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There was light on the other side although it was just as deserted as the rest of the castle.
We stepped in. Cari closed the door behind us.
“We’re in the clear,” Casja said. “We have air now.”
Cari coughed as though she had been holding it in. I realized only then that a cough or a sneeze could have easily ruined our plan.
“I nearly forgot that we weren’t supposed to speak,” Cari said. “When we were inside the tower. I stopped myself at the last minute.”
“We still don’t have to breathe, though,” Casja replied. “I will wait to take back the wind from your lungs in case we need to escape through the vacuum.”
“That’s smart,” I replied to Casja before turning to Cari. “Where to now?”
“I sent the elite unit to the floors above,” Cari explained. “They all have things that they need to do very urgently.”
Her smile told me it was a joke, but I was too nervous to offer her a smile in return.
“And the guards?” I asked.
“They won’t see us until we need them to open the cell door for us,” Cari said. “Then, I’ll make them think we are prisoners. They’ll insist we enter the cells.”
That was the plan. I nodded.
“I feel the minds of the prisoners,” Cari said. “That way...”
She started to walk to the left. Soon, the narrow hallway gave way to stairs that only went down.
We reached the basement level. It was chillier in here and I could smell the musty air as Cari shivered against the dropping temperature. The castle had been abandoned for many years. It seemed the few weeks or months of occupation had not gotten rid of the mold completely.
The hallway did not end, but there was a turn to the right and Cari took it. We had to walk for a few more seconds before the passageway led us into a huge room.
I couldn’t tell why this room was built the way it had been, but it was perfectly suited for the way Lugh had chosen to use it.
On each side, there were iron bars. They went all the way up to the tall ceiling. The room, which might have been an eating hall before this castle was turned into a prison, was full of fae. They did not move much and most of them seemed to be sleeping in the beds lining up the walls and creating rows of their own.
The cells on either side were connected. When I looked closer, I saw that all the exits around the room, which were plenty, were closed with iron bars or new-looking walls.
This was a makeshift prison.
The two guards sitting at the end of the narrow hallway with iron bars on each side did not look up until Cari led us right to them.
The guard with sleepy blue eyes looked up when Cari stood before him.
“How did you get out?” he asked confusedly.
Cari didn’t respond.
I felt a few gazes darting toward us. The prisoners wondered who we were and what we were doing here, but when the blue-eyed guard got up to search for his keys, the prisoners did not intervene.
He opened the cell door for us. We entered and he locked it behind us again. Then, as though it was a usual part of his daily tasks, he turned away from us and resumed his seat. He did not look at us again.
“We’re in,” Cari said. “They don’t even realize what just happened.”
She was talking about the guards.
“The prisoners do,” I replied.
“I didn’t want to mess with their minds,” Cari replied. “We need them to trust us and my experience tells me that no one likes it when you touch their minds.”
