Cesca shrugs.“There isn’t much to tell.She wants to free Domitian from his imprisonment.”
“But why?”Thalia asks.“Selene’s setting herself to be empress.Why would she free a man who wanted to make himself the emperor?”
I can think of several reasons.“Maybe Selene wants to show she’s loyal to her supporters,” I say.“Or maybe she thinks that Domitian will fall into line and serve her if she frees him.He could be a powerful ally for her.”
“And a martyr for her cause if he dies in the escape attempt,” Alaric adds.“Either way, she strengthens her position.I’m more interested in the details of her plan.How much did you learn before you backed out, Cesca?”
“Some of it,” Cesca admits.“I’ll tell you as much as I remember.”
We go to sit at a roughly crafted wooden table.Thalia takes out a sheaf of parchment, getting ready to take notes with a stick of charcoal.
“Do you know the location of the prison?”I say.
Cesca nods.“A little way from the palace, deep underground.There are connections to it through the dungeons beneath the prison tower, but there are other routes, through the catacombs.One of Selene’s people found a route into that section.We all had to memorize the map.”
She takes the charcoal from Thalia, starting to sketch it out.
“There are traps along the way, magical alarms to let the guards know if someone’s coming.”Cesca starts to mark them on the map, along with as many details as she remembers of how they work.“Some need patterns of light to disarm, while others can be circumvented by overwhelming them with particular magical energies.”
“Meaning we either need to bring people with us with every magical skill we’ll need or find some way to store bursts of power,” Alaric says.
“That can be arranged,” Thalia assures him.“The same way stones can store the magic to produce light, they can be constructed with flickers of other powers.”
“We were told that when we got in, there would be guards,” Cesca says.“We were going to avoid as many as we could, then kill any we couldn’t avoid.”
She says that in a flat tone, but the prospect of all that death horrifies me.Selene is preparing for a slaughter below the city’s streets, all so she can free a man who can give her still greater support than she already has.
Cesca is still making marks on the map, noting everything she remembers about the guards and their movements.
“That’s it,” she says.“That’s all I remember.The original plans were for two nights from now, but I don’t know if that’s still going to be the case.”
I can feel the worry in her as she says that.I realize Cesca fears we’ll betray her now, using her the way so many people have used her in the past, the way she would probably have betrayed anyone in her position.She’s given us everything she knows, so she assumes we’ll cast her aside.
“Thank you, Cesca,” I say.“You can stay here as long as you need.You don’t have to get involved in the resistance’s work, but if you choose to, let Thalia know.She’ll come to check on you regularly.”
Cesca looks confused, but relieved, that we aren’t going to throw her out of the safehouse now, or just kill her.Alaric and I leave, hurrying through the streets and then heading back to the main safehouse.We have Cesca’s map with us, and as soon as we get to the inn, Alaric is heading down into the catacombs.
“I want to check everything she told us,” Alaric says.“I need to know how accurate these maps are.”
“I can do that,” I say.“At least, if I can get close enough.”
Alaric nods, and we start to move through the depths of the city.
“I don’t like this idea of a secret prison,” Alaric says.“It isn’t the kind of thing the city should have kept after the fall of the empire.”
“It’s kept plenty of things it shouldn’t,” I point out.“The games, for one thing.”
“But this… Rowan could have gotten rid of it.He could have shut it all down.Instead, he chose to put Domitian in this place.”
I must admit it’s troubling.This was a place the emperor used to use for the torture and punishment of his enemies, so I can’t imagine why Rowan would want it.Except that maybe, just maybe, it’s the only place that can contain some people.
“Are we heading the right way?”I ask.
Alaric nods.He’s lighting the way with an illusory glow, letting us see at least a little way ahead as we take turning after turning through the catacombs.
“We’ll get to the fringes of it soon enough.The question is what we do when we get there.”
“We can’t do anything today,” I say.“We’re just gathering information, and in any case, Selene’s people won’t attack the prison until tomorrow.”
