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“Careful!” Aaron warned in a harsh whisper, as if the lava could hear him.
But for all he knew, it could. He was far from an expert in anything enchanted.
With a thumbs up in his direction, she looped her legs around the rope and slowly began inching her way across. It was a more sensible grip than using only the strength of her arms. He was actually glad she’d gone first, even if he did wish she had given him more notice so they could have discussed the plan one more time. They’d covered the outline of his strategy several times, but he believed there was no such thing as being too prepared.
He waited until she pulled herself up to straddle the castle wall before he added his weight to the rope. As he made his way across, the heat from the lava below drifted over him in dizzying waves, making his entire body begin to perspire. By the time he reached Calliope, his palms were perilously slick and he was grateful for the added security of his legs wrapped around the rope as he pulled himself up to straddle the rock wall.
“What next?” Calliope asked in a hushed tone, looking down at the brambles that filled the castle’s courtyard. “From what I remember of the tales, the vines come to life when someone tries to make their way through them to the tower.”
“So it would be better to continue with the rope if possible. Go over, rather than through.” Aaron studied the castle’s layout, wondering if he had enough rope left to clear the one hundred feet between them and the tower.
“Well, we could try that, but look at the line of the wall.”
He followed the direction of her finger. The wall they sat upon circled around to the opposite side of the tower. If they were to use the rope from that side, they’d only have to clear fifteen to twenty feet before being inside the tower itself.
It was an excellent solution, though he couldn’t help wishing the wall were more than eight inches wide.
“I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it around without losing my balance,” he admitted. “I’m not as light on my feet as you are.”
“Who says you have to stand? We can scoot around.” She demonstrated by shifting her weight forward onto her hands and then lifting her hips and pulling them forward as well.
The method might leave him unable to sire children, but it was preferable to hacking his way through a living forest of vines. Alone, he might have chosen to battle the brambles, but he would endure any amount of agony in his groin to keep Calliope away from those deadly looking thorns.
The scooting was a slow business, however. Judging by the movement of the sun, it took nearly half an hour for them to inch their way around to the other side of the castle wall. Still, all remained silent as the grave below them.
The silence, however, did nothing to ease Aaron’s mind. He couldn’t shake the feeling that someone, or something, was watching them, all too willing to let them exhaust themselves before leaping from the shadows.
Perhaps it was simply the eerie sight of the enchanted court that plagued him. Every so often he would catch a glimpse of what looked like a dead body, tangled in the vines. Upon closer inspection, however, he could see the healthy color that tinged the man or woman’s cheeks. The people here weren’t dead, merely sleeping, as their princess slept, waiting for the moment when a prince would wake her.
There were sleeping men who looked like warrior princes trapped in the vines, as well, but no sign of Johann. For the first time, Aaron allowed himself to acknowledge the fact that his brother might not have made it past the moat and this rescue mission could be in vain. If Johann had been consumed in the lava, his bones would have been incinerated. His body would never be found, even if Calliope managed to free the castle from its enchantment.
“That window there would be easy to access,” Calliope whispered over her shoulder. “But the creature lives in the tower. It guards the passage up to Rosamund’s room. We’ll have to be careful not to disturb it on the way in.”
“The grapple will make a noise against the stone, there’s no help for that.” Aaron eyed the window she had indicated. It was lower than their position on the wall. He might be able to use that to his advantage, sliding down and through the window quickly and have his sword drawn in time.
He pulled the pack off his back, finding what he sought in a matter of moments.
“What’s that for?” Calliope eyed the cloth bandage curiously.
“I’ll wrap it around my hands and use the cloth to slide down the rope. If I’m fast, I’ll be through the window before the dragon reaches my position.”
“It’s half dog, half dragon.”
“Right.” Did that make it better or worse than a mere dragon?
He had no idea and suddenly wished he’d paid closer attention to Johann when he’d talked of battling such creatures.
“That means it might have smelled us already,” Calliope supplied, “and be waiting for you just inside the window. The dragon aspect would make it clever enough to do so. I think this might be the time for magic.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I’ll go into the tower first,” she said. “If the creature is waiting, I’ll cast the spell I used on you last night to blind it and pin it to the wall.”
“No,” he said, pulling the second grapple from the pack. “You aren’t going in first.”
“Why not? It’s my creature to kill. My magic created it and—”
“But it is my brother’s rescue that brought us here.”
