by Zack Finley
From them, we learned all the king's guard captains were missing, too. Those we scanned assumed the captains were dead. None believed the secret police allegations the king's guard was complicit in the assassination or murders.
The secret police only allowed king's guards willing to be mind scanned to join the secret police. Most believed Arbos, the head of Augun's Secret Police, was now running the country. None knew where the king was. All hoped he would get well, but rumors were rampant his condition was deteriorating.
While having the king's guard dismantled was not a good thing for Augun, it softened our target and likely helped our mission.
After some time-consuming detours, we finally crossed over into the higher ground east of the keep. This area was upscale compared to the main city. The east to west cross streets were clean, the traffic subdued, and the residences were mansions. Servants and groundskeepers were the main pedestrians on the streets. Vehicles were limited to a few carriages and only an occasional delivery cart or basas rider. We obviously did not belong.
I was preparing to tag a teleport location and return after dark when the next cross street led to a more active commercial and business district. A wide boulevard stretched to the east and west. Traffic was not as frenetic as it was near the harbor but there was enough of it to allow us to proceed without attracting attention.
There were still observers posted on corners along with the more covert former king's guard, but we avoided triggering their interest. We were prepared to use our misdirection spells if needed. By luck, we found a carriage for hire parked outside an inn.
We paid the driver to take us to the west end of the boulevard. We hinted that if we were satisfied, we might hire him to take us further. The driver was grateful for the fare. He wasn't very familiar with this part of the city.
A passenger from the port hired him to drop them off at the inn where he thought it would be easy to pick up a new fare. It wasn't. Since the crash, a lot of other carriage drivers were out of work and basas ate a lot.
Our monitoring detected a roadblock while we were still able to turn off the boulevard north onto a side street. Argon told the driver we were looking for our friend's home but had forgotten the address. We had him pull up to house amongst several we knew were empty and paid him off, with a tip for his patience.
He didn't question it and had no suspicions as he left. He was too worried about making enough money to keep his basas fed.
We located a reasonable 'port location near one of the empty homes. It would work well if needed, especially if we came in with an invisibility boost. We still had a few hours until dusk and weren't ready to give up on gathering more intel.
We strolled west toward the keep, slipping between houses and using our mind-reading apps to check for occupants or observers. Empty houses outnumbered occupied ones by nearly three-to-one by our informal count.
We finally reached the edge of the keep. The boundary was hard to miss. A 3-feet high stone wall separated keep property from the residences. There was a flat, featureless, no man's land between the low wall and the main 20-foot tall stone wall surrounding the keep.
Armed secret police stood guard on the wall searching the no-man's-land for possible intruders. A quick mind scan told us those in this section were former members of the king's guard. They had been guarding this stretch of the wall since the secret police forced them to join.
They hadn’t seen any of the officers since the first week after the assassination plot when the secret police rounded up all of the king's guard.
These two were in an assembly area with nearly 50 members of the king's guard just after the roundup. The secret police sent them and the rest of the guards who agreed to the mind scan into one area. If someone scanned them, they didn't feel anything. After milling around for a few minutes, Arbos, the head of the secret police administered an oath making them members of the secret police. Our two weren't sure what happened to the officers, the sergeants or any of the king's guard who didn't agree to be mind scanned.
Soon after the swearing in, someone from the secret police gave all the guards armbands, swords, and crossbows before sending these two to defend this section of wall. Each had a signal bolt they were told to shoot into the air if the wall came under attack.
At first, the two guards expected to be relieved, Now, after weeks trapped on the wall, they were just hoping someone would bring them something to eat. They received no food the first two days assigned to the wall. They drank all the water in the guardhouse before the first food delivery arrived. After that, food was an infrequent visitor.
The two guards were hopeful this forced diet was nearing an end. A secret police inspector visited them earlier today. The inspector promised someone would bring them food and water before dark. This was the first supervisor they had seen since arriving on the wall. They were too afraid to ask him any questions, except about the food. Neither recognized him. If the food came tonight, one guard intended to sleep while the other stood watch, swapping roles through the night.
If no food came, they had agreed one would go to the keep to pick up some food. The guards even played a game of chance to choose the one to go. They were afraid whoever left would be punished for abandoning their post. But they were getting too hungry to wait any longer.
The guards didn't know what others on the wall were doing and, unless it would get them more food, they didn't care. They had not spotted anyone on the wall to their right or left the whole time they were on duty. On the second day of guard duty, they had walked as far as they dared in both directions hoping in vain to link up with others in a similar situation. Once that foray was unsuccessful, they remained at their post, afraid to stray.
At Argon's signal, I sprinted for the wall. Our two guards were spending most of their time looking toward the keep, hoping to spot a food delivery.
