But she would be free.
Was it possible?
Hours later, a small knock sounded on her door. She jumped up and looked out the square window. Sober stood outside, his finger to his lips.
She positioned herself in the center of the room figuring whichever way the floor slid, the center would be the safest place.
She heard a muffled clunk. The door handle popped off and skittered across her floor. The door swung open.
With a soft, grinding sound, the floor began to slide into the back wall. Mist billowed up from the underground lake beneath the palace.
"Come to me," Sober whispered.
She stepped to the edge of the floor, feeling carefully with her foot, not really able to see with all the fog swirling through the cell.
"Jump!" Sober gave a whispered command.
She hesitated. The mist cleared a trickle—enough for her to see the lake several feet below her, the surface reflecting back the light from the hallway in dizzifying motion.
"Jump!" Sober said again.
She barely heard him over the grinding of the floor. He seemed too far away.
"Repentance, you have to jump now."
She'd waited too long. She'd never make it across.
"Catch this!"
Something hit her hands. The end of Sober's button scarf.
"Got it?"
"It's too far," she said.
"You jump, Repentance. One, two, three!"
He yanked.
She hung onto the button scarf and let it pull her off balance, but she didn't jump in time. She tried at the last moment to push off, but as soon as her feet left the floor she knew she didn't have enough momentum. She was going to land in the lake.
Holding the button scarf for dear life, she gave a little scream. Then she slammed into the ice wall below the doorway where Sober stood. The ice bit into her hands, and she almost let go of the scarf.
Sober grabbed a hold of one wrist. "Tigen, where are you?" he whispered loudly.
"Pull me up," Repentance said, frantically. "My feet are in the lake." Panicking, she tried to scramble up, but when her wet feet touched the wall, they froze to it as quickly as a dampened corner of a suncloth would have done. "Oh, dear Providence, my feet! Sober, my feet are frozen."
"Repentance, look at me," Sober said. "You'll be fine. Stay still."
"I'm here." Tigen's voice came from below her.
Something bumped into her legs.
They heard a splash and a muffled scream coming from the direction of the cell next door.
A look of shock crossed Sober's face. "Tigen, when you open one door, all the floors slide back?"
Repentance looked down. Tigen sat in a rowboat, right underneath her, his face white and his eyes round and terrified.
"Never mind," Sober said. "Tigen, you have to catch Repentance when I let her go. Put your arms around her waist and ease her into the boat so I can come down and get her feet loose."
Tigen grabbed her and Sober let her go. Tigen swayed under her weight, the boat rocking crazily underneath them.
"Sit down," Repentance said, in an urgent whisper. "We'll tip!"
He half fell underneath her so they were both lying in the rowboat anchored to the wall by her frozen feet.
Sober dropped down, the boat once again rocking wildly as he swayed and finally got his balance.
He lifted Repentance enough so Tigen could crawl out from under her, and then he set to work freeing her. Scooping icy water from the lake with his hands and dumping it on one foot, he yanked it quickly from the wall. "Wrap her feet in lavacloth," he told Tigen, as he freed her other foot.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Repentance said. "I didn't jump. I was too scared."
"You've nothing to be sorry about, Repentance." He reached under her arms and pulled her more fully into the boat, sitting her on the floor in front of the middle seat. "You've hardly had anything to eat in over a week and you're in shock. You've done fine. Rest, now. The lavacloth will warm your feet up in no time. We'll be fine."
He twisted so he was sitting on the middle seat, with his back toward Repentance. Tigen, done wrapping her feet, turned his back on her, as well, so he could face the prow.
"Row straight ahead, Sober," the boy said. "You're all clear until we come to an island halfway out."
Sober rowed, and the boat skimmed under the wall that separated Repentance's cell from Consecration's. Light falling from the small windows in the doors above cut through the murk at regular intervals, making the shadows between feel all the darker.
Something clunked against the boat. Repentance glimpsed Consecration's frozen, white face and quickly looked away in horror.
"He froze that fast." Sober said, looking over his shoulder.
Horror filled her. And pity.
And fear.
She looked at Tigen as he leaned forward in the boat, trying to see through in the blackness and the fog. "Don't lean so far, Tigen. You might fall out."
"I'm the one who brought the boat in, my Lady," he said. "I've done this many times."
They skimmed along in silence after that, bypassing the island Tigen had mentioned, and then heading for the moonlight that seeped in at the end of the palace. They had to crouch down to get out from under the palace wall, the boat barely scraping through.
Silvery, moonlit fog shrouded the lake. Repentance shivered and whispered a prayer of thanks for the fog that hid them.
Sober bumped the dock, tied the boat off, and helped the others out.
Tigen pulled a bundle of clothes from under the bench on the dock. "Wrap the scarf around
