"But Reed, what if he tries to escape again!" Spade says, hoping to stay and learn a little bit more about whatever secret goings on Reed is involved in. 

"If he tries to escape," Reed says, fidgeting with the object in his hand, "then I will stop him. Easily. But if he somehow manages to get past me, then you'll be much better placed to stop him from escaping if you're by the entrance than in the cell with me, especially if you lock the dungeon. Besides," he adds, "I would prefer to not be disturbed, just in case there are any other agents lurking about, possibly looking to free him. Can I trust you to do that for me?" 

Other agents?! "Of course, Reed!" Spade says quickly. "I'll make sure no one gets in!" He hurries off to do just that, locking the dungeon behind him. 

Reed fidgets with the object a bit more while waiting for Spade to lock the door, and Iris may catch a glimpse or two. It's a pair of stones or jewels about the size of a large cherry, both perfectly round and smooth. One stone is crystal clear, the other is milky and clouded, and both of them are set opposite each other in some sort of golden metal, like jewels set into a ring. Except where the ring would normally be there's just the other stone, just two stones set in the metal. 

She'll get an even better look at it when, after Spade locks the dungeon closed, Reed touches the clear stone to the top of her head and she quickly transforms back into her human shape. 

Murderous glaring ensues.

"Very amusing," he says, in response to her glaring. "But staring at me won't avail you of much. Why don't we start over from where we were this morning. What did I miss? What did you see that broke the spell on you?" 

"Go jump in the lake."

Reed sighs.

"I'm very sorry to have put you in this position," he says, "but this alliance is just much too important to Golden Fields and by extension Silver Lake to allow your romantic relationship to jeopardize it, and the spell was a measure of last resort. I may have... panicked a bit this morning when I saw you returning, but that's only because I don't want to damage your mind by repeatedly casting it on you, or upset your parents at the prospect. If you tell me where whatever triggered your memories is, I can destroy it myself, and all of this can be as forgotten as a dream." 

"Eat dirt! Even if I knew what you were talking about, why would I tell you anything? You turned me into a swan!" Should she point out that turning her into a swan nearly got her killed? Probably not; she expects all of his possible solutions to this problem will be awful.

Carefully, "I turned you into a swan so I could be sure that the prince couldn't see you and regain his memory, since, knowing how you are, that's exactly what you were planning to do, and both your and his parents were very adamant about how important this alliance is. Also," he adds, wincing at the memory, "you punched me in the nose. I might have not been thinking entirely clearly at that point." 

"Regardless, as you can see, I can turn you back to human without difficulty. If you cooperate, this can all be resolved quite quickly, and you won't remember a thing about being a swan. All you need to do is tell me what triggered the memories, and everything will be fine." 

"Nothing triggered any memories!! I snuck back to see the Festival because I like the Festival and I don't like doing what my parents tell me, and then you caught me at the secret passage and acted all crazy at me and when I tried to run you turned me into a bird!! For all I know you're making up this business about the prince! What would I want with some dumb prince anyway, he probably has bad breath and is mean to his horses!"

"What were you doing in the palace after you escaped, then? And why did you escape in the first place? And why did you scare the King of Autumn Hills off of his horse??" Reed doesn't believe her, even though he supposes it's possible she's telling the truth. But even if she is it hardly matters at this point, he'll have to wipe a couple of days anyways, and any memories of the prince as well, just to be certain. 

"I can't POSSIBLY imagine what reason I might have for escaping someone who turned me into a BIRD and keeps talking about making HOLES in my BRAIN like that's a normal and reasonable thing to do to your princess. Twit."

Sigh. So much for that tactic. He really hadn't been thinking clearly at the time or watching his tongue, given that all of this was going to be wiped regardless. Does he care enough about pretending to keep up the story? 

