“Oh, don’t be ridiculous!” She scolded, “This isn’t because I’d miss you! I’m certain I should not! Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused since I’ve met you?” She asked, crossing her arms. The list was a long one. But so was, she realized, the list of things she’d gained from his acquaintance. She decided not to mention any of those things now. “I will be happy to be rid of you! But I … I can’t … sit and do nothing while you are sentenced to die.”
She rolled her eyes, “Of course not! You know that’s not what I meant. I only want you to be serious! And do … something!” She realized she had not suggestions to offer and no help to give. She only felt as though she had exhausted every option available to her to free him and she was angry and frustrated with herself. “You’ve been in these situations before … how did you escape last time? You could do it again!” She cried, hands grasping the bars.
As he related his time since he arrived, she began to despair in him having any sort of plan of escape. But when he mentioned the tunnels, she felt a new spark of hope. “The tunnels? The tunnels beneath the castle? I know my way through them! They connect the palace to Fain and Ravenwood! I could lead you through them!” She felt a rush of excitement at the idea, as though had solved their problem. But she had conveniently forgotten about how she would manage to sneak him out of his cell, through the prisons, and then to the tunnels in the first place.
She didn’t appreciate his comment about her mother. “Don’t speak of her!” She cried, frustrated … even though she supposed he was right. She had never stopped to consider how much wine her mother consumed, but she now imagined that she must slowly let it put her to sleep, just as she relied on it to get herself through the day. Celia’s relationship with her mother was not what it once was … she couldn’t trust her … but she loved her still. Part of her wished that it could be as it had been before and he had been the one to take that from her. It was silly, she knew, to be angry with him for her mother’s behavior, when all he had done was help her to see her for who she was, but it was easier, now, to be upset with him than herself for not seeing it all sooner.
She softened, however, when he brought up their past adventures together. She didn’t mean to. She was supposed to be angry with him, but he’d managed to summon the good memories from the past few months and even though she hadn’t said it, she realized that she would miss him. She would miss him very much. One way or another he would leave this prison and, when he did, there was very little chance that they would see each other again, whatever happened.
“They weren’t all bad.” She managed, finally.
“You aren’t making any sense,” She said, when he described where he had been before this. “It was a prison, but a prison without bars? And one that you were able to simply sail away from?” Wherever he had been, it seemed very unlikely that he had gained any sort of experiences that would help them in their current situation.
She paused, suddenly realizing what else he had said, “You stole from your own brother? Why would you do such a thing? Surely he would have leant it to you, if you had only asked him?” She stopped again, considering his story, “The money from my ransom … that is how you meant to pay him back for it? Goodness, how much did you take?”
She forgot her anger and confusion for a moment, when he began to mention the plans for escape that he did have. Why had he not mentioned all of this earlier? She thought, frustrated. But she was pacing now, her thoughts fixated on what he had said, “I might distract one of the guards … “ She said, “But would I be able to get the keys at the same time?” She wondered, aloud. And she would need a lookout. “We need help.” She said, finally. But who could she trust? No one, she realized. No one at all.
“James, is there anyone else in the city you trust?”
She felt like slapping him when he requested that she think of him when she kissed her husband. She had no great expectations what her romance with Loys would be like (she thought it much more realistically would be nonexistent based on what James had told her), but she would not think of another man when she was with him! “How dare you say such a thing!” She cried, “I don’t expect to love him, but I will not be having any such thoughts of you! I wish you’d never kissed me and don’t mean to ever think of it again!” Even as she said it, she knew it was a lie. She thought of it often, already, and a part of her suspected that she would only think on it more, rather than less. But she would rather die than let him know that.
He was right: her mother did underestimate her. Everyone did, now, except for perhaps James, himself. And for now, she realized, would be her greatest advantage.
“Specifically since I’ve met you?” inquired James with a roguish grin. “No idea.” He tilted his head. “Do you mean to tell me? I’d relish hearing an accounting of it from your lips.” He was, after all, very fond of her lips, he considered with a self-satisfied smirk. For all that it had been an impulse of the moment, James remained quite pleased with himself for having stolen that kiss. “You’ve wounded me, Radiance,” he said, continuing to grin. “I freely admit that I’d miss you if you were to be beheaded by some relative of mine. Is it so very much to confess that you might?”
Chuckling, James nodded to himself. “She prefers me do something,” he mumbled, grasping his prison bars. “When I’m well and truly caged.” Amusement flitted in his eyes. “And what, pray, would you have me do? Perhaps if I were to pace like a caged lion you might feel less ill at ease? There’s little else of which I’m capable at present.”
He shook his head. “I can’t do what I did last time. But I have been in other similar situations.” James grinned. “Those are tales, indeed. One time, when I was, oh, sixteen or seventeen, I challenged my jailers to a duel which, if I won, I would be free to go. I had no reputation at the time and - thinking to make an example of me and my insolence as their were seven of them and one of me, they agreed. I dueled them all and won my freedom. Seeing as they were, therefore, incapacitated, they chose to honor our agreement and I escaped. On another occasion, I had a very merry gaoler, indeed, and drank him under the table with some drugged wine. On another occasion, I used the thigh bone of the previous inmate of my little cell - who was still there - to bash my captor over the head and made good my escape that way.”
