The night of the empty cells
A night of waiting ends with a dead adviser and open cell doors.
That afternoon, Anastacia asked to walk for a while. The guard at her door escorted her to the gallery overlooking the gardens.
The princess, King Alfred's daughter, had returned from the council without freeing the friends arrested in the forest. Flor, her baby dragon, was still far from her, and even a visit to the cells had been denied. Her father had promised to discuss the case again the next morning.
Anastacia stopped at a window. She was trying to organize what else she could tell the council when she saw Leon approach.
Married to Aurora, Anastacia's cousin, Leon was one of the king's councilors. That morning, he had argued that they should investigate the control the creatures had suffered instead of considering only the attacks.
“Did you get to see Flor?” he asked.
“They wouldn't let me. They said they had no authorization.”
Leon glanced at the guard, who had stopped a few paces away.
“I wanted to thank you for what you said at the meeting,” Anastacia continued.
“I wish it had done more good.”
“At least you were listening.”
He leaned on the windowsill.
“Your father called another meeting. We can still try.”
Anastacia looked at the gardens. The answers she wanted to bring to the council lay with Elyra, the elder of the Hidden Village. She needed to talk to her before the same men gathered to repeat the same doubts.
Footsteps came from the far end of the gallery.
Aurora was approaching them. She was Charles's daughter, the niece of King Alfred. When she reached them, she touched the arm of her husband, Leon.
“I went looking for you in your room,” she told Anastacia.
“I needed to get out for a while.”
Aurora studied her face, and her smile faded.
“Leon told me how the meeting went.”
“Then you already know we're having another tomorrow.”
“I do. Have you heard anything about the prisoners?”
Anastacia shook her head.
“I don't even know if they've fed Flor.”
Aurora squeezed Anastacia's hand.
Anastacia looked at Leon.
“I need to ask you both something.”
Aurora's husband stepped away from the sill to listen.
“I want to speak to Elyra before tomorrow's meeting.”
The elder who led the Hidden Village was imprisoned with the others. In the forest, she had recognized the force that had controlled the bears, but another attack interrupted the conversation before Anastacia could ask all her questions.
Aurora moved closer to Anastacia.
“Leon told me the bears attacked you. Is that what Elyra explained?”
Anastacia told her about Satobear and Gili, the two talking bears she had met in the forest. She explained how they had charged at her and Flor without responding to anything, and how they had changed after two pink butterflies arrived.
“Afterward, they didn't even remember what they'd done,” she said. “They were frightened when we told them. And they helped us leave the village when the other creatures appeared.”
“Do you think the same thing happened to them?”
“They were acting the same way. Elyra knows this force. Maybe she knows how to keep it from happening again.”
Leon listened in silence. He had already heard part of the account at the council, but now Anastacia could explain it to Aurora without being interrupted by the other men's questions.
“If I speak to Elyra today, I can bring an answer tomorrow,” the princess continued. “If we wait for the meeting, they'll say again that we don't know enough to free them.”
“My father will be against it,” Aurora said.
Charles, Aurora's father and Anastacia's uncle, had been one of those who supported imprisonment. His council seat put him at the same table as Leon, though the two had disagreed during the hearing.
“I know,” Anastacia replied. “But I'm not asking them to open the cells. I want to talk to her. A guard can stay with us.”
Aurora looked at her husband.
“Could you arrange a visit?”
Leon took a little time before answering.
“I can try.”
“Just don't take Anastacia to the cells without permission,” Aurora told Leon. “I don't want her to have more trouble with the king.”
“I'll try to get permission,” Leon replied. Then he turned to Anastacia. “If I do, I'll let you know.”
“Thank you.”
On her way back to her room, with the guard beside her, Anastacia began arranging the questions she would ask the elder. She wanted to know where that force came from, what was in the cave and how to protect the animals from another attack.
And before any question, she wanted to see Flor.
By nightfall, Anastacia still had no word from Leon.
She sat on the edge of her bed, where she could hear people passing in the corridor. She wondered how to explain the meeting's outcome to Elyra. The elder had helped her escape the attack on the village, only to be imprisoned by her father's soldiers.
A sharp noise interrupted her thoughts.
Anastacia raised her head.
The sound had come from far away, in another part of the castle. She waited, trying to make out a voice. She heard another impact, hurried footsteps and, shortly afterward, a shout.
