Chapter 29

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

CALLISTO

"Why isn't your magic working, Silas? Your magic always works!" Madden asks, now that the three of us are alone.

"I think they're wearing something that's blocking it. I have no idea what it is, but it's making it so I can't grasp onto their fear," Silas says.

Madden's head snaps over to me. "Aren't you some fancy poison boy or something?"

I grimace at my uselessness. "Well… yes, but I have to touch bare skin to poison individually, or I can poison the whole room, and I kind of like you both too much to do that."

"Well, you're closer to Madden than you are to me," Silas says. "So I should be fine."

"True…"

Madden glowers at Silas, who just gives him a grin. "I tease."

He grumbles about that before looking between us. "Where is the coin?"

"In my hand," I say.

"You kept them from seeing it even as they tied your hands behind your back?" Silas asks, looking wildly impressed.

I'm as proud as a peacock over here with a smile on my face. "I sure did," I brag as I show him.

"Damn, you're good," Silas says, which makes me ridiculously happy even when faced with a pile of torture tools.

"Thanks." I flip the coin between my fingers before realizing that my fingers must have gotten a little sweaty watching the possible Silas torture, and the coin drops from my fingers and lands on its thin edge where it rolls across the floor.

The only thing that keeps it from rolling any farther is Madden slamming his tied foot down on it.

"What the fuck!? What the absolute fuck, you… you… oh my god," Madden hisses.

I stare at his foot in horror that I literally lost the coin because I was over here wanting to show off! What the fuck was that? Did I learn nothing from the flower incident the other day? Showing off for Silas gets me nowhere!

"My… fingers are a bit moist," I say with a grimace.

Silas tries to pretend that I didn't just absolutely fuck everything up. "Hey, love, it's okay. I saw the way it just like… forced itself out of your hand. Definitely wasn't because you were playing with it. Anyway, Callisto, could you pick that up?"

"If I dropped that, you'd be so pissed at me," Madden mumbles.

"Uh… yeah… sure, yep. I could pick it up. Yep, yep." I rock around in the chair my hands and feet are tied to… and accomplish a whole lot of nothing.

"For fuck's sake," Madden growls as he wiggles around before his foot slips out of the binds, leaving his shoe and sock behind. Using his toes, he picks the coin up and looks between us.

"What exactly do I do with it now?" he asks.

Silas shrugs. "Hide it somewhere they can't find."

"Obviously… but where?"

He flicks his eyes down. "Down there."

Madden's eyes narrow at the motion. "Down where?"

Silas flicks his eyes again.

Now Madden's head is cocked as he tries to understand this. "Are you telling me to stuff it up my ass because if you are, you better fucking be ready to bend over because it's coming for you," he growls as he aims the foot and coin toward Silas.

Silas looks exasperated. "No. Not in your ass… Madden… just like…" He trails off as I realize that he really doesn't have a good idea for it.

I perk up as I have an idea. "Just hold it between your ass cheeks," I say with confidence… maybe more confidence than someone should ever say that sentence with.

"Who? Me or Madden?" Silas asks.

I give Silas my best smile. "I guess you because I'm too far away and I don't quite know how Madden would slip it down his own pants. You'll do well. I trust your ass muscles."

"Just don't let it slip too deep. Might be hard to find again," Madden says with an amused expression.

Silas looks at us both in disbelief. "I'm not fucking… NO!"

"Then open your mouth," Madden says as he aims his foot for Silas's face.

"You are not putting that in my mouth," Silas growls, likely regretting the moment he'd forgiven me for dropping the coin.

"You're so picky! Our lives depend on this," Madden says.

"Just… put it in my hand," Silas begs.

"Fine, fine… but I can't reach back that far. Mouth it is!" he says as he accidentally kicks Silas in the face. "Whoops. Fuck. Come on, now. Open wide!"

"Fucking hell, this is ridiculous," Silas complains. "I am only doing this to keep the two of you alive, do you understand me? There is absolutely nothing else that would make me agree to this."

"You've never dreamed about sucking on my toesies?" Madden asks, clearly enjoying Silas's misery.

"Fuck. Fuck. Callisto, look away. Don't watch," Silas begs, like he's about to do something super embarrassing, not take the coin to keep us alive. "I don't want you to look at me differently after this."

"It's fine," I assure him. "You got this."

"Fuck," he says as he squeezes his eyes shut and grudgingly opens his mouth. If I wasn't currently tied to a chair with my life threatened, I might have laughed. The look of glee on Madden's face sure makes me want to laugh. It's like he's finally figured out the best way to torture Silas and is thrilled he can't say no since our lives could depend on it.

"You ready? Here they come!" Madden says as he zeroes in on Silas's face.

And that's the moment he drops the coin. We all watch as the coin lands perfectly on its edge and rolls away from them and toward me before coming to a stop… right at the foot of the stairs.

All three of us stare at it in disbelief.

"Fuck, fuck," Madden mutters as I hear the floorboards creaking above us.

