“Lots of real magic going on,” Jade said. He cast the spell, again. “This way.”
Emily followed him, feeling uneasy. Subtle magic was, by nature, hard to detect…but her rune should have been burning brightly, making it impossible for her thoughts to be carefully manipulated. Whoever had designed the Tower had done a very good job of making use of the limited resources at their disposal. Unless…no, there couldn’t be a nexus point anywhere near Alexis. Randor wouldn’t have hesitated to use it to turn his castle into an impregnable fortress.
“She’s in there,” Jade said. “I can feel her!”
“Then let me go first,” Emily said. The door looked harmless–it looked more like a fancy wooden door than something out of a medieval prison–but that only made her more suspicious. And yet, they didn’t have time to hesitate. “I’ll check the lock.”
She tested the door carefully, then frowned. The lock was very simple, so simple she could pick it with her eyes closed. There didn’t seem to be any charms holding it closed either, save for a ward designed to sound the alarm if the door was opened without the key. That was no longer a problem, she was sure. The guards would have to be deaf and dumb as well as blind if they didn’t know they were under attack by now. She probed further, expecting to sense a trap hidden on the far side, but sensed nothing. The door didn’t appear to be very special at all.
We are inside their defenses, I suppose, she thought. But still…
“Watch me,” she ordered, as she picked the lock. It was surprisingly easy. “Here we go…”
She pulled the door open, expecting something to snap out at her at any moment. Instead, she found herself staring into a comfortable suite. It was empty…no, she jumped back, just in time, as a chamberpot nearly brained her. Alassa appeared–she’d been hiding behind the door–and stared at her.
“Emily? Jade?”
“Alassa,” Emily said. “We’ve come to rescue you.”
Alassa looked…different, Emily thought. Her eyes were wider, as if she were desperately tired; her stomach bulging slightly where the baby was growing. Emily glanced past her, sweeping the room for threats, but saw nothing. And yet, Alassa would have found it maddening. It was a very comfortable prison, but a prison nonetheless. A woman as active as Alassa would have found the enforced inactivity tedious beyond belief.
Jade pushed past Emily and swept his wife into a hug. Emily looked away as the hug became a kiss, reminding herself that Jade and Alassa hadn’t seen each other for weeks…and, perhaps, they’d had reason to believe they would never see each other again. She took the scrap of cloth with Tam’s blood out of her pocket and performed a locator spell, then cleared her throat loudly as the kissing started to turn into something more passionate. It was hardly the time or the place.
“We have to find Imaiqah,” she said, as the couple broke apart. “Alassa, do you know where she is?”
“I haven’t seen anyone since I woke up here,” Alassa said, slowly. She sounded weak, her hand twitching uncomfortably. “I don’t know what happened to her.”
Emily performed the locator spell again. This time, it produced a result. “This way,” she said, as another round of gunshots echoed up the stairs. “We have to hurry.”
Alassa coughed. Emily glanced at her as they started to run, worried. Alassa would have been fed all sorts of potions to keep her magic under control. She was not going to have a pleasant time of it as she came off them, Emily guessed. Even with a Healer supervising, Alassa was in for a rough few days. And if she’d become dependent on the potions…Emily knew that Alassa was strong, with a lot of willpower, but there were potions that induced a permanent dependency in anyone unlucky enough to drink them.
“I went after her,” Alassa managed. The building shook, violently. Emily glanced upwards as dust started to drift down from the stone ceiling. What was going on? “I…I got caught and…I’m sorry.”
“You’ll be better after a good meal and a good night’s sleep,” Jade told her. He hadn’t let go of her hand. “We have to move”
Emily nodded to herself as they rounded another corner and discovered another wooden door, with a pair of guards standing in front. The guards snapped up their wands, hurling fireballs down the corridor; Emily threw back a cancelling spell, then a force punch of her own. One of the guards had the presence of mind to grab hold of the door; the other was blasted down the corridor and straight into a wall. Emily hit the door with a blast hex, tossing the guard into the air as the wood shattered; Jade hit him with a series of spells before he could react, overloading and melting his armor. Emily tried not to listen to the screams.
“Imaiqah,” she shouted, as she plunged into the room. “Where are…?”
She stopped in horror. Imaiqah was lying on the bed, wearing a white dress. Her face was badly bruised, one eye clearly bloodied and her nose broken. It looked as though she’d been worked over by experts, time and time again. Emily could sense the traces of healing magic in her body, slowly mending the damage…she swallowed, hard, as the implications dawned on her. Randor had someone who was trained in the healing arts, but not bound by their oaths…
“We’re here to get you home,” she said, although she knew it wasn’t entirely true. Where was Imaiqah’s home these days? “Can you walk?”
Imaiqah shook her head, slowly. Emily frowned, then scanned Imaiqah’s body. There was a nasty looking hex on her tongue, making it impossible to talk. Her legs weren’t broken, but they were so badly battered that walking would be immensely difficult–and painful. Emily pulled back the dress and sucked in her breath. Imaiqah’s legs had been beaten, repeatedly, with sticks. She hadn’t seen anything like it outside the Cairngorms and…she dismissed the thought in a hurry. They’d have to carry Imaiqah to the portal.
“Carry her,” she told Jade. A quiver ran through the air as the wards started to reform. “We have to hurry.”
Jade nodded, passing Alassa one of his wands and then throwing Imaiqah over his right shoulder. It was an undignified position, but Imaiqah was in no state to care. Emily hesitated, then cast a sedation spell on her friend. Imaiqah would be annoyed at her later, she was sure, but there was no choice. Imaiqah was in no state to walk out under her own power.
They hurried out of the room, just in time to hear a line of approaching men. Emily pushed Jade and Alassa forward, hoping that Jade would have the sense to keep going with the former captives, rather than turn to fight. She glanced behind her as the guards came into view, a set of men in charmed armor. Emily shaped a force punch and threw it at them, but she wasn’t entirely surprised when it was deflected harmlessly. The men were completely covered in armor.
“Stop,” the leader shouted. He brandished a wand. “Now!”
Emily braced herself, then mustered the most powerful blasting spell she could and directed it down at the stone floor. It shattered under the impact, the stone collapsing rapidly. The guards fell, their armor suddenly turning into a liability as they tried to grab onto the walls to save themselves. Emily heard them crashing down behind her as they fell, the building shaking again. She blinked as she followed Jade and Alassa…was that her fault? She didn’t think the blasting spell had done that much damage.
Should have transfigured the floor into gunpowder, she thought. Or…
“Shit,” Jade swore, as they passed Alassa’s former cell. “We’re cut off!”
Emily looked past him. Another line of soldiers was advancing towards them, already lifting their weapons. She cursed under her breath, realizing her mistake; she’d left a hole in the floor, making it impossible to get past and around the guards. They would have to go through the guards or…