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Hmm.
My eyes swept the hall behind me.
No sign of keys anywhere.
My gaze caught on a long stick with a strange shape at the end, though. It only took me a minute to remember the odd shape near the top of the cages—and then I was sweeping across the space, my heart pumping with the thrill of having figured out the cages’ puzzle.
The long key kind of reminded me of a spear, but I lifted it without pause and spun around, crossing back to that last cage.
The keyhole was a long way up.
My forehead wrinkled as I stretched up on my tiptoes, reaching my hand up as high as it could go.
Sweat beaded on my forehead as the top of the key only scraped the hole.
Nope, that wasn’t going to work.
I eyed the cage again.
There were five layers of horizontal bars climbing the vertical ones.
The bottom one was too close to the ground to be of much use to me, but the second and third…
They could definitely lift me high enough.
“This is a terrible idea,” I muttered to myself, as I tucked the spear between my chin and chest. Wrapping my fingers around the bars, I lifted myself up to the second layer.
They were plenty steady, and I breathed a bit easier when they held my weight without a problem.
I eyed the keyhole again, more awkwardly since my chin still pressed to my chest.
Though I was probably close enough, I didn’t want to go to the effort of trying and failing again.
So, I adjusted my grip and climbed up to the third bar.
Whew, yep.
That was higher.
A bit of dizziness had me swaying slightly, though my grip tightened to a point of painfulness. It wasn’t the heights that scared me, but the bars. They brought back cruel memories that made old fear and panic rise to the surface.
I pressed my face to the metal and forced myself to breathe slowly.
In, and out.
In, and out.
I was only a few feet off the ground.
And I was in Laith’s castle, safe and sound.
Climbing up the bars had been my own idea, and no one else’s. With the king’s magic in my veins, I was plenty strong enough to climb a bit.
My dizziness faded enough to push through it, so I wrapped an arm through and around two of the vertical bars, adjusting my grip.
I lifted my chin, using my second hand to grip the key-spear, and then tilted my head back, stretching my arm up again.
This time, the key slid into the lock without a problem.
