I |
spent a long while watching dust motes dance in the sunlight streaming through a narrow window in the wall above me. It took a long time realize that the strange light pattern was caused by the thick metal bars that spanned across opening.
I pushed myself off of the cold floor with an elbow, groaning to a halt before I could even sit up. Propping myself against the wall, I undid a few of the buttons on my coat and pushed the fabric of my vest and blouse away so that I could inspect my aching stomach. The sight of the bruise that ran across my abdomen made me hiss and cover it up again.
I sat there and stared at the iron bars that split the room in two for a long time. I was imprisoned alone, it seemed. The only opening other than the window was a heavy-looking wooden door on the other side of the room. I could hear only the wind outside, and it scared me that I had no idea where I was.
My hand wandered to my mouth, where I was surprised to find no trace of the liquid that had knocked me out. I was out long enough for someone to wash my face. I wondered how far a group of dragon-kin could haul an unconscious faun.
I grit my teeth, slapping my palms against the wall and pulled myself to my hooves. I hobbled to the window and found myself far too short to look out. Ignoring the dull throbbing of my developing bruise, I reached up and grabbed the bars. Sticking the tip of my hooves into the small grooves between the stones in the wall, I shakily climbed up to the tiny opening.
My grip nearly came undone as a burning wave of dread swept through my chest as I watched a pair of seabirds dive from an alcove above my prison window. They swooped down to a lawn full of marching dragon-kin soldiers ten stories below and finally disappeared over the roofs of the houses that spread from the outer wall to the ocean. The shoreline was foreign, but I somehow knew exactly where I was.
Sinking back to the floor, I stared at my hands that stung from their grip on the rusty bars. A pitiful chuckle bubbled out of my throat.
“I am so dead.”
My ears picked up the faintest sound of voices outside the thick wooden door. The blood ran from my face when I heard the scrape of boots on the stairs outside.
Using the wall to prop myself up once more, I pressed my back to it in an