by E. Molloy
Lillian cleared her throat, and Daveth rolled his eyes. "That was training armor; this is different." She smiled, and he continued. "I just feel like it needs to be looked into, is all. If someone from the Order was a part of this whole charade, Sir Henry needs to know about it. Either way, I have to go back and let them know about this mage. They'll need to update their lessons so they can learn to defend against it, and apparently I know how."
"Yeah, how -did- you avoid being under her spell?" Lillian asked, suspicion in her tone.
Daveth was tired of being asked that question, since he really didn't know the answer. Lucky for him, he wouldn't have to deal with it. The door to the medical ward swung open as a guard hurriedly charged in. He looked around the large room, rushing to the princess's side as soon as he spotted her. "Your highness," he huffed, clearly out of breath. "The....the Kainite..."
The three looked at each other, all standing at once.
"He...got into the dungeons...we couldn't...hold him back," he breathed heavily.
Ragen was the first to dash out the door, Daveth staying dutifully by the princess's side. Lillian asked him urgently, "The witch?"
The guard shook his head, and the two immediately followed Ragen down the hall.
When Lillian and Daveth reached the solitary wing of the dungeons, Ragen was already there, kneeling in the opening of a slim stone doorway. The metal door had become unhinged, and was implanted in the stone wall opposite the doorway inside of the cell. On the floor in the cell was a large white circle drawn in chalk with a few symbols hastily scrawled on its edges. The inside of the circle was darker than the rest of the floor, as if it had been burned. There was no sign of the witch or the Kainite.
Ragen knelt there, sniffing at the air in the room as the two stood behind him silently and watched. "They're nowhere," he said finally.
"They couldn't have gone far," Lillian reasoned, but Ragen slammed his fist against the stone doorway.
"They didn't. They just disappeared. The trail ends in this cell."
"That doesn't-"
He laughed. "Doesn't make sense?" he asked as he stood up, marching past the two. "Yeah, well, what does these days?"
Lillian whipped around to face him, worry on her features. "Where are you going?"
Ragen waved over his shoulder, "You kids take care of your business. I guess I'm going to Kaine."
“Kaine?” she asked, though the question came out more as a command. “Why would you go there?”
The man wheeled around to face her, the humor in his features gone. “If I was a mage kidnapping another mage, there’s only one place in the whole world I could take her. Now, I don’t know what this guy wants with that girl, but I know one thing: I am responsible for her safety.” He pointed to his chest as emphasis. “Me. Now, I lost my damned…” he stopped himself, choking on the words as he redirected the sentence. “I’ve lost a lot because of this woman, but that’s not going to stop me from doing what I have to do. I can’t stay in your city, and I can’t go back to the woods. So no disrespect your highness, but unless you have a better idea, I should probably get to riding as soon as possible.”
Lillian bit her lower lip. She hated that this wasn’t over with. She nodded once, then waved her hand as if to shoo him away.
Ragen chuckled. “I’ll be seeing you, princess.”
“Find a way to update me on the situation, when you can. This is as much my problem as it is yours,” she commanded.
“Will do,” he said with a mock salute, then turned again to leave. Daveth and Lillian were left alone in the dungeons with a guard who stood nearby.
Lillian stared down the hall after Ragen, and had nearly forgotten that Daveth was even there until he spoke up. “I should go, too. I have to deal with the Knights, and whatever is going on here.”
Lillian nodded, turning to face him. “All things considered,” she said slowly, seeming to have trouble getting the words out. “You did well. It wasn’t the valiant rescue that it could have been, but…”
“But at least I tried?”
She shook her head. “It’s not just that. You cared. Even when you thought I had locked you in the dungeons and betrayed you, you still wanted to help me. Your heart is in the right place. If there is something going on with the Knights, if they were a part of this, then you don’t belong there.”
Daveth frowned. “I’ve always dreamed of being a hero, fighting evil and handing out justice like hotcakes. I wanted nothing but to become a Knight, ever since I was a boy. There’s no telling what will happen when I get back there, but I can promise you that if something is amiss, I’ll do whatever I can to fix it.”
“And what if you can’t?”
The young man chuckled. “Then I’ll just have to recruit some help from this Princess I know.”
The princess sighed, not amused by his words. “A war against the Knights is the last thing we need.”
“Calm down, I doubt it’s that bad. Let me just talk to them and find out what happened. I will keep you updated as much as I can.”
Nodding, Lillian replied, “Good. In the meantime, I will deal with my father. I am sure there is more of a mess here to clean up than first meets the eye, and I intend to find out anything I can from him at whatever the cost.”
He frowned. “You know that might be harder than you think.”
“I’m prepared for that,” she said, though the tone in her voice sounded more like she was trying to convince herself. “If family means anything to him anymore, he’ll spare me the trauma of having to torture and execute my own father. Perhaps that’s being too optimistic.”
Daveth wrapped an arm around her shoulder, half expecting to be slapped in the process. “We’ll fix this, okay? We’ll figure it out.”
She chuckled dryly, musing, “Ever the optimist.”
“That’s right,” he said with a smile, though he didn’t believe his own words. Despite their victory, there was an ominous feeling to the whole thing. He felt – no, he knew – that this wasn’t over, and whatever came next was far over their heads.
In a dark circular room stood two figures, both staring down at the woman and man who had appeared in the center of the rotunda. Light danced over the small crowd in the darkness as the candles flickered on their arrival, revealing the dark circle beneath the pair in the center. Niko held by the arm the girl who looked like the princess, a clever smile on his face. Both of the other figures were female, one wearing dark leathers and the other draped in pure white robes with a hood that hid most of her face.
“This is her? The Mentalist?” spoke the woman in leather whose pale blond hair was tied into buns on either side of her dark-skinned face. She stepped forward hesitantly to get a closer look.
Niko nodded, “Yes. There were two, but this is the only one I could get.”
Surprise came over the woman’s features. “Two in the same place? How did you even make it out of there?”
“I did not get this position by being useless,” he replied, offended by the question. The man released the arm of his prisoner. “She is bound, for now. We won’t have much time.”
“What of the other?”
He shook his head. “In the capital of Navarr, still. He is much stronger than this one, though I don’t think he knows it.”
The woman shook her head, “How could he not?”
Niko shrugged only slightly, “I didn’t have time to ask. I had other things to do.”
“Of course,” the woman said as she moved toward the girl, who stood bound in the center of the room. “Your name?” she asked.
The girl responded timidly, “Emilia”.
After a pause, the Kainite woman offered, “I am sorry for this, child, but you don’t know what’s at stake.”
Emilia’s lip quivered as she stood in place, fear etched in her soft features. “Please,” she begged, not knowing even what to ask for.
“Svaara,” the woman said, turning her head toward the female figure draped in wh
ite. “Will she be enough?”
The cloaked figure moved toward the girl, reaching out a dark-skinned hand to touch her face. They stood there for a moment before the hand rose to the cloak’s hood. Pulling it back revealed perfect white short-cropped hair atop dark skin and bright blue eyes that nearly glowed in the dim light of the room as they seemed to stare into Emilia’s soul. On either side of the woman’s face were long pointed ears, pierced up and down with rings and jewels of many colors that sparkled as the candle-light danced in the room. Her voice was commanding but not loud, yet somehow seemed to fill Emilia’s head when she spoke.
“We can use the strong one. Bring him to me,” she said.
“You don’t understand. He’s…” Niko began to protest, but was cut off as the woman’s icy gaze turned abruptly toward him.
“It wasn’t a request,” she clarified.
