Chapter Six

“By Thumagraw! What the hell happened to you?”

Damn. He was sure she would’ve been asleep at this hour. Alden paused his stride through the forest, having been found by his friend. He peered through the brush, just making out the orange glow of a small fire through the black darkness of the night.

She approached him, her hair glowing silver in the moonlight.

“Alden, what happened?” His friend asked again, touching his face where a guard had landed a nasty punch. “Where were you?”

“It’s nothing, Perrin, I’m fine.” He gently took her hand away from his face. “I’ll just put some snow on it, and it’ll be yellow in a couple of days.”

“The bruise or the snow?”

“Ha ha, very funny.” He muttered. He didn’t have the patience to amuse her.

“What really happened, Alden? Just tell me,” Perrin said, crossing her arms. “I’ve been waiting here for hours.”

“I just,” he closed his eyes. He did not want to deal with this right now. “I just made a mistake, okay? Said the wrong thing. I’m tired. Let’s just get some rest.”

“Fine,” she mumbled, gently taking one of his clenched fists. “Let’s just sleep.”

She paused.

“I set up camp while you were gone.”

“I see.”

She gave his hand a little kiss. “I missed you.”

He smiled. “I missed you, too.”

He brushed a lock of her curly hair away from her face and kissed her gently in the moonlight.

There was a strange sound that brought Alden back from his slumber.

“Perrin…?” he mumbled, still half-asleep. He almost expected her hands to rouse him.

“What? Who is—No, I’m not—,” an unfamiliar voice stammered.

Alden sat up in the cell, and his head spun at the sudden movement. He stared intensely into the darkness, searching for the source of the voice. There wasn’t much light in his cell, just a faraway torch still lit. He just managed to make out the image of a girl in a dark cloak, which was odd, because usually girls in cloaks didn’t visit him in prison. She stood on the other side of the iron door, small hands gripping the bars.

“Who are you?” Alden asked, completely bewildered by this whole interaction. There was no way she was his lawyer.

“Are you the smuggler that they just arrested? Alden Black?” she asked, completely avoiding the question.

“Yup,” He tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. “’Tis I, you found me. Now, who am I speaking to?”

“I need your help,” she said firmly, once again avoiding the question.

“I don’t know if you can tell,” Alden lifted up one of his chain shackles. “But I’m quite busy at the moment.”

The girl sighed, turning her head towards the entrance of the prison. Her hood shifted, and something glinted faintly in the torchlight—feathers? “Do you want to get out of here or not?”

“I'm kind of dealing with something here.”

Her palm struck the side of the bar with a loud thwang that reverberated around the cobblestone walls, making Alden jump. “If you help me, I can get you out. You just have to cooperate."

“Fine,” he said, slightly taken aback. “I’m listening.” He turned to fully face her. The piercing wound in his side throbbed as he moved.

“I’m being married off against my will, and I need help escaping Warmhaven,” she said after a pause. There was a slight tremor in her voice, and she had to take a deep breath. “The wedding is in a few weeks.”

“You… You want me to smuggle you?” Alden asked incredulously.

“Yes.”

He hesitated, debating whether to indulge this at all. “To where?” he questioned.

“Omil.”

The single word echoed around the cell. Alden’s stomach seized up, already imagining the wanted posters that dotted the walls and buildings of Oclen’s capital. And Perrin. He didn’t want to see his old friend anytime soon. “Fie…” he mumbled.

Hell no, he wasn’t going back.

He squinted at the cobblestone wall. “Oooooh, turns out I do have something on my schedule. Can you contact me next week?”

“I’ll pay you.” The girl said, unfazed by his facetiousness.

“Deal,” he said immediately.

She nodded, exhaling silently. “You’ll be out of here tomorrow, I swear by it,” she said, turning to leave

“What’s your name?” Alden asked for what felt like the one-hundredth time

She paused her stride.

“Dahrian,” she said, her back turned to him.

“Dahr-ian?” he repeated, the word odd on his tongue. It didn’t mix well with his accent. He tried to figure out the origin of the name. Maybe Glenveil?

“Dahrian,” she said again, more firmly this time.

“Huh,” Alden said. “That’s a strange name. Are you a foreigner?”

“I’ll be here tomorrow at dawn,” Dahrian said flatly, continuing down the dim corridor.

As she passed by the torch, the light revealed pale skin and unmistakable feathers.

An aetherin…?

“Oh thank the Dragons!”

The sharp noise immediately stirred Alden from his sleep.

“Joanoch! Brother!”