"Quickly, someone grab it," Silas says as he starts jerking all around on the chair, but all he manages to do is fall onto his side. He tries rolling toward it, but the chair won't let him move as I hear a hand on the doorknob.

"Shhhh, shhhh," Madden hisses, and I assume he's hushing us because of Davy coming until I see a teeny mouse come out of a box and scurry over to the coin. It grabs it in a tiny paw and starts heaving it away just as Davy comes down the stairs.

Davy looks at Silas, who is lying on his side, and then at Madden, who managed to cram his foot back in his shoe but left his sock kicked off to the side.

"I just forgot something," Davy says as he grabs one of his torture tools and heads back up the stairs.

"You could have called a mouse this whole time ?" Silas asks in disbelief. "I almost put your foot in my mouth ."

"I know! I regret it. We can still try again," Madden says, clearly regretting the part when he dropped the coin, not when he kicked Silas in the face.

"If your foot comes near my face again, I'm biting your toes off," Silas growls.

"What the fuck, you're so feisty! My toes are clean. I washed them this morning."

"I wish we had Dandelion with us. He'd shift and just like rawr and save us," I say.

Madden looks impressed. "Aww, you hear that, Silas, your man is wishing he had another man to save him."

"I do too!" Silas says as he thrashes around. "Wait! Madden, I have an idea. What if you contact a bird who can fly to Dandelion and get his attention? You could ask the bird to do something a little bit odd to signify that we need him."

Madden looks delighted by the idea. "Ooh, I could definitely do that. And I'll always get behind Dandelion coming to save us."

"That's a really good idea," I say. "Yeah, Dandelion will save us in a second."

Madden smiles, clearly quite proud of his ability to do this. He closes his eyes and seems to feel around until he finds a willing participant. "Ooh, who's a pretty birdie? You will do nicely. Okay, she's taking off and flying to the palace. Do you guys have an idea where Dandelion might be?"

"He said he was taking a nap, so either in the sun out by the pond or in his bed," Silas says.

"He could also be in the kitchen. He likes to eat and then nap. Then eat again. He says napping makes him hungry," I add.

"True… let's see," Madden says. "The sun does seem really nice out, so we're going to check the pond first. You're such a good little birdie. You listen so much better than that damn dog did. Yes you are."

"Can the bird hear him?" I ask Silas.

"Fuck if I know. He just likes to hear himself talk, I think."

"Oh! There's Dandelion! He's sunning himself in his bestial form. Perfect. We're going to fly down and snag his attention. I'll try to lead him back. Oh, he's noticed us already, perfect. I was afraid he was going to just nap through the whole thing! He's getting up and stretching and now watching the bird. The birdie is doing such a good job! I'll make sure to give you extra seeds when you?—"

Madden's eyes snap open.

"What's wrong?" I ask as I take in the absolute look of horror on his face.

Madden is dead silent. "Please. Don't ever talk again," he whispers.

I stare at him, quite confused before it slowly dawns on me what must have happened. I catch Silas's eyes and mouth, "Did Dandelion just eat the bird? Eat our only source of rescue?"

Silas stares at me for a long moment before glancing at Madden. "I'm sure it was an accident."

Madden wildly shakes his head. "Nope. Silence. Don't speak. Ever again. Your idea did this!"

"What if… you send another… but ask it not to fly down so low ?" Silas asks.

Madden seems unwilling to listen. "I will never forgive myself for this. All of birdkind will forever hate me," he whispers.

"I'm sure she was like… super old and kind of wanted to… go out with a bang, you know?" I try to add.

"She was in the prime of her life!" Madden whispers.

Silas grimaces a little. "I mean… you have to realize that Dandelion is also an animal, kind of, who was starved for many years, so he was forced to eat a lot of… wildlife."

"How are you making this better?" Madden asks.

"I have an idea," I say, trying to get off the bird murder. "What if you get the knife you gave Silas?"

Madden slowly seems to come back to life with the idea. "I… suppose I could try," he agrees as he scoots over to Silas as best as he can. "I guess I could use my foot to grab it, right? Then maybe I could stab myself so I could feel a sliver of the pain the poor bird went through."

"I'm sure she felt nothing at all," Silas says, which… isn't really helpful, and Madden proves it by slamming his foot into Silas's gut before he rams it under the band of Silas's trousers.

"Now where is this knife? Eh? You asshole who made me get that innocent bird murdered."

Silas looks alarmed by this turn of events. "Not fucking there! That's my dick. Get your foot off my dick."

"Well maybe if your dick wasn't in my way , all would be fine," he says as he flicks his foot around.

"It's down near my thigh. Left side… my left."

"Should I feel jealous?" I ask.

"That you're not getting kicked in the dick?" Silas says as Madden thrashes his foot around.

"Or your heart ripped out after sending an innocent creature off to its death?" Madden tosses out.

"Maybe your mouse could get it out?" I ask, and Madden hesitates.

"There is like a whole family of them," Madden says as the door opens, and Davy looks down to where Madden is a foot deep in Silas's pants.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he asks, confused.

