Tower of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 3)

by Emma L. Adams

  “We have orders to use force if necessary,” I added. “I’d prefer not to, but the Family’s word is now law. Ask any other mage in the city if you don’t believe me.”

  “She’s right,” said one of the fire mages, who’d entered the lobby behind us. “They surrendered. All four Houses.”

  The two guards looked at one another. “We can’t allow you to free our prisoners.”

  “Either you will, or the Family will come here to do it in person,” I said. “With the rest of their army. They’re dealing with the Houses at the moment, but I’m sure they’ll be interested if I tell them you’re refusing to obey their commands.”

  The first mage paled. “No need for that.”

  The second mage fumbled behind the counter, then she pulled out a set of keys. “Take them.”

  “We need your records, too,” added Miles. “A list of the prisoners and their crimes.”

  The first mage grabbed a heavy-looking book from the desk with shaking hands and pushed it over to him. Miles took it without a word, and our group split up to cover each floor. Since the vast majority of those incarcerated aboveground were imprisoned for petty crimes, if anything at all, we only needed to consult the book when we reached the lower levels, which were primarily full of murderers and other deadly magical criminals. By now, a large number of guards had come out to ogle us. As far as stealth missions went, it wasn’t the greatest, but if we could get everyone out of here without any unnecessary bloodshed, they could stare all they liked.

  “Which section are your parents imprisoned in, do you know?” I asked Miles, as he flicked through the book.

  “Second floor.” His voice was quiet. “I was never allowed to visit.”

  “We’ll take that floor first, then.”

  Miles grew more visibly nervous as we climbed the stairs up to the second floor, finding ourselves faced with a plain corridor lined with barred cells. I stopped beside the first occupied one, checking on the resident. A mage lay on an uncomfortable-looking narrow bed inside the room, a fireball dancing between his palms. The flame went out when he spotted me and sprang over to the door. “Who are you?”

  “Bria Kent,” I said. “Former inmate of the House of Fire. The Houses are under new management, and we’re here to set you free.”

  “What?” he said. “What management?”

  “The Family.” I dropped my voice, checking none of the guards were nearby. “But they aren’t giving us orders, between you and me. We’re just taking advantage of the Houses being distracted to let out anyone who was unlawfully imprisoned. It’s your lucky day.”

  “You’re joking, right?” he said. “You can’t expect me to believe the Family took over the Houses?”

  “It’s true,” said Miles. “Didn’t you hear about their last attempt to start a war a few weeks ago, when hundreds of people died? They came back for round two and the Houses surrendered right away.”

  “I can’t speak to what their plans are for you, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they forgot you existed and left you to die in here,” I told him. “Or forced you to fight in their army. We’re not going to force you to do anything—we’re offering you a choice. Either way, you walk free.”

  Miles unlocked the cell door. “We have a lot of prisoners to get through, so you can think about it and then decide whether you want to run now or wait until the Family’s army is trampling through the city instead.”

  Leaving the door open, we went to the neighbouring cell. After a moment, the mage stepped out of his cell behind ys. “Where am I supposed to go?”

  “Head down to the lobby,” I said. “Our allies are down there, and the guards know we’re here. You won’t get arrested again.”

  We moved along the row of cells, going through the same routine with all the others—or the inmates marked as ‘not dangerous’ on their records, anyway. Even then, it was by no means straightforward. Some argued, while others refused to leave their cells for fear of punishment. I was painfully aware that the Family might show up at any moment, but with our allies occupying all four fortresses at once, they’d have a hard job figuring out where to go first. The corridor grew louder the more people we set free, and my apprehension built with every passing second.

  Then Miles halted beside a cell containing a man with greying hair, who sat on a bench in front of the door. He looked up at Miles and me with dull eyes. “Who are you?”

  Miles stepped closer to the cell door. “Don’t you know who I am?”

  The man blinked, dumbfounded, leaving me to try to cobble together an explanation. “The Houses of the Elements are under the control of the Family. We’re here to set everyone free before they get here, too. I’m Bria, and… and this is Miles.”

