The moment I slipped through the garden gate, I was greeted by the sight of the jinn running up to me, and guards off to the left and right, posted at doors. I could have turned around and dashed back, but obviously I’d already been spotted, so instead I froze, praying Ifra was a friend now.
It was terribly hard to shake the image of him destroying Erris.
He put a finger to his lips and motioned with his hands. Was he asking me to be quiet? I was confused. He’d certainly had no trouble speaking the language before, but now he seemed tonguetied. He motioned for me to follow him, back to the door at my left, set in a wall covered in climbing vines.
“Who is that?” the guard demanded. “What’s going on?”
Ifra opened the door and shoved me into a dark room. He didn’t follow, just shut the door on me.
“Who’s there?” a man called. “Ifra?”
“He’s-he’s still outside.” I reached behind me, finding the door handle, but I didn’t think fleeing would do a bit of good.
“Ifra?” Now, that voice I recognized.
“Violet?”
“Nimira?” I saw a shadow flutter, and Violet threw her arms around me as if we’d been the best of friends. “Why didn’t Ifra come back in?”
“Well, the guards were asking who I was… Maybe he’s… taking care of them. What’s going on?”
“Erris is here!” Violet cried. “Under the throne. In the death sleep. We have to help him before Tamin gets back-Tamin’s one of the other princes-and Belin’s the king and he’s going to set Erris free so we can show him to the people, and the trees are dying!”
I was quite confused, but I understood one thing: Erris. “Take me to Erris. Please. Now. And why is it so dark in here?”
“Ifra has the light,” Violet said. She gently nudged me aside to open the door and look for him.
“We don’t have time for this!” the man screamed. Was that King Belin? “If the guards know-and Tamin’s coming back…”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “You want to free Erris?”
“Yes,” Belin said. “My family… we can never be great rulers as long as we’ve taken the throne by such means.”
I didn’t care for Belin’s tone, but he was willing to help Erris, that was the important thing. “All right,” I said, just as Ifra returned, flicking his fingers to summon a flame. We hurried to Belin’s side, and now I could see a narrow passageway leading underground, and my heart was drumming so hard I could barely breathe.
Belin shimmied down and waved for me to follow.
I couldn’t summon any fire myself. I was too shaken with anticipation. Was Erris here? I couldn’t see until Ifra came down, and then…
Erris was lying on the ground, mere inches from my feet. It was absolutely my Erris, through and through, even dressed much as I had first seen him, with stockings and breeches and heeled shoes like someone in an old book. He was pale and dirty and I dropped to my knees and started to shake him.
“Erris! Wake up! How do we get him to wake up?”
“I don’t know!” Belin said. “I always heard people wake up from a death sleep eventually.”
“Eventually!” I cried. “Well, what if this isn’t eventually?”
“There are skeletons in here!” Violet shrieked, once Ifra had helped her down. “Let’s bring him out!”
I couldn’t believe I was really looking at Erris. It was as magical and terrifying as the moment when I’d freed him from being trapped at the piano. I put my hand on his chest and I could feel skin and muscle and bone there; I could feel him breathing. I knew that now, of all moments, I needed to keep it together, just a little longer, but I couldn’t even seem to care that Belin and Violet and Ifra were there. My jaw was trembling, so close to tears. I wanted to touch him, kiss him, whisper in his ear.
“I can wake him,” I said. “Please, I know I can. Just leave me alone for a moment. Please.”
“In the dark with the skeletons?” Violet said.
“Yes.”
“Hurry,” Belin ordered, as if he had any better ideas. Erris was right, these Graweldins were an irritating lot. They all climbed back out, and I blocked out the sound of them talking above me. I blocked out everything except Erris, there before me. I pressed my forehead to his, pressed my hand to his heart, and felt not the tick of clockwork, but the beating of a heart.
“Erris,” I whispered through tears, running my fingers along his soft hair, brushing away thirty years of dust. “Wake up. Please wake up. This is how fairy tales end.” I kissed his lips-dry with disuse, but alive, so alive-and I flooded him with all the warm magic I could summon.
The lips parted, with a soft crack just audible in the silence. A hand slowly lifted to touch my face.
“Nim?” he croaked, and then he coughed a cloud of dust into my face, which was not very much like a fairy tale at all, but I didn’t even flinch. “Am-am I dead?”
“Oh, no. No. It’s just dark. We’re in the palace of Telmirra-”
“In the catacombs… under the Hall of Oak and Ash?” he whispered. His hands moved to my neck and my shoulders and then back to my hair, and he clutched me close. “But I must be dreaming. How did you get here?”
“I’ll explain later. King Belin wants to speak to you.”
“Wait a moment, wait a moment.” He held me close.
And then he started to cry.
And I started to cry too.
We’d both tried so many times not to cry, and now it was okay. It was okay.
“You did it,” he said. “You saved me.”
“I had help.”
“But it was you. And you know it. You needed help; it was an impossible task, but you saved me. And my heart is beating so fast. I haven’t felt that in so long. I’m really alive.”
I touched his cheek, put my face close. “Kiss me.”
“Kiss you now? No, not yet. I haven’t cleaned my teeth in years and it’s really-Let’s just wait.”
I laughed, with a catch in it, and I kissed him anyway, although not like I’d kiss him later.
At least, once we were safe.
Above us, I heard some muffled shouting, the sudden commotion of an opening door. More shouting.
I helped Erris struggle to his feet on stiff limbs before Prince Tamin could find us.