough when they took his swords. Being taken to the tiny room wasn’t much better. The whole thing felt like a cage. He glared at the Elf lord, who wouldn’t look at any of them now. A part of Peter wanted to stand and fight, even without the swords or help from the Wisps. He knew it was foolish. But he itched to be away. If all these people would do is hold them here, what point was there in talking?

  Lord Sallowain had already stood and was walking out the door. Andrew shot to his feet as if to follow. “My lord, please!” Andrew began.

  “Sir Naimeh, I’d like to discuss something with you.” the Elf lord said, avoiding turning to see Andrew.

  “You know this isn’t right,” Andrew said. “You know you can’t trust Daniel. Don’t turn us over to him!”

  “I have no choice. Again, I am sorry.”

  “If you’re sorry, maybe you shouldn’t do it,” Peter muttered, crossing his arms.

  This time the Elf did look back. He eyed Peter with a sad look on his face. “Were that I was able to go through life like that,” he said. “But I must look after the well being of the forest. Not a group of strangers, however well meaning.” He turned away again.

  Most of the people Peter had fought before were simple fights, thieves operating on self-interest, and all the pain had been part of the moment. Really, fighting them had felt more like dealing with animals than talking to Jarn ever had. For those that weren’t simple, like Sheil, the whole conflict was a total mystery. But here, he couldn’t fight at all, and for reasons that were perfectly clear. This man was a coward.

  The frustration filled him, made all the stronger by his powerlessness. Until it wasn’t. Some calm seemed to push itself into his mind. He recognized it immediately, and as much as he wanted to push it away, he didn’t. He knew Halcyon, at least, was trying to help. And, as he grew calm, an idea came to him, almost fully formed.

  He spoke just as Sallowain was stepping through the door. “So how do you plan to deal with Jarnvaror without us?”

  The Elf lord stopped and looked once more over his shoulder. “Jarn… your dragon?”

  “Well, yeah,” Peter said. “What, did you think we stopped flying around just because Daniel is angry with us?”

  Lord Sallowain shook his head. “No. I suppose you wouldn’t. So he’s in the forest then?”

  “Waiting for us,” Peter said. “And a lot closer than Daniel.”

  “We can deal with the dragon,” the Elf said, his voice growing colder.

  “Eventually,” Peter said. “But I’d hate to see what happens to the people you send to do it.”

  The lord and his guards all went pale. He looked around and gestured for the one’s in the room to follow him. When the room was empty of all but the three of them, he slammed the door.

  There was total silence for a moment. Peter walked to the bars and looked out the windows. The guards posted outside were still there, standing several paces away from the building. They looked more bored than anything at this point. He walked over by the door and listened. The walls muffled the specifics, but he could tell the Elves were talking on the other side.

  “Well, you made him angry,” Andrew muttered. “What was the point of that?”

  “I not sure,” Peter admitted with a shrug. “I was mostly trusting my gut. And Halcyon. I could have said some much nastier things.”

  “Halcyon?” Anna asked. She’d set her pack next to her chair. The Elves hadn’t mentioned it again after she’d convinced them not to take the Wisps away. Now she rummaged around inside and took her bracelet back out. “I thought I felt his influence, but it seemed so weak without actually touching it.”

  Andrew frowned. Peter thought he might be in for another lecture, but instead, Andrew looked up and said, “Well, your gut might be right.”

  Peter blinked at him. “What?” Peter asked.

  “I was probably a bit too cautious. I let us just walk into this… prison, which is now probably a death sentence as soon as a Wisp Stealer can get up here.” Andrew looked at his brother. “Doing something is probably good. And I think your gut was right. You just took the Elves’ focus off of us and put it on Jarnvaror. I assume he’s not going to check on us for a while still?”

  “Jarn? Probably not,” Peter agreed. “I didn’t ask him to.”

  Andrew nodded. “So he should be relatively safe. And we’ve still got Anna’s enchantments. And her gems. Escaping should be possible.”

  “If I use them, they’ll just take them away from me, and then we won’t even have the Wisps anymore.”

  “Anna, we’re talking about breaking out of jail,” Peter pointed out. “I’m pretty sure they’ll come to take them as soon as they remember they haven’t yet.” As he spoke, he leaned back against he door, and noticed something odd. He bent down and put his ear next to the door, listening as he slowly reached up and started jiggling the handle. A broad grin crept over his face.

  “What is it?” Andrew asked.

  “My gut is the best,” Peter said, keeping his voice low. “I think they completely forgot about us. At the very least, they forgot to lock the door.”

  “How could they forget to lock it?” Andrew asked. He frowned. “Maybe it’s another trap?”

  “Why would he bother with a trap? We’re already locked up,” Anna said. She stepped closer to the door. “Maybe it was one of the guards that was more sympathetic too us. One of them could have just… intentionally forgot. I can check the room outside to see what everyone is feeling,” she added, raising her bracelet. Peter stepped aside to make more room for her.”

  “Peter,” Andrew said, and Peter felt the familiar hand on his shoulder. “Before we get out of here…”

  Groaning, Peter faced his brother. “I thought you agreed we needed to get moving.”