"Danger made the blood rush to his penis," Madden clarifies. "I was helping relieve it."

Davy seems uncertain about this, but he looks back to his torture pile as Madden's army of mice scurry over and climb right into the leg of Silas's pants.

I can practically see the goosebumps exploding over Silas's body as they scurry up his leg.

"While Ned is gone, I thought it'd be best to get information on where the prince's body is, Callisto ."

I try to say something quietly in the hopes that he'll come in close to hear, and then I'll just kiss him and poison him, but he simply smiles at me.

"I'm not an idiot, Callisto. I'm well aware you need to touch me to kill me." He picks up something and heads for Silas. "How about I cut little pieces off him? Just piece by piece," he says as he snips his leather cutters in the air. "How about I cut off his ear first?"

"I'd really rather you not."

"Or his tongue?"

I hesitate, unsure of what to do. I really don't want to get Silas hurt, but they need the body and the coin for some reason, and how many will they be able to kill with that knowledge?

He grins as he leans down and grabs Silas by the hair. "What do I cut first?"

"Preferably not his hair. He has really nice hair," Madden unhelpfully adds.

"Silas," I say anxiously, wishing he'd tell me what I should do. Do I tell Davy or do I hold out?

"How about his tongue?" Davy asks as he taps the edge of the cutters against his lips right before Silas reaches out, flips the cutters, and rams them right between Davy's ribs.

Davy screams and jumps back as Silas easily steps forward and grabs his arm before forcing it behind his back, driving him down onto his face as Davy hollers and thrashes. Silas pins the man there as he pulls the knife out of his pants and presses it against Davy's throat.

"You are not in charge here," Silas growls, voice low and deep as Davy whines beneath him.

Would… Would it be weird to say that was really sexy?

"Damn, Silas," Madden mutters. "Callisto's over here prepared to jump on your ass, and the look on his face tells me he doesn't mind if Dickhead and I are in the room or not."

I quickly change my expression, even more so when a damn horde of mice come over and start chewing on the ropes around my wrist.

"Why do you want the coin and body?" Silas asks.

Davy snarls at Silas until Silas twists the cutters that are still protruding from Davy's side.

"Fuck! We were told to get them!" Davy cries.

"Who told you?" Silas asks.

"Fuck you."

"I'm going to go find the son. He seems like an idiot and will spill," Silas says as he ties him up. "Madden, can you go call a guard?"

"Of course," he says as he rushes off, also freed from his binds by his… interesting friends. It's weird how if he'd have called them from the beginning, we could have avoided a lot of trauma.

It doesn't take him long to get a guard down here.

Then Silas rushes through the shop, only stopping long enough to pick up a pretty nice saddle that I'd noticed he'd glanced at the last time he'd come in. He seems to think it's now his and carries it off on our way to find Ned.

"Here, you can carry my new saddle after traumatizing me," Silas orders Madden.

Madden looks shocked. "Traumatizing? If it weren't for me, you two shits would still be down there!"

"He's right," I say. "I mean… both of you played a really good role in freeing us. I just sat there and cheered you on."

Madden decides that means I should carry the saddle, then. We hurry toward the castle, but really, we didn't need to go far because the next time we see Ned, he's screaming and running across the yard as Dandelion stalks after him.

Clearly, the bird wasn't filling enough.

Dandelion tears him to the ground before shifting back into a human. "I do not like you and would like to murder you, but I will ask my papa first if I can." He grabs him by the ankle as he sees us approaching and starts trotting toward us, dragging the flailing and screaming man after him while others watch in confusion.

"Don't murder him!" I order. "We need to speak to him."

"Ah. Then I can murder him!" Dandelion says, seemingly thrilled by this.

"Like you murdered my sweet little Beatrice," Madden whispers. I guess the bird has now been given a name.

"Who?" Dandelion asks.

"My bird! The one I sent you to be like ‘Hey, we're in trouble! Come save us!' before you… before you ate her." Madden dramatically grabs his chest. Honestly, we're quite the spectacle.

Dandelion seems thoughtful, making me wonder how many he's consumed before going, "Oh, that bird. I didn't eat it. I maybe put it in my mouth and was going to eat it, but there were so many feathers."

"You didn't eat her?" Madden asks, looking relieved.

"No, I didn't want to eat the feathers, so I put it under my shirt to have the chef cook it up later," Dandelion says as he points to his shirt that's moving around on the ground.

Madden growls at him as he runs over and frees the rather confused bird. She fluffs up her feathers but looks no worse for wear as she flies off, relieved to live another day. Madden thumps Dandelion on the nose. "Don't you dare eat one of my birds again, do you understand?"

Dandelion looks a little flustered as he rubs his nose. "I guess… fine. I didn't know it was such a big deal." He stares at Madden a little longer, maybe not quite disliking him as much as he once did.

"What the hell is going on?" Markson asks as he comes running up. "I heard that there was a naked man dragging another man across the courtyard."

"That's what we'd like to know as well," Silas says as he keeps Ned pinned to the ground.