"It will in fact fill your brain with holes if I have to keep wiping your memory," Reed says, "and I would prefer not to have to do that. Even if it would make you significantly less frustrating to deal with. If you don't tell me what exactly triggered your memories -- I assume you found a portrait tucked away in your things somewhere, yes? -- then before I remove all memories of this encounter, and anything else that doesn't belong, there will be a sudden terrible fire in your rooms that leaves all your things in ashes. I'm sure the poor maid will be very apologetic, but it's the only way to make sure you don't run across whatever-it-is again. I'd rather not do this again every few months, and neither, for that matter, would your brain. So please, just tell me." 

"Go! Jump! In! The lake! Burn down the whole castle if you feel like it, it's clear nobody's going to stop you! You're an awful person and I hope you fall down the stairs!"

"You are so... frustrating!" He lifts a hand to twist her arm behind her back... and pauses. There's still some benefit to maintaining a story at this point over torture, and a broken arm would be harder to explain away. Even if he wants to present everything all tied up in a neat little bow... it may be better to go and ask for advice and counsel. Even if that means admitting to mistakes that are not fully rectified. 

Even if they're not fully rectified, they're under control at the very least. She'll at least be happy with him for controlling the situation. 

"Fine, you're angry, I understand that," Reed says, lowering his arm. "I'll give you some time to cool off. But I still can't have you looking like yourself at the moment, even down here, not with the prince around." Or with Spade, for that matter. "I'll be back in a few hours or so, and then maybe we can have a more amiable and productive discussion. Do please stop trying to escape, you're just going to make things more difficult for yourself."  

She utters an impressively accurate rendition of the Terrifying Swan Hiss.

Reed is taken aback by the sound, but only a little. He sighs, touches the milky stone to Iris' forehead, and watches as she turns back into the swan. "I'm very sorry about this," he lies, "but it's necessary. I should be back in a few hours." He closes the cell door behind him and exits the spell area so he can fetch Spade. 

Grumbly swan noises.

Only once Spade has entered the dungeon and properly re-locked her cell does he releases her from the paralysis spell. Then, after a quick word with Spade, he exits the dungeon, doing his best to figure out the best way to explain all of this to Nightingale and Juniper and Diamond (maybe not Diamond, he doesn't need to know that Iris is responsible for scaring him off the horse) as he walks, to make it completely clear that this was him making the best of a bad situation. Which it is. 

She waits until she is thoroughly alone in the dungeon before resuming her work on the bar. The rust doesn't seem to go as far up as she'd hoped, but if she can wear it down enough to get it completely unseated from the floor, she might be able to shove it far enough out of the way to escape into the next cell. After that... well, if she's lucky, the next cell will be unlocked, and she can get out into the corridor between the cells and maybe find a way past the door. If not... she'll think of something.

This will take her a couple of hours to complete, but eventually with enough work the rust on the metal bar and the crumbled stone around it gives her enough leverage to shear off the bottom of the bar, all before Reed returns. It will take some effort, but she can push it far enough to one side to be able to squeeze through into the next cell. 

That cell too, however, is locked. 

She investigates the second cell's bars, and finds nothing as promising as the bar she's already broken.

She hooks the broken bar back into place as best she can and covers the broken bits with lichen, just to add a little extra confusion to the mix.

So, now what? She's outside the original cell, but she's still locked in.

...but this way, she can make noise—and she can make it without revealing the ability to stick her neck through the bars.

A plan begins to form.

She makes the loudest swanly noises she is capable of. (At that kind of volume, she no longer sounds like any swan she's ever met, but presumably if you got one mad enough, they would sound like this.)

Spade, who has been starting to get bored of doing nothing while guarding again, even with the appeal of having someone (something?) to guard, jolts at the noise and turns around. And curses. 

"What the... How did you manage to get into there?" He looks around wildly. No one is coming, at least not that he can hear -- not over the swan's noises, in any case, but it's possible it's only a matter of time. "Be quiet!!" he whisper-shouts into the dungeon, trying to determine what to do next. 

How about, instead of being quiet, she YELLS SOME MORE. And waves her wings aggressively.