The Crown Conspiracy

“Saving you, but I’ll admit, I’m not doing very well at the moment.” Without asking permission, Royce opened her wardrobe and began sifting through her clothes. Then he rifled through her dresser drawers.

“What do you want with my clothes?”

“I’m trying to figure a way out of here. I suspect this tower is going to collapse in a few minutes, and if we don’t get out soon, we’ll die.”

“I see,” she said simply. “Why can’t we just go down the stairs?” She got up and crept to the doorway. “Sweet Maribor!” she cried as she saw every other step missing.

“We can leap those but the last six or seven steps at the bottom are totally gone. It’s too far to jump to the corridor. I was hoping maybe we could jump out the window to the moat, but that looks like instant death.”

“Oh,” was all she could utter. A scream was growing in her and she covered her mouth with her hand, holding it back. “You’re right. You’re not doing very well.”

Royce looked under her bed and then stood up. “Wait a minute, you’re a sorceress, aren’t you? Esrahaddon taught you magic. Can you get us down? Levitate us, or turn us into birds or something?”

Arista smiled awkwardly. “I was never able to learn much from Esrahaddon and certainly not self-levitation.”

“Can you levitate a board or stone we could jump to?”

Arista shook her head.

“And the bird thing?”

“Even if I could, which I can’t, we’d stay birds because I couldn’t turn us back after changing now could I?”

“So, magic is out,” Royce said and began pulling the feather stuffed mattress off Arista’s bed revealing the rope net beneath it. “Okay, then help me untie your bed.”

“The rope isn’t long enough to reach the bottom of the tower,” Arista told him.

“It doesn’t have to be,” he replied, pulling the rope through the holes in the bed frame.

The tower shuddered, and dust cascaded from the rafters. Arista held her breath for a moment, her heart pounding in anticipation of a sudden plummet, but the tower steadied itself once more.

“Clearly we are running out of time.” Royce coiled the length of rope over his shoulder and headed toward the door.

Arista paused only a moment to look back at the dressing table and the brushes her father gave her and then moved to what remained of the stairs.

“You’re going to have to jump down. The steps that are still there should be very sturdy and it should be easier than jumping up. Just be sure you don’t over jump, but if you do, I’ll try to catch you.” With that, he sprang down two steps so gracefully that she felt embarrassed for her own lack of confidence.

Arista stood on the landing and rocked back and forth, focusing on the first step. She leapt and landed on it a little too far forward. Waving her arms madly, she teetered on the edge struggling desperately against falling. Royce held out his hands ready to catch her, but she regained her balance. Shaking slightly she took a deep breath.

“Don’t over jump!” he reminded her.

No kidding, she thought to herself. As if I haven’t learned that lesson already.

The second jump was easier, and the third better still. Soon she developed a rhythm and moved down the steps at a brisk pace following Royce, who almost danced his way down. They were nearly to the bottom when Royce stopped.

“Keep going,” he told her. “Stop when you reach the last step and wait there.”

She nodded as he pulled the rope from around his shoulder and began tying it to the step he stood on. Arista continued to jump her way down, reminding herself not to be over confident. When she saw the open expanse at the bottom, her remaining confidence fled. The gaping hole falling away into darkness was enough to shake her back into terror.

“Well, well, princess!” the dwarf called to her. He stood in the open doorway of the corridor grinning, showing a mouth full of yellowed teeth. “I really didn’t expect to see you again. Where’s the thief? Did he fall to his death?”

“You disgusting little beast!” she cried at him.

The tower shifted once more. Its shuttering caused Arista to stagger a bit on the step and her heart to pound in fear. Clouds of dust and bits of rock rained down, clattering off the walls and steps. Arista cowered, covering her head with her arms until the shaking stopped and the debris settled.

“This old tower, she’s almost ready to fall,” the dwarf told her with a manic glee in his voice. “Such a pity to be so close to safety and yet still so very far. If only you were a frog you might leap it. As it is, you still don’t have a way out.”

A coil of rope fell from the heights above. Suspended by a stair, the rope dangled midway between the princess and the dwarf. Along the slender line, Royce descended like a spider. When he reached a point level with Arista, he stopped and began to swing.

“Now that is impressive!” the dwarf exclaimed and nodded showing his approval.

Royce swung onto the step next to Arista and tied the rope around his own waist. “All we have to do is swing across. Just hang on to me.”