Briar Rose (26 page)

‘Look at her. She won’t be coming back up that fast.’

‘So what happens here?’ Joshua asked. ‘Do we starve to death or what?’

The leader shook his head. ‘Nothing that painless, boy,’ he said solemnly. ‘Go see to your girl. It’ll be dark soon.’

‘And then?’

The man’s eyes betrayed unexpected pity. ‘Then the metal will reign.’

His teeth clenched, Joshua climbed down the twisty ladder. The moment he touched the earth floor the ladder was pulled back up. Their captors didn’t hang around, but headed off into the
castle, joking back and forth.

Now that he was below ground, he examined the sides of the pit more closely to discover it had been dug out of shale, which was sharp and brittle. Not ideal for climbing – especially since
he had no gear – but not impossible if he was very careful. Joshua had some experience free soloing, so if the rock would hold his weight he might be able to do it. All they had to do was be
patient until it was dark, then escape when the sentries would be less likely to see them. Once up on the surface, he’d toss down the ladder and Briar could be free as well.

This feels too easy. What am I missing?

Briar sank to the ground. ‘This is bad, isn’t it?’ she said, her voice quavering.

‘Sort of. At least nothing’s trying to eat us,’ he said.
Yet.

‘I thought she was going to make you like Ruric.’

He looked over at her, hearing her concern and not understanding why she would care. ‘You have any idea why that didn’t happen?’

Briar shook her head. ‘This . . . nightmare is familiar,’ she admitted. ‘I think some of it’s from my own imagination, but where did the regent come from? I must have
dreamed her up. Same with the fata.’

‘Or it’s a blend of your mind and whoever created the curse in the first place,’ Joshua suggested. When Briar didn’t respond, he sat on the opposite side of the pit from
her, always careful to maintain his distance.

She noticed and the frown was instant. ‘Can we give it a rest? Our parents aren’t here,’ she said. ‘Enough with the hate, OK?’

‘No hate, it’s just best not to get too friendly. It’ll make it harder when we get home.’

‘
If
we get home,’ she replied. ‘And, if we do, my mom is going to owe me big time. I’ll
make
her tell me who did this to me.’

Should he just admit it and get it over with?
Not yet.

‘We’ll be OK,’ he said.

Briar shook her head. ‘Nice try, but I’m not buying it. Ruric is going full metal, and Pat and Reena are hurt or . . . dead.’

‘Pat die? Are you kidding? That ego of his wouldn’t allow it. Besides, Reena will watch out for him.’

Briar’s gloom lifted a bit. ‘If she doesn’t kill him first.’

‘There is that.’

‘He really did nail you,’ she said, pointing at his bruised cheek.

‘Yeah,’ he said, touching it gingerly. ‘But I got a few hits in myself.’

‘You know, our new home sucks,’ she said, gesturing around now. ‘No food or water, no cable. Worse, no toilet. This really blows.’

He couldn’t help but laugh. Was it his imagination or was that defiance in her voice now? A different girl emerging out of the shell of the old one, someone who had no choice but to stand
on her own because Mrs Rose wasn’t running interference this time.

Neither is my mom.
For once they could be themselves.

He pointed at a series of marks on the stones. ‘I wonder what those are for?’

‘Prisoners keeping track of how many days they’re down here before they—’

‘Escape,’ he cut in. ‘Possible.’ Still, that didn’t seem right, not with the slashes reaching almost all the way to the top of the pit.

Briar peered upward. ‘Why isn’t there a guard up there? What keeps us from getting out?’

‘Nothing. I’ve done some rock climbing. Once it’s dark I’ll go first and toss down the ladder to you. Then we’ll have to figure out how to sneak out of the
castle.’

Briar shook her head. ‘No, then we find Ruric.’

‘He’ll just turn us in. He’s one of her soldiers now.’

‘I want to know that for sure before we take off.’

‘Briar, he—’

‘I owe him, Joshua. I can’t leave him here to die.’

He sighed at her hard-headedness. ‘Well, at least Pat isn’t around to give us any grief. It’s just the two of us.’

Briar weighed that last statement and apparently wasn’t happy with it. ‘This isn’t a date, you know.’

‘I’m not saying it is, but if I had to be stuck in a deep pit with anyone, you’d be my pick.’

