Kailani

"Help?" Prudence gawked at me. "Kai, there ain't much to do."

"But all the hostages—"

"Are surrounded. By both the invaders and our soldiers."

"But you're a spy!"

"And what do ya think spies do?"

"I don't—I don't know. Spy on people, gather information, beat people up."

"Two outta three. It'd be a little hard to stay undercover if ya beat someone up. I reckon someone would notice."

"But we can't just do nothing!"

"We ain't doin' nuttin. I'm tryin' to get out a distress signal!"

"Then I can't just do nothing. I'm tired of running away!"

"There's a difference between runnin' away and gettin' yerself into danger. If there's nuttin you can do, there's nuttin you can do."

I threw my arms up in frustration.

Watching the screen again, the invaders turned away from their victims with their guns pointed toward the doors. No one was even watching them anymore, not that there was anywhere for them to go... or was there?

"Um, Prudence... do you know anywhere where I can get a lot of rope?"

She shrugged. "There might be some in the trainin' grounds in the basement, but gettin' there'd be no picnic."

"Crap," I muttered, thinking for a moment. After a second, I looked down at my wrist. There was a slight impression from where Andi's bracelet had been sitting on my arm. If memory served, it was currently resting on my nightstand.

"I think I may have something."

...

After Prudence finally got a distress call through to the First Precinct Police Station and the GREEN headquarters in Scendrio, I told her my plan and we sat on the floor of my room, unraveling the bracelet and tying a knot every few feet for support or grip.

Now that the fire systems were reengaged, most of the fires had been put out in the hallways, leaving us room to run back to the stairwell and down to the second floor, even if we slipped on the foam.

The castle was eerily quiet. I was used to hearing the quiet sleeping sounds you heard at night that I now only noticed because they were gone. Instead, I heard our footsteps against the marble as we raced down the hall to the Music Wing.

The Music Wing was named for second floor ballroom adjacent the music room, changing room for dancers, and fitting room for dance costumes. Nowadays, only professional dancers performed across the various glass panels, but unless the lights were on inside, the panels from below would appear as a mirror. Anyone on top could spy on those down below. But anyone on the bottom would look up to their own reflection facing back.

I had to input an access code to get into the ballroom, but I didn't remember why until I walked across the glass and almost didn't stop before falling off the edge. Somewhere, there was an emergency ladder embedded into the wall that could be pulled out to get the bottom, but there was no way we would be able to move the hostages to the edge of the ballroom and get them to climb up without drawing attention. Instead, hand in hand, we looked at each other, looked at the hostages below, looked at the next glass level a few feet away and a few feet below, and jumped.

It was nothing like the jump from my dream or my jump through the fire. When we landed, it echoed.

Several of the hostages flinched against the noise. The invaders started yelling, but when they couldn't find the source, they went back to barricading the doors. The hostages began whispering in their huddle—no one was watching them anyone. I hoped they weren't planning something. The invaders had big enough guns that any resistance would take only moments to silence.

Prudence and I were more careful climbing down into the next panel, taking off our shoes beforehand so the sound wouldn't echo as much. Putting them back on, we peered over the edge at the hostages, then dropped down the paracord.

It was thin enough that it just might've gone unnoticed by someone just glancing back, but sturdy enough to hold the weight of the everyone below.

Startled, some of them jumped, almost shouting. The others began to whisper. They didn't know what to do. I signed for them to quiet down, but if any of them spoke sign language, they were too far below to see. If they had been close enough to recognize me, then maybe they would have started climbing. That would have been a bad thing.

"Let's tie this down somewhere," I whispered to Prudence.

She cringed. "We probably ought to've done that first."

We drew it back to one of the steel cables holding the panel up, wrapping it with as many knots as we could think of. Nothing would be getting through. The hostages would have to have to climb to the second glass panel and go the long way to get out into the hall again—that is, if we got them up.

"Do you think it'll hold?"

She nodded. "I have faith."

"And why's that?"

"You've never been late to anythin' in yer life. I don't reckon you'll be early to yer death."

I shivered. I wouldn't be the first, I thought. "Thank you," my voice wobbled. I had too much adrenaline in me. I was starting to shake. "Cold as ice. Hard as stone. Always remember you're never alone." Grabbing the rope, I wrapped my ankle around the cord and began climbing down. "Cold as ice. Hard as stone. Always remember you're never alone." My muscles burned. My head ached.