  “The Houses?” Recognition dawned on his face. “You do look like my boy… but it’s been years.”

  “It’s true,” I added. “He wanted to come here and free you in person.”

  “Yeah.” Miles lifted his head, his eyes glistening. “Is Mum in here, too?”

  “It is you.” He was on his feet a moment later. I hastened to unlock the cell door, and the two embraced for the first time in what must have been years. My own eyes were stinging by the time they broke apart.

  “I’ll come with you to find your mother,” said Miles’s father. “I know she’s on this floor somewhere.”

  I moved onto the next cell, while Miles and his dad walked ahead of me, their whispered conversation filling the background. After a while, there came several exclamations as they reached another cell. Miles unlocked the door and a frail-looking woman with Miles’s straw-coloured hair walked out into the corridor and hugged them both.

  We might not have won yet, but it felt like a victory to me.

  21

  It took less than an hour for us to clear the rest of the prisoners out of the second-floor corridor. I took over the job of guiding them to the stairs, giving Miles the chance to catch up with his parents.

  He shot me a grateful look when I approached him after the last prisoner was freed. “Thank you.”

  “Come on.” I smiled. “Let’s get out of here.”

  The four of us headed down to the lobby, joining the steady flow of prisoners descending the stairs and walking out into the street. The guards watched them leave with wary expressions, but it seemed the others had managed not to give anything away about our real motives in freeing their prisoners. The mages hadn’t got cold feet and turned us in either, but they were backed into a corner and they knew it. If they wanted to get the Houses back, we were their last hope.

  When I caught up to Xander, I whispered, “Might want to take them a bit further off before we talk about who we’re really working for.”

  “Fair point, but it’s not like the guards can put them back in their cells now,” he said. “That ship has sailed.”

  I paced outside the fortress while we waited for the remaining prisoners and mages to get outside, keeping an eye out for potential attackers. Logically, I knew the Family had put most of their attention on the Houses, but that didn’t stop me wondering if some of them were patrolling the city looking out for interlopers. My gaze fell on Miles and his parents, who talked animatedly while the fire mages herded the prisoners down a side street out of earshot of the jail.

  Harper drifted over to me. “I checked on the other fortresses. They’re almost empty, too.”

  “Good,” I said. “All three of them? Damn, the others move fast.”

  “Yeah, they’re pretty efficient,” she said. “They haven’t got to the Houses yet either, though.”

  That’s next. Once we were at a safe distance away from the fortress, Xander faced the gathering prisoners. “If you haven’t already heard, we’re not working with the Family. That was a cover story to give us a fair shot at letting you out before the Family got there first.”

  “You’re a member of the House of Fire, aren’t you?” said one of the prisoners. “I recognise you from when they brought me in. Your buddy s
hoved me in a cell.”

  Ah, crap. I hadn’t realised the prisoners might not be thrilled at their new companions, but I should have guessed some of them wouldn’t want to fight alongside people who’d once belonged to the Houses. Who could blame them? The Houses had wrought their own demise, in a way, but we needed as many as possible to stand a chance of driving the Family out of the city. The Houses would have to deal with the consequences of their prisoners’ escape when the battle was over.

  “And you were with the Houses, too.” A ragged-looking prisoner pointed accusingly at another mage. “Is this a secret ploy to make us fight for you against the Family so you can gain the Houses back for yourselves?”

  I hope not. He had a point, though, and I wouldn’t trust the former House members either if I were in their position. It wasn’t like the Houses’ guards had ever lifted a finger to help them before.

  Miles, clearly thinking the same, stepped forward. “Bria and I are the ones who decided to set you free, along with the Death King’s Elemental Soldiers. These former members of the Houses agreed to help us, but they’re not the ones calling the shots. Our main goal is to drive the Family out of the city. Afterwards, you’re free. That’s a promise.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “If any of the mages here turns against you, feel free to let us know and we’d gladly make them pay for it. I’m a former inmate of the House of Fire myself, and Miles here has been a rogue for most of his life because his parents were imprisoned in this very building.”

