“The prisoners were all weak and delirious, barely able to speak,” Blaze added. “Then a gong rang, and all the gates came down on the tunnel, so we couldn’t get out. We heard one of your officers announce midnight, then one of the western gates went up. In their defense, the Correction Officers did sound surprised and seemed as though they wanted to bring it back down, but it was too late. Daemons came through. We couldn’t tell you how many, since they were invisible. But they rushed into the prison, while the Correction Officers went into hiding. We fought the daemons off as best as we could, but one of them snatched Fiona.”
“Most importantly, the daemons knew exactly what they were doing in there,” Caia said. “They opened the prisoners’ cages, and… How do I say this… Fed on their souls. I-I could see their souls, these little wisps of white energy, getting sucked out.”
“I managed to kill one and bring it up here,” Blaze concluded, nodding at the daemon on the table.
“So, please, Emilian, do tell us what is going on here, because clearly you’ve been holding back on us,” Hansa said, her lips pressed into a thin line.
Emilian ran a hand through his hair before letting out an exasperated sigh. He then opened the infirmary door, summoning one of the Correction Officers.
“Get me the prison warden, now!” he barked, then shifted his focus back to us as the Correction Officer left the infirmary. “Hansa, believe me, we don’t know anything about the daemons, nor the gates opening and closing in the prison. As for the prison itself, I assure you that it’s all operated as per our legal standards. People who commit crimes go to jail. It’s fairly simple.”
“Then explain the state of your prisoners, all weak and pale and barely able to speak!” Jax shot back.
“The psyche of an inmate is beyond our concern.” Caspian finally spoke up. “They’re well fed and left to their own devices in those cages, but they are still prisoners. They are paying for their crimes. Do not question the legality of our measures; it really doesn’t concern you. As for the gong you heard down there, it rings every six hours. It is the only notion of time passing that the inmates have.”
“What about the gates?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and biting the inside of my cheek to stop myself from asking the burning questions that would surely bring him forward as our masked savior. I’d yet to decide whether he was being truthful regarding the lives that depended on his (and now my) secrecy.
“The gates,” he said, glowering at me as if I’d insulted his mother’s cooking, “are meant to stay down at all times, unless there is an emergency evacuation. Otherwise, no one should be able to get in from the outside. I do not know what happened with the eastern tunnels. I do not know who attacked Hansa.”
He then turned to face Patrik, who stood next to Scarlett, Avril, and Heron by the map table.
“So, your protection spell clearly didn’t work,” Caspian added.
“It didn’t because it didn’t cover the prison,” Patrik replied, his brow furrowed. He straightened his back, adopting a defensive attitude. There was a hint of regret in his voice, but he clearly didn’t blame himself or his spell, given the Exiled Maras’ secrecy. “It’s underground, and we knew nothing about the tunnels. The daemons most likely snuck through them and made their way up to the second level tonight, bypassing the spell’s perimeter. Had you told us about the prison and, most importantly, about the secret passages, I would’ve planned for a different area over which to cast the spell.”
I felt the corner of my mouth twitch as I watched that exchange. It was mildly satisfying to watch the Lords get owned because of their own secrecy as they tried to blame our skills and magic for the daemons’ presence. It had backfired spectacularly.
“We’ll probably have to seal the tunnels now, anyway, given how useful the daemons found them,” Darius muttered, his gaze darting between Emilian, Caspian, Farrah, and Rowan, before it switched back to the daemon. “That thing is… ghastly…”
“How come we can see it now?” Farrah asked, inching closer to the creature.
“We don’t know how they make themselves invisible,” Patrik replied. “I’ll have to do some further analysis, but we do know how to make them visible. Water destroys whatever cloaking mechanism they employ.”
Once again, Caspian didn’t react, while the other Lords’ eyebrows rose. I could feel my eyes shrinking to slits. I couldn’t help but further suspect Caspian of knowing way more about the daemons than he was letting on. My fists weighed heavily at my sides, my nails digging into my palms as I bit my lower lip, trying to figure out the enigma that was Caspian Kifo.
Avril
(Daughter of Lucas & Marion)
The infirmary door swung open, and two Correction Officers pushed the prison warden into the room before resuming their positions outside. The warden, an Exiled Mara with short gray-speckled hair and pale blue eyes, looked downright terrified as he stood before us.
A clock was ticking in my mind. Time slipped by, and I needed to be out there, with my team, rescuing Fiona. I could feel my patience wearing thin. Fortunately, the Lords seemed to be on the same page as me.
“What happened down there? What happened to the gates?” Caspian’s voice was low and cold, seemingly frightening the old warden. Lord Kifo shortened the distance between them in just two lightning-fast steps, and grabbed him by his shirt collar. “What. Happened. Down. There?”
“My… My apologies, milord,” the warden squealed. “We’d had technical issues with those gates all day… I don’t know exactly what happened, but I thought the problem had been fixed. They changed some gears and oiled them properly, and we left the gates up until midnight so the oils could slip all the way through the mechanisms.”