I checked the stonework for wards. It had mild earth magic integrity and force anti-intruder ward with an anti-tampering alert. Tobron said these were common and we could overcome these easily if we had to.
The anti-tampering ward was the trickiest. In his youth, Tobron and his fellow cadre had softened up strong wards on a slaver's fortress by triggering the anti-tampering ward so many times it ran down the power supply. The Klee King's Guard was 20 minutes into the final attack before any of the slaver's guards responded, the guards believed the main attack was just another false alarm.
While it might be good experience to break the wards, it would be time-consuming. Considering how sparsely defended the walls were the quickest way in was to just go over the wall in an unguarded section.
Argon joined me next to the wall. We used our invisibility spell to blur us from any observers in the houses bordering the keep. Our shadows weren't an issue because they were tight against the wall with us.
There was no mental activity within our sight range. We kept the invisibility spell and levitated over the wall.
“The plants on the grounds are programmed to delay intruders,” Argon sent. “They are reacting favorably to the queen mother’s sigil so we should have no problem. They are not happy with the secret police who are now limiting their patrols to cleared paths. Apparently, whenever the police venture off the paths they trip and fall.”
I hadn't even considered plants could be hostile, although, upon reflection, I should have.
“I could spoof them, but it would drain my magic, so I’m glad we don’t have to. This is good news, we probably won’t run into any police patrols while we look for the secret entrance,” Argon sent.
Argon had told me there were entire segments of Jaloan society who worked with plants and animals. Skilled farmers and foresters had strong mind magic attuned to their chosen profession. Usually, these mages had few other magical skills. With training, any mage with strong mind magic could also communicate with plants and animals.
The map provided by the queen mother showed secret entrances into the keep on every main wall except the front ent
rance. With the royal residence in the center of the keep, we aimed for the closest wall.
It was child’s play to cross the football field stretch of grass undetected.
The keep wall had a similar but much stronger version of the wards noted on the outer wall. There were wards against the four elemental magics, too. We could break in if we had to but sneaking in through a secret entrance was a lot better.
Detecting the door required Argon's delicate touch. Once she located the enchantment, finding the mechanical latch was relatively easy. The latch opened a doorway above a steep stairway. The queen mother's sigil still worked.
We slipped into the opening and down the stairway, looking for the closing latch. Argon spotted it, and we closed the doorway behind us. This left us in darkness and our links to the outside world shut down abruptly. This included our links to Allo, Tobron, and Inoa.
There was a serious mind shield blocking this area from the rest of the world. The shield was likely designed to keep those in the keep from detecting someone using the secret passage.
Argon was sure we could break through if we needed to but for now, recommended doing nothing. She was already thinking how handy it would be to bring people here for questioning.
I suspected Allo might get a little frantic and would require a lot of comforting when we got home. We'd just have to let everyone know we were okay when we could.
Argon assured me our eyes would adjust to the darkness in a few moments and she was right. The gloom lifted enough so I could see the wall and some stairs leading downward. It still wasn't enough to keep me from stumbling over some broken stairs.
This prompted Argon to conjure a tiny light allowing her to see ahead. I was still blind, so I followed closely behind her. There was no sign anyone had used this area for decades. Certainly, no servant routinely dusted the place. The air was still and stale; the dust lay thick on the stairs.
When we reached the bottom, we risked a brighter light and established a new teleport location. This was a good fallback spot, but we'd have to get on the other side of the mind shield to locate the king.
We took advantage of the escape room's small armory of enchanted armor and weapons and its cache of preserved food and water. We changed into decent sets of armor, I tested several swords before selecting one, and both of us got crossbows with enchanted bolts. I felt better being armed. My knife had not been enough to satisfy that itch.
Argon's amusement was palpable. "I don't know why you think a puny sword is better than lava bullets," she commented.
She was right, but old habits die hard.
We ate some waybread that tasted like cardboard and drank some water before climbing the stairs. Argon was back to her tiny light, and I followed.
The latch at the top of the stairs failed to open the door. Argon tested the enchantment. It was intact, something was physically preventing the door from opening outward.
So much for easy.
If I was in Iraq, I'd use a fiber optic probe to check out the other side of the door. I asked Argon if she knew of any magical equivalent, but she was stumped.
The enchantment on the door complicated any plan that involved it.
We were below the keep's southeast quadrant.
I was thinking of creating a series of exploratory tunnels to get into the main keep when Argon stopped me. "The explosion collapsed the royal residence, could the fallen stonework be blocking this door?"
The possibility had crossed my mind, but it obviously hadn't stuck.
We decided to risk a man-sized tunnel into the area near the door to break out of the mind shield. I would approach the floor to the room above us cautiously with an eye-sized hole first before making a hole big enough to get through. Not as good as a fiber optic probe but it would have to do until something better came along.
