Chapter 16

Threwon and I stayed that way for what seemed like forever, until doors began to open and the shuffling of morning risers could be heard.

She broke away from me abruptly, looking terrified. “What am I… Go back to your room! Now!”

I hesitated. The Threwon I had known years ago was evident in her features, but a harsh tint of reality now began to return, and I feared that soon, the teacher I liked would again be replaced by our stern overseer.

There was so much more to say, but not enough time. Time, damnit! Still, I managed to say the first thing that came to mind in a shaking voice: “So you really do care about us then? You don’t want us to become… slaves?”

Threwon was looking this way and that, tidying up her shirt and rolling up her cuffs. Her face was still a mess. She seemed briefly to have forgotten about me; but after a moment, she caught my eye again.

“I’ve always loved you children” she whispered. “I always will. Please, never doubt that. Now go.”

I turned and ran.

Sleeplessness had left me. With my returning sense, I realized there was little point in running except to excise my nervousness; I slowed my pace to a walk by the time my hand was on the door to our room, and my body already halfway through.

Most of the others were either stirring or already awake. I caught Elodie’s stare as she stood making her bed; her eyes widened at the sight of me. I nodded my head briskly, attempting to indicate something important had happened, and headed straight for the back corner of the room where Dornell still snored.

Only then did it occur to me that I hadn’t actually told maiden Threwon anything. That could be a good thing, if one wished to be safe, but I regretted once again not having the chance to speak more freely with her.

I was determined to find another chance. My goal had been to gauge her attitude: to find out whether she sympathized with us, or if Zaevia was right, and she felt nothing.

I was pretty sure I’d found out the answer. Whether that would be enough to help us remained to be seen.

~

That evening, once all the lights were out, we all sat in a circle made from our blankets and I recounted what I’d learned today. A single candle sat in the center, lit from one of the doused wicks the instant one of the maidens had closed the door.

“You’re sure she wasn’t just playing you?” Torvis asked suspiciously for the second time. “Trying to get you to open up? So she could rat us out to Madam Dro?”

“If Veille says he sure, then I’m convinced” Elodie spoke up for me.

I shook my head. “It’s alright; and I’m positive. You couldn’t perform the things I saw on her face, not even as a trained actor. Trust me. Also, she pet my arm – when’s the last time she did something so strange?”

“I would like to argue that doing something strange doesn’t necessarily mean sincerity; ordinary, the opposite” Zaevia said dryly.

Mylannes raised a hand. We all turned to look at her.

“I would like to trust Veille” she offered, looking surprisingly confident.

I smiled broadly, to which she blushed and looked away. Dornell adjusted his seat on the floor and began playing with his hair. “It’s a good start either way. Thanks for doing it, V; I’m sure it was incredibly stressful.”

He took a breath. “We still don’t know if she can be trusted to help us escape. We won’t know that until we confide in her, and I think the sooner we do that now, the better. We don’t want her to rationalize it all away again like it would be so convenient to do. Veille, do you think you can handle that?”

I nodded vigorously. “I do.” Whether or not I felt up to it was irrelevant at this point. All of our cards might as well be on the table, or I feared that time would pass, and with it, our resolve.

Dornell nodded back. “We should start thinking about the logistics. Specifically, what an attempt at running away might actually look like if we were to do it all on our own. I’d like to start by seeing if anyone’s heard of any prior escape attempts, failed or otherwise.”

“I thought the whole point of convincing Threwon was so that we wouldn’t have to do it all on our own?” Syrieze pointed out, while O’mally simply nodded.

“True. But either way, we’d better assume we’ll be doing the bulk of the work ourselves. Threwon or another maiden might open a door for us, but we’re the ones who will have to get there and get through it.”

Norn and Bluec had been strangely quiet the entire time. The twins preferred normally to speak using their actions rather than their words, but I worried over their lack of inclusion so far. “Norn? Bluec? What do you think about our plan so far?”

Bluec’s hazel eyes slid past my own. “You and Dornell are usually right about these sorts of things” she said quietly. “I trust you. Whatever I can do to help.”

After a moment, she nudged her brother with an elbow, and he agreed as well.

Ellie smiled. “I feel a lot safer with all of us on the same page. I don’t know what I would do without everyone. I love you guys.”

Torvis and I both blushed and quickly looked away – though of course not in the same direction. That would’ve been awkward.

The next half hour included Dornell sharing the Estate’s layout as he understood it. Not much was decided as a result of that, but it provided a tangible anchor to our hopes for escape. Before we finally blew out the candle I could see it in everyone’s eyes; there was hope for us. This was doable, and with a Demon’s own luck we might just achieve it.

I went to bed finally with the promise of sleep, the first good sign I’d had in weeks. Dornell was already snoring on the bunk beneath me. I thought about sneaking down and throwing a pillow at him, but sleep – and maybe common decency, but mostly sleep – convinced me to just lay down and close my eyes.

Besides; if anything enjoyable was going to happen within the dark of night, I told myself, it would involve only me, Elodie, and literally nothing else in the world.