Page 52 of Her Cruel Redemption (The Dark Reflection #3)

Chapter Fifty-Two

T he cathedral was too close to Saltarre Castle for comfort, now that being unseen had become a priority. And there seemed to be an increasing number of soldiers patrolling the streets. We ducked out of sight when we saw them coming, keeping to back alleys and avoiding the main stretches, and when the cathedral was in our sights, we found a cellar at the rear of a closed store. We broke the lock, slipped through the doors and into the damp hole beneath to wait in the dark, counting clock chimes to mark the passing time. We said little. There seemed too much to say, the air between us bloated with unspoken words, and this was not the time to turn our focus on bringing those words into being. We sat in the strange, temporary intimacy of a shadowy, cold room with nothing to do but nurse our fear of being caught. At some point, I drifted off to sleep, though I wasn’t sure how I managed it. Maybe there was some relief to be found in the warmth of leaning against Draven, his arm lightly around me, knowing he was watching. Somehow believing he would keep me safe.

All too soon, he was waking me with a light shake and a voice in my ear. ‘It’s nearly time.’

The night beyond the cellar and around the cathedral was quiet, not as full of activity as the market we’d passed by earlier. But the torches in the building itself were burning, the windows flickering like molten eyes as they glared down on us.

‘You should stay out here,’ I said as I peered around a corner at the gaping doorway, allowing myself another moment of doubt in the loyalty of my friend. ‘If there are soldiers waiting for us—'

‘Then they’ll have to take me before they can get to you.’

I chewed at my lip again. ‘You’re covered in blood.’

‘It’s dark. No one will notice.’

‘It’s not that dark. You’re also limping.’

‘You’re not going in there alone.’

‘If I have to run, you’ll only—’

‘You’ll have to tie me up if you want me to stay out here,’ he cut in. ‘And then I’ll still get loose and come after you anyway.’

I was about to continue arguing the point when a figure in a cloak caught my eye. Holding a basket and coming down the street with a smooth, quick gait that I easily recognised as Leela. My heart jolted when I realised she wasn’t alone, that a taller, masculine figure was following a few steps behind her. Who was he? Who would she have brought and why would she have brought them? Surely if she’d turned me in, there’d be more than a single soldier with her. Both figures paused at the steps of the cathedral and looked around.

‘That’s Lester,’ Draven said suddenly.

I squinted, trying to see whatever he’d seen to identify the figure. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes. He has this funny way of swinging his arms when he walks.’

Lester? But what was he doing here? How had he got into Port Howl? ‘If you say so. I hope you’re right.’ I took a breath and stepped out from behind the wall. The two figures caught the movement, turning, and I waved them over. Leela approached cautiously. Lester did not.

‘Aether’s blue fucking balls,’ he said as he drew close, his voice far too loud for the quiet midnight. I hissed at him to quiet down, retreating back around the building where we’d be more protected from prying eyes. He ignored my warning, continuing in that same incredulously loud tone as he stood before us and took us in. ‘Is this what I think it is?’

‘Depends on what you think it is,’ Draven said, sagging heavily against the wall.

‘The most volatile marriage the world has ever seen is what it is. You can’t tell me she helped you escape.’

‘I did,’ I snapped. ‘And now I’ll be suffering whatever fate he’s subjected to if we’re caught, so can you please keep your voice down?’

Lester pursed his lips as he studied me, brow knotted. Then he snorted. ‘I’ll admit, I didn’t see this one coming. I snuck into the city and went to Saltarre castle to try to bully you into doing something to help, but I’d never have guessed you weren’t there because you’d literally gone to bust him out of prison.’

‘That’s why he’s here,’ Leela said, a thread of annoyance through her voice. ‘He’s been following me around demanding to know where you are and refusing to believe I didn’t know. He hasn’t been easy to shake.’

‘You shouldn’t be trying to shake me. I’m probably more use to them than you are.’

‘Oh?’ Leela replied, narrowing her eyes on him. ‘And how do you figure that?’

