“But then what do we do about it?”Alaric asks.“We can’t just send a message to Rowan about this.”
“You think he wouldn’t act to stop Selene?”
"I think he wouldn't be able to," Alaric corrects me."You heard him when he came to see us.Selene has almost complete control over the Senate.She has guards on her side, and plenty of others through the city and beyond."
“With something like this, the senate might move against her,” I say.“Any who aren’t controlled outright will be horrified by the idea of her trying to break Domitian out of prison.”
At least, I hope they will.There are still those on the Senate and in the nobility who were happy to support Domitian during his brief uprising.Perhaps there are those who'll welcome him.
"Even if some would, they'll require proof," Alaric says."Cesca's word won't be good enough for them.I barely believe her as it is.Our only hope is to catch Selene's people in the act, to stop them and then throw them down in front of the Senate to denounce her."
I realize what Alaric is suggesting.
“You’re saying we need to break in there to be able to stop them.”
Alaric nods.“It’s the only thing I can think of that might work.”
It's a dangerous plan, one that could put us both in grave danger.The guards won't hesitate to attack anyone they see breaking in.We get closer and closer, until finally I'm in a position where I can reach out with my powers, looking through the eyes of rats and beetles, the spiders hanging in the corners, and the sharp-toothed hounds that patrol with the guards.
Some of what I see is cruel, even brutal.There’s a torture chamber there, set with implements designed to inflict pain in every conceivable way.There are people weeping in despair in cells.The stink of too many people crammed into too small a space fills the air.This is clearly isn’t a place just reserved for one or two special prisoners now.
I make careful notes, forcing myself to think in clinical terms about the timings of guard patrols, the placement of magical runes and sigils.I draw those where I can, giving Alaric as much information as possible to add to the map Cesca drew.I hear people crying out in pain, and I see a guard beating a hooded prisoner.My guess is that the Republic has kept the same guards who worked here under the emperor, and they’re going about their jobs the same brutal ways.
Finally, I think we have enough information, so the two of us slip back to the resistance’s safehouse in the inn.I head with Alaric to his room there, letting him wrap his arms around me as I try to forget about some of the things I’ve seen.
“Are you sure you want to break into the prison?”I ask.“If we fail...”
“If we fail, at the very least we could be captured by the senate’s forces, maybe even by guards who own Selene as much loyalty as them,” Alaric says.“We could be killed outright.But I think we need to do this.And… I think it needs to just be us.”
I frown as Alaric says that.I was expecting some large group of resistance fighters with us, some overwhelming raid of the kind they’ve tried before.I was at least expecting the dozen or so fighters we took to the Salis estate.
“Why?”I ask.
“Because if we take more, it will be too obvious.We need to go in unseen.You and I can do that, and together, we can handle one or two guards at a time.But if we take more, it will turn into a fight against every guard there.We’d lose people.”
And Alaric wants to protect the members of the resistance.I can understand that need, and I hope that together, we’ll be enough to stop what Selene has planned.Can we really do this?Can the two of us break into the city’s secret prison and stop Selene’s team before they can get to Domitian?
I hope so, and as I lie there in Alaric's arms, I can almost believe we can doanythingtogether.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
“Are you sure about this?”Thalia asks us as we stand at the entrance to the catacombs.“The two of you against a whole underground fortress full of guards?I could go with you.I could-”
“You’re needed here,” Alaric says, but I know that’s not the only reason he says it.He wants his lieutenant to stay here, where it’s safe.“Besides, do you doubt my ability to take on a few guards?”
He makes it sound as if he could take on every guard in Aetheria at once, the old arrogance filling his voice.With Alaric, it’s usually a sign he’s trying to hide what he feels.Thanks to my abilities, I know there’s a layer of fear underneath that arrogance.Alaric isn’t sure that this will go the way we want.
But he certainlylooksas though he could take on a squadron of guards.Alaric is wearing supple, blackened scale armor, carrying his familiar curved blade and a dagger.He has a sack containing magically infused stones at his side, each one designed to overwhelm some magical defense the prison has.
I'm also dressed in dark clothing, with fragments of scale over the top.I have dark bracers on my forearms, and I carry a short spear, the longest weapon I'll be able to wield comfortably in the close confines of the catacombs.I have a dagger at my side and a club in my belt because if Alaric and I go up against the city's guards, I'd rather knock them out than kill them.
I hope we’ll be able to avoid the guards completely if we’re careful.It’s why Alaric and I are doing this together, rather than with more of the resistance to back us up.It’s why we’re dressed for stealth.
“I’ll bring him back safely,” I tell Thalia.She snorts again.
“The two of you are as bad as each other.You think you’re invincible.”
“We’re going to be as careful as we can,” Alaric says.
