Chapter 28 Chapter 28

Chapter 28 Chapter 28
Kaelen sat in the dark. Back against the cold stone wall. Hands tied in front of him. Wrists raw and bleeding. Arm, chest and head were hurting.

He could hear Elara's voice through the wall, humming low and old. A song his mother used to sing when he was small. He closed his eyes and listened.

After a while she stopped humming.

Her voice came through the wall. Low and scratchy.

"Kaelen. You awake?"

"Yes."

"You hurt?"

"I've been worse."

She laughed but not a real laugh. "That's not saying much."

"Are you hurt?"

"My ribs. I think… one's cracked. Maybe two."

"Oh my! Can you move?"

"Yes. Can you?"

He looked at his hands. Fingers swollen. The rope was tight. He'd worked it loose before but the guards must've noticed and tied it back when they threw him in here.

"My hands are tied."

"Mine too."

"I'll get us out."

She went quiet. "How?"

"Don't know yet."

"That's not very reassuring."

"It's all I've got right now."

She was quiet again. Then she said "The walls. The stones. They hold memories. You can feel them yeah?"

He closed his eyes and reached. The echoes were there. Faint and old and thin. Men who'd sat in this same dark before him. Men who waited for morning. Some of them never saw it.

"Yes."

"Find the key. The jailer's key. Been here for years. Every time he came down he hung it on the hook outside the door. The walls remember. They remember everything."

He looked toward the door even though he couldn't see it. A heavy wood with lock on the other side. Key was on a hook out there somewhere in the dark.

"I'll try."

"Try fast. Morning's not far."

He pressed both hands flat on the stone floor. Cold bit into his palms. He breathed slow and reached.

\---

He was under the floorboards.

Eight years old. Dust in his nose. Light coming thin through the cracks. Boots stomping above him. Voices.

The boy. The list said a son.

Not here. Leave him.

Boards pressing down. Couldn't breathe.

He snapped his eyes open. Cellar. Dark everywhere. Chest going hard.

He said quietly "Not now. Not now. Please."

He shut his eyes and reached again. Not that memory. Not the boots and the dust and the murder. The jailer, the key, the hook and the door.

He found it. Faint but there.

A heavy man. Big boots with rings of keys on his belt came down the stairs every morning without thinking. He opened the door, hung the key on the hook. Did it so many times it stopped being something he even noticed doing. The stone had watched it happen over and over and kept every single time like it was new.

Kaelen held that. Felt the weight of the keys. Heard the clink of metal. Saw the hook.

He opened his eyes. His hands shaking. His nose bleeding. He wiped it on his shoulder.

"I found it."

Her voice came back fast. "Good. Now open the door."

"My hands are tied."

"You don't need your hands. You've got the echoes."

"Never done it that way before. From the other side of a locked door."

"First time for everything."

He laughed. Short. Not happy. "That's not reassuring."

He closed his eyes and reached for the lock. Not with his hands. With the echo. With the memory of that man's thick fingers turning the same key every morning without thinking about it.

He pushed.

Nothing.

He pushed harder. Head started pounding. Bad arm screamed. Blood dripped from his nose onto his hands.

Still nothing.

He opened his eyes. His chest going fast. Hands were red.

"I can't."

"Yes you can."

"It's not working."

"Try again."

"I'm telling you I can't do it."

They went quiet.

Then she said "When I was small, my father took me to the river. He said Elara the water always finds its way. Goes around every rock, wears them all down. It never stops."

"What's that got to do with any of this?"

"You're the water. The lock's the rock. Don't stop."

He shut his eyes and reached. The jailer. The key. The lock.

He pushed.

Nothing.

Harder.

The lock didn't move.

He opened his eyes. Head spinning. Nose bleeding again. Hands shaking so bad he could almost hear it.

"I can't."

"Yes you can."

"You don't actually know that."

"I know you. You came back from being dead. You walked into Alden's house and sat at his table and made his guests run. You made grown men cry in their own tavern."

"That was different."

"How?"

"My hands weren't tied then."

She laughed at that. A real one. Short and rough but real. "Fair enough. But you're still you. The lock doesn't care about your hands. It only knows the key."

"I don't have the key."

"You've got the memory of it. Same thing."

"It's not the same."

"It is. The lock can't tell the difference. It only remembers what the key feels like. And it remembers that just fine."

He sat with that. Then said "How do you know so much about echoes anyway?"

"Been collecting secrets for thirty years. Some of them are about magic."

"You never told me any of that."

"You never asked."