Lester opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment Draven slid down the wall and slumped onto the ground. I was immediately on my knees beside him, anxiously scanning his face. He offered me a crooked smile, before clicking his tongue and touching fingers to my mouth. ‘ Stop that.’

‘Why are you worrying about me biting my lip when you can’t even hold yourself up?’ My voice was strangled with worry.

He waved a hand dismissively. ‘I’m fine. I can listen from down here.’

Lester bobbed down beside me. ‘Yeah, sure you are. Where have I heard that before?’

I rose back to my feet as Lester checked him over. Leela’s face was pinched with worry as she properly inspected us. I tried not to fidget as I watched her weigh the situation and waited for her reaction. Expected, perhaps, a dressing down. An are you mad? What do you think you’re doing?!

But she defied my expectations, as she so often did, when all she said was, ‘You need to get out of the city.’

In that instant of studying us her quick, practical mind had understood. I inhaled a half-sob of relief.

‘Yes.’ I wilted for a moment beneath the strain of what had happened, what I’d done. What I would still have to do if I hoped to get us both out of Oceatold. ‘And fast.’

‘Do you have a plan?’

‘The port. Draven thinks they’ll have to leave it open.’

She nodded thoughtfully. ‘What do you need from me?’

‘A schedule of what ships are leaving port, where they’re going and what they’re carrying if you can get your hands on it. Some hint of which captains are fastidious in checking their cargo and which have their noses too deep in a bottle to notice a few stowaways wouldn’t go astray either.’

‘I don’t have contacts here,’ she said slowly, ‘so I can’t promise anything. But I’ll do what I can.’

‘Thank you,’ I said earnestly, hoping I could convey my endless gratitude for her in those two words alone.

Her gaze flickered over my shoulder, to where Lester was slinging one of Draven’s arms around his shoulders and hauling him to his feet ‘Are you sure about this?’

I choked out a laugh. ‘No. Not even a little. It’s probably too late to turn back now, though.’ Would I if it wasn’t? Was I finally doing something for the right reasons? Not to prove anything to anyone else, or to seek justice or vengeance or win back a sense of control, but because it was what I wanted. Was this what I wanted?

’Perhaps.’ She squared her shoulders, jostling her basket. ‘Do you have somewhere you can hide for a couple of hours?’

‘A cellar not far from here, though I wouldn’t trust it until morning.’

‘I won’t need until morning if that lump over there will help me. I packed some food and a few other bits and pieces. Perhaps you should just keep out of sight and try to rest while you wait.’

‘Alright. We can do that.’ I clasped her hand, and we held tight to each other for a moment. Then she nodded, stiffening her shoulders and handing over the basket.

She flicked a hand at Lester. ‘You. You’re with me.’

‘Oh am I?’ He raised his brows as he steadied Draven against the wall. ‘Are you another one who never learned the word please?’ But he followed after her, shooting us a few suspicious glances over his shoulder as he went. Like he expected to turn around and catch me stabbing Draven instead.

We returned to the cellar and spent another tense stretch of time waiting. Within Leela’s basket was a flagon of water and some food—honey cakes and dried beef and a couple of apples. I held one of the apples in my hand, running a thumb over its smooth skin, before offering it to Draven. He met my gaze and something unspoken passed between us. An echo of a moment long gone, a moment that had propelled us down a path neither of us had anticipated, a path that had veered so far from what we each thought we wanted that we hardly seemed the same people anymore. I didn’t think he needed magic to know where my thoughts were as he accepted the apple, rolling it between his hands, balancing it on the tip of his fingers before taking a bite. The food and the water seemed to strengthen him a little, and the time that passed after that was easier, though we still spoke very little. If we spoke about what had happened, what we were doing, then I was afraid I’d collapse under the weight of it all, and I didn’t have time for that. I needed to be strong, to keep my focus on one moment at a time.

I must have drifted off again in the small hours of the morning, and when I woke it was to find myself lying alone with the blanket tucked tightly around me. I sat up, scanning the shadowy cellar and found Draven standing on the third of the five stairs leading outside, peering through the slats in the doors, the moonlight breaking through casting bars of silver light across his face.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked, rubbing my eyes.

