Motor City Mage

by Cindy Spencer Pape

  “Ah, the human speaks.” Ordwel stretched his legs, clawed feet bare, out in front of him and gave them a big, toothy grin. “Nice trick, being able to heal yourself like that, pardner. You were a mess when they threw you in.”

  Fish gurgled something and nodded.

  Ordwel pointed. “He thought you were a goner.” His English was accented with the drawl of the 1950s western flick. Clearly the guy had spent time on Earth, and he’d obviously watched one too many John Wayne movies. “But I’ve met Brewer. I had a feeling you were like him.”

  “Sure, I’m a walking miracle. So I repeat, where are we?” It took effort to keep from shouting, but that would have aggravated his headache.

  “In the pit that passes for a dungeon in Nivri’s castle.” Ordwel sneered at the mention of Nightshade’s real name and dropped his Western twang. “Jerk-off thought he was a fucking king or something. Built himself a gods-damned palace.”

  Okay, some of his language hadn’t been picked up from cowboy films. Some was from the streets of Detroit. “So I know why we’re here. What did you two do?”

  “Fucked Malen’s girlfriend,” Ordwel answered, his pointed teeth gleaming. “And damn if it wasn’t worth it. Fish here, he just killed his overseer. When other species wandered through the portals, Nivri liked to make them into slaves to work the mines. After Nivri died, Fish thought he had a chance, so he dynamited his overseer and took off.”

  Lana winced against Des’s shoulder, but she kept her voice steady. “Messy, but effective.”

  Ordwel tipped his head at the other prisoner in some respect. “Would’ve worked, too, but Malen showed up and decided to take over while Fish and his buddy were making a run for the portal.”

  “I take it the buddy didn’t survive,” Des said.

  “Nope. Fish has some political connections on his home plane, so Malen’s hoping to get a ransom.”

  “And why are they keeping you alive? Or us, for that matter? They could have just killed us last night.” Lana quirked one eyebrow at Ordwel.

  “Me? Because Malen likes to take me out and torture me now and then for information about how his brother ran the operation. I was one of Nivri’s right-hand men. You? Probably just for the fun of making you scream.”

  Des clamped down on Lana’s shoulder as she started to lunge at the Gravaki.

  “You? You worked with the bastard who tried to destroy my pack?”

  Ordwel held up a hand. “Peace, little lady. I worked on this side of the portal, distributing the salt-based drug. If I’ve fucked with anyone, it’s my own race.” He spit on the ground. “Bastards can all die, for all I care. You know what it means to be a green Gravaki?”

  Des shook his head, still holding on to Lana, who had relaxed, but barely.

  “No magic, which means no official status. It’s like being an Indian in the old West. No rights. Red dude wants to piss on you in the streets? That’s perfectly legal. Orange asshole wants to rape your sister? No problem. She’s just dirt, anyway. Even if both your parents are red, a green has no legal rights. Malen and Nivri are my first cousins, but to them I was nothing more than a servant. So yep, I dealt drugs, messing up rich red and orange idiots. Fucking sue me.”

  “Somehow I doubt I can call my lawyer from here, so I think you’re safe.” Des had been forced to bite his tongue over the demon’s line about an orange Gravaki and his sister. The only thing that damped down his fury was that he thought maybe the same thing had happened to Ordwel, based on his expression when he said it.

  Good grief, he was bonding with a demon. Wasn’t that just ducky?

  “The better question, boys, is how the hell do we get out of this dump?” Lana said as she finger-combed her tangled hair.

  Des absently ran his hand over the wild curls, smoothing them with a small trickle of magic. Her contented sigh made him smile. “Ordwel, you said they take you out to torture you once in a while. That make you familiar with the layout? How about guards?”

  Ordwel thought for a minute. “We’re two floors underground, with guards at each of the stairways and at either end of the hall outside our cells. Torture chamber is one more level down.”

  “How many other cells are there?” Des asked. “And are any of them occupied? Anyone who might help if we try to break out?”

  “Four or five. I think there’re people in maybe two of ’em. Not sure who, other than Malen’s sidekick, Vindelius, the guy they dragged in with you. I heard them toss him in next door. Wonder who he fucked?”

