Library of Absolution
Page 8
"Because the Ministry says so," Alarick said. "And if the Ministry says so, then it must be true. We are devils, heathen, or demons to them, so of course consecrated ground should wound us. That it doesn't must come as a rude shock."
They walked toward the cathedral. Before the Ministry seized control and disbanded all religions other than the One Truth, it had been known as Westminster Abbey. Now it was the official cathedral of the Ministry, used to preach their propaganda against anyone who did not willingly submit to their control.
"Big place," Alarick said, looking up at the looming double towers of the facade. "Elissa could be anywhere in there."
He averted his eyes from the scaffold in front of the main doors. The place of execution looked especially sinister in the dark.
"I bet they have her on the altar," Marius said. "It's the most sacred place, the place they believe is most likely to weaken her. That's good news and bad news. The good is she'll be easy to find. The bad is it means no place for us to hide as it's a more open area than a tiny anteroom."
"Should we wait until tomorrow when they bring her out?" Alarick asked. "Try to snatch her as they're moving her?"
"No. There will be too many people here. Public punishments attract a lot of attention. We won't be able to avoid notice in the crowds."
"What's our plan, then?"
Marius studied the cathedral. "The North Door offers closer proximity to the altar than trying to fight our way down the nave. If we're lucky, we might be able to advance close enough without detection that we can take out any guards before they spot us."
"And if she's not there?"
"Then we either battle our way through until we find her, or we get killed. You choose," Marius said. "If you say retreat, then we will."
Alarick thought for a moment. "No. Once we're in, we finish it. One way or another."
"Excellent," Marius said. He rolled up his sleeves and readied his wand.
"Ready?" he asked.
Alarick nodded. "Let's go."
The North Door offered only one guard. Alarick and Marius hid in a small grove of ornamental trees. Not wanting to attract attention with bright flashes of light, Marius quickly conjured two venomous vipers from his wand and directed them to slither quietly toward the guard. The first sank its fangs into the guard’s calf, bringing him to his knees. The second struck simultaneously, sinking its fangs into the man's neck. The guard was dead before he could do more than say, "Ouch." Marius waved his wand and the creatures vanished.
They squelched through the mud and slipped inside the North Door, which had been left ajar. Seeking cover, they ducked behind the remains of a statue. The cathedral, which had once housed memorials to artists, poets, and scientists, had been largely stripped of all such ornamentation. Those fine people did not adhere to Ministry dogma, so their memorials were not welcome in this space. Or anywhere. Only stumps and pedestals remained, the larger pieces that the Ministry could not remove without great effort. Still, enough remained for Alarick and Marius to hide behind, provided they stayed low to the ground.
They inched their way toward the altar. When it came into view, they saw Elissa chained atop it, spread-eagled. At least she was still clothed; the Ministry hadn't sunk that low. Even from a distance, they could see the bruises on her face and arms, mere hints of the damage likely lurking beneath her clothes.
Tears tracked down her cheeks as she stared at the vaulted ceiling impossibly high above her. Alarick took an involuntary step forward, but Marius put a restraining hand on his arm and pointed to the two guards who stood on either side of the altar.
Marius pointed to himself and then to the guard on the far side. Then he pointed to Alarick and the guard on the near side. Alarick nodded his understanding.
They stood together and leapt out into the transept. Without any hesitation, the two wizards unleashed a barrage of spells and curses from their wands. They cast first to mute and immobilize, then to kill. Bolts of white, green, and purple light illuminated the dimly lit cathedral. Once their victims were dispatched, Alarick turned his attention to Elissa.
"Are you okay?" he asked, bending over her.
She shook her head no.
He started to inquire further, but Marius silenced him. "I'll get her loose. You take care of them," he said, pointing toward the Ministry guards now charging down the nave at them.
Wand raised, Alarick unleashed every disabling, disarming, and killing spell he knew with deadly precision. Unfortunately, the sheer number of Ministry personnel quickly overwhelmed him, and he was forced into defensive mode once the gunfire began.
"Have you got her?" he screamed at Marius.
"Almost," Marius said through gritted teeth. He was casting unlock spells on Elissa's chains, but the locks weren't normal locks. Alarick watched as spell after spell failed. Somehow the Ministry had designed locks resistant to common unlock spells. Marius was reaching deep into his knowledge reserves to come up with spell combinations that worked.
Alarick cast spells to shield them from the onslaught and repel the bullets. He was tiring, however, and it was clear he couldn't hold them off much longer.
At last, the locks popped free and Marius scooped Elissa up in his arms. She screamed in pain, but there was no time for gentleness or to inquire as to what hurt. With Alarick providing cover as best he could, the three made their way back to the North Door.
Once outside, they encountered more guards who'd obviously been tipped off to their presence.
"Get her airborne," Alarick screamed at Marius.
"What about you?" Marius asked.
"I'll make it," he said, but he didn't sound confident. "Save her! And under no circumstances are you to come back for me. Keep yourselves safe."
Marius laid Elissa on the ground, and while he changed, Alarick dug deep into his energy reserves to protect them. Unable to protect all three of them, he lowered his own defenses and cast them all toward Marius and Elissa.
