Page 16

CHAPTER 16

“I have a feeling that someone will come today,” Pollox told me the following morning as he took me to the tower room. “You need to be ready.”

Griffin’s promise of coming to bring me dragonsbane floated to the forefront of my mind. “How do you know? Did you expand the enchantment to sense people from farther away?”

“No.” He flexed his wings and beat them on the air but still clung to the tower so that a shingle was pried loose and fell to the ground far below.

“Do you have somewhere you need to be?”

Pollox’s talons scraped against the stone. “Yes, actually.”

“Where?”

“I don’t want to tell you. Not yet, anyway. You have your secrets, and I have mine.”

Considering that I had just poured my heart out to Pollox the night before, this seemed rather unfair.

“You have everything you need?” he asked, already shifting his weight, preparing to take off.

“I guess so. Good luck with your mystery job.” For all I knew, he was off to meet up with another dragon, or ransack some village, or capture another princess who was less needy than I was.

My chin sank to rest on my hand as I watched Pollox soar away. It had been a long time since he’d gone to hunt. Most likely he was off to get something to eat and didn’t want me to watch. Come to think of it, I’d never seen him eat. I was grateful for it, too. I had no interest in watching some poor animal get dismembered and devoured. With a shudder, I pulled my head back in and sought a way to occupy myself.

With each stay, my time in the tower felt more and more lonely. Pollox’s magic made it so that the bookcases instantly filled with new stories, and there was no end of sewing and art supplies, but none held my interest. I hoped Pollox was right and someone was coming to try to rescue me. I could use the company.

Hours passed. When I tried to sleep, my mind wouldn’t shut down. If I watched for Pollox to return or for a rescuer to enter the meadow below the tower, time only passed more slowly. I changed my clothing and tried restyling my hair half a dozen times, but without anyone but the wardrobe to show off to, it quickly lost its appeal. The only remotely attractive option was to plan out our next swindle. At least that way, I felt like I was doing something that might later benefit people like the ones at the orphanage. If royalty were going to hoard their gold more fiercely than even Pollox did, they ought to have it taken away and redistributed to those who needed it.

It was late in the afternoon before I heard my name being called. I abandoned my sketched map and dashed to the window. Far below, two men stared up at me. I blinked away the dizziness that always came from looking down from such a great height and squinted.

My heart gave a leap. It was Prince Ivan, and trailing several paces behind him, laden down with the heavy armor and shield, was Griffin.

“I’m up here!” I wailed, waving from the tower’s top.

“Princess!”

“Help me!”

Ivan looked truly baffled as he stared up into the sky. I could see his brain working to conjure a plan of how to ascend the tower. He circled the base of the tower multiple times, searching for a door or window through which to enter. Finding none, he scratched his head and kicked experimentally at the stone tower’s bottom. Clearly, problem-solving was not one of his strong suits.

Griffin was the one who came to the rescue. Dropping his load, he approached the prince with a rope over his shoulder and handed it off. He began to speak, but Ivan waved him off impatiently. I watched the two men curiously. Brawny or not, no one would ever be able to throw rope as high as this tower top, even if they were aided by a grappling hook. The laws of physics wouldn’t support it. Ivan was certainly mystified at the predicament as well but refused to let Griffin put in a single word, shooing him away each time he tried to help.

I sank onto the marble bench near the edge of the balcony and folded my arms on the railing. At least I had good entertainment while I waited for Pollox to return from his mystery trip. Griffin, patient as ever, waited while Ivan tried and failed multiple times to throw the rope high enough to either have me catch it or to loop an end around one of the merlons. I wasn’t sure which he intended.

Frustration set in for Ivan, and he kicked the wall again. I sank my chin against my fist, bored with his lack of creativity. Griffin must have shared my sentiment, because behind Ivan’s back, he strung his bow and withdrew a small ball of twine from one of the saddlebags. I perked up as I watched him.

Griffin unraveled the entire ball of twine, whipped knots around the arrow’s shaft, then caught my eye and gestured for me to move out of the way. My last fleeting glimpse of the meadow below was of Griffin angling his bow high while Ivan tried unsuccessfully yet again to fling the uncoiled rope in a chaotic tangle up the tower wall.

I pressed myself against the interior wall of one of the merlons, eager not to have an arrow puncture me during a rescue attempt. Within seconds, I heard a clatter. An arrow skittered across the stone floor of the tower top, trailing the thin twine. It skidded to a halt, then began to be pulled backward as the weight of the twine tugged the arrow.