The guards stepped forward immediately. Alden lifted his head off the floor towards the sudden noise. From his slanted perspective on the rough stone floor, he saw a maiden, perhaps in her early twenties, frantically waving over the guards and hysterically calling to Alden. The small gold wings on the side of her head were splayed wildly. It was the mysterious girl from the previous night—except her appearance was so strange that Alden first thought he was hallucinating, which wouldn’t be too alarming in his current state. Rather than her hair being as white as her skin, it was dark like charcoal. His mind flipped between labeling her as aetherin or human. Her dark green dress was quite nice, so Alden figured she landed somewhere between lesser noble and noble.

“What the hell…?” Alden mumbled, groggily sitting up.

“What ho, Lady Dahrian?” The head guard asked, obviously taken aback by her hysterical behavior.

“General,” she gave the Warmhaven guard an awkward courtesy. “There was a mistake! This man isn’t the criminal that you are looking for. He is my brother. You must release him immediately.”

Alden looked past the guard at her black hair and wings again. He pulled his curly red ponytail in front of him and shrugged. If it worked, it worked.

“My lady,” the guard said, adjusting his helmet to lift his visor and lowering his voice. “He just confessed to his crimes yesterday. The bloke cannot be yer brother.”

“Oh, Joanoch is such an idiot.” She shot a glare at Alden. “My brother has a wild imagination; he is a young lad after all. You must release him! Can’t you see he’s injured?”

Alden gave a little cough to emphasize her point. It was easily apparent that his job was to look as pathetic as possible.

“We lost him in the forest last week. We’ve been looking for him all over—nearly planned his funeral, actually. The Brown family is so relieved that you have found him.” She clasped her hands. The poor foot soldier shifted from side to side.

“Lady Dahrian, I’m not sure about this…” The guard said hesitantly, stealing glances at Alden. “He matches our description perfectly. We’ve been searching for the bastard for months.”

“You really think I couldn’t recognize my own blood?” she asked haughtily.

The man sighed. “If you say so, milady.”

The guard opened his cell with the turn of a key, and Dahrian ran forward, helping him sit up. “I’m so glad you’re safe, brother,” she said, and then mouthed, “Play along.” Closer now, he could also see that her eyes were blue, rather than yellow and bird-like. Also strange for an apparent aetherin.

Who is this girl and how did she end up as an Oclen noble?

“Oh sister,” Alden wheezed. “You found me…”

She threw her arms around his neck, and Alden internally squirmed. This was by far the worst escape coup he had ever participated in. He gave her a stiff, uncertain pat on the back.

“Mother always said you would be arrested someday,” she said, finally letting go of him.

Alden forced a laugh.

“Sir Joanoch, we deeply apologize for your wrongful arrest,” the guard said, picking up the wanted poster to look at the drawing once more. A look of puzzlement crossed his face, but he shrugged and put the parchment down. He stepped forward with a different key and unlocked the shackles on his wrists.

Alden gingerly moved his wrists around. They were bloodied, but nothing a little time couldn’t fix, unlike the angry wound in his side.

The guard lifted him up to his feet and gave him a rough smack on the back, as if to apologize for his harsh attitude, unknowingly sending Alden reeling. Dahrian took his hand and led him out of the cell. A couple of the men inside shot him and the bird—girl weird looks and Alden couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation. She opened the door, and he stepped outside into glorious freedom, snow crunching beneath his boots once more. He took a long, slow breath, cherishing the cold air in his lungs. Now out of the sight of the guards, he leaned against a nearby pine, once more pressing on the wound on his side. He was still damned by his careless mistake.

Dahrian rushed forward. “How bad is it?” she asked.

“I’m pretty buggered,” he said between his teeth, willing himself to remain upright. She reached forward for his jacket but paused. “Yeah, you can look.” He said, too tired to care.

He tried not to flinch at the icy fingers that lifted up the layers of his undershirt and jacket. “Are you an apothecary, or something?” he asked, attempting to distract himself. She didn’t respond. Alden tried not to feel unsettled.

“It looks deep, and there’s an infection…” she mused.

“So you’re telling me I’m buggered.”

She shrugged. “I’m not an apothecary.”

“Bloody hell,” Alden said, laughing

She let go of his shirt. “Come, let me take you to a spot where you can hide. I’ll be able to treat you there. And we can discuss the plan,” She dropped her voice to a whisper.

“Yeah, sure,” he whispered back.

They took a road behind the main trail that led to the square. Alden managed to keep up, but there were a couple of times when he lost his footing and Dahrian had to haul him back to his feet. They remained quiet, mostly to not attract any unwanted travelers—but finally, Alden just had to ask her a question.

“Really? Joanoch?” he asked. “Typically, I have a much cooler fake name for prison escapes.”

She laughed. “Joanoch was the name of a rabbit I once had.”

“You nick-named me after a rabbit?” he questioned, a laugh threatening to drop him. “A dragon–damned rabbit? Wow. I am insulted.”

“I’m dropping you back in that prison if all you do is complain.”