He felt the bullets tear through his flesh, but he stood firm until Marius was airborne, dodging bullets with Elissa clutched in his talons. Alarick was certain Elissa's screams would be the last sounds he ever heard. At least she was alive for now. He'd done what he could. That was some comfort.
When Marius was safely away, Alarick tried to shield himself but he was spent. Soaked through by the rain, he dropped to his knees in the muddy courtyard, turned his face to the pouring sky, and waited for death to take him.
7
Strangely, however, death didn't come. He awoke in a house somewhere in London he assumed; judging by the crowded, dirty city damp with rain outside the window.
He sat up on the bed and looked around. Every bone in his body ached, but he bore down on the pain. The bedroom was simple and white with just a single bed and wooden table next to it. He was unbound, which he thought odd given that surely he was in Ministry custody.
Alarick tried to remember what happened after Marius took off with Elissa, but he couldn't clear the fog from his brain. All he remembered was waiting to die in the mud. He didn't know whether the memory loss was due to injury-related trauma and shock, or if someone had intentionally manipulated his mind.
He quickly inventoried his injuries. There were plenty of aches and pains, but the bullet wounds were no longer bleeding. They still hurt like a bitch, but clearly someone with expert healing powers had helped him.
His wand rested on the end table. When he reached for it, no enchantment prevented him from picking it up. To his surprise, it was undamaged. Wherever he was, his captors were either incredibly stupid or they didn't mind him having access to a weapon.
Rising slowly and steadying himself against some residual dizziness, he made his way to the door, tiptoeing silently across the wood floor. His cloak hung on a peg by the door and he draped it over his shoulders. He paused to listen at the door. Footsteps shuffled on the wood floors somewhere else in the house. It sounded like one person, not an entire army.
Encouraged
, he readied his wand and eased the door open. As soon as he stepped into the hallway, a woman's gravelly voice called to him from somewhere deep within the house.
"Come no closer."
Alarick stopped. He was certain she was speaking to him, although how she'd heard him was a mystery. He hadn't made a sound and, even if he had, it sounded like she was too far away to have heard.
"All right," he called. "Where am I?"
"My home. And you're safe here, but you need to go. I've done all for you that I can."
"May I ask how long I've been here?" he asked, inching along the corridor, trying to get closer to the voice, to see who it was.
"Stop," she commanded. Alarick stopped. How did she know he was moving?
"Two days," continued the woman's voice, answering his prior question. "And that is why you must go. It will not be much longer before the Ministry comes here, looking for you."
"Thank you," Alarick said. "But may I not see the person who saved me and thank her properly?"
"No need, sir. Just consider me a mysterious benefactor. I'm someone who has no love for the Ministry and saw you in trouble. That's all you need to know."
"But you must be very powerful to have defeated those who attacked me."
"Oh, no sir. I didn't defeat them. Not at all. True, I rescued you from them, but I didn't defeat them."
This made no sense to Alarick. How could she have gotten him away if she hadn't fought and defeated the guards?
"Are you a witch?" he asked.
"Yes," came her answer. "And a healer, lucky for you. But that is all you can know, so ask no more. It's better for both of us if you do not guess who and what I am. To do so would put both of us in grave danger."
Alarick remained silent, debating whether he should try harder to find out who she was. He could press her, he knew. If he could get close enough, he could use a truth-telling spell to force her to reveal her secrets.
"Use the back door. There's plenty of space back there for you to change and take off. And whatever you do, never return," she said, as though reading his thoughts.
The back door was at the end of the hallway in which he stood, but he wasn't ready to go just yet.
"How did you know I can change?" he asked. "Please. I need to know at least that much."
She huffed impatiently and said, "You were nearly dead when I found you. You had attempted to change and only made it partway through the process. You were a right mess with a wing sticking out of your back. Fortunately, as you healed, you reverted to human form. Now, go. Do not make me ask you again."
"I thank you, madam, whoever you are. If I can ever repay your kindness, do not hesitate to ask it of me," he said.
When she didn't respond, he went out the back door into a high-walled garden. As promised, there was plenty of room for him to change. Given his injuries, the process was painful, but he succeeded and took off, quickly leaving London far beneath him. The house, he noted, was not far from the Law Courts.
He was unable to complete the journey back to the Keep in one day. Exhausted, weak, and still hurting, he had to stop midway to rest for the night. He hunkered down in the woods near a stream and found some nuts and berries to eat nearby. Hardly a filling meal, but even if he could catch a fish or rabbit, he couldn't risk a fire to cook it.
Before the sunlight faded, he removed his clothes and inspected his wounds. His savior had indeed done a fantastic job. Given the extent of the damage, it was a wonder he'd lived long enough for her to get him to safety. All the bullet holes had closed, although the ones near his shoulders had reopened a bit with the effort of flying. He cleaned them as best he could in the stream and pressed his cloak over them to stop the seeping blood.
Alarick wondered who the woman really was. The only logical explanation he'd been able to think of as he flew toward home was that she was employed with the Ministry and had plucked him out from under their noses.
