Free Elf Saga: Bloodlines (Part 1: Curse of the Jaguar) by Joseph Robert Lewis Page A

chains, Miss Marev. They were made specifically
to restrain your mother, if she ever returned. Forged by the
alchemists of Aztera, and cursed by Drogori witches. They are,
quite simply, unbreakable. Apparently, Lozen has made many powerful
enemies over the years, and they were all rather eager to help us
capture her.”
    I rattle the chains just to make some noise.
“Well, they’re very pretty. I don’t usually wear a lot of jewelry,
but I think I can pull these off. Literally.”
    “I doubt it,” she says.
    I stand up and wrench my arms upward, and the
cursed chains rip the iron ring out of the floor of my cage.
“Oops.”
    She sighs. “You’re still bound, and only I
have the keys.” She holds up a ring of gleaming steel keys, and
then slips them into her pocket.
    I glance at the two bodyguards across the
room and call out, “You guys know she wants us to help her escape
the palace, right?”
    “Oh, they know,” Princess Amara says loudly.
“And they’ll do everything in their power to stop me. Isn’t that
right, Obatunde?”
    The taller warrior nods and calls back, “Yes,
Your Highness. As ordered by Her Majesty.”
    I roll my eyes. “You people are crazy.”
    “Not at all.” Amara yawns, which devolves
into a hacking cough. “My apologies, but I’m afraid I’ve grown a
bit fatigued. Perhaps I’ll come visit you tomorrow and see how you
feel about helping me then.”
    Her exit is painfully slow and annoying, and
when she finally steps out of the room and closes the door, an
angry mutter runs through the other prisoners.
    I glance over at Rajani. “Sorry about this.”
I give the chains a serious pull, but they don’t budge, not even
bending a little. “Not sure how I’m going to get us out of this
one.”
    “Uhm, well, I probably could, if I could
think straight.”
    “Really? How?”
    She reaches up into her hood and pokes out
one of her faeries. The little sprite takes one frightened look
around at the iron cage, and then dives back into the girl’s green
hair.
    I glance down at the iron ring jangling on my
steel chains. Then I stand at the bars of my cage and reach out
toward her. “Take my hand.”
    She gets up slowly, then comes toward me and
reaches for my hand. We can’t quite reach.
    “Okay, hang on a second.” I jog back across
my cage and it swings slightly, and I jog forward again and it
swings a bit more. Eight more laps and my cage is swinging enough
for me to reach out and grab Rajani’s hand, and then pull her
closer so I can grab the bars of her cage.
    “Stand back.” I grab the bars in my hands and
pull.
    They don’t bend quickly or very far, but they
do bend, and after a lot of grunting and sweating and hurting my
hands, the bars are bent wide enough for her to fit through.
    She frowns at me, and down at the bubbling
oil below us. “Now what?”
    I roll my eyes. Letting go of her cage, I
grab the bars of my own cell and wrench them apart too, and when
the cages swing together again, I grab onto hers and she stumbles
across the gap into my cage, and we swing away.
    “Okay, let’s go.” I hold up my cuffed hands
to her.
    She blinks drunkenly at me. “I told you, I
can’t.”
    “But you’re closer now.”
    “I don’t need to be closer to you, Gen, I
need to be farther from all this iron. I’m still in a metal cage.”
She rubs her eyes and wobbles on her feet, threatening to fall
over. “I’m gonna barf. Ugh, I hate barfing.”
    I dash to the front of my cage and bend the
bars open there, and then wave her forward. “Here, come on, just
jump onto the stone path and then you’re clear of the metal.”
    She leans against me, staring through the
bent bars. “I can’t make that jump.”
    “You can’t…?” I frown, scoop her up in my
arms, squeeze us both halfway through the bars, and then I
jump.
    The cage swings violently backward, and we
don’t go nearly as far as I was planning, but we make it to the
edge of the walkway, and I quickly kneel down and