“Grab it, Princess!” I recognized Griffin’s voice and snatched up the arrow before it fell back down, then popped my head up above the merlon again. Ivan and Griffin were busily knotting the other end of the twine to the rope, then they waved at me to begin pulling.

Once again, I marveled at Griffin’s cleverness. Ivan, who acted as though it was all his idea, called up, “Heave to, Rapunzel! Heave!”

I smiled as I realized that this was the first time in my life that I had ever heard anyone ask a princess to “heave to.” It felt like I was a pirate hoisting the mainsails and entertained myself for a few moments imagining what it would be like to sail across the Seven Realms. I continued to thread the twine through one hand while I used the other to pull up a few feet of twine at a time, but as the majority of the weight I was tugging on became rope instead of twine, my arms protested.

Instead of pulling the rope up, I wound my hands around the twine, turned to loop the string over my shoulder, and trudged to the opposite end of the tower while leaning my weight against gravity’s oppositional pull on the heavy rope.

After sweat broke out on my forehead, I decided that sailing the high seas as a pirate was a life I would never want. Eventually, I managed to hoist up the rope and fasten it securely around the merlon. They didn’t intend for me to climb down, did they? I could barely look over the edge without feeling light-headed.

Thankfully, that wasn’t their intent. Ivan gripped the rope and gave an experimental tug.

After ensuring the rope would hold, he began to climb. I couldn’t help but be impressed. He had stripped off his heavy metal armor, but his flexible leather armor and sword still remained, and the tower was incredibly high. But as impressive as it was, my admiration was tainted with regret that it wasn’t Griffin scaling the tower instead of Ivan.

Griffin stayed on the ground, calling up encouragement, but about a third of the way up, Ivan shook his head and began sliding back down. I couldn’t hear their exact conversation, but Griffin’s tone shifted from encouraging to berating as he pointed up angrily and jabbed a finger into Ivan’s chest once he returned to the ground. Ivan also gesticulated upward, and I caught words like “impossible” and “fall to my death.”

Griffin held out his hand and Ivan placed a small pouch into it. As soon as Griffin had tucked the small pouch into his vest pocket, he turned and took a leap at the rope. My heart pounded. As far as I knew, they only needed to give me the dragonsbane. They could have tied it to the end of the twine and had me draw it up. Did Griffin simply want to see me? Or did they have another plan in mind?

Whereas Ivan had tried to muscle his way up the rope, Griffin cleverly wrapped his foot around the rope, then used the trapped rope as a base for his other foot. It wasn’t nearly as impressive-looking, but it was more energy-efficient and clearly worked. My palms began sweating as I held on to the top of the rope, hoping against hope that I wasn’t about to see Griffin plummet to his death. He had claimed he wasn’t a strong climber, but his cleverness made up for what he lacked in sheer muscle.

It felt like an eternity before Griffin finally clambered over the merlon, gasping for breath, and dropped to the ground.

“You made it,” I said, dropping to kneel next to him. Behind me, I saw that the room had reverted to the dank prison cell during Griffin’s climb. “Are you going to be okay?”

“I’ll be…fine,” he panted, grasping for my hand even as he stayed on his back, wheezing. “Take…take it.” From his vest pocket, he withdrew a small drawstring bag and pushed it at me.

“It can wait,” I assured him, placing my hand on his chest where his heart was beating wildly.

“No, it can’t,” he groaned, rolling onto his side to push himself up to standing, hands on his knees as he recovered. “Not after the orphanage this morning.”

My blood turned to ice. “What do you mean?”

Griffin slowly shook his head. “The dragon laid claim to a nearby orphanage. He says it’s part of his hoard now.”

It was impossible to breathe. Pollox wouldn’t do something like that. There must be a mistake. Pollox was kind. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt someone, least of all children.

“Was anyone hurt?”

“I don’t know. When I saw what was happening, I told Ivan we needed to get you immediately. I have this for you. Take it.” He straightened and once again pushed the pouch at me.

Carefully, I tugged it open. Inside, there was a fine purple powder, completely odorless. “Dragonsbane?” I asked, cinching it back up and tucking it into my bodice.

He nodded confirmation. “It was difficult, but we managed to procure some. Keep it safe until the reinforcements come, then throw it on the dragon to weaken him and we’ll be able to kill him.”