‘That’s such a lie. Until the other day, you couldn’t stand to be near me. It’s like I’ve got the plague or something.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘Yeah, right. So why
did
you give me the charm bracelet?’ she asked, her voice rising. ‘That completely violated the Thou Shalt Not Go Near That Rose Girl rule.’
Not that her family was any different when it came to him.

‘I know, but I’ve always thought you were cool,’ he said. ‘I wanted to give you something and Reena said you’d like the bracelet. She said I should try and be
friends with you.’

Really?
‘That doesn’t explain why your mother told you to stay away from me.’

Joshua clenched his teeth and held his silence, probably hoping she’d back off or change the subject.

‘Come on, just tell me,’ she persisted. ‘Why was it so important that we don’t share the same airspace? What is your mother worried about?’

He began to dig in the dirt with a piece of shale, but didn’t answer.

Briar sank back on to the ground, trying to get a read on the guy. This felt really important, so she came at it from a different angle. ‘We used to hang together all the time. We were
friends, Joshua. We played together, even held hands. Until after you almost died.’

He looked up at her now and she could see the worry. She was getting closer to the truth.

‘Why did you try to save me that day?’ she asked. ‘You couldn’t swim that good, not then at least.’

‘I was too young to know I could die,’ he replied. ‘Six-year-olds are immortal, you know.’

‘Yeah, until they’re not.’ Briar shuddered. He was staring at her now, no doubt reliving the scene in his own mind just as she was.

‘I remember you squeezing my hand so hard it hurt,’ she said. ‘And then . . . I felt when you . . .’

‘Don’t say it!’ he snapped.

‘Why not? You died, Joshua. We both know it. But how did I feel that? How could I know the
second
you stopped breathing?’

He shook his head. ‘We were kids. It was scary. That’s all.’ He was rushing his words now, as if trying to hurry past a bad memory. Or deflect her from the heart of matter.

‘No, it was more than that,’ she said, softer now. ‘I was still holding your hand when they pulled us out. I wouldn’t let go until my dad made me. I cried so hard, but
they wouldn’t let me near you, even after they’d put you in the ambulance.’

Joshua’s face was paler now, two crimson spots resting on his cheeks.

‘I should have let you go when I died,’ he said. ‘This is my fault.’

‘This?’ Briar leaned forward. ‘What do you mean?’

He shook his head, refusing to answer. Rising, she walked to within a few feet of him and then sank on her knees. Their eyes met and she could see dread in them.

‘Why won’t you touch me, Joshua?’

No reply, but his eyes still held hers. She was so close.

‘Am I so . . . gross . . . you can’t stand the thought?’

He gasped, as if something had cracked deep inside him.

‘No, it’s not you. It’s the curse,’ he said.

Curse?
‘I don’t understand.’

‘My mom . . . believes that if I touch you . . . it’ll come to me.’

‘What? How did she know I had it?’

‘Because it used to be mine,’ he said, his voice so quiet it was difficult to hear him. ‘That day I died in the river – the curse moved from me . . . to you.’

As if touched by a live wire, Briar shot her feet. ‘
You
cursed me?’

‘Yeah,’ he said, looking away now. ‘I didn’t do it on purpose. I guess it thought it didn’t need to be inside me any more, didn’t have to wait until I was . .
. sixteen to kill me.’

‘Sixteen? That’s why I was supposed to die on my birthday, because you were?’ He gave a weak nod. ‘What did I ever do to you?’

‘Nothing,’ he replied. ‘Oh God, nothing. I swear I never meant to hurt you.’

Joshua pulled his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms round them. ‘I didn’t even know I’d been cursed until after you fell asleep. Mom never told me.’

His mother never told him.
Did she really believe that? Now that she looked back, she could. Her mother hadn’t told her the truth, either.

‘So you’re the reason I’m in this hellish nightmare. In this pit?’ she said, waving her arms around. ‘You!?!’

‘Me,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s all my fault.’

Briar paced for a time, though it was difficult given the size of the hole. She wanted to make him hurt as much as she did. He’d killed her future, taken away her family and landed her
inside this twisted fairy tale.

The longer she paced, the more she noticed that he hadn’t moved, staring blankly at nothing. As if the admission of his sin had hollowed him out inside.

Briar returned to her part of the pit and slumped down. She unconsciously mirrored Joshua’s pose, knees tucked close her chest. A sort of crinkling noise caught her attention and with some
digging she retrieved the leafy pouch. She’d forgotten about it.