It took him a moment to answer me. ‘Lester told me where Lidello is in the city.’

I cursed inwardly. What a stupid thing for Lester to have told him. ‘And why is that important?’ I replied, even though I know damn well why. Though, he had no idea that it didn’t matter anymore.

He said nothing.

I rose, blanket still clutched around my shoulders against the chill as I approached the bottom of the stairs. ‘Draven, look at me,’ I said, my tone iron and stone and warning. He obeyed, gaze flicking to me. ‘Lidello is dead.’

He frowned, searching my face like he thought I was lying. ‘How?’

‘I killed him.’ There was that fierce satisfaction again, sharpening the curves of my voice.

His expression fractured, changed as he seemed to move through a spectrum of emotions. Disbelief, maybe. Then something darker. ‘Why?’

I remembered the scars that covered his body, the ones I’d traced with my fingers in dim lighting. Those were only the scars that were visible. ‘Because when I thought of what he did to you…’ My eyes flicked down for a moment before I strengthened my resolve, looking up at him, holding his gaze no matter what I would find there. ‘I couldn’t let him get away with that. I hate him for it.’

He watched me, considering me silently, whatever was in his head hidden behind that still expression of his.

‘Now I’m sure there are others in this city that you’d like to relinquish their ability to breathe,’ I continued. ‘Dovegni likely tops the list.’

His mouth twitched, lip curling as I said the other man’s name. ‘He doesn’t deserve to live.’

‘He doesn’t. But you do. And given what I just gave up to give you that chance, I think you owe it to me to survive.’

I could see the way he wavered, feel the fight to release that end he’d chased for so long. He‘d told me in the caverns that I’d become more important than his revenge. But for a moment, looking up at this moonlit, blood-soaked, damaged man, I wasn’t sure if that was true.

When he finally nodded, I released a rush of held breath, suddenly feeling exhausted. I realised I hadn’t really been sure of what choice he’d make. He climbed down the steps, each step easing some of the tension that had crept into my body. ‘Alright.’

‘So if I happen to doze off again, I won’t wake to find you’ve slipped out to have one last go at it?’

He took my hand. Entwined his calloused fingers through mine. ‘You won’t.’

He followed me back to the corner and we slid back onto the floor together. I found a cloth and wet it with the water from the flagon and gently washed some of the blood from his face, his neck, his arms. He held still, tracking my movements, and every time I looked up at him he was watching me with tension strung between his brows and along his jaw.

‘Why do you keep looking at me like that?’ My words brushed the dark as a whisper.

The corner of his mouth flickered with a smile. ‘I’m waiting for you to vanish. I’ve dreamed about you often enough. I can’t convince myself I’m not asleep in the cell now.’

My throat tightened with emotion, choking any reply. It still felt like madness, to be here with him. To have broken him out of that dungeon. To be planning to flee the city with him. And if we made it… what then?

I dropped the cloth and leaned into him with a sigh. One moment at a time.

Sometime later, a scratching at the door made me jolt up in a panic, heart immediately pounding, magic jumping to my fingertips, making my head spin in a dizzy swoop. Draven was already on his feet, positioned between me and the door, like he could do a thing in his state if we were discovered.

‘Rhi,’ Leela’s voice whispered, and I exhaled in relief, rising to my feet to open the door. She climbed down into the cellar with Lester close behind her.

‘Did you mange it?’ I asked, even as she drew a rumpled sheet of paper out of her pocket and handed it to me. ‘What’s this?’

‘The name of the ship you’re going to be stowing away on,’ she said, smiling faintly. ‘Its captain isn’t from these shores. His voyage has been grounded for too long and he wants to go home, he knows nothing about Oceatold’s politics, and he’s angry with the king for the tax jumps on imported goods since the beginning of the war. He’ll do basically anything for a bribe, including transport a couple of criminals.’

‘Oh, Leela. You’re a miracle worker,’ I breathed, staring down at the note in my hand. The Lady of Mercy. A shiver crept up the back of my neck, like a gentle brush of the fingers of fate. Mercy.

