She held a hand over her candle, blocking her face from the glare of its light. Siles didn't need to see her face, though. The imprisoned girl had already told them the name of her friend. The friend brought a new book each week, exchanging it for the old. Siles imagined this week's book was in the cloth bag hanging at her side.

Ten steps away from them, the book-dealer stopped. She stared at Siles and August. They stared back. Nobody spoke until the girl in the cell across from theirs offered a remark which they had heard many times before.

"Wow! You guys look like you could be related."

Sonia looked surprisingly unsurprised. She didn't even look angry, as she had every time Siles had seen her in the past. Instead, she looked sad. She walked the remaining distance to the girl's cell and passed a new book through the bars, taking back the old one. "Good morning, Penelope," she said.

"So it's morning?" Penelope asked. "What did the sunrise look like?"

Sonia smirked. "Like if a giant beast puked red and purple into the sky."

"Nasty. Nice." Penelope grinned at her then examined the new book in her hands. It was thicker than the other one. Hopefully she would still be able to hide it when the guards passed by.

"How did you end up here?" August asked. He glanced at Siles. "Didn't you capture her?"

Siles nodded. "I did. But the dungeon guards never mentioned an escape."

Sonia shrugged. "I escaped a few weeks ago. The guards were probably too scared to tell you." She paused, wringing her hands as she considered her words. Finally, she admitted, "It's probably my fault you're here."

Siles and August exchanged a glance. Siles had seen Sonia as a threat to August's reign, but not in this way. Last time he had checked, she hadn't had any kind of connection to kingdoms outside their own. She was supposed to be a minor threat to sweep under the rug, like a crushed cockroach. Cockroaches weren't supposed to be capable of poisonings and kidnappings.

"How?" Siles asked. He was beginning to wonder if the sedative was affecting his memory, since he had never had so many questions before his arrival in the dungeons.

Sonia shrugged again. She wouldn't meet his gaze, as if she felt genuinely guilty about their capture. "I ran into Queen Thalia after I escaped. She asked me about the kingdom and you guys and... well, I've done a lot of research on all of that. I told her that you two were more peaceful than the others. And I told her about your magic resistance. I doubt she would have captured you otherwise. I wasn't going to tell her. But she promised to rescue my friends."

"Did she?" August asked. They had no way of knowing if her friends had escaped when they hadn't even known that Sonia had escaped.

Sonia shook her head. "No. Once I told her everything I knew, she let me ride along to her kingdom then dropped me and ignored me. I helped Penelope with her resistance effort, but that obviously ended badly." She nodded apologetically in Penelope's direction.

Penelope waved a hand. "It's alright. At least they never figured out you were a part of it."

"So you don't have to sneak in here? They trust you?" Siles asked.

Sonia nodded. "They're pretty relaxed about visitors. That, or they just don't expect anything from a teenage girl."

"Probably the latter," Siles said. He rubbed his chin, a plan already forming in his head. "I'm going to ask you a favor, and in return I will release your friends. Unlike Queen Thalia, I can assure you that I'm not lying. August and I have tried very hard to give the commoners more power, and we will continue to do so once August has returned to the throne. We don't want magicians to lose all political power, but based on your support of miss Penelope I trust that you prefer the middle ground as well."

Sonia crossed her arms, the familiar stubbornness returning to her expression. "If you release my friends, you can't make them zombies."

"Zombies?" Siles frowned.

"Remember Brackson? You wiped his rebellious thoughts and sent him walking back to Amery like a mindless zombie."

August squinted for a moment, trying to remember the man Sonia had described. Siles remembered him. He offered another detail to aid August's recollection, "He was the only adult in the group."

"Oh! That one. Yes, we won't do that to your friends. I could also undo the damage to your friend Brackson if you would like."

Sonia considered the offer. "Nah, I'm good. He was bossy."

"So you'll help us?" Siles asked.

"Sure."

"Wonderful. It's going to be a somewhat difficult task. I'm going to need you to replace our food with untainted food. I don't know where the castle kitchens are, or who brings the food down here, but I need to get this poison out of my system if I'm going to escape. It would also be helpful if you would plan an escape route, since I am unfamiliar with everything beyond the dungeons."

"How do I know what is and isn't poisoned?" Sonia asked.

Siles opened his mouth then shut it. "Good point."

"Her thoughts aren't fuzzy," August said. He smiled at Sonia. "And she's going to want us to break miss Penelope out when we escape."

Sonia's nose wrinkled. Siles understood how she felt, now. He hated the idea of August invading his thoughts, and unlike Sonia, he actually liked August. To Sonia, the invasion was probably much worse. Siles cleared his throat. "In that case, whatever food you have been eating isn't poisoned. Replace our food with that food."

Penelope raised her hand like a student in a classroom. They all stared at her so she lowered it. "What? I wanted to add my two cents." She leaned forward and grinned at Sonia. "I know a girl in the kitchens. Her name's Mary Sue. Super pretty, had a blonde bob with bangs last time I saw her. If you hit on her, she'll tell you anything. She might even help you out, but you'll probably have to kiss her for that. Don't do that part in public, though. They're not alright with that here."

Sonia looked like she had seen a ghost. She stammered out some semblance of an answer and practically ran for the dungeon's exit. The breeze of her fast pace blew out her candle, but nonetheless they heard a wooden door slam shut a few moments later. August watched her leave and smirked at Siles. "That's what you looked like when I first asked you out."

Siles pretended to ignore him, though the thought that his terror had been that obvious made him want to cringe. Hopefully Sonia would overcome her nerves. Hopefully they would escape. They had no other choice unless they wanted to join the skeletons haunting the cells around them.