  “You’re right,” Andrew said, but he held on tighter. “I just want you to wait a bit.”

  “For what?” Peter asked.

  “For us,” Andrew said, gesturing between himself and Anna. “You’re right. We need to go. But we can’t just dive in without thinking. Do you plan to fight all of the guards? Do you think you can outrun all of them in their home town? What direction would you be going in? The town is almost a maze remember?”

  “We can’t just wait around,” Peter said.

  “We won’t,” Andrew said. “But we can’t just run either. I have an idea.”

  Peter grinned. That, at least, was worth waiting for. His brother’s ideas were usually pretty good. And this one, as it turned out was nice and simple. They would go slow until they couldn’t. The first step would be to get out of this room. But it would be best to wait until the hall outside was mostly empty. From there, they just had to find their way back to the edge of the city without being noticed.

  “How will we manage that?” Anna asked.

  “There will definitely be some guards out there. If you can slow them down, we can knock them out and take their cloaks before making a break for it.” He turned to Peter. That’ll be your job.”

  “They probably have enchantments to protect them from magic,” Anna pointed out.

  “Then that’s what the element of surprise is for,” Peter said. He was liking the plan so far. He clapped his brother on the shoulder. “I don’t think we’ve schemed together like this since we were little.” Peter said.

  “Let’s just hope that it works,” Andrew replied. He turned to Anna. “Can the Wisps sense how many are still in the room?” he asked.

  Anna closed her eyes to focus. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure they’re picking up on the guards outside, too.” Her frown deepened for a moment. “But I think Naimeh, the guard captain is gone.”

  “Here, let me,” Peter said. He pressed his ear to the door, listening more intently than before. He could only make out a few scattered words through the heavy wood, but this way he could tell about where people were in the room outside. At least, when they moved. “There’s at least four of them in the room,” Peter said. He looked at Anna. “How many total are you feeling?”

  “Ten, I think,” Anna said.

  Peter looked at his brother. “What do you think?”

  “There’s probably at least two guards outside the window,” Andrew said, glancing over his shoulder. “Two at this door, then two at the entrance. Plus Sallowain.”

  “That’s only seven,” Anna said.

  “There could be more than two in each spot,” Andrew said.

  “Well, some good news is that I don’t think anyone is standing very close to the door here,” Peter said. “Unless they’re as still as statues. We should go.”

  “No,” Andrew said. His voice wasn’t as sharp as Peter normally expected from his brother. “Let’s wait for Sallowain to leave. He’ll probably take a few guards with him. If not, we lose nothing, but if he does, it will be a lot easier to get away.”

  Peter nodded. As much as he itched to move, he didn’t like the idea of fighting any number of guards barehanded. He wondered if he’d be able to take one of their spears or swords in the confusion. Then another thought occurred to him. He turned to Anna. “Can they sense Liosfalda?” he asked.

  Anna caught on right away, closing her eyes and whispering the name. It only took a moment for her to look back up. “Yeah, they sense her very strongly.”

  “Our stuff was probably left on a table right outside the door,” Peter said, grinning. Then his grin vanished. He looked at Andrew. “They only would have done that if they completely forgot about us, right?”

  “Probably,” Andrew agreed.

  “So why is Sallowain still here?”

  Andrew didn’t answer right away. When he did, he gave the answer Peter was dreading. “He might be using this place as the base of operations to set up his hunt for Jarnvaror.”

  “Great,” Peter muttered. He decided his gut might not be so great after all.

  “I doubt it’s the real base,” Anna said. “He just already had his captain and a bunch of guards here.”

  “What makes you say that?” Peter asked.

  “Because he’s not panicky any more,” Anna said. “He was only panicky when you mentioned Jarnvaror. He’s still anxious, and pretty annoyed at you. But he doesn’t feel like he’s all that urgent about anything.” She frowned. “That’s odd, isn’t it? Shouldn’t he be working on getting news of us to Daniel?” Then her eyes went wide. “But his captain was on our side,” she said. “At least, he was a little sympathetic. Maybe he talked him down.”

  “What good does that do us now?” Andrew asked.

  Anna shrugged. “I think Sallowain would leave the details of dealing with Jarnvaror or assigning guards to us to Naimeh. If he’s on our side… well, leaving the door unlocked might not be an accident. And maybe the real number of guards here will be…” She trailed off turning to the door. Her face was alight with wonder.

  “What’s going on?” Andrew asked.

  “Sallowain just left, along with half the guards. And none of them felt urgent.” She looked back at Peter and Andrew. “His personal guards, I think. In fact, I think he was just doing paperwork. Just enough official records so that Woadrok will know he didn’t just let us go, maybe.”

  “I think you’re giving him too much credit,” Peter said. Then he blinked, and a grin spread over his face. “But then again, you said he left with half. So there’s only five guards, now?”

  “Including the one’s outside,” Anna nodded.

  Peter almost whooped. He liked his gut again. Because that was a far more manageable number.