‘What is that?’ he asked, his eyes suspiciously moist.

‘One of the fatas gave it to me.’ Briar carefully opened the pouch to find glimmering dust inside. It was lavender and when she dipped her fingers into it, it made them tingle. She
held them up. ‘Great. We got sparkles. Just what we need.’

Their eyes met again.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I really am.’

Briar tucked the pouch back under her corset. Oddly her anger had burned out like a damp firecracker. ‘You really didn’t know about the curse?’

‘No. I have no idea who put it on me or why. Nobody will tell me.’

That sounded familiar.

She raised her head. ‘With me carrying the curse, you were golden. What are you doing here? It’s way dumb for you to be anywhere near me.’

‘I’m here to make it right.’

‘How? You’d be stupid to take the curse back. Even if you could, it might not make any difference. I might just be . . . doomed.’

‘Or not,’ he insisted.

‘Does Reena know all this?’

‘Yeah. Lily told her after you went to sleep.’

‘Of course, the entire world knows and somehow they never got around to telling me,’ Briar sniped.
Like they never
told me about Mike and his lies.

‘They didn’t get around to telling
us
,’ Joshua said, his eyes narrowing. ‘Remember, you’re not the only victim here.’

‘You know, you could have fooled me.’

The silence between them, heavy with words unspoken, made Briar curl up for a nap to block it out. That meant lying on a dirt floor, one that smelt faintly of copper and of oil. She dreamed of
water, the relentless kind that had nearly killed her. Once again she experienced the panic, felt the unyielding pressure, sustained that tingling jolt between her and Joshua as they tumbled in the
rolling darkness.

When she struggled up out of the dream, dusk was settling in. It took her a moment to recognize the walls of the pit and then their current situation returned full force. She stifled a sob.

Across from her Joshua stared at nothing, still digging at the ground with a piece of shale.

Her drowning dreams were always harbingers of bad things to come, like the fierce windstorm that had damaged the high school when she was a freshman, causing her and the other students to take
shelter in the hallway. Or when Reena had been in that traffic accident on the way to South Carolina. She’d dreamed of roaring water the night before it had occurred.

‘Something bad is going to happen,’ she announced.

‘Worse than being trapped in a pit with no toilet?’ Joshua mumbled.

‘Yeah. Way worse. I . . . just know it. I . . . get these premonitions.’

Briar tensed, waiting for the laughter or the derision. It didn’t come.

‘OK, I’ll go with that warning,’ Joshua said. ‘Something bad is going down, but what is it?’

‘I don’t know. Just . . . bad.’

He stretched, a couple of bones popping, then moved to the pile of rags and gave it a kick. Suddenly his posture changed. ‘Ah, hell,’ he said.

Joshua rarely swore. ‘What’s wrong?’

He picked up one of the pieces and brought it closer for her inspection. There were rust-brown spots in the fabric and it appeared as if someone had taken a pair of scissors to it, leaving
dozens of slashes behind.

‘That’s dried blood.’ Joshua dropped the garment, frowning. ‘Why don’t they have a guard right on top of this pit?’ he asked, pacing now. ‘Because they
know once it’s dark we’re never coming out of here.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Remember what the regent said? “When darkness falls and the metal reigns supreme.”’

‘So?’

‘Those scratches in the rock?’ he said, more agitated now. ‘They’re not from someone trying to get out. They’re from something that lives
down
here
.’

Briar was on her feet in a heartbeat. ‘What kind of something?’

‘Don’t know and don’t want to find out. We are out of here.’

Joshua moved to the closest wall, one with a number of stone outcroppings.

‘If I can get enough handholds, I can do it. Don’t stand underneath me in case I fall,’ he urged. He gave her one last look. ‘I promise, I won’t leave you down
here.’

‘I didn’t think you would,’ she said, wanting that to be the truth.

Joshua nodded as if he appreciated her trust, then began to climb.

‘The shale is bitchy stuff,’ he said. ‘It breaks easily and it cuts you up. Probably why they dug the pit here.’

It proved a painstakingly slow process. He’d find a handhold and a corresponding place for a foot and pull himself up. Then repeat the process. One time he slipped and he barely caught
himself. Another time the rock broke and he had to quickly readjust. He wiped his hands on his trousers a couple of times and she could tell they were bleeding.