Leona ran to the cell, tears welling up in her eyes, as Selia stretched her arms through the bars of the cell.

“Grandma!” Leona shrieked. She then spotted her grandfather sitting behind her grandmother. Yolance’s eyes widened at the sight of his granddaughter.

“Leona!” he breathed, emotion flooding into his voice as she scuttled beside his wife, he gripped the iron bars and looked disbelievingly into Leona’s face.

“I’ll get you out,” Leona said, her eyes surveying the edge of the cell door. She did not find the hinges nor did she find any lock.

Leona swore as her hands flitted over the edges of the door once more.

“Leona,” Tavus whispered behind her, “I’ll go look for the King. Do you know what he looks like?”

“I have no idea,” Leona said hastily, as she proceeded to melt the bars with her power. The bars glowed white with heat and let off steam.

Selia gasped, “You must mean the gentleman over there!” she pointed to the topmost row to the cells opposite them.

“How will we get all the way up there?” Tavus breathed. Leona turned to the iron bars of her grandparents’ cell. She prayed that the metal will melt quickly enough…

Finally, after several breathless minutes, a number of bars fell to the dungeon floor with a loud clang. Leona helped her grandparents out of the cage that detained them for many months.

Selia wrapped her arms around Leona and she in turn held her grandmother tightly.

“I thought we’ll never see you again,” Selia sobbed. “But how did you get here? Who helped you? Was it Yanda?” she said, looking up at Leona in awe.

Leona hesitated, “Yes, it was – Yanda. But that’s not his real name. I’ll explain later when we get back to –,” she stopped, looking up at the topmost row of cells opposite them. “Tavus, what are you doing?”

Tavus had managed to clamber up the cells and hung from the iron bars, with only the narrow ledge keeping him from falling into the stone beneath.

He turned to Leona with a wide grin on his face.

“I’ve found King Jamori!” he announced, “Leona, can you burn the bars from there?”

Leona stared at him, transfixed, and then nodded her head nervously.

“Yes,” she said waveringly, “Yes, I think I can. Ask him to step back.”

Tavus turned back to the cell and muttered to the person inside. Leona couldn’t see the King just yet.

When Tavus had safely transferred his grip away from the iron bars, Leona pointed both her palms to the cell several feet above them, and thought hard.

A jet of white light struck the bars with a bang and the iron bars fell to the stone ground below them with a loud sound that echoed around the chamber. Centuries of undisturbed dust shook from the nooks and crannies at the sudden tremor.

Tavus nimbly leapt into the cell and came back after a few seconds with a bundle of cloth in his arms, like a goat swathed in a blanket.

Something snapped behind Leona’s mind.

That can’t be the King… Or is that really him?

The ground shook as Tavus leapt the distance from the cells. He let the little bundle on the ground. The bulky blanket sprouted feet and staggered as he tried to stand up.

Leona gasped as the bundle sprouted hands, too and lowered the cloth from his head.

A balding green head appeared and a tiny, wrinkled green face looked up at Leona. He had a long graying beard. But his eyes had the same intensity of those of Evra’s and Erfla’s. King Jamori bowed down low on the ground. Selia gripped her husband’s arm as she gaped at the faery wordlessly.

“Bright one,” the King said in deep, rich tones that betrayed his meager appearance.

“I am beside myself with joy for your rescue. I am King Jamori the six-hundred-and-seventy-fifth. It is an honor, mighty Shaeryva.”

Leona blanched. “Um – you’re welcome.”

Selia’s eyes darted from Leona to her husband.

“It’s true then,” she whispered to him.

Selia looked at Leona with sorrow in her eyes. “Leona…” her husband finished her statement for her.

“There are – things – that we need to tell you, Leona,” Yolance said grimly.

“Things?” Leona repeated in disbelief.

Had my grandparents known everything about me all along?

“What things?” she demanded as the ground shook again, harder this time.

Yolance hesitated, “We’ll tell you when it’s at the appropriate time,” he said.

“Tell me!” Leona shrieked, another wave of tears threatened to burst from her eyes.

Tavus interrupted them as another violent shake toppled the King to the ground.

“I believe that we had better get moving!” he shouted as a distant shouting echoed around the vast cavern.

Leona spun around. “What of the other prisoners?” she asked, “Do we let them out?”

King Jamori answered her, “There are no more other prisoners, bright one,” he wheezed, “They’re all dead.”

Tavus picked him up and prepared to run.

“Well then, I say we get out of here now!”

Leona took her grandparents’ hands and asked them if they can run. They nodded wearily and they followed Tavus’ lead.

They ran out of the prison chambers and struggled back the path they had taken. The ground was shaking ferociously now, and bits of the rock ceiling were pelting them with dust and tiny stones.

“Leona, hurry!” Tavus called from up ahead. “I think the fortress is going to collapse!”

“Nay,” the little King said, grabbing Tavus’ shoulder and looking ahead.

They ran as fast as they could as the air became humid and made it difficult to breathe.

Leona shook her head furiously as visions clouded her eyes.

They saw people up ahead – Abocer’s troops.

The female officers were with him, fighting hard. One of them was wounded, but seemed not to mind.

Tavus called out to them and they glanced at him, shock spreading across their faces as they saw their long lost King.

“Call off the troops!” Abocer roared as he plunged his halberd into the chest of a young Dravuhl behind him.

There was a deafening clamor as the news gave the faeries a boost of strength. The faeries came over towards Leona and the others. They pulled them through the crowd into the safety of their troops.

The healers tended to the King and Selia. Leona’s heart faltered. Yolance was nowhere in sight.

“Tavus!” she screamed at her best friend desperately.

“What?” he said looking up from the King who was now in the arms of the healers.

Leona looked about frantically. Her grandfather was behind her all the time when they had left the prison chambers.

He must’ve got separated from us when we passed through the troops…

A loud and disturbingly-familiar voice broke through the ruckus of the fighting.

It came from a dais in the back of the main hall.

“Is this what you are looking for, goddess?” the voice said.

Dreading what she’ll see next, Leona spun around and gasped as she saw her grandfather kneeling down on the dais. Someone was holding on to the scruff of his neck, holding a wicked halberd with his free hand.