  “I’m also the leader of the Spirit Agents,” added Miles. “Several of my allies are helping free the prisoners in the other fortresses around the city along with the Death King’s Elemental Soldiers.”

  “For what purpose?” said one of the ex-prisoners.

  “To stop the Family from capturing you, killing you, or forcing you to fight on their side.” I scanned the gathering mages. “If you want to help, you can come with us. We’re going to break people out of the Houses of the Elements next, starting with the House of Fire. Then we’re going straight to the Family.”

  Tension rippled through the crowd as my meaning sank in.

  “If you don’t want to fight, feel free to leave the city,” added Miles. “But don’t forget there’s a war about to kick off, and most of you aren’t armed.”

  “Then what the fuck are we supposed to do?” asked a burly mage.

  “Come with me,” Miles said. “We’re using the Spirit Agents’ former base as a safe house. I can’t promise it’ll stay that way, given how close it is to the Houses, but if you want weapons and supplies, we can help.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “Go with Miles if you want to skip the jailbreak or join in the battle later. Anyone who wants to volunteer to help me break out the prisoners from the Houses of the Elements can come with me.”

  Miles and his parents led the mages who were undecided or didn’t want to fight to the Spirit Agents’ base. That left me and handful of former prisoners who eyed the House of Fire’s guards on our team with open suspicion as we talked through our plan to infiltrate the Houses.

  “This is going to be trickier,” I said to Xander. “The Family might be there in person. Or if they aren’t, the guards will be on the lookout for trouble.”

  In truth, I didn’t know what we’d find at the House of Fire. I assumed Lex and Roth knew I’d broken out of their cage by now, though maybe they hadn’t checked before coming here to put their plan into motion. Either way, the Family’s real target had been the Houses, and while I’d escaped their capture, they’d already won in a way. Thwarting them at this stage would take luck as well as skill.

  “I think our best bet is for the former guards to go in and pretend we’re still working for them,” said Xander. “They might be angry with us if they thought we deserted, but it’s the best we’ve got.”

  “Pretend you went to confront some deserters yourselves, then,” I said. “Make all the excuses you like for taking off. The rest of us haven’t a chance of fooling them, so it’s on you.”

  “Then what are you going to do?” he asked me.

  “I’ll go into the jail,” I said. “I’ll use an invisibility cantrip to stay hidden. I know where they used to keep the keys. Not sure if they’re in the same place, though…”

  “I know where they are,” said another ex-House of Fire guard. “I’ll back you up.”

  “If you lock me in a cell, I’ll punch your lights out.”

  “That won’t be necessary.”

  The notion of depending on a bunch of strangers made me edgy, but I didn’t want to leave the others to handle the Houses alone. Especially the House of Fire. It was entirely possible that some of the Houses’ guards who’d left during the Family’s takeover might have a moment of panic during our rescue and end up alerting them to our presence, but it was a risk the rest of us would have to take.

  As we neared the node which would take us to the centre of Elysium, I spotted Harper lurking nearby, ghostly and semi-transparent.

  “Are you okay?” I whispered to her. “You don’t have to come with us. You can go back to join Miles if you like.”

  “I know,” she said. “I’m going to the citadel instead.”

  “What?” I stared at her. “Why? Isn’t the Family more likely to be in there than in one of the Houses’ bases?”

  “They can’t hurt me while I’m like this,” she said. “Besides… if you want to win, I think you’ll need the Death King’s help. If I go in there, I can search for him using the transporter.”

  I had an inkling she might be right, but that didn’t make me any keener to send her into the eye of the storm. “Okay. If you’re sure.”

  We used the nearest node to travel to middle of Elysium, where the citadel’s piercing light illuminated the shadows of assassins perched on the nearby rooftops, all of them angled towards the tower. The light grew brighter, flickering like a living flame until the entire tower looked as though it was ablaze.