He shut his eyes. Reached again. The jailer. The key. The lock.

This time he didn't push. He just held it. Let it come slow instead of grabbing at it. Stopped thinking about the door. Stopped thinking about his hands and the rope and the blood on his face. Let the memory fill him up from the inside. He stopped being a man with tied hands sitting on a cold floor and became something else. He became the key. He became the lock. He became that heavy man coming down the stairs every morning of his life and putting the key in without a single thought because he'd done it so many thousand times it was no different than breathing.

He became that moment.

He pushed.

The lock clicked.

Eyes opened. Chest heaving. Nose dripping. Hands shaking against the floor.

He just sat and breathed. That click was still sitting in his ears. He wasn't sure if it was real or something his tired head had put there.

"Elara."

"Did it work?"

"Don't know."

"Check."

He crawled to the door. His legs not working right. Bad arm was dragging. He put his hand on the wood and pushed.

The door opened.

He stared at it. Hallway was dark and empty. Through the wall he heard her start humming again. That slow old tune.

"It worked."

"Good. Now come get me."

He crawled to her door. Knees scraping stone. Arm dragging along behind him. He reached it and put his hand on the wood and closed his eyes and reached.

He pushed.

The lock clicked.

He opened the door.

Elara was against the far wall. Hands tied behind her. Face bruised bad. Lip split. Eyes tired in a way that went deeper than just tonight. But she was alive and she was looking right at him.

Her face changed when she saw him. Something moved across it that he couldn't name.

"You actually did it."

"I did it."

"Your nose is all over your face."

"It's nothing."

He moved behind her and found the knot. Tight. His hands were shaking and he pulled and worked at it but the rope just sat there.

"Can't get it."

"Use the echo."

"Echo of what?"

"The rope. Whoever tied it. The memory of the knot coming undone."

He shut his eyes and reached for the rope. The guard's hands. The knot pulling free.

He pushed.

The rope dropped to the floor.

Elara rubbed her wrists and got up slow. Legs were unsteady. She put a hand on the wall and stood there a second.

Then she looked at him and her eyes had gone wet. Her lip was moving a little like she was working out what to say.

"You came back for me."

"Said I would."

She looked at him a good long while. Then she said "You're such a fool."

"Yeah."

She almost smiled. Not quite but almost.

They stood there in that hallway. Both bleeding. Both barely on their feet. Both free. Stairs ahead. No sound from above. No guards moving around up there. Just a house sitting quiet in the middle of the night like it had no idea what had just happened inside it.

Kaelen leaned against the wall. Legs close to done. Arm hanging at his side doing nothing. Nose had stopped but his head was still going like something was hitting it from the inside.

"Can you walk?"

"I can crawl."

"Not going to work for stairs."

She came over and grabbed his arm and pulled it over her shoulder and took his weight. Smaller than him. Thinner. But she held him without buckling.

"We need to go up."

"I know."

"Can you do it?"

He looked at her. Face pale. Nose crusted. Arm useless. But his eyes were still there and they were steady and that was something.

"Don't have much choice."

They moved toward the stairs. Slow. Careful. Her arm around his middle and his arm heavy across her shoulders. His feet barely lifted off the floor. More like shuffling than walking. She didn't say anything about it.

They reached the stairs. Light coming down from somewhere above. No voices. No boots on the floor up there.

"Guards are gone."

"Looks that way."

"Maybe they went looking somewhere else."

"Maybe."

She started up and pulled him with her. His feet caught the edge of each step more than they climbed it. She just kept going. One step and then another and then another and she didn't once stop or slow down or say a word about how long it was taking.

They got to the top. Hallway empty. Alden's study door shut. Front door at the far end just sitting there.

"Front door'll be locked."

"I know."

"Can you open it?"

"I can try."

She half carried him down the hall. His feet dragging on the floor. They got to the front door and he put his hand on the wood and just stood there a moment with his eyes closed and his forehead nearly touching the door.

He reached. The key. The lock. Every morning someone opened this door and every night someone locked it back and the door remembered all of it going back further than either of them had been alive.

He pushed.

The lock clicked.

The door opened.

Cold air came in and hit his face and he stood there and just let it for a second. The street outside was dark. Empty. Not a soul anywhere.

He turned and looked at Elara. She was already looking at him. Face worn out. Lip still split and swollen. Eyes wet but wide open.

"We're out."

"We're out."

She almost smiled. Almost.

They went through the door and out into the cold together. Behind them the house sat there dark and quiet like nothing had happened inside it at all. The street stretched away empty in both directions.

They were free.