With the foam spraying out of the walls along the edges of the room, I could barely see the invaders. Hopefully that meant they couldn't see me.

Soldiers were yelling at them from outside, their voices muffled beyond recognition. The attackers busied themselves trying to barricade the doors, yelling something foreign back through the walls I had to assume was either Danöuan or Be'turish. Though I knew a few Stan-Be'turan words from Arbee and Irina, Be'turish was such a distinct dialect, I doubt I could have recognized it.

Dropping down, I looked both ways before determining no one was watching.

"Kai?" Chrystal whispered in disbelief.

At the sound of my name, Cara stood up. "What are you doing here?" she whisper. "You should be in a safe room."

"Where's my dad?"

"Passed out," an older woman said. "We think he was drugged before they brought him here."

"What's your plan?" Chrystal asked.

I took a moment to respond before pointing to the rope, still processing what the older woman said. "Is there anyone who's going to need help climbing?" When about half the group nodded, and I cringed. "Okay, who doesn't need help."

Cara, Chrystal, and a few of the adults raised their hands. I had Cara and Chrystal go first, one at a time. Parents went with their kids climbing above them, and anyone else who needed help I assisted. In between every person was a pause, watching the soldiers for any sign they knew what was going on. Once on the panel, Prudence guided everyone out into the hall and through to the Hospital Wing that was also on the second floor, thank the Great Infinity.

Finally, all that were left were a few elderly and out of shape people, and a few young adults who had volunteered to help them.

"Okay," I whispered, "we're going to take this by the buddy system, okay? No more than two at a time. You first, ma'am."

It was the woman who had been talking about my father before. She was assisted by a young man to climb the rope. Just two groups left.

The invaders were too busy preparing for a fight, facing away from us toward the exits. As far as they knew, the hostages weren't going anywhere.

"Now you two, come on, they made it up there. Hurry."

We were lucky not even one of the invaders had looked back, even out of curiosity. Or maybe one had, and just didn't notice the dark colored paracord against the shadowy background, or the dwindling number of people climbing up.

My heart pounded in my chest. I forced myself to breathe in.

The fat man slipped, almost crashing both him and his buddy to the ground.

I covered my mouth to keep from gasping.

The last two were a strong looking middle aged woman, biceps rippling under her nightshirt, and my father, still passed out from whatever drug they gave him.

"I'm going to need your help on this one," she said.

I nodded. Together, we tied my dad to the bottom of the rope, and began climbing, picking up the cord with us as we went.

"You've got this, Your Highness," the woman told me once we were a couple yards above the floor. "You've made it this far, just a little further."

I nodded, unsure. My arms shook with the combined effort it took to lift my dad with her and climb at the same time.

We were half way up.

One of the invaders looked back, then did a double-take. He shouted out something I didn't understand, and soon everyone had their heads turned toward the center of the room.

Don't look up, don't look up...

One of them pointed. I didn't need to speak their language to know what they were saying.

"Up there! Guns ready!"

"Look out, Your Highness!" the woman hissed. Her voice was drowned out in a hail of bullets.

Straining our muscles harder, we tapped the last of our strength to reach the top. A bullet zipped by my arm. Orders shouted. A fire was lit from below.

"Just a little further..." she said. She was trying to convince herself as much as me—this woman I didn't even know the name of. "We can—"

"Ah!" I gasped. A bullet ripped through my shoulder. My body went into shock. Two more plunged through the air, whizzing just over Dad's head, the first missing and the second striking the cord.

"Princess!" She reached her free arm out to me.

The material snapped.

More hands reached out from over the panel, pulling the woman and my father up. They disappeared into the ceiling. I was left with only the shadow of my reflection staring back.

The firing stopped from below.

I lost my sense of gravity—of time. I could only feel the warm blood streaming down my back and the aching of the exit wound. I thought my life would flash before my eyes but all I saw was one moment...

"Kai?" My mom was there, smiling at me. I loved her smile. She was always so kind, and so pretty. I loved her so much...

The doors burst open, and soldiers poured in from every corner... like mice... or ants...

Completely limp, my body slammed against the floor.