Rising Shadows

Percy woke up and groaned at the sore feeling he had all over his body, holding his head and squeezing his eyes shut as his stomach did a backflip. He sat up and groggily looked around, frowning as he realized that he was on the floor of a cold, dark jail cell. The memories of what happened before he was knocked unconscious rushed back to him, and he stood a little too quickly, losing his balance and holding onto the iron bars for support as he looked around. There were a few other occupied cells, most of the others looking filthy, and like they’d been starved and beaten until there wasn’t an ounce of hope left in them.

His head snapped up when he heard a voice come from the top of the stairs, which was undoubtedly Emily. She sounded angry, and there was a second voice arguing on her side, which must have been Luke. Percy listened closely, trying to make out what they were trying to say.

“You have to let me down there, I’m his fiance!”

“I can’t do that, miss. I’m sorry.”

“Haven’t you ever been in love before? He doesn’t even know what he’s been charged with!”

“Miss, I’m not supposed to-”

“Please!”

The guard she was arguing with went silent, and Percy backed away from the bars and sank down to the floor again as he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. One pair practically ran down, and Percy was afraid Emily was going to tumble down head first the way she was jumping down the stairs two at a time. She spotted Percy and ran to his cell, reaching through the bars to take his hand, tears welling up in her eyes. Luke and the guard came a few seconds later, watching the two of them. The guard sighed and unlocked the cell, sliding it open to let Luke and Emily in, locking it behind them.

“You three have five minutes,” he said sternly. “No funny business, or you’ll be locked up, too.”

With that, he left. Emily threw herself at Percy, kissing all over his face and holding her arms so tightly around his neck that he thought he might suffocate. Luke looked concerned too, touching Emily’s shoulder lightly.

“Listen, I don’t mean to ruin this moment, but we only have a little bit of time to find out how we’re going to get him out of here,” Luke reminded them.

“You’ve been charged for piracy, treason, and murder,” Emily told him with a sigh, pulling away slightly, lowering her voice to a whisper so no one else could hear. “It’s been years. Who would give up your name like that?”

“I don’t know,” Percy grumbled, sitting down on the ground. “Better question is how they found proper backing for the accusations.”

“Something about Port Nuxvar?” Emily pointed out.

Percy suddenly turned pale, remembering the last time he had been arrested, in a small port town called Nuxvar. He’d made it all the way to the gallows with a rope around his neck when Colt suddenly intervened with a fake alibi to get Percy out of the situation. With those records in hand, it wouldn’t have been difficult at all to convince the authorities of Percy’s crimes.

“You need an alibi,” Luke pointed out. “Know anyone?”

“No one in town will take my side,” Percy sighed, shaking his head. “I wasn’t even here. Why would they?”

“What about the rest of your relatives?” Emily asked. “Doesn’t your mother have family somewhere in the East?”

“They'll never take me in, even if my mother used to be one of them," Percy said, shaking his head. "Not only did she leave them, but she left them for my father. And they're well aware of who my father is. He left them, too."

"Well, what about Cat in France?" Luke suggested

"Absolutely not," Percy snapped. "She'll ruin everything."

"France?" Emily asked, perking up. "Who's Cat?"

Percy groaned, but Luke ignored him, continuing.

"He's never told you about Catarina?" Luke asked, raising an eyebrow. "He has a cousin in France. They used to be thick as thieves."

"I didn't even know he had a cousin."

"She's awful," Percy muttered. "Takes her life way too seriously and always depends on someone else to hold her hand and do everything for her."

"Percy, you two had plans to go to France together," Luke reminded him. "You didn't end up going with her, obviously, but you did leave at the same time. If she says you were with her the whole time, then you have your alibi."

"She'll never do it," Percy said, getting annoyed now. "You're going to ask her to come all the way here to save my sorry behind? She'll never do it. She won't even believe I'm actually getting married."

"Why wouldn't she?" Emily frowned.

"Think about the man I was when you first met me," Percy told her. "Did I really seem like a man who ever intended on committing to someone? That's the man she thinks I am. She'll never believe what I've become."

"We'll make her believe," Emily insisted. "Percy, she could be our only chance. I'm not just going to sit here and wait until someone feels bad for me and let's you go. And I refuse to watch you get hanged."

"Fine," Percy sighed. "But if she says no, don't be too surprised. She's horrible."

"I'll go and tell them I have proof of your alibi, and beg for time to go get her," Emily started.

“Alright,” Percy said, closing his eyes to think for a minute. “I know a man who works with cargo ships on the docks. Tell him I sent you, and that you need to go to France. Don’t tell them anything else, he doesn’t need to know why you need to go. And Emily, you need to pretend to be Luke’s sister, or they won’t let you on the ship in the first place. They’ll just ask a lot of questions. Just keep it as simple as you can. His name is Clyde Hunt.”

Just then, the guard returned, nodding for Emily and Luke to get up and go. Emily pouted, but he wasn’t having it. Luke got up, but Emily lingered, squeezing his hand so hard he thought it might break. She sighed and stood up with him, tightly hugging him and burying her face into his chest as if trying not to cry. He leaned back and tilted her chin up to look at him, wiping a tear off her cheek with his thumb.

“Hey now, none of that,” he said softly. “Don’t you postpone anything, either. I have faith in you. If you can’t do it, no one can.”

She smiled and nodded, pulling him down to kiss him one last time. When she pulled away, he felt her subtly slip something small into his pocket, lightly touching his cheek before the guard finally made her get out and locked Percy back in. He watched her leave with Luke, but as soon as she was gone, he suddenly felt colder and lonelier than he’d ever felt in his life. He stuck his face through the bars to look around, seeing another prisoner was staring back at him.

“You’re never getting out of here, mate,” he said.

Percy reached into his pocket and pulled out what Emily had slipped in there, smiling when he saw one of the glass discs they used to keep in touch with Ben and Scarlett on occasion. Or in Emily’s case, to bother them until they brought Gigi over so she could so how much the little girl grew in the first two and a half years of her life. He cracked a smile, slipping it back into his pocket and looking at the other prisoner.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”