“Did you have guards stationed at the end of each tunnel while the gates were up?” Caspian asked, a vein throbbing in his temple. He was angry, and deservedly so. Though I’d yet to clear the Lords of any suspicion, their outrage had come across as genuine. They seemed protective of their legal system, sure, but nothing pointed specifically to them knowing about the daemons, especially based on what the warden was telling us.
“No, milord.” The warden shook his head.
“Why not?”
“I… I didn’t see the need, given how packed with Correction Officers the prison itself is, milord… It was a mistake.”
“And the western gate that went up?” Caspian replied, briefly looking at Blaze and Caia.
“I swear, milord, we still don’t know what happened there.” The warden shuddered under his grip. “It was meant to stay down. The mechanisms are automatic and linked to the levers. We don’t know how that gate went up, but none of our Correction Officers did it… I swear, milord.”
“Did you see them?” Caia frowned. The warden looked at her with mild confusion. “The daemons. Did you see them come in and crack open cage doors and feed on your prisoners’ souls?”
“Not really, no… I wasn’t down there at the time. I was in my office. One of the guards came up and told me what had happened, told me there were strange, invisible entities below. The Correction Officers left the prison once your dragon got loose!”
“But the western gate went back down shortly afterward,” Blaze growled. “Was that another glitch? Having the daemons go in for dinner, then bringing the gate down right after they leave?”
“No, one of our mechanics managed to fix it from above!” the warden replied.
Several moments passed in heavy silence before Jax exhaled, then rested his hands on his hips and scowled at the Lords.
“I swear, these unpleasant coincidences keep stacking up against you,” he said, shaking his head.
“Don’t be melodramatic,” Darius shot back. “Those daemons were most likely prowling the western tunnels. They must have discovered them from the plain. The gate malfunction would have been a gift from the heavens for them, since there are plenty of defenseless inmates down there. It’s bad enough we failed our own people by endangering the lives
of these prisoners—who, despite being criminals, are still citizens of Azure Heights. We don’t need you to chastise us and accuse us of… what, exactly?”
“There’s an ongoing list right now,” Jax muttered, “but it’s too early to lay it out for you.”
“What my colleague is trying to say,” Hansa intervened, giving him a sideways glance, “is that you haven’t been exactly forthcoming over the past couple of days, and it has cost us one of our own. It would have also cost you more of your people, including Rewa, had it not been for us patrolling the second level tonight.”
At the sound of his daughter’s name, Darius’s face went blank.
“What… What do you mean?” he gasped.
“You weren’t aware? I’m surprised she didn’t tell you.” Hansa raised an eyebrow. “She was on the second level tonight with two of her servants. They were attacked by daemons, and we saved them. They sought refuge in the tavern above. The nurses went up there, treated their wounds with Mara blood, then sent them home. Have you not seen Rewa tonight?”
Darius nearly lost his balance as Hansa’s words crashed into him. During our brief study of the dead daemon, one of the nurses had poked her head in and told us about the girls having been sent home. Their wounds had been shallow, despite the bleeding, and were quickly healed. Come to think of it, the Lords should have already been down here after we’d rescued Rewa and she’d returned home...
“I haven’t seen Rewa since dinner,” Darius mumbled. “I had a serious argument with her about going out at such late hours. I’d specifically prohibited such escapades… Rewa probably went against my word and didn’t tell me because she was afraid I’d punish her.”
“Parenting 101.” Harper scoffed. “Tell your kid she can’t do something, and that’s exactly what she’ll do. Nice to see the Mara parents have it just as hard as ours.”
Darius shook his head, ignoring Harper’s remark, then opened the infirmary door and called out to one of the Correction Officers.
“Take this incompetent fool to holding,” he said, pointing at the warden. “I trust Lord Kifo will appoint someone else to take his place in the morning. And go check on my daughter, make sure she’s in her room and doesn’t leave the house. I want a protective detail on her from now on. Have her wait for me there. I’ll need a word with her.”
The Correction Officer did as instructed and took the warden out of the infirmary, while Darius closed the door and turned to face us again.
“Can you redo the protection spell?” he asked, glancing at Patrik. “To cover the tunnels and prison, this time?”
“I need access to a north, south, west, and east tunnel to do that,” the Druid replied, “but yes, I can do it again, to avoid another infiltration like tonight. I still can’t guarantee it will work against them, given that we know very little about the daemons.”
“Good. It’s better than nothing. I’ll have Correction Officers escort you, for your safety,” Caspian said. “We’ll have to investigate the tunnels and seal them all for the time being, anyway, given that the daemons are now coming through them and bypassing the edges of your protection spell.”
“Yeah, we’re not doing anything before we get Fiona back,” Jax shot back. “You can get started on sealing your tunnels, for now. We need to go find our agent.”
“How can we help?” Emilian asked.
“Glad you asked.” Harper smirked. “Our whole team is going this time. We need fifty to seventy Correction Officers with us, for backup.”
“Excuse me?” Caspian blurted. “I’m not going to risk that many of my officers for this. It’s suicide. You’ve been to the Valley of Screams. You’ve seen what’s in there!”
