Shadow of the Prince

A Meeting with Mother

Getting past the guards was the first issue. There were two more added at the end of the hall since she was outed for wearing the face of others. Not to mention, Hennisan and Gerrallto no doubt had memorized her face by now, despite their obvious current avoidance of looking at her.

That left her only one other option, and it was not one she had been looking forward to.

Dal took a deep breath, surveying the roof around her. 

She'd been smart enough to use a chair to reach the window, and small enough to shimmy out, and just barely strong enough to haul herself onto and over the ledge of the roof.

But to be honest, she had no idea what she was going to do now that she had broken free. 

Dal decided she would have to trust her gut, and lightly danced along the slanted surface of the castle roof. She tried to keep her body low, so her body wouldn't be silhouetted. She couldn't afford to be caught. She had no idea what kind of response she would try to offer up at being caught in the dead of night skulking about the castle roof.

Dal's heart pounded in her chest, and just when she thought she might never find a way to get herself back down to the ground, her luck seemed to shift. 

There, perched along the side of the castle wall, was a two-story tall ladder. Not ideal, as she needed to traverse three stories, but the green ivy that grew along the wall beside it gave her hope.

Dal scuttled over to the ledge, and gently lowered herself below. She tested the vines with one hand and found that they were not entirely as embedded into the stone as she had hoped, but they would have to do. She swallowed hard.

She tested one foot of weight against the vines, and paused. When nothing shifted, she tested another foot. She smiled. 

This could work.

She took a few careful steps down, relying solely on the vines that grew embedded into the castle wall. She moved carefully but quickly.

Dal reached down, but this time when she grabbed a handful of vines it pulled cleanly away from the wall.

Her stomach dropped.

Almost in slow motion, she watched as vines near the spot she had just reached began to unravel, twisting upwards and downwards like slithering snakes.

She desperately searched along the wall for another purchase, but found none as she fell down, down, and down...

A brief flash of brown whipped in front of her, and she flung her hands out to grasp it. A burning ache ripped at both her hands, but her vision stopped moving. Her legs swung wildly, trying to find something sturdy.

Her feet met solid support, and she shakily clung to the ladder in front of her.

Moments past, and her body shook wildly. Her chilly breath danced about her face in anxious tendrils.

She brought a hand to her face to survey the damage, and saw it was scuffed and bloody, but still usable. 

She was lucky it wasn't worse. She was lucky she had been close enough to the ladder not to tip it backwards from her sudden weight. She was lucky. So, so lucky.

When she finally stopped shaking, and her legs felt less like fat giblets and more like legs again, Dal began to descend, praising the golden eyes above who always watched their blessed children below.

She nearly cried out for joy when her feet met solid ground again. Dal brushed herself off, a chill snapping through her as the temperature dropped in the night. The adrenaline had distracted and forced warmth into her. As she came down from the high of fear, Dal realized truly how close to death she had come.