Emily was barely aware of it as she held the charmed parchment in one hand and reached out with her mind, trying to peer down the link towards the parchment’s twin. The magics seemed to flicker around her, as if they were somehow in one place even as they were actually in two places. She was aware of the warehouse, and of the wards surrounding it, but she was also aware of the Tower of Alexis. The Tower’s wards seemed to blaze in her mind, a glowing series of walls…strikingly simple, but also brutally effective. There didn’t seem to be any living mind attached to the wards, as far as she could tell, yet it hardly mattered. The wards did what they were designed to do and did it very well.
“I should be able to take them down from the inside,” she said, as she felt out the exact limits of the wards. It was a curious design, although she’d seen something like it before. A sorcerer would want his wards to be as close to impregnable as possible, but he’d also want to be able to take them down himself in a hurry, if necessary. “When that happens, we’ll have to move.”
“We’re ready,” Jade said. “Go.”
Emily concentrated, trying to reach through the charmed parchment to scan the building for Alassa and Imaiqah. But she sensed nothing, nothing at all. She wasn’t sure if the wards were interfering with the search or not–there appeared to be a number of internal defenses woven into the stone–but it didn’t matter. Unless they weren’t there…she gritted her teeth at the thought. Everyone believed Alassa and Imaiqah had been sent to the Tower, but what if they were wrong?
We have to try, she thought, grimly. And if they’re not in the Tower…at least we’ll know they’re not in the Tower.
She felt out the wards, braced herself…and struck. The wards shuddered, then shattered like glass. Emily sucked in her breath as the secondary wards collapsed too, knowing that it was just a matter of time now. Everyone in the building who had even the slightest sensitivity to magic would know the wards had failed. They would realize they were under attack, even if they didn’t understand how. They’d be rushing to their defensive positions, grabbing weapons and–perhaps–preparing to move or execute the prisoners. Time was definitely not on their side.
“Got them,” she said, as she repeated the blood magic trace. Alassa and Imaiqah were clearly visible in her mind’s eye, both on the fifth floor of the building. She had no idea if that was a good sign or not, but at least they were alive. “I’m opening the portal…now.”
She touched the focusing crystals gently, willing them to come to life. The spellware activated as she started to channel magic from the first battery into the portal spell, hastily fine-tuning the spell to open the portal as close to their targets as possible. She jerked back instinctively as space started to warp in front of her, far too close for comfort. Light twisted right in front of her eyes, bending out of shape as the portal slowly opened. She felt a wave of pain and rapidly tightened her mental defenses before it was too late. She’d forgotten how unpleasant it could be to stand close to a portal.
“By all the gods,” Jade breathed.
Emily nodded, slowly. She’d expected a square of light, just like the portals she’d seen as she explored the Nameless World, but this portal looked like a spinning disk of glowing blue fire. She couldn’t help thinking of a wormhole as it expanded rapidly, tearing a hole through space to reach its destination. Her mental defenses didn’t seem enough, somehow, to keep it from hurting her. The pain wasn’t going to force her to stay behind–she was determined it wouldn’t force her to stay behind–but it was thoroughly unpleasant.
The portal flared, then stabilized. Emily peered through and saw a stone corridor, lined with portraits and tapestries. She felt a flicker of disappointment that they hadn’t managed to open the portal right into Alassa’s bedroom, but it couldn’t be helped. They’d done something wonderful and she knew it. No one could have expected them to tear down the defenses and open a portal right into the middle of the building.
“We have to move,” Jade said. “I’ll go first.”
He ran forward before Emily could say a word, jumping through the portal and landing neatly on the far side. Emily saw him stagger, just for a second, then look around. The portal had to be hurting him too, she realized. It felt odd to realize that their magic–a combination of magic from all three of them–could be hurtful. But then, she’d never been quite sure precisely why portals hurt strong magicians. Perhaps it was the awareness that local space was twisted and bent out of shape.
“Go,” Cat ordered.
The Levellers moved forward, jumping rather than stepping through the portal. Emily didn’t blame them. The portal wasn’t precisely at floor level and she suspected the edge of the portal would cut a careless man in half. It wasn’t something she’d had to worry about before, but this was new. They’d changed the world…
She braced herself, then jumped through too. Cat followed her a moment later. There was an odd moment of disorientation, as if the gravity had suddenly stopped working, then she landed on the stone floor. The Tower of Alexis looked…odd. Emily had been expecting shadowy corridors and iron doors, like the dungeons under the castle, but instead…the building was more like a comfortable guardpost than anything else. It wasn’t as comfortable as a mansion, she supposed, yet…it was more comfortable than any prison she’d ever seen. But then, most of the prisoners were aristocrats. Randor wouldn’t want to keep them in chains, fed on bread and water. They were too high-born for common prisons.
“Secure the stairwells,” Cat ordered, as Jade performed a series of searching charms. “Don’t let anyone come up or down the stairs.”
Emily looked around carefully, noting the oddities of the building’s design. It was…it was something nagging at the edge of her mind, something subtly wrong about the whole thing. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but…but it was there. The building was more than a little disconcerting.
“This way,” Jade ordered. “Hurry!”
Emily followed him down the corridor, magic at the ready. The building only became odder the further they moved from the portal, the corridors elongating in all directions. A large-scale labyrinth charm? Emily doubted anyone could make it work on such a large scale without a nexus point, but she was living proof that someone could come up with a new way to do something. The angles seemed odd, as if the building had been put together by someone who didn’t quite know what they were doing. And yet, it felt reassuringly solid.
And big, Emily thought. She’d known the Tower was large, but she hadn’t realized just how large it was on the inside until they’d forced their way into the building. She would have wondered if it wasn’t another pocket dimension if she wasn’t certain the power requirements would be impossibly high. Where are they?
They turned the corner and ran into a pack of guards. Jade growled and lashed out with his magic, slamming an overpowered force punch into their bodies. Emily winced as they were picked up, thrown down the corridor and smashed against the far wall. Charmed armor or not, she doubted any of them had survived the experience without broken bones. A handful probably hadn’t survived at all. She gritted her teeth, again, as she heard shouting in the distance, followed by the distinctive sound of flintlocks. Cat and the Levellers seemed to be engaged with the enemy.
And there may be a second way up to this level, Emily thought. She’d never been in the Tower before, but she’d never seen a castle–or a fortress–that didn’t have more than one way to move between levels. The guards will have plenty of time to get up the stairs and take us in the rear.
Jade cursed. “They’re scrambling my spells,” he said. “Give me a hand.”
Emily closed her eyes and concentrated. Subtle magic…there was subtle magic woven into the stone. She studied it for a moment, cursing under her breath. It was a very impressive–and vile–piece of work. Jade’s spells were working, but his ability to perceive what they were telling him was being twisted. They would have stayed walking in circles if they hadn’t realized what was going on.
“Subtle magic,” she said. She looked down at her chest. The rune was quiet. “I…I don’t know how we missed it.”