Argon thought just getting out of the area enclosed by the mind shield would be enough to reconnect with our friends, gather intel, and locate the king.
◆◆◆
Chapter 21
I made a small breach through the wall of the escape tunnel hoping to minimize the chance of setting off an alarm. Once I was through and confirmed nothing bad had happened, I banished a larger area to form a two-person anteroom. This gave us a place to pause, reconnect with a distraught Allo, and let Tobron and Inoa know we were okay.
It seemed clear immediately above us, but there were plenty of people about, some shielded, some not.
While Argon searched for the king, I assessed what was going on in the keep.
Fear. That was universal. That overwhelmed nearly every other emotion except grief.
Some were afraid there would be another attack, but most were afraid for the future. Many were numb to the fear, consumed by grief for friends and family who died in the attack.
While I learned plenty about how horrible Arbos and his cohorts were, information about the king and his top staff was extremely scarce. No one had seen the king since the attack. There were only rumors he had survived.
The secret police had prevented the staff from leaving the keep since the explosion. Many were distraught with worry about their loved ones.
"I don't sense the king anywhere in the keep," Argon said.
"He could be unconscious or in a room with a really good mind shield," I reminded her. "Or, unlike this secret police crowd, he can afford a good personal shield."
"All the mind mages in the kingdom have probably been drained to create and fill these bad shields," Argon said. "I doubt they have a mage left with enough mind magic to question a prisoner."
"The head of the secret police will know where the king is, so let's find Arbos," I said. We changed our strategy and started looking for well-shielded mages.
We located a cluster of mages on the northwest side of the keep. Near the mages was a group of mundanes with higher quality mind shields.
Argon picked one of those mundanes to scan. The distance, thickness of stone between us and the target, and his reasonable mind shield made this a serious challenge.
This guy was scared, sitting listlessly in the ready room filled with other members of the secret police. He was waiting for his next assignment. Mages from the inner sanctum dropped into the ready room sporadically dealing out new assignments. In the beginning, he'd wondered what the mages were doing in the other room, but now he didn't care.
Arbos recruited him for the secret police several years before. He had been one of a small group of agents Arbos had called in the morning before the explosion. The agents were stationed in the ready room when the explosion hit. After the explosion, Arbos sent them to arrest a series of people allegedly responsible for the disaster.
As the investigation continued to go nowhere, he began to wonder how Arbos knew about the assassination in advance. Now he asked no questions. He would get a new target from a mage in the inner sanctum, he would track the target down, arrest him or her, and then drop the prisoner off at the prison yard. The prison clerk would give him a receipt, which he turned in to the clerk in the ready room. This endless cycle had become his whole world.
As the economy tanked, the agent was just happy his family was safe, and he had a job.
Now he was between assignments. The man knew this respite wouldn’t last. While not chasing down suspects, some agents slept on the cots in the next room, and others played card games. There was a stack of untouched field rations in one corner of the ready room. It hadn't taken the agents long to find better rations in the city while out on an assignment.
He knew the mages were going out on some arrests. They sometimes took one of his fellow agents with them. Those agents never talked about those outings.
This man had heard rumors the king was still alive but unconscious but he had heard nothing from anyone in authority.
He was exhausted, miserable and scared but not much help to us.
Argon carefully withdrew from his mind. We divided the keep into quadrants and systematically scanned those without a mag
e mind shield to check for any news of the king. While we picked up further insight about the collapse of the royal apartments and subsequent search, we could glean no actionable intel about the king.
The royal staff had pulled the badly injured king from the rubble. Then the secret police took over. Everyone believed King Rufix was still alive but in a secure location.
By the time we were done, I was itching to do something. Argon was not much better. We resolved to pick up the first mage we could and 'port them to the escape tunnel for interrogation. We also had to assume the king was being kept in a shielded room or he was no longer in the keep.
I broke through the floor above us. We were immediately flooded with the stench of decaying flesh. As expected, debris from the building collapse blocked the tunnel door.
To avoid having the rubble collapse around us, I conjured a large stone cylinder and then banished the stone within. Argon filled the tunnel with fresh air, to beat back the scent of death. This only helped a little, as my earth magic was only effective with the stone, leaving several of the dead inside the tunnel. Most were crushed. We made our way around them as best we could.
Argon monitored for the presence of people, while I slowly lengthened our tunnel to reach the edge of the debris field. Not wanting to leave a gaping tunnel to attract attention to our activities I kept punching small spy holes through the debris to judge where it ended.
Eventually, I punched the tunnel through a stone wall into an empty room. We emerged from that room into a hallway clogged with rubble and dust. I plugged the tunnel with similar looking stone.
There were no footprints in the dust. Argon blurred ours with air magic when we opened the door and entered the corridor. My direction sense had this corridor traveling south to north with the south side blocked by the collapse.