  “Malen, basically.” Des sat with his back to the wall and Lana leaned against his shoulder. Des wrapped his arm around her, letting these two know in no uncertain terms that she was his woman, and they’d have to go through him to get to her. He gave her a quick questioning glance which she answered with a miniscule nod. Since she seemed to think they might as well trust these two, Des went ahead. “Though not in a literal sense. Vin brought us in to try to blow up the portal.”

  Ordwel raised one eyebrow. “Hmmm. Wonder what he planned to do with Malen afterward? Other than get his ass kicked from here to Sunday.”

  Des shrugged. “I assumed he had a team in place on this end. Obviously I was wrong.”

  Fish made a noise, which Ordwel translated. “He says maybe, maybe not.” Another gurgle, and Ordwel nodded. “Fish is right. There are people here who want to stop the flow of salt into our city. Vindelius might have a posse waiting to ride in and help.”

  Lana studied them both with a confused expression. “Except if they did, they should have been there yesterday when we were caught.” She looked around the cell and shook her head. “So we’re more than likely on our own.”

  Des and Ordwel exchanged a glance, and Des saw nothing but resignation in the demon’s eyes. He tightened his grip on Lana’s waist, whether for her comfort or his own, he couldn’t have said. “Looks that way.”

  Lana lifted her chin. “Okay. Can you boost me up to that window, or do we already know what’s outside?”

  The horizontal slits, set with thick metal bars, allowed light to enter the room but were maybe ten feet up the wall. Standing on his shoulders, Lana was tall enough to see out, and nimble enough, he admitted reluctantly, to pull it off without hurting herself. He stood and stepped over to the wall.

  Ordwel joined them. He was a couple inches taller than Des, but stood with a wide stance, bringing his own shoulder level. “What?” he drawled when Des shot him a look. “I like lots of television, not just old westerns. Cheerleading competitions.” He licked his lips.

  Des and Ordwel each held out a hand and boosted Lana to stand, one foot on each of their shoulders. She grabbed the bars of the window, holding herself steady. Ordwel started to glance up her bare legs under Des’s shirt, but after a brief glare from Des, he looked studiously away.

  “All I see out there is more pink sky and brown dirt,” she said. “Maybe some kind of really spindly fence, a hundred yards out or so.”

  “It’s a force wall, set with wire so it can be seen,” Ordwel confirmed. “Whole compound is surrounded by it. If you don’t see any outbuildings, or a gate, then we’re on the eastern side of the castle. The portals are on the west, and there’s a barracks and garage on the south. Main entrance is to the north.”

  Lana hopped down, landing on her feet with ease. “All right then. So we need to get to the portals. There was a bunch of them, right? How do we know which one leads to our world?”

  “Twelve, set like the numbers on one of your clocks.” Ordwel sat back down on the bench. “I think yours is the one pointing straight toward the gate. But there’s another force wall surrounding them, and guards. Be easier going out the back and heading for the city. Find someone who could open a one-time doorway. And that’s assuming we made it out of the building, which wouldn’t be an easy trick.”

  Des thought for a moment before he spoke. “If we set an explosion on one end of the building, how many of the guards would desert their posts and head toward it?”

/>   Ordwel tipped his head side to side. “Probably most. They’re not the brightest, or they wouldn’t be working for Malen.”

  “Vin is an orange Gravaki.” Lana settled back against the wall pulling Des’s shirt down over her knees. “That means he has magic. So these cells are probably warded against it if they’re able to keep him in.”

  “They are.” Ordwel sighed. “All the walls, inside and out. I helped design the setup and know the fellow who did the spells. He was good. Too bad Malen had him killed. We could’ve gotten him to turn against the bastard in a heartbeat.” He brightened. “We didn’t bother with floors, though, so power can still come up through the ley lines.”

  Ley lines carried magical energy around a plane in much the same way arteries and veins carried blood in a living being. Des sent his senses downward, beneath the castle, searching for the source of the energy he’d drawn on to heal.

