Reckless

"A Rapunzel-hair. Not bad!" Valiant murmured as Jacob took the rope and looked down at the green windows. "But not even that rope will help you with the guards. They'll see you as clearly as they'd see a bug crawling over their faces!"



In reply, Jacob produced the green glass bottle from his pocket. He had stolen it from a Stilt, and it was filled with the slime of a snail that could make you invisible for a few hours. The carnivorous snails that produced it used it as camouflage to sneak up on any prey they fancied. Stilts and Thumblings bred the snails for the slime, which enabled them to go on their forays similarly undetected. The slime had to be smeared under one's nose — quite an unsavory procedure, even though it didn't smell — and the effect was immediate. The only problems were the side effects, including hours of debilitating nausea as well as, after repeated use, temporary paralysis.



"Rapunzel-hair and waneslime." Jacob heard a trace of admiration in the Dwarf's voice. "I must admit, you're quite well equipped. All the same, I'd just as soon know where your gold tree is before you climb over there."



Jacob was already smearing the slime under his nose.



"Oh no," he said. "What if you've neglected to tell me something, and the King's guards are waiting for me down there? The rope is strong enough for only one, so you get to stay up here. But if the guards spot me, then you'd better find a way to distract them; otherwise you can say good-bye to your gold tree."



Before the Dwarf could protest, Jacob swung himself over the balustrade. The slime already made his body disappear, as if the darkness were swallowing it up. As he climbed down to the iron girders, he could no longer see his own hands. Holding onto one of the struts, he threw the rope. The golden cord wound through the air like a snake wriggling through the water, until it attached itself to a ledge between the malachite windows.



What if you actually find Will behind there, Jacob? Even if you can break the Dark Fairy's spell, he'll still be asleep. How are you going to get him out of the fortress? He didn't know the answer. He just knew that he had to try. And that he could still feel Clara's lips on his own.



Climbing a Rapunzel-rope was easy. The rope adhered to his hands as if it were trying to hold on to them. Jacob tried to ignore the abyss beneath him. All will be well. The stalactite inched toward him, sinewy, like a muscle cast in stone. He already felt the nausea brought on by the waneslime. A few more yards, Jacob. Don't look down. Ignore the height.



He tightened his grip on the taut rope and climbed on until finally his invisible hands touched the smooth wall. His feet found the ledge and, leaning against the cool stone, he took a moment to recover his breath. The green windows to his left and his right shimmered like hardened water. What now, Jacob You can't just break one. That would have immediately summoned all the guards.



He pulled Chanute's knife from his belt and set the blade against the glass. He noticed the hole with the moonstone rim only after the snake had shot out of it. Moonstone as pale as the snake's scales, as pale as its mistress's skin. It wrapped itself around Jacob's neck before he realized what was happening. He tried to ram the knife through the scales, but it entangled him so relentlessly that his fingers let go of the haft, and he could do nothing but claw in desperation at the scaly body. His feet slipped, and he hung helplessly above the abyss like a snared bird, the strangling snake around his throat. Two more serpents slithered out of another hole next to him and wrapped themselves around his chest and legs. Jacob fought for breath, and the last thing he saw was the golden rope coming away from the ledge with a sudden jolt and disappearing into the darkness above him.



38



Found And Lost



Sandstone walls and iron bars. A lizard-skin boot kicking him in the ribs. Gray uniforms in the red fog that filled his head. At least the snakes were gone, and he could breathe. The Dwarf sold me out again was the only thought that penetrated the red fog. When had he done it, Jacob? In one of the stores, while you were waiting like a sheep?



He wanted to sit up, but they had bound his hands, and his throat hurt so much that he had trouble swallowing.



"Who brought you back from the dead? Her sister?"



The jasper Goyl stepped out of the dark.



"I didn't believe it when the Fairy told me you were still alive. That was a well-aimed shot." He spoke the dialect of the Empire with a heavy accent. "It was her idea to spread the word your brother was with her, and you went for it like a fly into the spider's web. Bad luck the snakes aren't even fooled by waneslime. But you did much better than the two onyx Goyl who tried to climb down to the King's chambers. We had to scrape their remains from the roofs of the city."



Jacob pushed back against the wall and managed to sit up. The cell they had thrown him into was no different from the cells in a human prison. The same metal bars, the same desperate scrawls on the walls.



"Where's my brother?" His voice was so hoarse that he could barely hear himself. And he felt extremely sick from the waneslime.



The Goyl didn't answer.



"Where did you leave the girl?" he asked instead.



He surely didn't mean Fox. What did they want with Clara? What do you think, Jacob? Your brother is sleeping, and they can't wake him. That's good news, isn't it? And that Valiant had not given her away proved that the Dwarf really had taken quite a fancy to her.



So you just play dumb, Jacob.



"What girl?"



That answer got him another kick in the stomach, winding him as the snakes had done. The soldier doing the kicking was a woman. Jacob thought he recognized her. Of course. He'd shot her out of her saddle in the valley of the Unicorns. It would've been her pleasure to continue kicking, but the jasper Goyl stopped her.



"Leave him, Nesser," he said. "We won't get anything from him that way."



Jacob had heard about the scorpions.



Almost affectionately, Nesser let the creature crawl over her fingers before placing it on Jacob's chest. It was colorless and barely longer than Jacob's thumb, but its pincers shone like silvery metal.



"There not much they can do to Goyl skin," said the jasper Goyl as the scorpion crawled under Jacob's shirt, "but yours is so much softer. So... once again, where's the girl?"



The scorpion dug its pincers into Jacob's chest as if it wanted to eat him alive. Jacob managed not to scream until it plunged its poisonous tail into him. He gasped with pain and fear as the venom poured fire under his skin.



"Where's the girl?"



The She-Goyl placed three more scorpions on his chest, asking the same question, over and over. But Will would sleep as long as he did not tell them anything. Jacob screamed with pain until he lost his voice, wishing he had jade skin himself. He wondered whether the poison would at least burn away the Larks' Water — then he finally lost consciousness.



* * * * *



When Jacob woke up, he had no memory of what, if anything, he'd told them. He was in a different cell. From the narrow window, he could see the hanging palace. His whole body was aflame, as if he had scalded his skin. His weapons belt was gone, as were all the other items he'd had with him, but fortunately they had left him his handkerchief. Fortunately? And how are a couple of gold coins going to help you now, Jacob The Goyl soldiers were infamous for their incorruptibility.