He shrugged. “But unfortunately, I’ve now a reputation which will prevent the first; no access to any herbs or the drink of those guards which will prevent the second; and finally this piteous cell can at least boast that it is entirely free of the earthly remains of its previous occupants which will also prevent the last solution. I’m afraid I’ve quite run out of tricks, Celia,” he said, softly. “I never thought the day would come, but so it has. I suppose the Imperial City has seen more tricksters than some of those little seaports along the coast.”
James perked up with interest, leaning forward. “Do you, now?” he laughed. “Why did you not mention this sooner? Well, then,” he muttered, rubbing his hands together. “Perhaps we could scrape something together, then. But,” he added. “I won’t leave without my brother,” he added, nodding in Godfrey’s general direction. “Or Valery, so if you truly mean to help me escape from this place, we must be thorough. Are you sure you wish to be caught up in that, Celia?” he inquired softly, very softly. “I doubt as your mother or cousin shall be very forgiving if they ever have reason to suspect your involvement.” Not that James thought she would end up in one of these cells, but trust, certainly, would be lost.
James huffed. “Why not? Gods know I spared her life! Was that not enough? If I’d have struck her down I’d not now be in this abominable prison. I think I’ve well and truly earned the right to abuse her reputation a little though, goodness knows, its in such a state down here as to need no help in tarnishing it from me,” he said.
“There now,” murmured James, softening as well, a smiling lighting his face. “I quite agree.”
Shifting, James sighed. “It’s not a sorry I’m altogether proud of, Radiance,” he admitted, quietly. “After I borrowed - I did not steal it! - some money, which I meant to repay just as soon as I was able, that...harlot over there,” he said, pointing at Sybil who was asleep with her head on Godfrey’s shoulder. “Convinced him that I’d stolen the money with no intention of ever repaying him and that it amounted to insubordination and mutiny. She had him maroon me on the Isle of the Damned and leave me there to die. I did not, however, die. I refused. Besides,” he added. “Anyone with the education which - do I surprise you? - I have, may quickly deduce that the awful shrieks and moans coming from the island - unsettling as they are - are made entirely by the wind as it rushes through the strange catacombs and rocks there.
“The island is actually quite a paradise,” he added. “I survived by lying on a beach eating coconuts and mangoes, whiling away my days playing the shipwright as I made an ill-conceived attempt to build a small seaworthy vessel for myself...a skill I can now inform you from experience, I entirely lack. But the island still has a curse. A live volcano keeps it fertile, but when it erupts, it is as if the demon himself rises from the seventh hell. That was far more harrowing. I survived by scaling the sheer cliff sides and, finally, escaping on the poor little boat I’d buitl that burned up halfway, forcing me to swim to shore, where I ultimately washed up half-dead like a boiled potato...Which, incidentally is how I ended up as the muddied mess you met on the road. So, you see, a prison without bars from which I sailed away. I’m very afraid none of those tactics will do in this instance,” he added, glancing at the iron bars.
James huffed. “I most certainly did not steal from him! I borrowed! I borrowed,” he said, quickly. “You see, there was...” he thought of Lia and smiled privately, before flicking his eyes back to her. “There was a girl who...Well, if you must know - and I’m afraid you really will be quite shocked - I used the money on a whore and I don’t mind telling you I passed a delightful evening with her and do not regret that I did. But I did not steal the money! I borrowed it with every intention of repaying the loan. You see, I’d been very...generous with your bracelet and spent it quite quickly. Godfrey,” he added. “Was far wiser with his ill-gotten gains and made them last longer. I did not think he would miss it before I could repay him and we were to leave dock that next morning and I knew I’d not see her again for months and months and, yes, she is a whore and I know what you must think but...I really am quite fond of her.” He paused. “You see, I borrowed it...without his knowledge. But I was always going to repay him! It was never more than a loan. I would own the fact to you if I’d simply stolen it from him.”
He arched his brows. “Not so very much as you must think! It is simply that, having just exited my little prison in a most harrowing fashion, I had not so much as a copper to my person and I knew I’d need enough not simply to repay him, but to reach him and I knew he’d be halfway round the continent by that time.” He glanced back towards the sleeping pirate. “For what it’s worth...I was right. I simply did not know where round the continent he might be. And, in any case, I needed not only enough to find him and repay him...but enough to bribe my way back into his good graces and those of the rest of the crew which, as you may guess, all amounts to a great sum and, fortunately, fate brought you to me.”
James thought immediately of Alymar and laughed aloud. He shook his head. “Not a one,” he said, arching a brow. “Between you, my brother, and little Valery, I think we may account for all those in this city who can claim my trust.” He paused. “But you, Celia, you live here. Surely...surely there is someone here you can trust?”
Lips turning upwards in a grin, James rested his head on the wall behind him. “Hit a nerve, have I?” Despite himself, he didn’t mean to grin quite so wide as he did, but he couldn’t help himself. Jealous as he was - yes, he was jealous of his cousin, of all people! - it was some sweet balm to think that the kiss might haunt her, too. Making a face, he touched his hand over his heart. “You wound me, Celia, and here I am awaiting my death. Will you not spare me a little mercy?” he teased, eyes twinkling. “Make a dying man smile.”
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