  While Harper glided in the direction of the citadel, I used an invisibility cantrip to hide myself from sight before approaching the House of Fire along with the other mages. It helped that our companions were still wearing their guard uniforms, but I held my breath as the group of mages approached the doors to the House of Fire. I heard one of them exchange words with the guard nearest to the door, who then moved aside to let them pass. Silently triumphant, I trod into the hallway behind them, careful not to bump into anyone. The atmosphere seemed subdued, as opposed to chaotic, despite the light of the citadel visible through the windows and the assassins perched on the nearby roofs. They’d already surrendered, after all.

  When Xander and some of the others went upstairs to fetch the keys to the jail cells, I held my breath as Harris walked into view. Of course the dickhead had decided to stay here and surrender to the enemy, no doubt planning to run at the first opportunity, or maybe take advantage of the Family’s leadership for his own gain. In a feat of incredible patience, I resisted the urge to kick him as he walked by. Instead, I waited, invisible, for the other mages to return with the keys.

  When we descended the stairs with the keys in hand, there were surprisingly few guards down near the jail cells. Come to think of it, the whole building seemed pretty quiet. Had the Family ordered the majority of the Houses’ mages to come and join them in some other hideout, or the citadel? Maybe. It wasn’t like they even needed to use their persuasive powers now the Houses had surrendered, but the eerie silence set my nerves on edge.

  My blood chilled when I reached the jail’s first corridor and found that all the cells were empty. Every last one of them. After I’d searched the whole corridor, I backed up to the stairs, my heart sinking in my chest. We’d come here too late, and the Family must have already freed the prisoners in order to convince them to fight on their side.

  I had to warn the others. Without a word to the other mages, I ran up the stairs until I reached the main corridor again. The front door was slightly ajar, and the loud
commotion of a crowd came from outside. I walked out, hearing the voices echoing from the direction of the citadel. The light in the tower burned brighter, while assassins perched on the rooftops and mages from each of the Houses walked through the streets. Towards the citadel. Despite my urgency, I found myself turning in that direction, too. Had the Family called them? There must be hundreds out in the streets, walking towards the square as though drawn by a signal only they could hear.

  As I came within view of the citadel’s entrance, the door opened, and Lex and Roth walked out into the square.

  I went still, my mind whirling, my plans evaporating on the spot. Lex and Roth were both here in person, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out they’d worked their insidious magic on every mage who’d been left in the Houses. Our own numbers were far smaller, especially with Miles and the others at the Spirit Agents’ base and the others scattered throughout the city. I could only hope Harper had managed to avoid them when she’d entered the tower, but I didn’t see any signs of her—or of the Death King and his fellow liches.

  I’d never felt more alone among the crowd of hostile mages approaching the square, where Lex and Roth both wore identical grins as they faced their army. “Are you ready to fight for us?”

  Their magic rippled over the crowd, and I covered my eyes and ducked out of the way to avoid being caught in its web. At least a hundred mages from each House had gathered alongside the dozens of assassins waiting in the wings, and not a single voice rose to issue a challenge. Lex’s and Roth’s combined magic held them in its thrall. Most of the mages wore glazed expressions, as Roth’s magic bled all the fight from them, and Lex’s spell moved their limbs at her command. There was no sign of Adair, but they didn’t need him to be there to have total domination over their followers.

  It can’t end here. Yet there could only be one outcome if I showed my face in front of them. Where were my allies? Had they been caught in the spell, too?

  Lex and Roth’s grins vanished as a gust of wind swept several assassins off the roof, followed by torrents of water and soaring flames which forced everyone in their paths to duck out of range. The ground gave a tremor, which broke apart their army as the mages’ attention turned to wildly scanning the area for their attackers. My heart lifted when the other three Elemental Soldiers came running into view, followed by a contingent of other mages, including Spirit Agents and ex-members of the Houses, who climbed the rooftops to take out the assassins and sowed confusion amid the army.