I winced slightly, but Griffin didn’t seem to notice. He had looked over the edge of the tower, then quickly retreated back to where I was standing. “This is a lot higher than it looked from the ground.”

“You can’t climb down this soon after climbing up. Your arms must be burning.”

“Not as much as they will be if the dragon finds me here. I don’t know how long he’ll be occupied at the orphanage.”

I shook my head. Did Pollox think me lamenting about the state of my father’s rule was a request for him to take over everything?

“I’ve been worried about you,” Griffin said quietly. His hand lifted to graze across my throat again, pressing along the side of my neck.

Oh scales, how desperately I hoped that Pollox wouldn’t be back for some time. “Can Ivan see us?” I whispered, brushing my hand over Griffin’s chest. His heartbeat had slowed since climbing the rope but was still elevated.

“I don’t think so. But even if he could,” he added defensively, “I’m the one who climbed the tower.”

“Ah,” I teased. “You climbed the tower, so you won the fair maiden? You’re no squire; you’re a knight in shining armor.”

“I wouldn’t say no to earning a kiss from said fair maiden,” Griffin told me, staring steadily at me.

Unprepared for his boldness, I couldn’t resist the smile that spread across my face. “I would like that, too.”

Griffin’s hand crept around to cradle my neck and head while his other arm snuck around to press against the small of my back. I melted against him. How desperately I needed this. “I’m glad you’re here,” I whispered, closing my eyes and waiting for him to kiss me.

“I am, too.” I felt the warmth of his face as he drew nearer.

The kiss never came.

A sudden, powerful burst of air nearly knocked me off my feet, and I dropped to my hands and knees, Griffin falling beside me, as all four of Pollox’s taloned feet hit the tower at the same time, his wings still expanded to their full, and terrifying, size. The normal reddish-brown sheen of his hide had intensified to a deep shade of scarlet, and the heat pouring off him was overwhelming, even for me.

Griffin had no sword, nothing to defend himself against the dragon. The flames in Pollox’s eyes were alive with fury. Even though I knew it was supposed to be an act, a ripple of fear coursed through me. His anger felt real. Steely talons crushed the stone merlon into a fine powder as Pollox advanced, fangs bared and flames licking out of his mouth. Griffin reached for where I’d tucked the dragonsbane out of sight, but before he could lay a hand on it, Pollox attacked. Like a striking serpent, his neck extended and drove his head between me and Griffin, forcing us apart.

“Don’t. Touch. Her.” The grating rasp of Pollox’s voice was amplified to ten times the usual amount, and I found myself trembling with fright as Pollox’s mad eyes drew closer, staring down Griffin. As the dragon loomed over us, his wings nearly blocked out the sun, throwing his form into shadow, lit only by his fiery eyes. Pollox’s tail whipped behind me and gripped Griffin around the middle.

“No! Stop!” I shrieked, but Pollox didn’t appear to have heard me.

With a shout of alarm, Griffin was pulled off his feet and raised to eye level with the dragon. He threw up his hands in a vain attempt to block Pollox’s scorching breath. Pollox shook the squire and hissed, “If you touch her again, it will be the last thing you ever do.” Sparks literally flew from his mouth, and Griffin yelped as the fire singed his hair.

An arrow bounced harmlessly off Pollox’s neck, and I searched for its source. Far below, Prince Ivan had his bow out, valiantly trying to help his squire by loosing arrow after arrow, all of which clattered against the tough dragon hide with no effect. Pollox took off, soaring around the tower as Ivan drew his sword. But it was all for naught. It took Pollox less than a second to shatter the sword with a snap from his massive jaws before he snatched up Ivan as well and flew off over the forest to collect the next ransom, exhaling a long burst of flame as he left.

I ran my fingers over the crushed stone that showed scorch marks from where Pollox had landed in his blaze of anger as a smoky smell filled the air. He had never been so in character before; I still shook from the terror of seeing him as everyone else did.

I pulled the dragonsbane out of my bodice and ran a finger over the bag’s stitching. I’d heard of this substance, but it was extremely expensive and very difficult to come by. I didn’t need it, of course. Pollox would never hurt me. But even so, the image of Pollox’s eyes flaming orange when he snarled at Griffin to keep his hands off me couldn’t be warded off. I had originally thought that it was sweet Griffin was concerned for me, but maybe he was right—having backup security wouldn’t hurt. I stashed it away again, glad of the extra weight that felt like an added protection to me. Even if Pollox did ever try to injure me, at least now I had a way to weaken him.