  There it was. Rich, thick, powerful, coursing beneath his feet. “Damn, the castle’s built on a nexus.”

  “Yup.” Ordwel shrugged. “Just because I can’t do magic doesn’t mean I don’t know the theory. Nivri built the place here to draw maximum power for his portals. They’re at the heart of the nexus, by the way. The castle is built on the edge.”

  “Makes sense.” Des sent out a tendril of a spell, attempting to bend one of the metal bars on the window. A metaphysical jolt bounced back at him, like a punch to the stomach. No, that wasn’t going to work at all. Neither was chiseling out. The stone was easily a foot thick, and they didn’t have any kind of tools.

  Fish burbled at the same time as Lana swung her head toward their door, heavy steel with a small grate of a window. “Someone’s coming,” Lana whispered.

  Ordwel cocked his head and nodded. “Two guards. Probably breakfast. If they’re dragging me off to the game room, they usually bring more.”

  Doors clanged and Des heard Vin’s voice, demanding to talk to Malen. Then that cell door slammed shut, muffling the words into an incoherent roar.

  Then their own cell opened with a bang, making Des glad nobody sat behind it. One guard, a green Gravaki stuck the barrel of a semi-automatic rifle in and looked around, accounting for each prisoner before he stepped in, gun up. Another carried in two plastic buckets. One looked to be full of some kind of thick soup, and four plastic sporks stuck out of it. Another held water. Two plastic cups floated on the surface. The scent of cooked meat and vegetables made Des’s stomach rumble. The guards shot him a look, before stomping out and slamming the door shut behind them.

  Lana gave him a wry grin as her belly echoed the sound. “I know. So ladylike.” She sniffed at the food before moving over to kneel beside it.

  As he joined her, with Fish and Ordwel coming off the bench to the other side of the ersatz picnic, gods help him, despite the gravity of their situation, Des laughed.

  Chapter Five

  It felt good to hear Des laugh.

  With a smile on her face, Lana refilled the plastic water bottle from the night before and handed it back to Fish before helping herself to one of the floating cups. “Thanks again. I assume you need more hydration than we do.”

  Ordwel answered for him. “Yeah, that’s why they let him keep the bottle.” Each of the other two prisoners had produced their own plastic mug. Once she’d filled the bottle, Fish and Ordwel each dipped a cup and drank, before scooping up some of the soup with the same vessel. Lana and Des followed their cellmates’ example. She lifted a small amount onto her spork and sniffed. Nothing seemed off, so she tasted it and shrugged. No seasoning at all. Why bother for prisoners? Some kind of boiled meat, a grainy starch, and some green and pink vegetables. Bland, but it covered most of the major food groups. So they weren’t going to starve.

  Nobody talked while they ate. Ordwel had already mentioned that the guards sometimes didn’t wait very long before coming back for the buckets. After they’d finished the soup, Des used magic to clean their cups. They each drank as much as they could hold of the water, allowing Fish to drink the rest. He sighed contentedly, stashing his water bottle back under his toga. Odd how she was beginning to make sense of his collections of sounds. It was almost as if they resolved themselves into words inside her brain.

  Ordwel, in his snug-fitting jeans, went back to doing push-ups, alternating with crunches. After a few minutes, Des joined in, and Lana sat back to watch. Though the Gravaki form had been disconcerting at first, considering a Gravaki had killed her grandfather, she’d now come to accept him. Alien or not, his physique was all male and not hard to look at.

  Of course, mostly she watched Des.

  Shirtless, his torso gleamed as he pushed himself to match the bulkier demon move for move. Obviously this was some kind of pissing contest, but Lana wasn’t complaining. Her inner wolf urged her to go tackle him, lick his skin and sink her fangs in to claim her mate. Fortunately, Lana-the-woman wasn’t into exhibitionism. So she sat back to enjoy the view while her mind mulled over possible avenues of escape.

  Until she realized she’d been thinking of Des as her mate.

  Then she concentrated on not throwing up out of pure terror.

  Yeah, that word was scarier than being in a demon prison.

  Time to go back to sex as a solo activity. She didn’t want to settle down yet, and she damn well knew Des wasn’t looking for anything long-term from her.

