(Oh, my god. We're all falling to bits today, aren't we?)
When the potion had taken it's course enough that Aery could actually move without crying, she forced herself to her feet and searched about for clothing. Thankfully, all of the stuff she'd brought with her had been transferred to the closets in this room. She carefully took a sponge-bath, not trusting the new flesh to hold. When she was mostly cleaned she gingerly put on her white spidersilk tunic and leggings, her cloth-of-silver boots, the silver sash, the long dagger and two short daggers. She happened to see her reflection in the mirror and froze. Her long hair... She'd never cut it her whole life, and now it was all singed away, maybe an inch long at it's longest. The still-healing wounds were livid against her bone-pale skin. But there was nothing to be done about that now.
At last she slung her longbow over her shoulder, though she doubted she had the strength to draw it, and her quiver. The silver armguards went over the sleeves of her tunic, the poison needles went into the special sheaths in them. A stiletto knife in either boot and one on the inside of each armguard. The silver mask she tied firmly over her eyes. Not as a disguise, but rather to make an impression, because she was mad, and wanted the whole town to know it. The ice-eyed little girl all decked out in white and silver and bristling with weapons, like an angel of death. She'd certainly make an impression on the townspeople.
She checked the water clock on the table next to her. She still had four hours before Rowan would come check on her, plenty of time to go find Celaena. She couldn't believe that Celaena had just gone after those guards by herself with no backup.
"Aery, ye should no be outa bed. Like as no ye're gonna sneak out an' try to find Celaena. Bu' not without me." Silly had come into the room.
"And not without me, either. We owe it to Celaena. And either you take me with you, and I keep quiet, or you try to leave me here, and I scream for Master Rowan and he'll be on you before you leave this room. Your choice." Ame had at least uncovered her eyes, though she was still never looking at either of them.
Aery sighed. "Alright. But it'll be dangerous. You saw what they did to me, didn't you." It was a statement, not a question.
"Aye, mum. Bu' I'm willin' t'risk it sos that I can help ye."
"Yes, Aery. I'm not afraid of pain. If I were I'd have died in the gutter when I was two. Besides, as mad as I am now I apparently kill people just by looking at them. If that's not useful I don't know what is."
She knelt and hugged the girls. "Then arm up. Oh, yeah." She went over to the bedside table, took the flask that held the healing potion, shook it slightly. It was still mostly full. She tucked that into a pocket on the inside of her sash, then went to help the girls arm up. She even let them both wear their masks. She braided a spiked cord into Ame's hair, so that no one could grab her by it, put metal-reinforced throat guards on them. Each was bristling with weaponry; Silly with her knives and throwing stars, Ame with needles and a mini crossbow and her deadly stare.
Aery popped open the window, checking to make sure she was on the ground floor. She jumped out, then turned around and helped both of the little ones. Once they were out, she tried to get her bearings. There--that alleyway was where she'd been when the person had jumped her. A window was open, just a bit further down it. There was also a spattering of blood... Blood? Probably that was where Celaena had taken her out of. She bit her lip to fight of the sudden surge of fear. "Okay, girls, I bet they're in there. I'm going in, you guys just stand guard, okay?"
"Yes mum." Silly said, softly.
"Ame? What about you?"
But there was no answer. Aery turned to see a teenaged boy, probably fifteen or sixteen, with his hand over Ame's mouth and a dagger to the girl's throat. Another about the same age tried to grab her, but she spun and kicked him hard in a not-so-polite place to kick, and he dropped. Silly went to launch herself at the one holding Ame, and Aery had to grab her to keep her from getting killed. "No, Silenia. Stop."
The boy chuckled. "Clever girl. You know why your little one isn't struggling, don't you?" Ame, who'd had nearly closed eyes, heard the voice and instantly her eyes went wide and she made eye contact with Aery. Aery flinched, but she didn't have to worry. It was fear, not anger, in Ame's eyes.
"My darling Amethystia. I thought I'd taught you your lesson; no matter how often you escape, no matter how far and long you run, we'll find you. We always have." The boy's hand, which had been covering Ame's mouth, slipped down, caressing her throat and her chest. "And now we have you, and this time we'll never let you go. And now you're old enough that we can have our way with you without needing to worry about killing you, isn't that right? Didn't Ellie and Lynn tell you, what we did with them? Didn't they tell you how they grew to enjoy it?" Aery went to launch herself at the boy, drawing a dagger, but he made eye contact with her even as he pressed the blade to Ame's throat tighter.
"I wouldn't do that, pretty girl. Because you are pretty, even mangled and with such short hair. You'd be a welcome addition to my collection too." Instinctively Aery rolled to the side, launching to her feet a split second later and ramming her head into her attacker's nose. She whirled, but it was just the boy she'd kicked. Based on the amount of blood pouring from his nose, she doubted he'd ever get up again.
And then she had another problem. Silly stumbled against her, then fell to the ground unconscious. Aery took half a breath in; a cloyingly sweet smell filled her mind. A drug, of course. She launched herself halfheartedly at Ame's assailant, but the drug weighed her limbs down and she fell to the ground again. Just before the blackness overwhelmed her the man with the blood-red mask loomed over her.
"Well done. We'll make sure that she doesn't get out this time. As for the other two, consider them your reward. Do whatever you'd like to with them." He chuckled, and so did the boy holding Ame. He picked Silly up as well, shaking her like a broken rag-doll, and carried them under his arms as he walked out of the alley, whistling a tune. He could have just been a cousin carrying his little cousins back home after a temper tantrum; that was certainly a common enough sight.
Ame looked back at Aery's prone form and held her hand out, palm up. Aery knew what she wanted; a poison needle to the hand and a merciful end. But Aery couldn't move at all. She was forced to watch and see Ame's violet eyes fill with tears before the boy turned the corner, forced to see Silly's hand flung out in a gesture of farewell. And then they were gone, and then Aery's eyes went black too.