‘She’s a bloody slave driver, that’s what she is,’ Lester grumbled, poking around the shelves lining the walls of the cellar. ‘Have you found anything to drink down here? Surely they must have a little whiskey or something—aha!’ He pulled a bottle from the back of a shelf, wrenched the cork out of it, and took a hearty swig. I barely spared him a glance as he coughed through the burn of whatever he’d just swallowed.

Draven, still hovering near the door, shifted his weight. ‘When does it leave?’ His voice was hoarse, rougher than usual, and I didn’t know if it was the strain of standing or something else entirely.

Leela tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, her expression growing serious. ‘As soon as the tide turns. You’ll need to get to the docks before sunrise and hide aboard before the crew sets sail. The captain won’t ask questions, but that doesn’t mean his men won’t.’

I clenched my fist around the paper. Only a few hours to slip through the city while avoiding the soldiers who would be looking for us and make it down to the docks.

Lester leaned against the shelf he’d been searching and shook the bottle at me. ‘So, you’ll run off, they’ll all think my brother somehow hoodwinked you into it, and despite the bolts of bloody lightning you’ve been flinging around, he gets the title of scapegoat for an entire war and all its misery. What do you think about that?’

I snorted. ‘I think it suits his inflated sense of self-importance.’

Lester laughed, shaking his head. ‘Oh, to be a fly on the wall. I’m half tempted to go with you just to watch it all fall apart.’

‘You’re not coming with us? Surely you’ll be considered a criminal in Port Howl as much as Draven.’

‘Don’t lump me in the same category as him.’ He jerked a thumb in Draven’s direction, who shot an exasperated look to the ceiling. ‘I could have a perfectly respectable reason to be here as part of a brand-new attempt to sit at a negotiating table that’ll likely be a whole lot more successful without you two derailing it.’

‘We couldn’t afford to pay for passage for three,’ Leela interjected. ‘Don’t worry, I’m sure we can work something else out for him. No one knows he’s here, so no one is Looking for him yet.’

‘Thank you,’ Draven said quietly. Leela shot a look in his direction, offering a brief nod of her head.

‘But we’d better get moving,’ she continued, stepping to collect the basket we had already rifled through. ‘We’ll go with you to the docks.’

The cellar door creaked as I pushed it open, my heart thudding as I peered out into the alleyway. I held my breath for a moment, scanning the shadows.

‘Stay close,’ Draven murmured, a dark presence at my side. He seemed to hesitate, then his hand slipped around mine. ‘And no magic. No matter what happens.’

‘What if it could save us?’

‘Your body isn’t ready for it. Promise me you won’t try it.’

I nodded, and he released my hand as we slipped into the alley, with Leela and Lester close behind us. We moved quickly, blending into the darkness, the sound of our footsteps swallowed by the narrow streets. When we reached the main road leading to the docks, I risked a quick glance down the street. There was no sign of any guards in our immediate vicinity. I could feel Draven’s tense posture beside me, his eyes constantly flicking around, always on alert. The scent of brine grew stronger, mingling with the stench of the city’s decay, smoky with the reminder of the recent devastation I’d wrought. We were getting closer.

‘This way,’ Leela whispered, motioning us toward another narrow side street.

Moments after we entered it, we were ducking out of it again. The sound of footsteps, the jangle of armour. Firelight dancing across slick walls, warping the shadows of the soldiers advancing in our direction.

‘Move,’ Draven hissed, gripping my wrist. Leela and Lester followed, their footsteps sharp in the quiet.

We rounded a corner and were confronted with a group of dockworkers unloading the night’s catch. I barely stopped myself in time, heart slamming against my ribs. Four men stood by a cart, their lanterns throwing long, flickering shadows over crates of fish. One of them, a grizzled man with salt-crusted sleeves, grunted as he hoisted a crate onto his shoulder. Another wiped his hands on a rag, glancing up at our sudden arrival.

Behind us, the clatter of approaching boots.

