“No man can achieve greatness without risking his life for it.”
—THE BOOK OF THE ETERNAL ROSE
Just as her fingers curled around the cold metal, the guard grunted and changed positions. Cass flinched. The keys fell from her trembling fingers, landing on the stone platform with a harsh jangling sound. The guard’s eyes opened.
Both he and Cass froze. His eyes seemed focused on her throat. He blinked rapidly in the dim light as he went to draw his sword. Cass realized he was staring at her pendant, that the diamond of her lily must have reflected the lantern light oddly, rendering him blind for a precious second or two. She attacked, slamming the rock down against the bridge of his nose. He groaned, flailing sideways, tipping his lantern. The flame flickered out, but not before Cass saw the guard reach again for his sword.
She brought the lump of stone down hard on the back of his skull.
He slumped forward, hands twitching. Cass cracked him a third time with the rock, and his body went limp. The hysterical desire to laugh rose in her throat.
Grabbing the keys, she spun and jumped off the platform into the dark, swirling water. All she had to do was get Luca. Then they could escape back into the night. The sucking mire, the foul odor—the dungeon was starting to suffocate her.
“I saw what you did,” a prisoner cried out. “Set me free and I promise not to tell.”
Cass ignored him, but the prisoner next to him took up the same cry. “We saw it. We all saw. You have to set us free.” Fists pounded on doors. Metal slammed against metal as the prisoners swung their buckets against the grates in the cell doors. If they didn’t stop, a guard patrolling the main floor of the palazzo would surely hear the commotion.
“Be quiet,” she said sharply. “All of you be quiet, or I’ll be dead before I can set anyone free.” It was not exactly a promise—and not a lie, either.
Most of the prisoners quit their banging. The one in the cell next door to Luca pressed his face to the grate, watching her approach.
Siena was struggling with the second dead bolt. Cass used the keys to unlock the door. Leaving the keys to dangle from the lock, she pulled with Siena and the metal rod bit into the wood as the dead bolt swung loose. Luca pushed the door open from the inside.
Again, Cass was amazed at how much he had changed, how pale and gaunt he looked after only a month of being imprisoned. “You shouldn’t have come,” he said.
“Let’s go,” Cass said. She left the keys dangling from the door and used her arms to propel her body through the rising water. Siena and Luca followed. The other prisoners resumed their pounding and screeching.
Cass, Luca, and Siena ran for the stairwell, sloshing through the water. As they climbed the stairs, Cass’s serving dress clung to her skin like hands gripping her, pulling her downward. She had lost one shoe in the murk and hadn’t even realized it. She kicked off her other and went barefoot. Shoes would only weigh her down once they got into the water. Already, her chest felt like it would explode. She could barely breathe.
They hit the Hall of the Three Chiefs running, but before they made it to the servants’ entrance, a guard turned the corner into the south corridor, obstructing their passage.
“Stop!” he called, unsheathing his sword.
Cass spun around, dragging Luca with her. There had to be another door off the long hallway. The water was just on the other side of the wall, and with it, freedom.
The corridor reverberated with shouting—disembodied noises that seemed to rise up from everywhere at once. Cass was too frightened to turn around and see whether they were being pursued, or by how many. She knew more guards would come. An image flashed in her mind: she and Siena locked inside one of the watery prison cells, huddled on her stone bed as the water level rose higher and higher, threatening to overtake them. Another flash. Luca’s body falling, his neck snapping. Cass heard a scream; she wasn’t sure whether the sound was in her head.
“Here!” Luca panted out. They had found another door. Luca struggled to slide back the thick iron rods that held it closed.
And then, Cass realized Siena wasn’t beside her.
Whirling around, Cass saw Siena sprawled out in the hallway. She’d fallen.
No, she’d pretended to fall. As the guard reached her, Siena lashed out at his ankle. Silver glinted in the dim light. The guard stumbled backward in surprise.
“Hurry,” Siena screamed. She was on her feet now, moving sideways, dagger extended. The guard was favoring one leg, but his sword was still six times as long as Siena’s blade. Their dance could have only one ending.
Luca got the door open, and the warm night air rushed in, smelling of salt, of canal water.
“Come on, Siena!” Cass shouted.
Siena flung the dagger at the guard’s face, spinning around as he ducked. But she made it only two steps down the corridor before he was on top of her. It was too fast. His sword flashed behind Siena like lightning. The blade came straight through her front. Siena fell to her knees. A sea of red flowed from her chest.
“No!” Cass screamed.
Siena’s body flailed. Her eyes widened, as though in surprise, and her mouth opened. For a second, Cass was sure she would speak.
Then her head rolled forward, and her body went still.
Cass screamed again. She tried to pull her hand from Luca’s. She had to get Siena. Save Siena.
The guard was just a few steps away now. More guards were approaching from another hall, their boots hitting the marble flooring like thunder.
“No, Cass,” Luca said. He pulled her through the door and into the night.
She splintered. Part of her remained inside the Palazzo Ducale. Part of her fell to the floor like Siena. Bleeding. Dead. Floating. Spots of light blurred before her eyes. The ground vanished from beneath her feet. And then there was only water.
twenty-nine
“The key to immortality may lie within a chosen sect of humanity.”
—THE BOOK OF THE ETERNAL ROSE
Shouts ricocheted off the surface of the lagoon, but Cass saw only darkness. All around her. Inside her.
“Shh.” A voice, so soft, Cass thought it was speaking straight into her mind.
Luca.
“I’m so sorry, Cass.”
She realized his arms were around her, that their bodies were intertwined beneath the frigid water. He was keeping her afloat. Without him she would sink like a stone, falling until she could go no farther.
Cass sobbed again, nearly swallowing a mouthful of icy water. Her vision sharpened. They were in the quay somewhere, west of the Palazzo Ducale, tucked beneath a private dock. Soft clouds of light floated along the darkened canal. Soldiers. Soldiers were searching for them.
Luca pressed his lips to her forehead. “We couldn’t have saved her. This is what she wanted, for you to escape. For you to live.”