“First of all, no, you’re not excused,” Harper replied calmly. “Second, we now know what the daemons look like and how to disrupt their invisibility; therefore, we have an advantage we didn’t have when we first went in there. Third, we are not losing Fiona to that place, and we need your help. After the prison gate debacle, it is literally the least you can do. And, last but not least, I honestly think it’s in your best interest to work with us on this.”
Caspian’s forehead smoothed and his nostrils flared. She’d managed to get to him, and I couldn’t help but wonder what Harper had meant by emphasizing his best interest. I’d have to ask her about it later, though. For now, the focus had shifted back to Fiona, and we needed to get moving.
“Fine,” Caspian said, gritting his teeth. “I’ll have fifty of my best Maras ready within the hour.”
“Thank you, Lord Kifo.” Harper’s half-smile echoed a tremendous amount of satisfaction, which was short-lived, as Caspian sneered at her.
“Would you mind if we have a word? In private?” he asked.
Harper stilled, then looked at Hansa and Jax. They both frowned but eventually nodded. Harper sighed and walked out of the infirmary, followed by Caspian. Jax then clapped his hands once, commanding our full attention.
“GASP team, go get all your war gear and shields,” he instructed. “Anything that can help against the daemons, bring it with you. We leave within the hour, as soon as Lord Kifo’s Correction Officers are ready.”
“I’ll have my servants bring down our strongest indigo horses for your team,” Emilian said. “You need speed and endurance in those gorges.”
“Thank you, Lord Obara.” Jax gave him a polite nod. “It’s much appreciated.”
“It is the least we can do, as you say,” Emilian replied, then gave Hansa a weak smile. “I know we have our differences, but we sincerely wish to support you in your quest to rid us of this daemon menace.”
I was the first to leave and head for the inn, followed closely by Heron, Blaze, Caia, Scarlett, and Patrik. Jax and Hansa decided to stay behind, and gave Heron and me instructions on what weapons and gear to bring back for them.
The night was cool and eerily quiet, except for the occasional scream echoing from the gorges. I cringed as we raced up the stairs, praying to all the divine entities out there that none of those wails belonged to Fiona.
Hold on, babe, we’re coming.
Harper
(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)
As soon as I stepped outside the infirmary, Caspian’s hand firmly clasped mine and pulled me around the corner, down a side alley. He constantly looked around and over his shoulder.
“Where are we going?” I asked, but he shushed me, his fingers digging into my skin. His touch sent millions of tiny electrical impulses through my body, but I didn’t want to focus on the effect he had on me. I was too worried about Fiona to allow myself the luxury of enjoying his touch.
Wait, enjoying his touch? Why am I even—
Before I could finish chastising myself, he turned left into a dark and narrow street, then came to a sudden halt. He bent down and pulled open a trapdoor neatly covered in slim cobblestones to imitate the rest of the road. I hadn’t even seen it.
He slipped inside, lowering himself onto a wooden ladder, then glanced up and waited for me to follow.
“What’s this?” I asked, and he shushed me again.
Judging by the irritated look on his face, he needed me down there before he could speak.
What in the world is he up to?
I rolled my eyes, then climbed down the short ladder. He pulled the trapdoor shut, then turned to face me. A couple of seconds went by as his jade gaze pierced through me, setting my cheeks on fire for no apparent reason. I hated the way my body reacted to his mere presence. It threw me off my game.
“Okay, what is this?” I asked again, motioning around at the small chamber he’d brought us to. Its walls, floor, and ceiling were paneled with wood, and I could see another trapdoor in a corner, despite the darkness.
“It’s a sealed bunker. I have dozens of these throughout the city,” he replied, then pointed at the floor. “That leads into a small tunnel. Each bunker has one. They’re secret routes through, as well as in and out of, the city. The bunkers and the tunnels are all coated in mer
anium.”
“Am I supposed to know what that is?”
“It’s a Nerakian metal. All our blades are made from it. It’s strong and doesn’t oxidize and, most importantly, has some special properties,” he explained. “Soundproofing is one of them. No one can hear us talk in here.”
“So no one can hear me scream in here,” I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest.
He raised an eyebrow and pursed his lips in response. I’d obviously insulted him, but I was enjoying it a little too much to feel sorry.
“I have more than one way of making you scream, Miss Hellswan. You’ll have to be more specific.”
Caspian’s voice dropped by a couple of degrees, reaching freezing temperatures as he watched my eyes widen—a reaction I couldn’t control.
“Then you wonder why I find it hard to trust you,” I shot back, then shook my head to regain some of the focus I’d just lost. “What’s up with the tunnels?”
“They had nothing to do with the daemons getting onto the second level,” he replied. “Meranium is the one metal I know they’re extremely allergic to. Plus, the tunnels are too small to fit them. They’re mostly used by Imen.”
“And what do the Imen do with these tunnels, then?”
“I’ll tell you about it later.” He brushed me off with the wave of a hand, as if my question were completely irrelevant. It further contributed to my frustration, but I needed to keep my cool and find another way to figure him out. Getting on his bad side was not going to help. “It really isn’t important now, and it has nothing to do with why I brought you here.”
I took a deep breath and rubbed my face with my palms. It had been a long night already, and it was starting to feel interminable.
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