‘Keep walking,’ Lester murmured, straightening up and striding forwards with a cocky strut. ‘Evening, lads. Wouldn’t want to be you right now,’ he called, saluting the workers, who scowled at him, but made room for him to step past. The rest of us followed, trying to not look like we were running for our lives. I linked an arm with Leela, as though we were just out for a casual stroll in the middle of the night and refrained from ducking low to get out of sight of the patrol that were moments from passing by.

Behind us, the sound of boots stopped.

‘You there,’ a voice called, with the authoritative ring of a commander.

‘Keep walking,’ Lester hissed without turning around.

‘Step aside. We need to search your wares.’

There was a chorus of grumbling and one of the workers began to protest. The soldier who’d given the order argued back, explaining that there had been an escape from Saltarre’s dungeons and that they were searching the city top to bottom, all while that escapee quickly slipped around a corner and out of sight.

Moments later, we reached the dock. Before us, the Lady of Mercy pulled gently at her moorings, masts skewering the night sky.

Leela sidled up to a door in a warehouse and quietly knocked three times. The pause that followed stretched so taught I thought I would snap. In the gloom of the night we were relatively out of sight, but I could hear voices on the wind, and every few minutes a sailor appeared on the deck of the ship or traipsed up the gangplank.

The door opened, and a tall man in a brass-buttoned coat was revealed. With a grunt, he stepped out of the way, and it was a relief to step out of the open and into the room beyond.

‘Captain Margrave,’ Leela said, ducking her head respectfully. ‘I trust we’ve made good time.’

He was scruffy for a captain, jaw lined with three-day stubble and a hair slung in a low ponytail. He scowled deeply as he looked us over. ‘What are those?’ he demanded, pointing a finger at my face.

‘Scars,’ I said, trying to keep my tone pleasant. I felt Draven touch his hand to my back, felt his steady presence behind me. ‘It’s fine,’ I whispered, because I could almost sense the glower he was fixing the captain with.

Margrave swore, turning on Leela. ‘I agreed to transport two war criminals,’ he raged, his voice rough and curled at the edges with an accent I didn’t recognise, jabbing a finger in our direction. ‘Not those war criminals!’

‘You never asked for specifics on their crimes, mate,’ Lester contributed, tenser now than he had been when we were running through the city.

‘It should have been offered!’

Draven stepped around me. ‘I can give you specifics,’ he said in a low warning.

‘I don’t need them,’ Margrave spat, squaring himself as he drew himself up. ‘All I need to know is that a troupe of soldiers have been combing over the entire quay and no ship will be leaving port until they’ve examined its hull from top to bottom. So even if I was willing to take you, it would be impossible now!’

‘Who they are makes no difference.’ Leela rifled around in her skirts, pulling out a purse. ‘Perhaps this is just a discussion of price.’ She began to shake the contents of the purse into her palm, revealing a ring, a few sets of earrings set with jewels and a string of fat, gleaming pearls. I had no idea where she’d got them from. Perhaps she’d stolen them.

Meanwhile, Lester had approached Draven and given him a nudge. ‘Come on, give the good captain some space,’ he said, nodding in the direction of a table and chairs across the room. ‘Go and sit. You look like a corpse.’

I followed him across the room, casting a glance over my shoulder as Leela let the pearls slide between her fingers like a merchant weighing gold dust. Margrave eyed the jewellery with a mixture of scepticism and interest, his mouth pressing into a thin line.

Draven sank into the chair, his movements stiff with exhaustion. I could see the way his jaw clenched, the way his fingers twitched like he was resisting the urge to push himself upright again. Neither of us were good at relinquishing the lead.

A short while later, the captain stormed out of the room pocketing a few extra gems, and Leela and Lester crossed to us.

‘We have a plan for getting you aboard undetected,’ Lester announced. ‘And you’re gonna hate it.’

Draven narrowed his eyes. ‘Why?’

‘You’re going to have to board after the ship is inspected by the soldiers,’ Leela explained, carefully stowing her purse back in her skirts. ‘Which means—’

‘—slipping into the water and swimming like hell to scramble up the hull after casting off,’ Lester interjected, flopping into another chair.