She stood and went to the door.
The guard opened it before she could call.
“Your Highness, I must take you to your father. There has been an attack in the council wing.”
“Is my father hurt?”
“No, Your Highness. It's one of the councilors.”
Anastacia went with him.
In the corridors, soldiers hurried past while others ordered servants back to their quarters. Questions came from every doorway. Some spoke of an intruder; others wanted to know if the gates were still open. The guard did not stop to answer.
When they reached the smaller council chamber, Anastacia saw Alfred among the men gathered near the entrance. The king was speaking to a soldier and broke off when he saw her.
She stepped toward him. Then she noticed the man lying on the floor, nearer the center of the room.
It was Arthur Raven.
The councilor who represented the Raven family, one of the kingdom's most influential, lay motionless. A guard knelt beside him.
Anastacia stopped.
She remembered Arthur's questions during the hearing. Just hours earlier, he had voted to keep Flor and the others in their cells. She was still preparing answers for the next meeting.
“What happened to him?”
Alfred came closer to his daughter.
“He was already dead when they found him.”
Anastacia looked again at the man on the floor.
“Who did this?”
“We don't know yet.”
The king placed a hand on her shoulder while a soldier described finding Arthur. Anastacia heard only part of the explanation. She was searching for signs of a struggle, something to help her understand how a man could have been killed there without the guards stopping it.
A soldier reached the chamber door and searched for the king among those present. He was out of breath.
“Your Majesty.”
Alfred turned.
“The prisoners from the forest have disappeared.”
The conversations stopped.
“What do you mean?” the king asked.
“The cells are open. We haven't found any of them.”
Anastacia stepped toward the soldier.
“And Flor?”
“The baby dragon too, Your Highness.”
One of the men in the chamber demanded to know who had authorized their release. Another began asking about the cell guards. The soldier tried to answer, but questions piled up before he could finish.
Anastacia turned to the man who had brought her from her room.
“Take me there.”
The guard looked at Alfred.
“Escort my daughter,” the king said. “Stay with her.”
Anastacia had to slow down on the stairs to avoid stumbling. The guard went ahead, clearing the way to the cell wing.
There were soldiers in the corridor, but no prisoners.
The doors stood open. Chains lay on the stone floor. Anastacia looked from cell to cell, searching for Flor's white fur in the shadows.
“Where was she?”
The guard pointed to one of the entrances.
Anastacia passed him and went in.
“Flor?”
She waited for the call the baby dragon usually gave when she recognized her.
She walked to the back of the cell and crouched to examine the corners. There was nowhere Flor could be hiding. Even so, she called again, more softly this time.
The guard remained at the door.
“Have they searched the others?” Anastacia asked, standing.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
She went out and walked down the corridor. Elyra was not there either. Nor was Mili, the young dudurima who helped protect the Hidden Village. The cells where Satobear and Gili, the two bears, had been held were empty as well.
Anastacia stopped beside one of the doors.
The hinges were still fixed to the wall. There were no signs of forced entry near the lock, nor wreckage in the corridor. The chains on the floor showed no accompanying marks of a struggle either.
“Did they find any broken doors?” she asked the guard.
“No.”
“Did anyone see the prisoners leave?”
“No reports of that have come in yet.”
Anastacia examined the cell entrance again. To her, those open doors, without signs of force, pointed to a planned action.
“This was planned,” she said.
The guard came closer.
“Do you think someone helped them?”
“I don't know who opened the cells. Or whether they left willingly.”
She looked at the stairs they had come down. Arthur Raven lay dead upstairs. Flor and the others had vanished. Both events had been discovered that night, but she did not yet know how they were connected.
For the first time since the arrest, being out of the cells did not seem like a guarantee that her friends were safe.
“My father needs to know what we found here,” she said.
The guard called a soldier passing down the corridor and gave him the report: every cell open, no sign of forced entry, none of the prisoners found.
Before the man could leave, Anastacia called to him.
“Ask them to look for whoever opened the doors too.”
The soldier nodded and went up the stairs to take the message to the king. Anastacia watched him until he disappeared from sight.
Anastacia remained in the cell doorway. All day, she had waited for someone to let her through to see Flor. When permission finally came, the baby dragon was no longer there.