Perhaps she was a witch who'd managed to infiltrate their ranks. If that were the case, she must be incredibly powerful and disciplined to have avoided tipping them off to her true nature. Perhaps Marius would know more. Maybe he'd heard of such things in his travels.
All of that was secondary to his greater concern, however. Was Elissa still alive? Had she and Marius escaped and reached the Keep, or were they waylaid somewhere? Her injuries must have been severe, given her cries of pain that still echoed in his brain, but were they fatal?
He also didn't know how hurt Marius might have been. Alarick had done his best to defend him, but was it enough? Was he well enough to make the journey back to the Keep, or had he faltered along the way as Alarick had? The lack of knowledge tore at him.
Desperate to resume his journey, he attempted to change but was too tired and hurt to manage more than a partial change. Rest was necessary and pushing things would only delay him further. A fallen log provided a decent backrest and the mossy ground was soft. He covered himself with his cloak and, if he didn't sleep, at least he rested.
The sky was barely gray with the coming dawn when he changed successfully and flew toward home. He arrived at the Keep in the early afternoon. In his haste, he blasted the castle's heavy oak doors open with his wand. If there was a slight limp to his gait and his breathing was labored, it didn't slow his progress up the stairs.
The racket brought John out of his office.
"Master Brandon! Thank goodness. Master Baines told us what happened. We weren't certain you'd survived," John said.
"Where are they?" was all Alarick said.
"Miss Stone is in the infirmary, sir. Master Baines is fine. I believe he is in the library."
Torn between which way to go first, Alarick decided to find Marius. If Elissa's condition was grave, Marius could act as a bulwark between himself and the terrible news.
Marius was, indeed, in the library and he was very happy to see Alarick alive.
"I thought you were done for," he said, jumping up from the sofa and clasping his friend in a hug. "You were taking bullets at a rate no one should be able to survive. But you're too stubborn to die. I should have remembered that."
Alarick told him what little he knew about his salvation and his theory that his savior was a Ministry employee.
"It's not out of the realm of possibility," Marius allowed. "I've heard of it happening from time to time. The infiltrators usually don't last long, though, before something gives them away and the Ministry kills them. If that's what she is, she is correct that you must never go back, no matter how much you may wish to learn about her.
"To do so would not only endanger her life and yours, but it would endanger her ability to render aid to other magicals, or share her knowledge of the Ministry with others. In the cases I've heard about, the infiltrator is usually connected to a larger network and is passing vital information along. You don't want to foul that up."
Alarick made no promises, but let the subject drop. He had more important things to learn.
"Miss Stone?" he asked, horrified that his voice quavered a bit.
"She's in the infirmary and the healers have been with her night and day. Her injuries are severe and gruesome. I don't think the Ministry was interested in keeping her alive long enough to behead her. She must have really angered someone."
"She didn't look so bad when we found her," Alarick said.
"You should know as well anyone that wounds don't have to look horrible to be horrible. They broke most of her ribs and punctured a lung. Her spine is cracked in two places and it will be a miracle if she walks again. She also has a broken arm and assorted contusions. Oh, and she was branded on her back and belly. I don't know what the brands were. The healers wouldn't tell me. The worst, though, is that she's blind. The healers say she was hit on the back of her head hard enough to blind her."
"Is it permanent?" Alarick asked.
Marius shrugged. "No one knows. One of the healers says he's seen such things resolve with time. The others seem to think it is permanent."
"I know," Marius said. "Without her sight, she would no longer be a true Book Mesmer. She could still cast protective charms, with help, but the illumination of manuscripts would be beyond her. It's a tragedy all the way around."
Alarick looked around the library that had become her home. If she felt safe anywhere, it was here. And now even this was taken from her? It wasn't fair.
"Can I see her?" Alarick asked.
"The healers will let you in, although you should be prepared. She might not want to see you. She feels horrible about what happened."
"I'll take the risk. Oh, did she have Phaedo on her when you brought her here? I assume the Ministry took it from her."
"They did. And that has her more upset than almost anything else. They took her wand, too," Marius said.
Alarick seized on these two things in the midst of chaos. These were fixable; these were things he could give back to her. They gave him something to do instead of simply surrendering to fate.
"Okay. Here's the plan. I'm going to see her. You go see Master Lucas and ask him to have the wand maker make a new wand for her."
"Why?" Marius asked. "She won't be able to perform magic for a while, if ever."
Alarick turned on him. "Because she will be able to do whatever she wants to do. I'll see to it."
"You can't fix this, Alarick," Marius warned, placing a restraining hand on his arm. "Some things are beyond even your stubbornness."
"Watch me," Alarick whispered.
"All right," Marius said, lifting his hands in surrender and backing out of the room. "But please don't be a jackass and go up there and yell at her for leaving. She knows her actions were foolish and dangerous, and she's paid the price. Leave it at that."
"I am not a complete monster," Alarick said, hoping it was true.
Once Marius was gone, Alarick studied the library shelves. Master Hale had adored the Greeks. Surely, he would have a significant work like Phaedo. Finding it among the bookish lawlessness would be the challenge.