‘That sounds risky,’ I said, glancing between them.

‘It is,’ Draven replied. ‘We could be seen when we’re in the water, and we’ll be completely vulnerable if we are.’

Lester stretched, cracking his knuckles. ‘You’ll want to swim fast. But he’s gonna leave the cargo hold open a few minutes after casting off for you so you can sneak down there.’

Draven shot him a withering look but said nothing, pushing himself to his feet with deliberate care. He was still unsteady, but he straightened his shoulders. ‘We’d better head for the water.’

We ducked back outside, slipping down the side of the warehouse and down a narrow gap between buildings where waste was stored. Leela and I sat on a step, huddling together against the cold, backs against the slimy wall of the warehouse.

‘I want to scout the best way into the water,’ Draven said, still standing and staring down the length of the ally towards the ship. He turned back to me. ‘Stay hidden. We won’t be long.’

‘We?’ Lester repeated, folding his arms. ‘I suppose that means me.’

‘Yes, Lez, that means you . I’m trying to get my fill of ordering you around before I go.’

I watched them slip back down the alley and into the dark, feeling sick with anxiety when I lost sight of them.

‘They’ll be back,’ Leela reassured from beside me, and I turned to face her, meeting her serious, perceptive gaze.

‘What must you think of me? To even consider this, to go with him after what he’s done?’ I asked in a sudden rush of words, hugging my arms tight around myself against the cold.

‘It’s not the choice I would make. But I’m not you,’ she said after a pause, casting a glance towards where the two men had disappeared. ‘I’d never be able to hold my own against him. But you can.’ She smiled faintly. ‘He’s a very flawed, unscrupulous man, but in his love for you I think there’s some redemption. I think he’d give anything to keep you safe.’ We were quiet again, listening to the lap of the waves. When she spoke again, she took my hand. ‘Forgiveness isn’t weakness, you know,’ she said. ‘Forgiving someone who has already hurt you and giving them another chance… that takes immense bravery.’

I hiccupped a sob, squeezing her hand. ‘You always see the best in me.’

‘That’s because I know you better than most.’

‘I don’t know if this means I forgive him.’

‘No, maybe not. But maybe you’re giving yourself a chance to try.’

‘What will you do after this?’ I wished she would come with me. But I knew better than to ask it. Not when I didn’t even know where I was going or what fate awaited me there, what sort of life I’d be leading her to.

‘I think I want to help Princess Gwinellyn. She seems like she could use some guidance.’

I felt a wash of relief at that, at the thought I wouldn’t be leaving Gwin without a voice of wisdom I could trust. But that feeling was short-lived. Footsteps sounded, growing closer, and we stiffened, already preparing to jump to our feet. But it was just Draven and Lester returning, their forms materializing out of the darkness.

‘We can hide under the pier,’ Draven said. ‘Swim to the ship from there.’

‘This is where we part ways,’ Lester said as I rose to my feet. ‘You’re better off with fewer people down there so you don’t draw attention.’

I nodded, though the thought of splitting up now hit me with regret.

‘You’re sure you don’t want to try your luck sneaking aboard with us?’ I asked, keeping my voice low.

Lester smirked, the dim glow of a distant lantern catching the hard lines of his face. ‘I don’t much fancy a swim. Can you just do me one favour?’ He spoke with solemn intensity.

‘What?’ I asked, suspicious.

‘Can you send me a letter to let me know when you finally end up killing him? I don’t want to miss the funeral. I’d like to stand over his corpse one last time and say I told you so.’

‘Who knew you were so sentimental, Lez?’ Draven clapped him on the shoulder, his grip firm, brief. A silent understanding. No goodbyes.

I wrapped my arms around Leela, pulling her tight. ‘Look after Gwinellyn,’ I said, my voice thick. ‘Look after her the way you looked after me.’

‘I will,’ she whispered, hugging me back. ‘I hope you find some peace.’

When I released her to face the docks, she was swiping at her eyes. My heart ached as I followed Draven back into the night.