  If they got out of this mess, she’d have to cut ties, go cold-turkey on the bedroom action and make sure she only saw him at required social deals, like Elise’s wedding and such.

  When they got out. Not if. That was an even more dangerous train of thought.

  Fuck this navel-gazing business. She thought about joining the workout, but remembered she was naked from the waist down, though Des had lengthened his shirt bit by bit until it now came past her knees. Instead, she stood and started to pace one wall of their cell. So how to overpower the guards when they came to get the buckets?

  Des might be able to magically jam the gun. In canine form, Lana could jump one and Ordwel the other, while Des fought on a supernatural level. Once they hit the hallway, though, then what? Ordwel had said the exits and wall were also guarded. Still, there had to be something. Not even Alcatraz had been truly impossible to escape. And according to Elise, the Wyndewin had had a hand in building that one.

  What if they opened all the cells before the alarm was sounded? Would that give them enough of a force to make a break for it? Vin had magical power, and there might be others among the prisoners who could put some muscle or other skills into their escape.

  So the first step might be trying to communicate with the others. How to accomplish that?

  Fish burbled, from where he leaned against the opposite wall doing stretches. Oddly, it sounded almost exactly like he’d said, telepathy.

  Lana looked at him. “Did you just say something to me?”

  Fish nodded and spoke some more. To her ears the words were still gibberish, but in her mind she heard, “I can read you now. Couldn’t at first. And you’re reading me. You’re more sensitive than the human.”

  “And you can read and be read by prisoners in the other cells?”

  “Some. Enough.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Des had stopped midpush-up and stared at her like she was a lunatic.

  “Fish is telepathic,” she said. “Try listening.”

  Des went silent for a moment while Fish spoke. A moment later, Des shook his head. “Sorry. I felt a little nudge but nothing distinct.”

  Lana repeated what she’d heard. “He’s reached two other cells. If we come up with a plan, they’ll go along.”

  “You’ve never mentioned talking to other cells, pardner,” Ordwel said with a pointed glare. “How come you never told me about that?”

  “You’ve never had a plan. And you never asked.”

  Lana tried not to grin, and kept translating for Des. “Fish thinks if we all break loose at once, at least some of us might make it to the portals, or down to
the city.”

  Des’s eyes lit up. “Perfect,” he said. “Three cells worth of prisoners might just be enough to make it out of here.”

  “Not if we can’t get over, under or through one of those magic fences.” Lana hated to burst their bubble by pointing out the obvious, but it was obvious, wasn’t it?

  “Any ideas on that?” Des looked at the other two males. Both shook their heads.

  At least Lana had assumed Fish was male. Ordwel had used masculine pronouns.

  “Yes. Male.” She sensed the laughter behind Fish’s thoughts, followed by a moment of sadness. “I have a mate and four children at home, but our land is overcrowded and employment hard to find. I came through the portal because I heard there was work. I did not expect slavery.”

  “Sounds like your home has a lot in common with Detroit,” she muttered. Stepping closer, she patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry. One way or another we’re going to get you home to those kids.”

  “I can’t believe I understood that.” Des raised one eyebrow and went back to doing crunches. “Kids, huh?”

  Lana grinned and turned to Ordwel. “The wire I saw looked like it went up maybe ten feet. Is that the height of the force wall? And what is a force wall? Is it solid, can you climb it or does it zap you if you touch it, or something like that?”

  “Solid enough that nothing can move through it. And like glass to touch—too slick to climb even with claws.” Ordwel stopped his workout. “It goes much higher than the wire, though, or some Gravaki would be able to jump over.”

  “The one around the portals is just as high?” Des asked.

  Ordwel shook his head. “That one is more of a dome, but it’s not as solid. Air can flow in and out.”

  “So who has the keys?” Lana said. “And how do we get our hands on them?”

  “Malen, of course,” Ordwel said. “His current lieutenants. I know it’s been altered since I was able to pass. The same would be true for Vindelius.”

  “Ah, but Malen isn’t as smart as his brother. He may not have thought of it,” Des suggested.